Register here. NewTechKids will be giving a teacher training workshop focused on introducing digital literacy to primary school students. Since January 2023, NewTechKids has been teaching digital literacy programs at schools and our after-school programs. We started teaching these classes at OBS Wereldwijs, a primary school in Amsterdam Southeast which has been designated 'Excellent' by the Dutch government in both 2019 and 2022. Our curriculum includes how technology systems work, the use of digital productivity
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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 moreNewTechKids 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 moreNewTechKids is featured in a recently-published guide to teaching students about the ethics of technology. The book, "Ethics in A Digital World: Guiding Students Through Society's Biggest Questions", was written by Kristen Mattson and published by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). We contributed a case study describing how we integrate critical thinking about technology in our curriclulum. Specifically, we co-developed a six-lesson curriculum module for students ages 8-12 called "Thinking about the
Read moreNewTechKids was invited by the Mozilla Foundation to give two, online workshops for kids and their parents during MozFest 2021. MozFest is the Foundation's annual festival which migrated online this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During our workshops, we taught kids about how technology is designed through concepts such as resources and requirements before exposing them to the logic of coding by encouraging them to create their own coding language. We led them through
Read moreToday (Saturday, March 13th), NewTechKids will teach a FREE online workshop for kids ages 7-12. The workshop is one of the Youth Zone activities being offered during the Mozilla Foundation's MozFest 2021 online festival. The Festival encourages kids and adults to explore technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ethics. Parents are expected to supervise their kids during our English-language workshop. Kids will become inventors in NewTechKids robot factory and who build and code robots. During the workshop, kids will
Read moreBeing able to think deeply and critically about technology and its implications is becoming as important as understanding computer science and knowing how to code. This is because the technology we currently have is directly related to the perspectives, values and even biases of the technologists who create it. To help kids develop critical thinking skills, NewTechKids is developing new lessons and teaching resources which help primary school-aged kids explore the ethics of technology. Our
Read moreWith artificial intelligence (AI) all around us, NewTechKids decided to teach a special AI bootcamp during last week’s Fall school vacation in Amsterdam. Our goal: to kids what AI is, the thinking behind it, how it’s being used in everything from self-driving cars to customer service and Siri, Apple’s ‘intelligent’ personal assistant, and the pros and cons of this technology. Developed by Stichting NewTechKids and sponsored by Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam (Amsterdam Municipal Library), the course
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