It's time for the education system to make a choice: continue to ignore the importance of teaching kids and teens how to navigate technological innovation OR try to prepare them for constant and rapid technological innovation. Nowhere is this now more critical than when it comes to AI. Fail to teach kids to understand how it works, form ethical behavior around it and use it responsibly and schools will undo a lot of the benefits
Read more
NewTechKids is collaborating with IKC Metropool, a primary and middle school in Amsterdam southeast, to integrate technology education into its formal school curriculum. For the 2025-2026 school year, NewTechKids is teaching all students at this small school once per week, covering digital literacy, introduction to digital productivity tools, computer science and AI literacy. For older students (ages 10-12), our first module focused on hacking for good. We taught them how to stay safe online and
Read more
While NewTechKids teaches primary and middle school students tech knowledge and skills and an innovator's mindset, we don't control how they deploy them. We were reminded of this very fact recently. This week, we wrapped up our game design module for students at an Amsterdam primary school. We use game design as the context for teaching digital literacy topics, including: online safety dopamine and tech addiction privacy and the way gaming companies use our data
Read more
It's hard to help kids understand what AI is, how it works, and how computer "intelligence" is far from perfect. That's why NewTechKids is devoting more time to developing an AI curriculum for older primary school students. We're not only teaching them how the tech behind AI works, we're also teaching them to think critically about the pros, cons and implications of tech. (Should AI companies pay artist if work is generated from an artist's
Read more
NewTechKids is returning to Wereldwijs primary school in Amsterdam southeast for the third year in a row. We'll be teaching digital literacy programs to all classes in the entire school over the 2024-2025 school year. We'll be teaching an 'Intro to Technology and Responsible Usage' to the youngest students which covers topics such as online safety, responsible usage, being creative with tech (not only passive consumption) and coding. Our teaching team is testing the limits
Read more
With every second news headline mentioning AI, ChatGPT, etc., NewTechKids has decided to launch our first 'Intro to Generative AI' after-school bootcamp for kids ages 9-14. The bootcamp of four weekly sessions will take place on Thursday afternoons from 16:30 - 18:00 at the Amsterdam Public Library near Centraal Station, starting on June 29th. Some schools have adopted a strict 'no ChatGPT' ban. Others are experimenting with restricted usage and creating new learning experiences which
Read more
NewTechKids ended up making some important last-minute changes to our digital literacy programs for primary school students at Wereldwijs Primary School in Amsterdam Southeast. Why? The explosion of generative AI. In their article "Teaching Digital Literacy is a 21st Century Imperative & This is Why", Miah Daughtery and Laura B. Hansen write "In classrooms, digital literacy enables students to access information in new ways and then communicate what has been learned with others, giving students
Read more
Yesterday, NewTechKids kicked off a very exciting project: teaching digital literacy to all 475 students at the Wereldwijs Primary School in Amsterdam southeast. We'll be teaching students in groups 1 - 8. Older students will be taught in a combination of Dutch and English since the language of technology is English. Wereldwijs has been designated an 'Excellent School 2022-2025' for primary education by the Dutch Ministry of Education in 2019 and 2022. Led by a
Read more
NewTechKids is collaborating with Metis Montessori Lyceum, a high school in Amsterdam, to plan a student trip to Silicon Valley in February 2023. Thirty-five students in Metis' Coderklas will be visiting Big Tech companies as well as companies in different industries which are being transformed by technology. Students will visit Google, NASA, Blue River Technology and other organizations where they will meet leaders and technologists. This is another great way in which students can learn
Read more
The times, they are a' changing. Technology is literally transforming every study and career path. So there is no better time than now to start inspiring high school students by exposing them to the myriad of fields and industries they can work in when they have technology and digital media skills. This week, more than 20 students from Ignatius Gymnasium in Amsterdam started internships with technology companies and organizations in Amsterdam and Hilversum which are
Read more