What is the New "Hacker Culture" In High Schools

In September of 2013 I initiated work at Andover High School in Andover, Massachusetts with a program called the Andover Innovation Lab & Student Help Desk. Students who participate in the Andover Innovation Lab & Student Run Help desk have an opportunity to explore the programming languages, software, business project or technology driven project of their choice. We also encourage the entrepreneurial spirit with students and seek to engage their desire to start something new and exciting.




In this environment we nurture the "hacker culture" of students who want to learn new programming languages and platforms. We also support their interest in becoming more fluent with the use of technology which will hopefully inspire them to  look more closely at careers related to technology. We also use this students participation as an opportunity for them to share their skills with the greater community by having them assist students and teachers with the use of their technology tools and instructional technology needs.

Many students now have a range of new options for courses related to technology in their schools. In addition to the Andover Innovation Lab & Help Desk at Andover High School in the Digital Learning Department we have focused our energies on developing a meaning full track for students to enter courses such as Web Design and Development,Web & Native Applications and in the near future explore technology driven learning within a "Makerspace" culture. Course development and updating is changing at a rapid pace as is student skill development. It is not uncommon for students to explore "Hackathons" on the weekends and engage in a variety of web based code repositories such as Git Hub or learn to trouble shoot on StackOverflow online to support their independent projects.

What has inspired me as I work with these students is their engagement with the ever changing world of technology which often frustrates their older teachers and in some cases their parents as well. Students have also described to me the connections they make in this course as an opportunity to discuss with their parents the role of technology in their lives.  In some cases these parents have connected in meaningful ways with their sons and daughters about technology advancements and their roles in fields related to programming or entrepreneurial endeavors.

The term "Hacker" does not have the negative connotation it once had. Many more high school, middle school and even elementary level students are exposed to programming, technology skill development and the experience of creating, learning and decoding their world with technology. We are currently crossing a bridge of understanding and communication about how technology enables us to create, build, problem solve and "hack" a future.

From The Vault: Business Website Outline Planning Sheet For Business Website Introduction-Web Design 2011

As a continuation of the Business Evaluation Website this sheet is the introduction to the outline of the students ideas for a business website

This sheet can be used to help students to define the key links in the navigation and the minimum amount of content that should be expected in their design. In this lesson for the business website I also included the integration of an image gallery This sheet asks the student define how they would use the image gallery in their design.

This sheet also asks students to target their design towards a specific market which the site will be targeted for and an opportunity to explain the details and specifics of their product or service.

The final question from this sheet asks students to consider how the design elements which will be integrated into this site will influence the design. This is an opportunity to discuss the impact of colors,borders,color schemes,layout and use of text styles and fonts.

As an evaluation of their idea this sheet provides an opportunity to narrow the students scope and focus on the impact of the design on the marketing within the website.

Focus Areas:
Navigation & Planning 
Content
Target Market of Business Concept(customer needs)
Image gallery
Design Elements(color,layout,text)
Project Scope

From The Vault: Business Website Evaluation Lesson-Web Design 2011

I wanted to share some old lessons as I begin to scan them and add them to my Google Drive Account for safe keeping. I am going to focus on the web design lessons and Sports Marketing lessons as they provided a great amount of student creativity and research. This lesson was first used in 2011. Be sure to notice the links included in the bottom.

Lesson Plan Links:
Part 1 Lesson Link:
Part 2 Lesson Link:

Page 2 Link

Website List Page 1
Website List Page 2

In this lesson I provided students with a series of questions to help them evaluate a variety of business websites. I enjoyed giving this lesson because it urged students to evaluate business websites
against competing businesses on key factors to the consumer.  You will also see that the questions urge students to look closely at the graphic,color ,navigation and layout of content of the websites which were included in their list(links at the bottom of this page).

This lesson also has students engage with the website as a consumer or targeted market. This helps the students to think critically about the content and how it is presented. This assignment also urges students to look for the "it" factor in terms of the success of the design. I would introduce this lesson by providing them with these sheets and a page of web links (included below) to have them search the sites and answer these questions.  This lesson is the first in a unit on the development of a business website from concept to coding and presenting.