We strive to make learning accessible with free and browser-based tools whenever possible, and that goes for this workshop as well. Below are the primary tools we will be using along with pointers on particular features that will be useful for us.
** Each project may use additional tools, but we will provide guidance for those when the need arises.
Slack, an industry favorite, will support our daily communication during the workshop. If you are unfamiliar with Slack, take a look at their help pages on using slack, and review the "Send Messages" and "Share Files & Conversations" sections. Don't feel like you need to understand all the features. We will likely stick with the basics. The video below highlights some basic features that will be useful for the workshop.
Zoom, a popular video conferencing platform, will be used for our live scheduled discussions and ad hoc discussions as needed. If you haven't used Zoom much take a look at getting setup on your desktop, testing audio, and testing video. The video tutorial below explains how to share your screen, which will come in handy to get feedback on something or to demonstrate something you have done.
Google Drive provides a suite of valuable tools that most are already familiar with. If you are new to Google Drive, consider this full tutorial. The short video below specifically demonstrates how to share a folder on Google Drive. Whether using link sharing or adding individuals by email, this is a very useful way for student teams to share folders with you, or vice versa.
Repl.it will be the go-to platform for most programming tasks. It is free, browser-based, and has a lot of useful features. If you already have some programming experience, go ahead and poke around a bit on the platform. As a teacher, you will likely want to get the free classroom plan that supports having private code, even if you don't use all the classroom features. Here is the link to apply, https://repl.it/k12-form.
If you have little or no experience programming, no problem, follow the quick start video below where you will 1) sign up, 2) make a copy (fork) of this program, and 3) click run to see the result. That's it for now. We'll dive deeper later.