P4 / TANGIBLE BLOCKS Teaching logical thinking to young children

P8 / CODYROBYComputer science unplugged

P24 / SCRATCH Problem solving tasks using Scratch

P18 / CODE WEEK EU Celebrating Code Week Eu in the UK

ISSUE 10

www.ictinpractice.com

Transforming education through sharing knowledge and practice Created by educators from around the world

WINTER EDITION JAN 2015

ISSN 2053-5104

ICT in Practice

Making programming accessible for young children using Primo tangible programming blocks

EDITORIAL TEAM

Editor-­‐in-­‐chief:  Yasemin  Allsop  @yallsop  Senior  Lecturer  in  Primary  Computing  and  ICT  at  MMU  

Christopher  Carter  @christocarter    Education  technology  coach  and  high  school  Social  Science  Team  Leader  at  Concordia  International  School  Shanghai  

Alessandro  Bogliolo  @neutralaccess  Coordinator  of  the  School  of  Information  Science  and  Technology  of  the  University  of  Urbino,  in  Italy    

Elliott  Plumb  @followthatPlumb  Primary  teacher  and  ICT  Coordinator  

Øystein  Ibsen  @oimsen  Chief  Knowledge  OfCicer  at  Digitalpedagogene  and  Styreleder  at  PedSmia  

Su  Adams  @SuAdamsEdIT  IT  technician  and  ICT  Coordinator  

CONTENTS

PRIMO-Tangible programming blocks p4 CODYROBY-Computer Science Unplugged! p8 Story telling Apps p17 Code week EU in the UK p19 Teachmeet in Norway p21 Minecraft- Building brick by brick p23 Problem solving tasks using Scratch p24 People who inspired us p26

FROM THE EDITOR

I would like to start by welcoming our new team members Alessandro Bogliolo, Øystein Imsen and Su Adams. We are very fortunate to work with such inspirational people who are passionate about teaching and learning with technology.

I  am  excited  to  see  how  schools  across  the  country  adapt  to  the  new  demands  of  the  exciting  Computing  Curriculum.  ICT  In  Practice  is  a  fantastic  way  of  sharing  ideas  and  thoughts  about  Computing,  teaching  and  learning.  

I  am  currently  in  my  second  year  as  a  teacher  and  I  manage  the  Computing  department  at  my  current  school.  Since  becoming  a  teacher,  I  have  been  increasingly  keen  to  share  good  practice.  Being  an  editor  for  ICT  in  Practice  gives  me  the  lucky  job  of  witnessing  stimulating  and  unique  teaching  practice  from  across  the  world.    

In  this  issue  we  bring  you  not  only  practical  activity  ideas  that  you  can  use  in  the  classroom,  but  also  some  interesting  news  on  how  people  are  using  technology  in  different  ways  for  teaching  and  learning.  

We  have  met  some  fantastic  educators  over  the  years  who  have  done  brilliant  work  for  their  school,  or  wider  community  without  expecting  anything  in  return.  Their  passion  for  technology  enhanced  learning  is  their  drive!  So,  we  decided  to  have  a  corner  for  those  amazing  people  who  inspire  us  with  their  work  and  contributions  to  the  educational  technology  community.  So  if  someone  has  inspired  you  in  the  use  of  technology,  or  there  is  someone  that  can  be  seen  as  a  role  model  for  the  future  generations  then  share  their  name  and  celebrate  it  with  us.  

More  hands-­‐on  activity  ideas:  In  this  issue  we  shared  CodyRoby,  an  unplugged  computing  activity  and  a  Scratch  problem  solving  task.  If  you  have  a  good  idea,  why  not  share  it  with  us!  

Remember,  the  more  we  share,  the  more  we  learn!  

Elliott Plumb, editor ICT in Practice @followthatPlumb  

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Tangible programming blocks makes programming accessible

How  did  your  story  begin?  In  early  2013  myself  and  my  co-­‐founder  Matteo  Loglio  decided  to  create  a  company  with  the  intention  of  designing  and  producing  products  to  help  children  and  novices  learn,  play,  and  create  with  technology.  This  is  how  Primo  as  a  company  came  to  be.  Myself,  Filippo  Yacob,  and  Matteo  are  both  creatives  and  technologists  and  we  know  that  in  order  to  be  creative  and  express  oneself,  technology  is  incredibly  important.  

The  Cirst  product  we  worked  on  if  the  Cubetto  Playset,  a  tangible  interface  designed  to  introduce  programming  logic  to  little  children  (3  to  7),  without  the  need  for  literacy.  The  goal  of  the  game  is  to  drive  a  little  robot  called  Cubetto  back  to  his  house.  To  accomplish  the  goal,  children  have  to  program  the  little  robot  using  a  limited  set  of  physical  instructions:  forward,  left,  right  and  function.  While  the  Cirst  three  are  rather  intuitive,  the  last  one  calls  a  sub-­‐routine,  an  extra  line  of  instructions  packed  in  a  single  command.  

What  was  the  development  process  and  the  rationale  behind  it?  Teaching  programming  to  children  is  a  widely  debated  topic.  We  are  aware  of  a  moderate  number  of  solutions  that  try  to  accomplish  this  for  children  above  the  ages  of  8.  However,  there  aren’t  many  of  these  solutions  suitable  for  younger  children,  and  there  aren’t  any  that  work  without  a  screen  or  without  the  need  for  literacy.  We  see  an  increasing  number  of  Apps  for  tablets  and  computers  that  also  work  in  combination  with  physical  robots,  but  none  of  them  are  completely  free  from  the  pixel  domain  in  the  same  way  the  Cubetto  Play  Set  is.  

The focus on teaching children programming skills is growing every day. There are many tools that have been designed to support children to develop their logical thinking and problem solving skills. We talked to Filippo Jacob and Matteo Loglio, the founders of Primo, wooden programming blocks, designed to teach logical thinking to children aged 3-7 and asked them about their journey.

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Wood  was  chose  as  the  main  material,  Cirst  of  all  because  it’s  natural;  you  get  a  warm  feeling  from  it  and  it  makes  a  nice  sound.  The  second  reason  is  cultural.  Observations  were  conducted  on  games  used  in  traditional  kindergartens  in  Switzerland  (where  the  product  was  originally  designed)  to  discover  that  the  games  loved  by  children  were  all  made  out  of  wood.    Wooden  toys  are  very  durable  and  you  can  see  marks  and  scratches  on  them,  

signs  of  their  past  usage  from  other  children.  It’s  a  material  with  memory.  Wood  was  also  chosen  as  a  material  because  of  the  stark  contrast  it  creates  with  technology.  Inside  of  Cubetto  there’s  a  circuit  board,  but  we  wanted  to  create  a  “magical”  experience,  hiding  the  complexity  of  the  play  set.  The  concept  behind  the  Cubetto  Playset  is  heavily  inspired  by  the  work    of  Seymour  Papert,  a  mathematician  who  co-­‐founded  the  MIT  ArtiCicial  

Intelligence  Laboratory  with  Marvin  Minsky,  in  the  sixties  (if  you  are  interested  in  the  subject,  we  encourage  you  to  read  Mindstorms,  his  most  famous  book).  He  was  directing  the  team  who  invented  LOGO,  probably  the  most  used  and  long  lasting  resource  to  teach  programming  to  children.  The  goal  of  Seymour  Papert  was  not  just  to  teach  code,  but  also  to  help  children  discover  their  own  personal  way  of  solving  problems.  

Primo  can  be  considered  an  extreme  simpliCication  of  LOGO  and  the  physical  turtle.  We  limited  the  instructions,  to  their  purest  form,  avoiding  any  kind  of  textual  or  numerical  language.  At  the  beginning  the  robot  was  a  toy  car.  A  very  complicated  and  time  consuming  shape  to  produce,  as  it’s  a  laser-­‐cut  shape  glued  together  layer  by  layer,  and  subsequently  sanded  for  over  an  hour.    

The  car  had  another  major  issue,  it  was  very  boy  oriented.  We  wanted  to  avoid  entering  in  discussions  about  ‘brain  toy’  producers  being  criticised  of  only  producing  boy-­‐oriented  toys.  We  wanted  to  stay  neutral,  we  didn’t  want  to  create  a  toy  speciCically  for  boys  or  girls,  and  instead  opted  for  a  very  neutral  geometry,  a  box.  A  name  was  given  to  the  little  box,  along  with  a  personality  and  a  similey  face,  making  it  even  more  appealing  for  children.  The  robot  is  called  Cubetto  (little  cube  in  Italian).  The  idea  with  Cubetto  is  also  to  create  a  basic  module  

that  can  be  expanded  and  customized  easily  in  the  future.  

How  can  it  be  used  with  different  aged  

children?  Out  of  the  box  it’s  a  great  tool  for  children  aged  4  to  7,  they  play  and  program  a  robot  using  colourful  blocks.  It’s  a  game,  and  it’s  fun,  they  don’t  really  think  about  what  they  are  learning.  They  don’t  need  a  screen,  and  they  don’t  even  need  languages  because  there  is  no  literacy  involved,  something  important  

when  considering  multicultural  environments.  We  tested  this  assumptions  with  workshops  across  Europe,  the  Middle  East,  the  USA…  it  works  the  same  no  matter  where  you  go.  There  is  no  learning  curve,  even  for  teachers,  which  is  important  considering  that  teachers  sometimes  shy  away  from  the  right  products  due  to  their  inaccessibility.  It  differs  from  a  Beebot  for  example,  because  the  “coding”  experience  with  the  Cubetto  Playset  itself  is  tangible,  and  there  is  a  direct  reference  between  what  the  robot  is  performing  and  the  instructions  they  gave  Cubetto.  

It  becomes  interesting  for  7  to  12  year  olds  though,  because  the  robot  has  been  designed  to  be  assembled  and  taken  apart  without  any  screws,  using  plug  and  play  electronics.  The  robot  by  himself  is  essentially  a  Robot  that  anyone  can  build  and  code  in  minutes.  A  school  that  isn’t  interested  in  the  early  years  experience  can  just  get  the  robot.  It  comes  as  a  kit  with  a  shell,  a  chassis,  wheels,  motors  and  a  PCB  that  serves  as  Cubetto’s  brain.  The  PCB  is  open  source,  and  everything  is  based  on  simple  plug  and  play  electronics.  

Children  use  scratch  and  Blockly  to  program  the  robot,  and  can  just  plug  in  a  new  sensor  to  change  the  behaviour  of  the  robot,  and  even  craft  new  creations  and  inventions.  For  12+  year  olds,  people  can  simply  purchase  the  Cubetto  Board,  which  is  a  great  prototyping  platform  for  electronics,  programmable  with  Arduino.  

Activity  ideas?    The  out  of  the  box  experience  for  both  the  Playset  and  the  Robot  is  quite  intuitive.  It’s  based  on  free  play,  which  is  what  we  encourage.  Show  children  how  it  works  once,  and  let  them  go!    

One  thing  we  do  is  a  cardboard  robot  workshop,  where  we  get  children  walking  around  a  grid  dressed  as  Cubetto  the  Robot,  while  handing  each  other  instruction  blocks.  This  helps  even  super  young  children  come  to  grips  with  Playset,  and  it's  also  great  fun.  

Which  computer  science  concepts  can  

be  taught  using  primo?  The  Playset  focuses  on  the  queue  of  instructions.  They  can  design,  predict  and  write  programs  using  the  blocks.  They  can  also  easily  debug  by  changing  a  block  in  the  sequence.  It’s  simple  and  powerful.  They  can  also  learn  recursions  and  negation  using  two  special  blocks  we  created.  With  the  Robot  by  itself,  there  is  basic  robotics  and  physics.  

Can  schools  use  it  as  part  of  the  

curriculum?  Some  schools  already  do,  and  we  freely  publish  lesson  plans  that  guide  educators  through  the  core  concept  mentioned  above.  It’s  all  available  from  our  website:  http://primo.io  

CodyRoby:Turning the Hour of Code into a DIY Unplugged Game

Alessandro  Bogliolo  is  the  coordinator  of  the  School  of  Information  Science  and  Technology  of  the  University  of  Urbino,  in  Italy  (http://

informatica.uniurb.it/).  He  teaches  Computer  Architecture  and  he  

coordinates  research  activities  in  the  Cields  of  wireless  sensor  networks,  

mobile  applications,  and  green  cloud  computing.  In  2013  he  founded  Code’s  

Cool  (http://www.codescool.net/),  an  open  online  learning  community  where  

pupils  and  parents  can  meet  University  students  and  teachers  to  code  

together.  Since  2013  he  has  served  as  Europe  Codeweek  Ambassador  in  Italy  

(http://codeweek.it/).  In  2014  he  coordinated  a  pan  European  crowdcoding  

experiment  leading  to  the  development  of  an  Android  game  called  FlagShip  

(http://Clagshipgame.eu/).  In  November  2014  he  launched  CodyRoby  

(http://codeweek.it/cody-­‐roby-­‐en/).  

More  than  90  millions  people  have  tried  an  Hour  of  Code  so  far  thanks  to  the  playful  massive  open  online  course  made  available  worldwide  by  Code.org.  The  Hour  of  Code  is  the  most  famous  of  the  many  cloud-­‐based  visual  programming  methods  that  have  provided  effective  support  to  computer  literacy  campaigns  targeting  not  only  IT-­‐gifted  pupils,  but  neophytes  of  any  age,  regardless  of  their  aptitudes  and  dreams.

Unplugged  activities  can  further  contribute  to  the  diffusion  of  computational  thinking,  spatial  reasoning  and  problem  solving  skills,  lowering  the  access  barriers  in  terms  of  age,  infrastructures,  and  socio-­‐economic  conditions.  This  paper  presents  a  method  for  organizing  unplugged  activities  that  retain  the  immediacy  and  effectiveness  of  the  Hour  of  Code.  

The  method  is  called  CodyRoby  to  emphasize  that  computer  programming  entails  two  roles:  the  role  of  Cody,  a  coder  who  provides  instructions,  and  the  role  of  Roby,  a  robot  who  executes  them.  At  the  beginning  there  are  only  three  instructions:  move  forward,  turn  left,  and  turn  right.  Each  instruction  is  represented  by  an  arrow  drawn  on  a  playing  card.  While  playing,  Cody  selects  the  cards  to  be  passed  to  Roby,  who  moves  on  a  chessboard  accordingly.  No  equipment  is  required.  Cody  and  Roby  are  just  characters  played  by  the  players  of  the  game.  Having  not  only  to  write  a  code  segment,  but  also  to  interpret  and  execute  it,  adds  to  the  learning  experience  provided  by  CodyRoby  with  respect  to  its  online  counterpart.  

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The  Cody  cards  Cody  cards  are  used  to  represent  instructions  as  the  blocks  of  visual  programming  tools.  In  order  to  make  the  game  as  intuitive  as  possible,  instructions  are  represented  using  only  symbols,  with  no  words.  The  three  basic  Cody  cards  are  shown  in  the  Figure.  They  represent  spatial  instructions  Turn  Left  (turn  to  your  left  without  moving),  Move  Forward  (make  a  step  ahead),  and  Turn  Right  (turn  to  your  right  without  moving).  

Each  card  has  the  size  typical  of  a  playing  card  (about  1.97  x  2.76in)  in  order  to  be  easily  handled  and  packed  in  a  deck.  The  instruction  associated  with  the  card  is  represented  by  the  big  arrow  in  the  middle,  while  the  two  drawings  in  the  upper  part  explain  the  effect  of  the  instruction,  showing  the  position  of  Roby  on  the  chessboard  before  (to  the  left)  and  after  (to  the  right)  execution.  The  borders  of  the  cards  are  shaped  to  suggest  that  they  can  be  concatenated  either  vertically  (top-­‐down)  or  

horizontally  (from  left  to  right)  like  pieces  of  a  puzzle.  

The  DIY  Starter  Kit  The  starter  kit  is  freely  available  online  (http://codeweek.it/cody-­‐roby-­‐en/diy-­‐starter-­‐kit/).  It  consists  of  6  A4  pages  to  be  printed  out,  cut  out  and  folded  in  order  to  obtain  a  deck  of  40  Cody  cards,  a  card  box,  a  folding  chessboard  that  Cits  into  the  card  box,  and  the  Roby  pieces  to  be  placed  on  the  board.  A  silent  video  tutorial  is  available  that  shows  how  to  cut  out  and  fold  the  kit  (http://youtu.be/D5hQ9UTDQ6s).  

Instead  of  using  the  kit,  teachers  

could  engage  pupils  in  DIY  

activities  aimed  at  the  design  of  

more  creative  Cody  cards  and  

pieces.  

Computer Science Unplugged!

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The  Unplugged  Games  There  are  many  unplugged  games  that  can  be  played  with  CodyRoby.  Some  of  them  are  described  on  the  CodyRoby  website,  many  mores  will  be  posted  soon.  Hereafter  I  outline  only  two  of  them,  that  are  particularly  suited  to  experience  the  unplugged  Hour  of  Code:  The  race  and  The  tourist.  

The  race  

The  Race  is  a  board  game  for  two  players  (or  two  teams)  of  any  age.  The  players  draw  a  random  path  across  the  chessboard  by  marking  with  a  pencil  all  the  squares  along  the  path.  The  suggested  path  length  is  of  8  squares,  that  can  be  marked  by  the  two  players  in  turn  (e.g.,  two  at  the  time).  Cells  must  be  contiguous,  i.e.,  any  new  cell  must  share  an  edge  with  the  previous  one.  

The  Roby  pieces  are  placed  at  the  beginning  of  the  path  and  all  the  cody  cards  are  placed  at  a  side  of  the  chessboard,  separated  by  type  into  three  decks  to  be  easily  found  and  picked  up.  

When  everything  is  ready,  the  players  clap  their  hands  and  the  game  begins.  

Each  player  (or  team)  has  to  take  the  cards  from  the  side  decks  and  to  place  them  in  sequence  in  from  of  her/him  as  fast  as  possible  in  such  a  way  that  the  sequence  of  cards  can  drive  Roby  along  the  path.  The  player  who  Cinishes  Cirst  presses  the  GO!  button  and  tests  her/his  solution.  This  is  done  by  moving  the  Roby  piece  along  the  path  according  to  the  instructions  provided  by  the  cards.  The  other  player  follows  the  test  and  tries  to  Cind  an  error  or  to  think  at  a  smarter  solution  (i.e.,  a  solution  which  makes  use  of  fewer  cards).  If  the  solution  is  correct  and  no  shorter  sequences  are  proposed  by  the  other  player,  the  fastest  player  wins.    

The  tourist  The  Tourist  is  a  spatial  game  for  kids  to  be  played  by  two  teams.  The  game  play  is  similar  to  The  Race,  with  three  main  differences:  i)  it  is  played  on  the  Cloor,  ii)  Roby  pieces  are  replaced  by  a  girl  or  boy  playing  the  role  of  the  tourist  (an  impartial  referee  possibly  not  

belonging  to  the  two  teams),  and  iii)  

the  path  leads  to  the  image  (picture  

of  drawing)  of  a  monument.  

Being  a  real-­‐world  spatial  game,  the  path  has  to  be  drawn  on  the  Cloor.  The  ideal  material  to  be  used  to  this  purpose  are  puzzle  play  mats,  but  simple  sheets  of  paper  can  also  be  used  to  compose  the  path.  

As  in  The  Race,  the  two  teams  start  by  composing  a  random  path.  This  is  done  in  turn  by  placing  puzzle  tiles  (or  sheets  of  paper)  on  the  Cloor.  Then  a  drawing  representing  a  local  monument  (possibly  drawn  by  the  pupils)  is  placed  at  the  end  of  the  path,  while  the  Tourist  takes  place  at  the  

beginning.  Cody  cards  are  divided  by  type  into  three  decks  placed  on  a  school  desk.  The  two  teams  work  on  two  desks  placed  at  the  same  distance  from  the  main  desk.  The  game  starts  when  the  Tourist  asks  directions  to  the  monument.  The  two  teams  have  to  run  to  get  the  cards  they  need  and  to  put  them  in  sequence  to  compose  the  directions.  Then  the  cards  are  stacked  up  in  a  deck  with  the  Cirst  instruction  on  the  top.  The  team  who  Cinishes  Cirst  provides  the  instruction  stack  to  the  Tourist  who  tests  the  solution  following  the  instructions  under  the  supervision  of  the  other  team.  The  fastest  team  wins  if  the  solution  is  correct  and  no  

shorter  solution  is  provided  by  the  other  team.    

The  Unplugged  Hour  for  Code  The  Hour  of  Code  (http://hourofcode.com/)  challenges  online  users  to  provide  spatial  instructions  to  a  videogame  character  to  help  him/her  Cind  the  correct  path  throughout  a  maze.  There  are  20  mazes  of  incremental  difCiculty.  The  Cirst  5  mazes  make  use  only  of  the  three  basic  instructions,  while  the  following  ones  introduce  loops  and  conditional  branches.  

The  unplugged  hour  of  code  consists  of  playing  CodyRoby  games  using  as  paths  the  mazes  proposed  by  Code.org.  In  particular,  the  Cirst  5  mazes  of  the  hour  of  code  can  be  directly  played  with  the  starter  kit  on  a  5x5  chessboard,  as  shown  in  the  Figure.  These  5  paths  can  be  proposed  as  a  warm-­‐up  activity  before  allowing  pupils  to  design  their  own  paths.    

Cody  cards  representing  Loops  and  Conditions  will  be  released  in  February  2015.  

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by  Elliott  Plumb  

One  thing  we  all  remember  at  school  is  gathering  around  our  teacher  and  listening  to  a  story  at  the  end  of  the  day.  Story  telling  has,  and  still  remains,  a  huge  part  of  a  child’s  school  life.  As  the  iPad  has  begun  to  emerge  into  schools  across  the  world,  so  has  the  opportunity  to  download  a  whole  host  of  applications.  Within  this  bank  of  applications  lies  a  plethora  of  story  selling  apps!    This  fantastic  opportunity  allows  children  to  combine  the  tradition  of  story  telling  with  Computing  and  use  images,  text,  video  and  audio  to  tell  a  story.  Teachers  have  always  had  the  opportunity  to  make  story  telling  magical,  now  it’s  the  children's  turn!  There  are  a  whole  host  of  Story  Telling  Apps  out  there,  here  are  a  selection  of  those  that  are  highly  acclaimed  and  best  of  all,  FREE!

Which Story Telling App should

you use in the classroom?

App  name Suitable  for What  is  good  about  it?

KS1  &  KS2 This  App  is  great  fun  and  allows  children  to  experiment  with  their  acting  skills  as  well  as  providing  suitable  videos  and  images  for  the  news  screen.  If  you  are  teaching  particular  English  topics,  informative  or  persuasive  texts  in  particular,  this  app  gives  children  the  opportunity  to  use  key  vocabulary.  It  is  a  free  app  so  there  is  no  excuse  to  not  give  it  a  try!

KS2  and  above This  more  mature  story  telling  app  is  very  easy  to  use  and  is  displayed  like  a  book.  Children  can  even  create  a  story  that  can  be  shown  on  the  Smartboard.  This  app  has  proved  popular  with  adults  and  children  alike!  

KS1  and  Lower  KS2

This  personal  favourite  is  extremely  good  fun.  I  have  used  this  app  for  Modern  Foreign  Language  lessons,  as  the  audio  is  so  easy  to  use.  You  can  modify  your  sock  characters  and  put  different  backgrounds  in  place.  This  app  is  perfect  for  basic  conversations  (Especially  if  children  are  practicing  different  languages!).

KS1  &  KS2 This  is  a  slightly  different  story  telling  app.  This  app  would  give  children  a  great  opportunity  to  order  and  present  events  in  their  life.  Chronologically  ordering  events  such  as  summer  holidays,  Easter  or  a  school  trip  would  be  perfect  for  this  app.  

Sock  Puppets  

�

Talking  Tom  and  Ben  News  

�

Animoto  

�

StoryKit  

�

CELEBRATING CODE WEEK EU IN THE UK

by  Su  Adams,  ICT  Technician  &  ICT  Coordinator

On  18th  October  Staplehurst  School  celebrated  Code  Week  UK  in  style  with  our  2nd  U  Can  Too  -­‐  Mozilla  Maker  Party.    We  saw  visitors  not  only  from  our  own  school,  but  many  schools  from  the  local  area,  as  well  as  schools  from  as  far  aCield  as  Snodland,  Romford  in  Essex,  and  Surrey.  We  even  had  two  lovely  visitors  from  Korea,  who  were  performing  government  research  on  the  UK  Computing  Curriculum.    

U  Can  Too  was  so  busy  that  we  couldn't  register  everyone  who  walked  through  our  doors,  but  we  do  know  that  we  had  more  than  350  who  came  along  and  gave  coding  a  go  at  our  event.    We  were  exceptionally  lucky  to  be  invited  to  apply  for  a  grant  from  Google,  even  luckier  to  win  that  grant!    Our  1st  U  Can  Too  event  saw  just  under  100  people  attend,  so  we  increased  our  publicity  campaign  and  added  many  new  activities;  both  enabled  by  the  funding  from  Google.    With  such  an  increase  in  numbers  attending  we  were  pleased  that  we  made  the  right  decisions  and  thoroughly  excited  to  see  families  working  together  to  create  so  many  different  coding  based  projects  and  having  so  much  fun.        

Our  activities  were  very  varied,  including  unplugged  coding  activities,  like  our  giant  version  of  Robot  Turtles  as  well  as  the  more  obvious  choices,  such  as  Scratch.    We  also  had  activities  that  we  made  ourselves  with  some  good  old-­‐fashioned  wood,  these  

were  very  popular,  especially  our  'Crack  the  Code'  game  and  our  'Sphero  Maze  Challenge'  both  of  which  our  Code  Club  got  the  chance  to  get  in  on  the  coding.    

Here  are  some  of  the  other  activities  that  our  visitors  spent  their  2  hours  doing:  Giant  Voice  Controlled  Human  Crane,  Life-­‐Size  Robot  Turtles  board  game,  Mozilla  X-­‐Ray  Goggles,  Sphero  Maze  Challenge,  Sphero  Arena,  FUZE  Raspberry  Pi’s,  Code  Club  Scratch  Creation  –  Crack  the  Code,  Scratch  programming,  Scratch  Jr,  Looming  with  algorithms,  Zu3D  Animations,  Soldering,  Minecraft,  Lilypad  eSewing,  Electric  Paint.    We  also  had  a  shop  and  an  eSafety  area.

There  is  more  info  on  our  event  blog,  

please  Cind  the  link  below:  

http://www.staplehurstschool.co.uk/

school-­‐events.php

As  well  as  our  U  Can  Too  event  we  got  up  to  many  other  activities  during  Code  Week  UK.    We  delivered  training  to  parents  sharing  with  them  several  of  the  programming  tools  that  are  available  to  their  children  at  home,  we  took  our  Digital  Leaders  along  to  present  an  'unplugged'  coding  workshop  at  Code  Week  UK's  London  event,  which  was  an  amazing  experience  for  us  all  and  our  Key  Stage  2  children  presented  an  eSafety  Expo,  including  acting,  singing  and  debates  on  a  variety  of  eSafety  topics.    As  well  as  all  this  our  Code  Club  and  Digital  Leaders  had  some  extra  special  sessions  during  Code  Week  UK.    Code  Club  were  visited  by  Vicki  from  FUZE  who  delivered  a  fantastic  workshop  using  FUZE  Basic  to  Code  Raspberry  Pi's  and  controlled  a  robotic  arm  using  the  Raspberry  Pi.    Whilst  our  Digital  Leaders  were  visited  by  Lego  Education  for  a  Lego  WeDo  workshop  challenge,  our  DLs  worked  in  pairs  to  see  who  could  make  their  Lego  WeDo  Motorized  Spinning  Tops  spin  for  the  longest...  it  was  a  tie,  Samantha  and  Eleanor  v  Sam  and  James.    It  was  impossible  to  tell  which  Cinished  Cirst  when  both  spinning  tops  stopped  in  unision!      

As  you  can  tell,  we  had  a  very  busy  week  exploring  the  world  of  coding,  and  most  importantly  we  loved  every  minute  of  it!  

Our  U  Can  Too  event,  was  the  biggest  part  of  our  Code  Week  UK  endeavours.    We  are  very  proud  of  the  success  of  our  event  (and  the  week  in  general)  and  attribute  much  of  it's  success  to  the  funding  provided  by  Google.    With  this  in  mind  we  would  like  to  say  a  huge  thank  you  for  your  invitation  to  apply  for  it  and  also  your  support  for  our  involvement  in  Code  Week  UK.    I  am  still  

working  on  creating  a  video  of  the  DLs  review,  I  should  have  it  done  for  you  by  the  end  of  the  week.    In  the  meantime,  here  is  a  short  review  from  one  of  our  DLs  about  our  presentation  at  your  London  event:  

James  says:  

“CODE  WEEK  UK  on  15th  October  

This  activity  was  very  fun.  I  particularly  

enjoyed  talking  to  Ross  and  Mathew  who  

were  computer  scientists,  as  well  as  

teaching  grownups  our  unplugged  activity.  

Ross  &  Matthew  taught  me  that  there  are  

different  ways  of  sorting  which  are  quite  

exiting.  If  I  was  offered  the  opportunity,  I  

would  deCinitely  do  this  activity  again.  It  

was  very  informative.  Personally  I  think  it  

would  be  a  school  trip  that  all  of  Year  6  

would  enjoy,  but  it  would  be  too  crowded.  

If  next  year’s  Digital  Leaders  are  given  the  

opportunity  to  represent  us  again,  I  would  

say,  go  ahead,  it’s  a  great  experience!”  

IN NORWAY

TEACHMEET

by Øystein Imsen

The  Cirst  teachmeet  in  the  capital  of  Norway  took  place  early  in  January,  in  the  University  of  Oslo.  Forty  teachers  and  some  representatives  from  ed-­‐tech  related  businesses  and  startups  attended,  many  more  watched  the  live  stream.  This  is  part  of  a  strategy  to  bring  teachers  and  developers  together  in  an  ed-­‐tech  cluster,  and  a  decent  way  to  kick  off  a  new  year.  A  teachmeet  is  a  good  way  to  meet  other  teachers,  share  practices  and  get  updates  on  educational  technologies.  There  is  an  abundance  of  excellent  ideas  and  relevant  technology  out  there,  but  content  in  school  does  not  change  by  itself.  Enthusiasts  and  professionals  need  support  and  motivation  to  keep  up  their  good  work.  Distances  in  Norway  can  be  difCicult  to  overcome.  The  distance  from  Oslo  to  the  Russian  border  

equals  a  trip  from  London  to  Istanbul,  and  since  there  are  far  less  people  living  there  –  they  seldom  meet.    

The  teachmeet  in  Oslo  was  organised  by  Digitalpedagogene,  the  Norwegian  answer  to  CAS  and  similar  organisations  and  companies  who  train  teachers  in  technology  and  pedagogics.  There  are  two  different  types  of  teacher  educations  in  Norway,  the  Universities  and  the  "lærerskole",  academies  who  are  less  oriented  towards  research.  Both  Universities  and  Academies  are  having  a  hard  time  keeping  up  with  the  development,  and  this  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  private  companies  like  Digitalpedagogene  are  in  demand.  

Building  an  arena  for  ICT  in  schools  is  important  to  the  Oslo  region.  Every  year,  swarms  of  Norwegians  seek  out  the  BETT  show  in  London  -­‐  to  get  new  impulses  from  abroad,  but  Cirst  of  all  to  meet  other  Norwegians  who  are  interested  in  school  and  technology.  Some  are  there  to  sell,  some  are  Cierce  network  builders,  and  some  are  just  there  to  hang  out,  

but  in  the  end,  they  are  all  part  of  a  movement  who  agree  about  one  thing:  there  is  an  urgent  need  for  change  in  education,  and  ICT  is  bound  to  play  an  important  role.  The  emerging  coding  movement,  “Lær  kidsa  koding”,  has  also  had  an  important  impact.  

First,  there  was  an  interesting  introduction  from  a  local  celebrity.  Professor  Sten  Ludvigsen,  head  of  the  advisory  commission  working  on  “framtidens  skole”,  the  future  of  Norwegian  schools,  presented  his  views  on  what  direction  he  would  recommend  to  the  politicians.    A  short  resume:  Cross-­‐  curriculum  and  problem  based  learning,  self-­‐regulation  and  collaboration  –  everything  normally  associated  with  the  21st  century  skills  movement  –  is  the  recipe  to  success  and  innovation.  It  remains  to  be  seen  if  politicians  will  choose  to  listen  to  Ludvigsen,  one  can  only  hope.    

Norwegian  schools  have  a  tradition  for  being  progressive  and  student  centred,  but  the  last  ten  years  have  been  different.  Old  fashioned  governance  of  schools  and  increased  focus  on  teach-­‐to-­‐test  has  cemented  the  contents  in  schools,  forcing  teachers  to  take  responsibility  for  school  development  themselves.  The  national  authorities  have  also  delegated  

responsibility  for  schools  to  a  communal  level,  which  has  led  to  bad  investments,  confusion  and  increasing  differences.  As  a  result  of  this  system  failure,  teachers  went  through  a  bitter  strike  last  year,  and  the  wounds  between  school  leadership  and  teachers  still  need  some  mending.  

A  teachmeet  must  be  both  informal,  informative  and  entertaining,  but  nobody  expects  anyone  to  have  the  qualities  of  a  stand-­‐up  comedian  and  a  professor  in  education  sciences  at  the  same  time.  Still,  those  attending,  got  excellent  presentations  on  gaming,  Arduino  and  robotics,  the  use  of  iPad  in  music  lessons,  Minecraft  in  kindergartens  and  how  to  use  fan-­‐art  as  a  learning  method.  There  was  enough  content  for  several  teachmeets,  and  there  is  hopefully  still  more  to  come.  

This  was  the  Cirst  teachmeet  in  Oslo,  and  there  will  be  many  more.  Once  the  word  spreads,  and  more  teachers  loosen  up  to  the  concept,  there  might  be  hope  that  a  new  tradition  has  been  born.  

MINECRAFT- LEARNING BRICK BY BRICK

Placing  emerald  blocks,  crafting  tables  and  using  a  furnace  are  not  ordinarily  things  that  you  would  associate  with  primary-­‐aged  children.  However,  on  the  October  27th  MinecraftEdu  workshops  hosted  by  The  WOW  Zone  in  Wythenshawe,  this  is  exactly  what  over  30  young  people  did!  

The  WOW  Zone  is  Wythenshawe  Community  Housing  Group’s  learning  centre  that  works  with  local  schools  on  a  variety  of  exciting,  creative,  technology-­‐based  projects.  The  WOW  Zone  team  aims  to  raise  children’s  aspirations  and  equip  them  with  the  knowledge  and  skills  to  enter  this  modern  age  of  computing.  The  feedback  from  this  event,  from  both  children  and  parents,  proves  how  relevant  an  event  like  this  really  is.  Mark,  a  parent  from  Wythenshawe,  said:  

  ‘Athena  and  Zanthe  

enjoyed  the  Minecraft  

workshop  immensely.  It’s  great  

to  see  such  forward  thinking  

ideas  that  will  introduce  kids  

to  the  world  of  code,  whilst  

allowing  them  to     socialise  

and  share  ideas.’  

The  event,  run  by  TeacherGaming,  was  part  of  their  European  tour,  and  saw  children  working  collaboratively  to  navigate  through  the  virtual  world,  build  houses  and  program  turtles.  Mikael  Uusi-­‐Mäkelä,  Learning  Designer  at  TeacherGaming  said:    

  ‘Compared  to  all  of  the  

other  places  I’ve  been  on  the  

tour,  the  room  was  very  well    

equipped  and  the  group  

actually  worked  well  as  a  

group,  as  opposed  to  working  

individually.’  

by Lisa Whittaker, teacher at the WOW Zone

Construction  of  a  virtual  house  is  much  more  complex  than  you  might  Cirst  imagine.  Initially,  student’s  inventories  were  bare.  They  had  to  ‘mine’  for  raw  materials,  and  combine  those  materials  to  create  new  ones,  thus  learning  about  manufacturing  processes  and  skills.  Approaching  Minecraft  in  an  educational  setting,  using  structured  guidance,  enabled  the  children  to  be  creative  without  being  destructive.    

Daniel  (aged  11)  said:  

‘It’s  fun,  it’s  great  and  it  

helps  educate!’  

Primary  school  teachers  are  now  expected  to  deliver  programming  and  coding  sessions  as  part  

of  the  new  Computing  Curriculum.  MinecraftEdu  covers  objectives  linked  with  coding  in  a  discrete  way,  so  that  children  don’t  even  realise  that  they  are  learning.  The  sessions  highlighted  the  children’s  natural  afCinity  to  the  language  of  code.    

Chris  Jones,  Computing  &  Solutions  Expert  for  over  20  years,  said:  

  ‘They  [children]  take  to  it  like  a  

duck  to  water.  I’ve  never  seen  kids  

so  excited  and  enthusiastic  about  

anything  before.’  

The  WOW  Zone  are  proud  to  have  been  the  North-­‐West  host  on  this  tour,  and  will  continue  to  deliver  high-­‐quality  MinecraftEdu  sessions  as  part  of  their  unique  offer  to  schools.    

The WOW Zone is WCHG’s learning centre based at the

Woodhouse Park Lifestyle Centre, in Wythenshawe, Manchester. All

their learning programmes are delivered on site in their dedicated

Apple Mac suite, involving the creative use of ICT. Students use

the latest technology as a platform to enhance their learning and thrive

in a positive environment. During 2012, 335 students accessed a learning programme at the WOW

Zone. In 2013 they worked with 413 students. And in 2014, they worked with over 375 students.

“Top quality teaching and learning, top quality teachers and learners.”

- The late Paul Goggins, MP

I  am  aware  that  the  computer  science  aspects  of  the  new  computing  curriculum  creates  extra  

work  for  some  teachers  as  they  need  to  learn  many  unfamiliar  concepts.    I  know  this  can  be  

challenging  and  time  consuming,  but  I  think  we  are  very    fortunate  because  there  is  a  vast  

range  of    free  programming  environments  /apps  available  for  teachers  to  use  for  teaching  

computer  science  elements  to  children.  What  we  need  to  remember  is  that  the  program  itself  

doesn’t  just  make  children  develop  computational  thinking,  the  context  we  use,  the  

pedagogical  approach  we  employ  shapes  the  learning  experience  of  our  students.    

On  the  next  page  I  have  shared  a  simple  activity  which  can  be  used  as  a  main  task  or  as  an  

assessment  task  at  the  end  of  a  coding  session.  The  aim  is  to  support  children  to  design  

solutions  for  a  speciCic  purpose  by  selecting  and  using  correct    blocks  in  a  sequence.  These  

activities  can  encourage  them  to  think  in  logical  steps  which  is  the  main  foundation  of  

problem  solving  skills  and  at  the  same  time  provide  opportunities  for  peer  or  whole  class  

discussions.    

Before  this  task  there  are  some  hands-­‐on  activities  that  you  can  do  with  children  that  

will  help  them  to  design  and  use  algorithms,  which  is  a  key  element  of  programming.  

You  could:  

• Ask  the  children  to  design  their  own  dance  routines  in  small  groups  on  paper.  Then  let  them  

try  out  each  others  dance  algorithms.  Remind  them  to  use  functions  such  as  ‘repeat’,  ‘If ’,  

and  ‘forever’.  

• Download  the  vector  version  of  standard  Scratch  Blocks  created  by  Paul  Heather  from  

the  link  below:  

http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/resources/vector-­‐scratch-­‐blocks    

• Print  the  cards  and  laminate  them.  You  can  use  these  cards  to  practice  speciCic  actions  with  

the  children  before  moving  onto  the  on-­‐screen  program.  The  children  can  work  in  small  

groups  to  give  instructions  to  each  other  using  the  Scratch  cards.  

• An  example  solution  for  the  dance  task  can  be  seen  at  http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/

43629216/  

PROBLEM SOLVING USING

SCRATCHby  Yasemin  Allsop

Let’s Dance!

Open  the  project  ‘dance’  on  the  Scratch  website.  http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/43599688/  and  save  it  to  your  documents  using  a  different  name.  Complete  the  tasks  below:  

1. Gobo  is  learning  to  dance.    Add  blocks  to  the  script  to  make  Gobo  dance.  

2.Gobo  needs  to  feel  the  rhythm.  Add  sound  blocks  to  create  a  beat.  

3.What  block  do  you  need    in  order  to  make  Gobo  say  'I  love  dancing'?

CHALLENGE

Can  you  make  Gobo  stop  dancing  after  30  seconds?  Tip:  You  need  to  use  a  variable  

LEARNING  OBJECTIVES  • I  can  select  and  use  programming  blocks  in  a  sequence  to  achieve  a  speciCic  outcome.  

• I  can  use  variables  in  a  program.  

© Yasemin Allsop

PEOPLE WHO INSPIRED US!

My  Cirst  encounter  with  computers  was  playing    a  game  called  Hunt  the  Wumpus  on  a  BBC  Micro  computer.  My  dad  was  a  Maths  teacher  at  a  

secondary  school  and  he  used  to  bring  the  departmental  computer  home  in  the  holidays  .    I  then  went  on  to  code  my  own  simple  games    in  BASIC  from  books  and  learned  the  hard  way  that  the  code  was  stored  in  RAM  when  we  had  a  power  cut  and  I  lost  a  game  that  was  75%  complete!        Computers  were  always  something  that  my  generation  did  as  a  hobby  though  –  and  gradually  school  subjects  took  over.  Studying  Computing  in  school  wasn’t  an  option,  and  with  no  Internet  connections  in  homes  or  schools  (can  you  imagine  life  without  the  internet  now?!)  there  was  no  one  to  talk  to  about  computers  either.  So  I  followed  an  Arts  path,  studying  Music  and  Foreign  Languages.      It  was  only  when  did  work  experience  and  subsequently  had  a  job  that  I  realised  that  I  had  a  knack  with  computer  systems.  I  tended  to  pick  things  up  more  quickly  than  other  people,  and  while  I  didn’t  understand  everything,  I  was  the  go-­‐to  person  for  technical  queries  .  The  company  I  was  working  for  paid  me  to  do  a  degree  in  IT  &  Computing,  which  was  a  complete  change  from  what  I  had  done  before.  I  worked  full-­‐time  and  studied  part-­‐time  with  the  Open  University,  learning  programming  languages  such  as  

Smalltalk,  C++  and  Javascript,  and  graduated  with  a  Cirst-­‐class  honours  degree.      I  have  to  hold  my  hands  up  and  say  I’ve  never  coded  anything  of  importance  though  –  and  I  think  that’s  because  the  link  between  education  and  application  in  the  real  world  was  never  quite  there.  But  now,  with  the  new  Computing  curriculum,  children  have  the  opportunity  to  learn  coding  from  a  young  age.  The  collaborative  nature  of  coding  means  that  it  has  a  cross-­‐curricular  appeal.  You  can’t  code  on  your  own  –  even  if  you  write  all  the  code  on  your  own,  you  still  need  someone  else  to  test  it.  Coding  also  offers  a  unique  opportunity  for  creativity  that  I  don’t  think  can  be  found  anywhere  else  in  the  curriculum,  except  for  maybe  music.  When  you  have  a  piano  keyboard  in  front  of  you,  what  you  create  with  the  notes  is  up  to  you.  When  you  have  a  coding  environment,  you  have  the  tools  to  use,  but  how  you  put  them  together  is  again  your  choice.      On  St  Pancras  station  concourse  there  are  a  couple  of  pianos  which  any  member  of  the  public  can  go  and  play.  When  I  arrived  in  London  this  afternoon,  one  of  the  pianos  was  free  so  I  sat  down  and  played  some  music  by  Adele.  I  was  feeling  pretty  happy  about  that  –  until  I  then  walked  up  the  concourse  and  found  the  other  piano  being  played  by  a  gentleman  who  had  actually  drawn  a  crowd  of  people  stopping  to  listen  to  him  playing  some  Liszt!  As  a  child,  I  stumbled  around  with  coding  but  never  had  the  chance  to  learn  it  from  anyone  else  –  I  see  my  role  now  as  passing  on  the  baton  to  the  next  generation  of  children  who  are  getting  fantastic  opportunities  to  create,  collaborate  and  code.  I’m  sure  they  will  soon  overtake  me  and  become  the  coding  equivalent  of  the  concert  pianists  of  their  generation!”  

This corner is allocated to an inspirational person who has contributed to the educational technology community to tell us about themselves. Please meet Katherine Childs, Educational Technologist who works for Derbyshire Primary Schools in the UK.

EDITORIAL TEAM

Editor-in-chief: Yasemin Allsop@yallsop

Christopher Carter@christocarter

Alessandro Bogliolo@neutralaccess

Elliott Plumb@followthatPlumb

Øystein Ibsen@oimsen

Su Adams@SuAdamsEdIT

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