Begoña Guereca

Days 41–44 at Tech Educators – Learning to Add Life, Clarity, and Motion This week felt a bit different - less about building big things, more about making them better. We worked with component libraries, which honestly felt like discovering a box of shortcuts made by kind developers who want to save you hours. Instead of rebuilding everything from scratch, I learned how to plug in ready-made parts and make them my own. Then came loading states and suspense - those little moments that make apps feel human. Instead of a blank screen, users get feedback, a sign that something is happening. Small details can completely change how people experience software. We also looked at Next.js error pages, and I have to say - learning how to make things “fail gracefully” might be just as important as making them work. Finally, we touched on TypeScript and motion. TypeScript stretched my brain a lot, but I can already tell it is makes developers more careful and confident. And adding motion? That’s where things start to feel alive. Each of these topics may seem small on their own, but together, they remind us that great apps aren’t just built … they’re crafted. #BootcampJourney #Nextjs #React #WebDevelopment #TorontoTech #UkTech #IrelandTech

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After almost a decade working in corporate tech, joining WhereWeGo was a heartening return to the social impact work that had kick-started my initial interest in this field. It's been a little over a year, and what I've appreciated most is the thoughtfulness with which our team engages with our client's biggest problems, from dreaming big of initial designs to continuing polish after launch. While celebrating a big update or using a hot new technology is nice, they're not the point - our north star is about making a real difference for the communities our clients serve. This report shows that level of care and has some great insights - I hope you give it a read!

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Anthropic launched free courses and certificates for Claude development via Skilljar (https://lnkd.in/eKPK_Kbu). The community response has been overwhelmingly positive. As someone who uses Claude Code daily for Rails development, I'm excited to see Anthropic investing in developer education. Here's why this matters for practicing engineers: 1. Prompt engineering fundamentals - The courses cover structured prompting techniques that actually work in production. Polished system messages can significantly reduce back-and-forth iterations when debugging complex Sidekiq jobs or architecting new Rails features. 2. API integration patterns - They teach proper error handling and rate limiting for Claude API calls. This is crucial when you're building features that depend on AI responses. 3. Code review workflows - The advanced modules show how to use Claude as a thinking partner for system design, not just code generation. Using it to explore architectural tradeoffs before writing any Ruby is like having a senior developer to bounce ideas off. The certificates add credibility when clients ask about AI capabilities. But the real value is learning to prompt effectively. It's becoming as important as knowing your framework's conventions. My rule: if I can't explain the prompt strategy to a junior dev, I need to simplify it. The course structure helps with that systematic thinking - and I love it.

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From Corporate Ladder to Classroom Impact: How Eric Coronado is Transforming Suffern Central School District through Human-Centric Tech Eric Coronado (in the light purple shirt) with his team during the district's Cybersecurity Academy. (Image credit: Suffern Central School District) In the rapidly evolving landscape of K-12 education, the role of a Technology Director often fluctuates between maintaining infrastructure and shaping pedagogy. For Eric Coronado, Director of Technology for Suffern Central School District in Rockland County in New York, and a recent winner of Tech & Learning’s Innovative Leader Award, the mission is clear. While his responsibilities cover everything from cybersecurity to student devices—"If it has a plug, that's me," he jokes—his core philosophy is rooted in a much softer skill set: supporting people. Coronado’s path to educational leadership was non-traditional. Like many in the tech sector, he began his career climbing the corporate ladder. A short-term leadership experiment in a school district, however, turned into a long-term calling. "Once I was in K-12, I realized how meaningful the work was, completely different from corporate,” he says. “When you help schools succeed, you're helping the next generation and it's incredibly rewarding." Now leading a diverse district with a growing multilingual population, Coronado is leveraging strategic partnerships and cutting-edge tools to bridge the gap between complex technology and student success. AI Integration: Guidelines Over Rigid Policy (Image credit: Future) One of the most pressing challenges in modern districts is the rise of AI. Rather than shying away from it, SCSD has leaned into AI, particularly to support their expanding community of English as a New Language (ENL) learners. Coronado and his team were early adopters of SchoolAI and MagicSchool, identifying these as powerful allies in bridging communication gaps. However, the implementation strategy was just as important as the tools themselves. The district avoided creating hard-and-fast policies that would inevitably become obsolete within weeks. Instead, they established flexible guidelines focused on responsible use. "Our goal was never to replace learning but to actually support it," Coronado says. He highlights SchoolAI specifically for its ability to create "translation agents." These agents allow for robust language support while maintaining strict educational guardrails. "Students could poke at it and try to break it, but it always stayed educationally focused," he says. Tools and ideas to transform education. Sign up below. Building the Next Generation of Cyber Defenders The Cybersecurity Academy in action. (Image credit: Suffern Central School District) A standout among SCSD’s initiatives is the launch of a three-year Cybersecurity Academy at the high school. This program was born out of a partnership with the League of Innovative Schools and Digital Promise, a...

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Do NOT copy + paste other people's content without attribution. It will clearly display that you aren't willing to put in real, honest effort when you communicate on a shared online community. #WhatBillYostSaid

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