Thus far, all of the lessons you have seen have been “unplugged” in nature, meaning they did not use computers as part of the main activity. We like to start with unplugged activities to provide all students with a mental model that serves as an on-ramp to the content. That being said, you will also see “plugged” lessons where students will frequently be using a “widget”, or a digital tool, which provides for a different kind of experience with the content. In fact, many of the lessons you will see this week are “plugged” and use widgets. While some of these lessons also contain an “unplugged portion” of the lesson, the widget is intended to further the learning in these cases.

Before we start looking at the specific lessons you will be teaching, let’s look further into the philosophy behind these plugged in lessons.

Now that we have a good idea for what unplugged lessons look like, let’s look at a “Plugged” lesson that uses a widget. We use the term “widget” to describe small digital tools that act as a playground for exploring and experimenting with a CS concept. We are going to look at an Odometer widget to help students understand what happens when a big number gets too big for a computer.

To do this, we are going to go to Code.org’s learning platform and join a section. You already have Code.org accounts because you needed to have an account to register for this workshop and to take attendance this morning. We just need to get you into our class section. Your students will do this on the first day of class, too.

(1 minute) We will start exploring large place values to see what happens when a big number gets too big by using the Binary Odometer Widget. This is a widget that simulates a car odometer - a device that tracks how far the car has driven (in miles or kilometers).

Now that you have seen an example of a widget from a Plugged lesson, let’s talk about what a Plugged lesson actually is. Plugged activities are designed to allow students to get hands-on with tools and concepts. That said, plugged lessons typically have many of the same features of their unplugged counterparts. Lessons will begin and end with discussions or activities that help motivate and synthesize learning. Students are encouraged and often even required to work with one another.

Based on our experiences using plugged lessons in the classroom, we have found a lot of overlap between what makes an unplugged and plugged lesson successful. But specifically, for plugged lessons we have found the following (you can also find these in the Curriculum Guide on page 12):

“Plugged” doesn’t mean the computer is the students’ teacher! If anything, you will need to take a more active role in checking student progress since it’s hard to know what’s happening when students are working on screens. Many of you will have “plugged” lessons that you will be teaching this week. These tips can help you think about how you will deliver your lessons.