Semantris

I’ve been looking for ways to explore ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE with my middle school Computer Science classees. I just happened upon this gem that mixes AI (aka machine learning) with vocabulary, keyboarding and mousing support features in a pretty cool way.

In Semantris, a project by Google AI, there are two types of games. One where the user types in clue words in an attempt to remove blocks that highlight like-words on the page. There is no time limit to come up with the clue, so you can take your time and be creative. Once typed, the program will match it with other words and remove them from play. It’s learning meanings or matching what users would associate with other words. 

The other game is a bit more intense. It’s an arcade game where you type clues to match the highlighted words on a list. The faster you type, the more points to win in a quest to earn a spot on the leader board. This one is fun as well, but you have to think and type pretty fast, in a rapid-fire manner, to keep up.

I would rate this site for 2nd grade all the way up the ladder. It was easy to access and easy to play. 

Artificial Intelligence, or machine learning, has become so popular in learning circles. This app demonstrates well to younger users just how the technology works. 

https://research.google.com/semantris 

Typing Club!

When I surveyed the 2nd thru 5th Graders and asked them what they would like to learn in the Tech Lab this year, I imagined things like making movies, geocaching, coding, and so many exciting things. Surprisingly, the one thing they wanted to learn was....keyboarding!  They see me typing fast, not looking at my fingers and they want to be able to do it too! It's kind of magic to them and they want to know how I do the trick.  I come from the old school (literally) where we used a clunky typewriter to learn how to type. There were no back spaces that would wipe away all errors; no copy/paste options and so on.  Thinking back, I remember a ruler tap on my hand from the teacher to get my attention too.  But that's another day's blog.....

Anyway, so...I went out on a search for the just-right typing tool.  There a quite a few programs out there.  Some interesting, some pretty pricey, some that have pop-ups with awful images...the list goes on as to what I was able to find.  Until....I found "Typing Club" (http://www.typingclub.com/typing-qwerty-en.html). 

"Typing Club", is a free web-based program.  It's best if you download the app in your Chrome/Google Apps account, but works brilliantly on any browser.  Essentially, the program takes the new typist step by step through lessons.  There are 100 of these lessons, which are locked until you master the lesson before. (Thank You!) They explain fingering and the lesson is centered around getting used to not looking at your fingers and locating the key based on the comfort of finding the bumps on keys 'F' and 'J'.

I've not gone through each of the 100 lessons yet, but I'm happy to say there are no pop-ups with cringe worthy images or mature advertisements to contend with. (Another Thank You!)  There are School accounts; both Free and Paid.  (https://s.typingclub.com/schools/pricing.html) The Free account offers unlimited Student accounts, 2 Instructor accounts, 3 Classes and 30-days of data retention, plus lessons are customizable.  The Paid account offers quite a bit more to include more security and an iPad version of the program.

This is a 'hit' in my opinion!

Elana Moore