Learning is everywhere and it truly has no boundaries.

Mars Perseverance Decoder Ring

Gamification of learning is a growing trend in education and an effective way to make learning interactive and engaging.

Review of Five Communication and Collaboration Apps for Personal, Pedagogical, or Professional Use

Exploring these four areas from the perspective of my local context, examining their significance, barriers, practices, and implications for teaching and learning.

A discussion post about the types of careers held and tasks performed by educational technologists.

The impact of IoT on the education space has yet to be fully realized but one thing is certain. Many students are already living in a connected world outside of the classroom and campuses can use that to their advantage to positively impact the future of education and keep pace with fast-moving technology.

Team, Sponsors, and Supporters, Just a quick note to say hello and check-in. I hope this post finds you well and everyone is practicing good social distancing as we battle on for the next few months. We are doing well and staying busy. My family is enjoying the time together catching up on projects and things around the house. I have also been busy cleaning up my robotics garage and organizing parts for next season. I have a few updates to share in case you are not receiving the updates from FIRST. On Saturday, May 2nd at 9 am CST, FIRST is hosting a virtual event called FIRST RISE Rewind and Force for Change. Please visit this website to learn more: https://www.firstchampionship.org/first-rise-rewind and tune in that day for a fun virtual event showcase of teams and their robots. We are also working on a highlight video of our amazing season demonstrating TRC's accomplishments this past year and our Force for Change impact in the Middle Tennessee community. Here are a few words of encouragement. I know things may be uncertain and at times, a bit chaotic right now. Our robotics season certainly ended sooner than we anticipated and upended all of our plans we worked so hard to achieve. I encourage you to focus on what you can control and pick one thing you can do each day to keep improving your engineering and design skills. For me, I have been focused on learning how to use Fusion 360 (the videos are free and very good) and 3D printing parts to our Rover. Dylan and I are still working on our new Perseverance Rover when we have time. I also completed a video below for Ben's alumni presentation. I wish we could have all been together when we recognized Ben as our first FIRST Alumni member. Feel free to share what you've been up to and how I might be able to help. I took this photo in the garage last night as I was waiting for a print job to complete. I found it encouraging to me that no matter how dark and chaotic the world may appear at times, it can never extinguish the light of hope and the anticipation for a brighter tomorrow. Pray daily, stand up straight, be a force for change, and always persevere!  Coach Mike

This blog post is about forging something new. We should invest in learning new skills, sharpening old ones and forge new habits to learn and grow. When this storm has passed, you will have the opportunity to build something new again and we will need all the help we can get. Personally, I have decided to work on my programming skills by learning more about JavaScript. I am reading two books which are really good at teaching fundamentals and providing hands-on learning activities which I prefer. The two books are Eloquent JavaScript by M. Haverbeke and Head First JavaScript Programming by E. Freeman and E. Robson. The book covers and links are listed on my Resources page. I have also decided to learn more about Multimedia Learning Theory and Cognitive strategies using two books by Ruth Clark and Richard Mayer to enhance my learning through E-Learning and Multimedia. I think my next post will be about that so watch this space. Lastly, I am spending some quality time with my family learning new skills such as 3D Printing and Designing Cookie Cutters for my wife's allergy-friendly bakery Dylicious Cakes business. I'm also learning about Python programming and Linux OS using a Raspberry Pi for a new Mars Perseverance rover we are building together. The key is to stay busy and try to do one thing positive and constructive each day. Stay safe and Be Steadfast!