TECHNOLOGY & LEARNING

The importance of technology in education has increased exponentially over the past few years—and with that, so too has the need for expertise and leadership for incorporating it in meaningful, age-appropriate ways. As Wildwood’s Director of Educational Technology, Nicholas Smith combines his passion for technology and progressive K-12 education to empower teachers and students to find healthy and radical ways to think about, carefully embrace, and actively create new technologies.

“I get to be a futurist by imagining the world students may inherit to best determine the skills and concepts they will need to thrive,” says Nicholas. “I admire their ability to quickly find new and creative purposes for technology and love to see their curiosity and confidence for using, remixing, and repurposing technology grow through their years at Wildwood.”

Read More at Wildwood.org

Projects

EdTech Projects
Merge Quest Technology Skills Bootcamp
Education
Merge Quest Technology Skills Bootcamp
Education

Merge Quest is a bootcamp-styled curriculum my team developed for 6th graders entering our middle and upper school campus. The self-guided curriculum consists of a carefully designed collection of opportunities to learn, cultivate, and showcase the essential technology skills our students need to thrive in secondary school.

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Education
Hour of Code Mario Dance Project
Education
Hour of Code Mario Dance Project
Education

I developed this tutorial last year as part of our school’s participation with the Hour of Code which is a worldwide event where school and students commit to one hour of computer science/programming curriculum. Our school goes all out with a big assembly and coursework during advisory classes for the entire week.

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Education
Beats from Scratch
Education
Beats from Scratch
Education

As our last few weeks together approached I decided to give my students a challenge. I shared my passion for music technology by introducing them to the legendary Akai MPC sampling hardware. We talked about the importance of digital sampling in Hop Hop and how the early machines worked. Then, I asked my students if they could make a beat machine with Scratch. In less than two weeks they came up with this

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Education

Photos