Goodbye 2077

Lots of things going on now. I'm sure I can still be tracked from 2077, but I won't be posting anything else as I assimilate into the culture and leave the future behind me. It wasn't great in 2077. But it is fascinating in 2018, and I know I can make a difference here.

Molokai Service Project Final

The workshop was a success even though we had a lot of set-backs. The weather was really cloudy and we weren't able to land on Molokai on our first attempt. It was interesting having to come up with some alternative options. I was a bit worried about how we were going to be able to figure something out. Some of our ideas were to try to give the workshop remotely, but in hindsight, it definitely would not have worked because of internet connectivity issues. We also thought we might have a tutorial session with Loke to walk her through how to give an hour of code workshop or see if we could present it remotely with her students during the week.  THANKFULLY, it did not come to that, and on our second attempt to land on Molokai, we were successful. I'd never been.

Molokai is beautiful and the landscape looks wild and untamed. It is absolutely gorgeous. I secretly long for a simpler life despite my interest in online activities and technology advancements. The students we had in the workshop were sweet, very quiet, but with their own enthusiasm. We got to share the Nintendo Labo with them, the foam note cards worked perfectly, and we ended up making it through our three ideas (sequences, loops, and conditionals) with the workshop. The internet connection was a complete wash. We had 20 chromebooks, but the connection was so slow, it would have made it too frustrating and almost impossible to do tasks individually. We thought on our feet, and ended up doing the workshop as a group.

I hope that some of the teachers and parents present will continue to encourage their students to learn coding. I had a wonderful experience at the workshop, so much so, that I will look for service opportunities like this in the future. Here we are altogether after the workshop: Keahe, Loke, me, and Dr. Peter!

Molokai Service Project Part 3

Dr. Peter wins the week for buying the Nintendo Labo! Dr. Peter, Keahe, my son, and I met at UH to put it together and see if it would work for the workshop.

I provided the Switch to play the created cardboard toys that interacted with the game. We wanted the kids to be able to see where computer science is going and the Switch has the capability to code in the workshop area that enables them to build their own projects from cardboard and code actions to make the items move with the controllers. It’s actually really neat and a bit involved. It took many hands to build the cardboard piano and several hours. 

I also created foam notecards as a tangible representation of the codes that the kids could use to make us move in different directions when they held them up in the air during the workshop. Take a look at what it looks like!

Molokai Service Project Part 2

This last week leading up to the Molokai workshop was a little crazy!

Before running the coding session on Saturday, we were fortunate to conduct a mock run of the tutorial at TCCO (Trinity Central Church Oahu) in Mililani for a group of homeschool volunteers. While there were no native Hawaiians represented in the group, we were able to reflect and revise on some issues that came up during the tutorial that led to a better workshop on Saturday. At the mock version, Wifi connection was spotty. This kept making the screens freeze, so we thought that it would be good to have a few alternative activities available in case we encouraged a similar situation on Molokai. Here were some of my thoughts from the experience:

Observations from practice coding session:

Initial set-up: It took roughly 10 minutes to set up five devices with the wi-fi and get the Wayfinding tutorial up and running.

Four children were observed and two adults. Two children were in first grade, one child was in second grade, and the third child was a fifth grader

Each child had individual access to a laptop. The first graders were paired with adult helpers.

The beginning activity went well. I explained how coding worked and had them “code” my actions by giving me directions. I think using the cards will work fine, but I need to provide clearer instructions and call on individuals rather than allowing them to call out at random. This will work as one instructor can be coded while the other calls on the students.


I showed had the students turn off their sound and when the video popped up, they had to wait for everyone to catch up so we could watch it together. We may need to have an activity to do for kids who progress faster than others. Maybe we could have some station activities.


I think we should have a timeframe for how long each task will go. In general, the first segment took students about 20 minutes to move through. Once we started loops, it took longer as the students tried to experiment. The attitudes of the students were interesting, as well. The fifth grader was a perfectionist and kept getting very frustrated when he couldn’t code right. It may be beneficial to explain at the beginning that part of learning to code means making mistakes/trial and error, and be willing to be wrong in order to learn how to code more efficiently.

There were also competitions going on to see how fast they could get through the tasks, and I’m not sure these were beneficial. They were students led, since I only encouraged do-it-your-own pace.


One student did not have a mouse and using the track-pad to grab and drag was very difficult for her. If we can have a mouse for each student, that will be hugely beneficial. Pairing the students together will mean ensuring they get equal time to try the tasks. I recommend we tell paired students to alternate who drags and drops between each task.


One student’s computer had a lot of lag and this was frustrating to him because he solved the tasks before everyone but was behind because the avatar moved slowly with the lapse.

From set-up to completion of task 19 took roughly 90 minutes. This also included me talking and hands-on activity, videos from the Moana coding session, and time to play at the end by making the kakamora dance. I had no projector available for the session, so I showed the videos from my chromebook.

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My suggestions for Saturday’s session:

1. Make sure all chromebooks have a mouse (if possible), are connected to wi-fi, and set up at the first coding task prior to starting the session.
2.  Open space for hands-on activities 
3. Separate table for alternate activities (the switch maybe?) while students wait for everyone to catch up. 
4. If we have one long session, extra activities are definitely needed

Molokai Service Project Part 1

Keahe and I chose Hour of Code, Wayfinding with Code, as our lesson plan for the workshop.

We did a mini-needs analysis:

What is. Currently, teachers are not utilizing the technology and resources at its fullest potential to enhance student learning due to limited resources and coding experience. Elementary students have only just received Chromebooks as of January 2018. Coding is not being taught until the middle and high school level.

What should be. A consistent offering of workshops or coding tutorials offered in and out of the classroom at the elementary level would better prepare and encourage students in computer science.

Gap. The gap is most likely due to limited exposure to the materials available for teachers. Coding at the elementary level is non-existent and there is minimal computer experience for the majority of elementary-aged students on Molokai.

Providing a very basic coding workshop will help fill this gap. The goal of the workshop will be to encourage students to have fun with coding and provide tools that teachers and parents can use to continue to develop and encourage computer science and coding in and out of the classroom. Hour of Code is the perfect solution to providing fun tools that are simple enough to get started with and provide more advanced tutorials as the users progress in skill.






Our lesson plan looked like this:

Lesson Plan for Moana’s Wayfinding with Code

MOVEMENT (video break) Au

Task 1: Move forward

Task 2: Move forward (more code)

Task 3: Move forward and turn right (move forward) fish

Task 4: Move, turns, and fish (mirrored directions)

Task 5: Multiple moves, turns, and fishing

LOOPS (video break) Pīnaʻiapuni

Task 6: Loop Inside forward movement

Task 7: Loop outside direction and inside direction (forward movement)

Task 8: Using loops one direction inside (forward), different direction outside

OPTIMIZING SEQUENCE (no video break)

Task 9: Sequence of directions inside the loop (creates a zigzag pattern - pūnini)

Task 10: Two different loops (have to change the number of times the loops repeat)

Task 11: More complicated loops (the sequence has to be in the right order)

REPEAT UNTIL (no video break)

Task 12: Repeat (action) until (thing)

CONDITIONALS (video break)

    IF/THEN (no video break) inā/ā laila

Task 13: If/then instruction

Task 14: putting the pieces together (using loops, sequence, repeat and conditions) Given help

Task 15: starting at move forward, build the instructions using all previously taught concepts

Task 16: Similar to 15 but more steps with less code

IF/ELSE (no video break) inā/ʻē aʻe

Task 17: If/else instruction

Task 18:  If/else more complicated

Task 19: Free form coding for dance moves

Here are some shots of what it looks like on the computer (or tablet):

No More Stardates

 Dr. Peter set up a Google DOC for us to work on the workshop and we had a contact, Loke, who provided us with several options to think about including doing a coding workshop to her 1st and 2nd graders at her elementary school. The weekend we were scheduled to present the workshop, the Native Hawaiian Youth Summit was occuring at the same time. So, Loke’s proposal was that we try to gear our workshop for the youth summit so we could reach more than just her students. Once we had settled the details, we brainstormed about the coding project we wanted to do. We needed something for children with limited exposure to computer science that would be engaging and tie in with Hawaiian culture. Keahe and I did a lot of searches for things that would work and we settled on Hour of Code since we could easily adapt it for our purposes.

Stardate 2077.12: Staying in 2018

I've left Defiance with their blessing, though I was sad to do so. An opportunity presented itself for me to stay in 2018 and make a difference. I wish them the best on returning to 2077, but I believe I can make a difference here, given the opportunity.

Things I've done that I've not journaled about yet..
I did a case study on the Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Switch. It was beautiful and engaging, immersive. The soundtrack was stellar. I have never played such an awesome video game before, and it sounds crazy, but the price of the Switch is every bit worth it to play this game.

There's some crazy stuff coming out for the Switch. The Nintendo Labo has cardboard games kids can make. It's wild:

The other thing is the Unity workshop we did. Wow! Once my computer is up and running without crashing, I'm going to have to go back and try it out. It seems so similar to building in SecondLife and OpenSim. This technology has spoken to me so much and it's the direction I want to go for my future educational endeavors. It would be really cool to become proficient at this stuff, and I know I can (once my master's degree is done).

Keahe and I are going to be working on a service project for Molokai that should be interesting. I'm nervous, but I think we'll come up with something exciting for the kids, and I really need the teaching experience.