👋🏼 Hello, I'm...
Ian Thompson
Elementary School Teacher. Tech Enthusiast.
A little about me.
My name is Ian Thompson. I am from the Upstate of South Carolina.
I am 3rd grade teacher and I love all things tech. I have been programming since I was 12 years old, having first started out learning Objective-C using Xcode 5! Since then, I have used my programming skills to accomplish a variety of personal projects, for my small business, and for my role in educational research.
I will am certified to teach 2nd-6th grades in the State of South Carolina, interested in teaching grades 3rd-6th. Once able, I hope to add on my secondary computer science teaching credential. I also am very interested in pursing graduate school, where I hope to find a career where I can combine my passion for computer science and education.
I am also a Young Life leader at T.L Hanna High School in Anderson, South Carolina. Before that, I served three years as a WyldLife leader at McCants Middle School. Go Jackets!
Ian Thompson: { Age: 23 Major: Elementary Education Location: Clemson, SC Graduation: 2024}Academic Interests
#Human-computer-interaction
#Child-computer-interaction
#AI-ethics
#Data-privacy
#UX-research
#Childrens-online-privacy
#Computer-science-education
#Privacy-education
#Digital-citizenship
#Learning-environments
#Elementary-education
#Middle-level-education
Technical Skills
Education
Clemson University
Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education
August 2020 - May 2024
Activites:
Undergraduate research, College of Education Undergraduate Student Advisory Board, YoungLife
Honors:
President's List - Spring 2023
Dean's List - Fall 2023
Dean's List - Spring 2022
Certifications:
Group 1 Investigators Conducting Social and Behavioral Science Research (SBR) at Clemson University
Committee:
Program Committee, International Conference on Quantitative Ethnography (ICQE) 2023
Teaching Experience
Practicum Student - 3rd Grade
Midway Elementary | Anderson School District 5
Fall 2023
This was a 215 hour placement that satisfied the requirements of EDEL 4010 - Elementary Field Experience at Clemson University.
Practicum Student - 3rd Grade
Whitehall Elementary | Anderson School District 5
Spring 2023
This was a 35 hour placement that satisfied the requirements of EDEL 4520 - Elementary Methods in Mathematics Teaching at Clemson University.
Practicum Student - 4th Grade
Forest Acres Elementary | Pickens County School District
Fall 2021
This was a 6 hour placement that satisfied the requirements of EDF 3340 - Child Growth and Development at Clemson University.
Substitute Teacher
Greenville County School District | Greenville, SC
January 2021 - Present
In this role, I substitute taught at various middle schools in school district in all subject areas.
After School Caregiver
Pelham Road Elementary | Greenville, SC
May 2017 - Mar 2020
In this role, I worked in the extended day program at Pelham Road Elementary School in Greenville, SC.
Work Experience
Undergraduate Researcher
IDEA Lab @ Clemson University | Clemson, SC
August 2021 - Present
In this role, I assisted the IDEA Lab in Clemson University's College of Education on an NSF funded project that seeks to "measure and model youth’s data science knowledge and practices in the context of social, ethical, and political issues related to digital technologies" and "measure youth’s sense of empowerment to enact change in their communities in terms of the ethical use of digital technologies." 1
My duties included, but were not limited to:
- Work alongside professors and graduate students in the IDEA (Inclusive Digital Education and Analytics) Lab in the College of Education
- Assist in the writing of academic literature
- Assist in the development and design of educational software
- Developed extensions to the Scratch programming environment that interface with educational robots
- Assist in artificial intelligence education research for elementary and middle school-aged youths
- Collect data from research implementations
- Complete other tasks as assigned by Lab Director and graduate students
Substitute Teacher
Greenville County School District | Greenville, SC
January 2021 - Present
In this role, I substitute taught at various middle schools in school district in all subject areas. During the 21-22 school year, I was hired as a part-time permanent substitute at Greenville Middle and Beck Academy.
My duties included, but were not limited to:
- Provide classroom instruction to students as assigned in lesson plans.
- Take attendance and document daily notes.
- Create a classroom that is conducive to learning and appropriate to the maturity and interests of students.
- Maintains discipline and classroom control that fosters a safe and positive learning environment for all students and staff in accordance with school district policies.
- Perform other duties as assigned by the immediate supervisor.
Freelance Developer
Nice Lion Technologies LLC | Clemson, SC
July 2021 - Present
I own Nice Lion Technologies LLC, a web development and software consulting business and currently act as the sole freelance developer.
Audiovisual Technology Intern
Fellowship Greenville | Greenville, SC
May 2022 - August 2022
In this role, I gained experience working in a large church in the AV department. I primarily learned how to mix and produce live sound using Allen&Heath and Avid sound boards. I also used my computer science background to develop Cronicle extensions written in Python and C++ to create automatons for different church technologies.
My duties included, but were not limited to:
- Work alongside our Worship Technology Director to complete various improvement projects to worship technology, including system optimization, storage organization efforts, and implementation of new equipment.
- Assist the Audio/Visual Technology Director with weekly needs such as lighting plots, setup of stage equipment and microphones, and configuring the sound console.
- Assist the NextGen Production Designer with weekly needs in all NextGen production environments, including system optimization, maintenance, and implementation of any new equipment.
- Serve and support any and all weekend services in a variety of production roles.
- Accomplish other tasks and projects as assigned.
After School Caregiver
Greenville County School District | Greenville, SC
May 2017 - Mar 2020
In this role, I worked in the extended day program at Pelham Road Elementary School in Greenville, SC.
My duties included, but were not limited to:
- Facilitate planned activities as determined by the site director.
- Provide assistance in distributing snacks, supplies, etc.
- Assist the site director with providing all daily services and reports.
- Supervise children constantly, never leaving them unattended.
- Assist in homework supervision.
- Refer serious discipline problems to the site director.
- Attend all staff meetings and training sessions.
- Arrive promptly and remain for the specified time.
- Complete clerical tasks assigned by the director.
- Perform other duties as assigned by the immediate supervisor.
Volunteer Experience
Young Life Leader @ T.L Hanna High School
Tri-County Young Life | Anderson, SC
August 2023 - Present
Young Life is a ministry for high school students. In this role, I have connected with many students and families at T.L Hanna High School in Anderson, SC. I am on a team of other college students who plan weekly gatherings, aka "club", and other events with the goal of sharing the Gospel of Christ to our high school friends.
WyldLife Leader @ McCants Middle School
Tri-County Young Life | Anderson, SC
August 2020 - August 2023
WyldLife is a ministry under Young Life for middle school students. In this role, I have connected with many students and families at McCants Middle School in Anderson, SC. I am on a team of other college students who plan weekly gatherings, aka "club", and other events with the goal of sharing the Gospel of Christ to our middle school friends.
Publications
S.P.O.T: A Game-Based Application for Fostering Critical Machine Learning Literacy Among Children
Interaction Design and Children Conference @ Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
June 19, 2023
ABSTRACT: This paper describes S.P.O.T., a game-based application for promoting children's practical understanding of ML concepts and applications. Current tools for teaching ML in K-12 engage students in playful exploration of ML mechanisms and teach ML from a cognitive perspective. However, in S.P.O.T, learners interact with ML within real-life sociopolitical contexts and examine how ML predictions impact their daily lives and communities. Through the immersion of stories that mirror children's lived experiences, S.P.O.T. provides elementary school aged children with opportunities to learn how machine learning applications function and develop children's abilities to critically examine, question, and reimagine the consequences of ML decisions in the real world.
Ibrahim Oluwajoba Adisa, Ian Thompson, Tolulope Famaye, Deepika Sistla, Cinamon Sunrise Bailey, Katherine Mulholland, Alison Fecher, Caitlin Marie Lancaster, and Golnaz Arastoopour Irgens. 2023. S.P.O.T: A Game-Based Application for Fostering Critical Machine Learning Literacy Among Children. In Proceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference (IDC '23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 507–511. https://doi.org/10.1145/3585088.3593884
Projects I've Worked On
S.P.O.T: A Game-Based Application for Fostering Critical Machine Learning Literacy Among Children
This paper describes S.P.O.T., a game-based application for promoting children's practical understanding of ML concepts and applications. This WIP paper was presented at IDC '23 at Northwestern University.
raspi-metar
In short, raspi-metar is a Raspberry Pi project that takes METAR data from various airports and displays it on a VFR sectional map using NEOPIXEL LEDs.
Hymns & Hops Online Songbook
This is an open-source project I started to serve as a virtual hymnal for Hymns & Hops, an event in Greenville, SC where people gather to enjoy beer and song. This application is not endorsed by Hymns & Hops or its organizers.
TPBot Scratch Extension
As a part of my work with the IDEA Lab, I helped develop an extension that allows Scratch to interface with TPBot robots.
teachable-svelte
In this application, you are able to create image classifications and train a model using webcam or uploaded image data. Once the model has been created and trained, the model is serialized and becomes available for download. These can then be utilized else where.
This Website
This website you are viewing is a project of mine! If you want to use this as a template for your own site, feel free to check out the GitHub
M5 TCP IRBlaster
M5 TCP IRBlaster is a project I worked on while an intern at Fellowship Greenville. This project utilized an M5StickC to decode and send IR signals to power on/off devices. The M5Stick sets up a TCP server which was communicated to via BitFoucs' Companion and via Cronicle to automate Sunday mornings.
PCBTree
PCBTree is a project I created while in high school. For this project, I designed and printed PCBs in the shape of a Christmas tree. I then programmed an ATTiny85 to measure a potentiometer which was used to determine the flashing speed of the LEDs.
a long medley in the same direction by Saint Cecilia & the Melody Makers
This is an album I "contributed" to while an intern at Fellowship Greenville. Don't get your hopes up, but feel free to listen to some redneck hymns.