Jeremy Riel leads a session in the InnovatEd program for preservice teachers.
Since 2020 and the inaugural cohort of Digital Scholars, summer has been a time for DPI’s Pritzker Tech Talent Labs to boost student learning in tech fields. In 2024, PTTL added teacher programs in iOS mobile app development, data science, and fundamentals of computer programming. This summer, they had an idea: what about programming for teachers just starting their careers?
Thus was born InnovatED, a two-week technology Intensive for pre-service teachers to learn to incorporate technology before their first official year.
Danna Dotson, associate director of teacher training for PTTL, had been talking with Kris Beck, director of computer science for Chicago Public Schools. Beck wanted to support novice educators in accessing computer science and technology education, equipping them to prepare students with the fluency needed to navigate an ever-evolving tech landscape.
Dotson’s response was short and sweet: “We can create that!” She led the course along with Jeremy Riel, assistant professor of educational psychology in UIC’s College of Education and director of the TRAILblazer Lab. The program also received support from UIUC’s College of Education.
At the end of the two-week course, each teacher presented a project illustrating an idea for incorporating technology, whether it was coding or AI or machine learning, into their lesson plans. Across grade levels and subject areas, the students learning from these teachers can look forward to activities including:
- Learning photosynthesis via videos and online quizzes
- Investigating poetry with Micro:bit for fifth-grade language arts
- Using 3-D–printed hearts in a high school introduction to painting and drawing
- Solving algebra equations to exit a virtual escape room
- Playing a sensory telephone game in elementary school classes
- “The Power of Media,” a unit for fourth graders on identifying common advertising techniques and understanding how they work
- Multimedia presentations for Spanish class based on a Spanish-language song of each student’s choosing.
InnovatED was one of two new teacher intensives in 2025; the other focused on computational thinking and AI for in-service educators, who learned side-by-side with students. Together, they explored decomposition, abstraction, and algorithmic thinking, applying these skills to real classroom challenges. Dotson said that it was powerful “to see the way teachers re-thought lesson plans based on direct feedback from students.” One social science teacher, initially hesitant about the technical content, left the program energized and confident in using AI as a tool for instruction.
Both programs underscored a key theme: whether entering the classroom for the first time or building on years of experience, educators need supportive, immersive opportunities to grow their confidence in technology. “There will always be things that I don’t know how to use,” one teacher said in the course feedback survey, “but the important thing is this intensive gave me the confidence to keep learning, trying, debugging, and iterating.”
Summer Intensives were made possible thanks to support from CME Group Foundation, Google.org, the Chicago Public Schools Department of Computer Science, and Swift.
As always, there was so much more to the PTTL summer than any one program. Here’s a look at some of the numbers:
- 6 total DPI programs for students and teachers: Career Catalyst, Digital Bridge, Digital Scholars, Discover Computing Connect: Creating with Generative AI, Summer Tech Interns, CS Summer Intensives for teachers and students
- 353 students, from high school through college, completing programs. Some potential overlap within different programs
- An additional 40+ teens in a workshop hosted at DPI run by Kode with Klossy in June.
- 96 teachers in Summer Intensives and DC Connect
- 213 individual and group projects across all programs
- 92 guest speakers during workshops and company visits
- 25 field trips across all programs, plus a water taxi to the One Summer Chicago Code and Create Showcase for Digital Scholars
- 19 hosts for Summer Tech Interns
- 2 budding start-ups from the Summer Tech Interns: Outdoorzy, an app to help connect people interested in outdoor fitness and recreation; and Butter, a mobile app that allows the user to adapt their phone keyboard’s colors, sounds, and shapes — to make it more ergonomic or just for fun
- 66 guests at a midsummer Digital Scholars paleta party at DPI
Finally, the Tech Talent Accelerator, which prepares adults with nontraditional backgrounds for jobs in tech, runs throughout the year. However, it’s worth noting that over the summer the accelerator launched its 10th cohort: 17 people from a variety of backgrounds who will be preparing for new careers.
On the left: Community college students in the Digital Bridge program visit Google this summer.
On the right: Digital Scholars enjoy paletas.
Author: Jeanie Chung