More computing resources

Did I mention the crowd-sourced computing document?! It's still there with some tech and non-tech ideas and resources to help you deliver the new computing curriculum.

Today I have been playing, albeit briefly, with a couple of new computing resources for the ipad. Lightbot is similar to Beebot and Alex as it gets you thinking logically whilst gaining an understanding of basic (and more complex) control. I haven't got very far with it, but it will help children learn to write algorithms with procedures and conditionals. You can also play on your PC by clicking here.

I also had a very quick play with Kinescript. I admit that I didn't get very far as time was limited and this was not as easy to drop in and play as Lightbot, so this is just a pointer so that you can have a play yourself. It is clearly inspired by Scratch with the use of sprites and built-in backgrounds and sounds. You can read more about it here and I will try to review it properly when I have had more time to play.

I realised last night when I looked back at my computing posts that I have shared lots of resources, but have said less about the 'why' of it. In a post from Feb last year I showed why computing/computational thinking is important with the 'What most schools don't teach' film. I am lazy, I do let the experts explain things - they are the experts. My posts are not intended to show deep thinking, but to signpost resources and views of those I consider to have expertise.

One expert - Miles Berry - has very kindly pointed me in the direction of his 1010 reasons for teaching computing and @worrydream's Reopening the debate: Should children program computers. They are both well worth a look!

I have also just come across Rising Stars 'Switched on computing with Microsoft', which you can download for free. It aims to guide teachers with creative ideas that draw on a range of computing/ICT skills. There are 6 units for you to try out in the classroom, with alternatives and assessment guidance to support teaching. I may try the 'We are cooking' unit with my year 2s, though I have very much enjoyed the digital literacy projects I have done before, so may just think about developing those further.

If you have any other resources to share, please let me know!

Espresso computing resources

I have written posts before about computing and as always am trying to reduce the anxiety that it brings to some teachers by sharing resources that are simple to use.  The crowd sourced computing document is a useful resource, though I am aware that it may feel a little overwhelming to some teachers who do not have expertise in ICT.

Espresso have cleverly made their coding resources free until October 2014 - enough time to let you have a good play with them! What I found useful was that they work on an ipad too, which will really complement our ipad computing resources.

Here is what I have learned so far. The initial page is clearly set out in year groups, starting at year 1 (children in EYFS can easily access these resources, but as the computing curriculum starts in ks1, that is where it starts.)  There are handy tutorials for some of the activities and clear instructions on each screen. Lesson plans are provided for those who have paid the subscription though some samples are provided. Likewise there are quick start guides.



Although I haven't played with them all, it seems like there is clear progression through the activities. As with many activities, children may progress past their year group quickly - I would certainly expect children who have been computing regularly using existing resources to find this quite simple. That said, I had to think about the year 6 activities and as someone who jumps right in without reading instructions, I found I didn't know what to do, so had to reverse up a bit. This is what you see if you click on unit 6d

and if you press start, you go straight to the activity. In order to access the tutorial, you press the link where it says Step 1: Walk the dog. Although I believe it is essential that you have listened to the tutorials and had a play yourself, you have the safety net of somebody else talking the children through the activity. You could do that as a whole class thing, or why not give the children headphones and their independence?

This is what Espresso say about their resource:

Espresso Coding has everything you need to deliver the coding part of the curriculum for years 1 to 6 including:

• a comprehensive Scheme of Work linked to Curriculum 2014
• 70+ step-by step lessons and tablet-friendly activities for pupils to create apps
• full lesson plans for each activity by December 2013
• a bespoke website area where apps can be published and shared
• an introduction to coding using elements of JavaScript (an industry standard)
• short, helpful video guides
• additional CPD training is available

Find out more on their pages here or their helpful faqs.

Update: I have just found a useful blog post here by Aled Williams about Espresso computing.

A little holiday food for thought

Today I have been catching up on some tweets/blog posts that I  favourited on twitter. I thought that some of them were worth sharing. 


The first post I re-read this morning was Oliver Quinlan's Knowing Creativity. I took time to reply directly on the post, but had ipad failure once again and it deleted my comment. Next time I will try to remember to copy before I press send... In a very small nutshell (I recommend reading it for yourself), Oliver's post explores the idea of creativity being less of a result of inspiration and more as hard graft. I agree with this as it reflects my practice and who I am as a teacher/learner. My colleagues have described me as a creative teacher, but the approaches and ideas I use in the classroom have all been adapted or inspired from other people's ideas and practices. In short, I am a magpie - unashamedly so. It's not that all my ideas are pinched directly from other people, it's just that I could probably identify the initial inspiration for most of them (even if they do not seem at all related-my thought processes are not a uniform thing!) The more 'unique' ideas that I have had have not always worked so well, but I like to try them out, even if I fail. Taking risks is a big part of my learning. I would like to point out here though that if the idea ends up being a big one, I am always careful to attribute the source of my inspiration. 

Another related piece of reading and  TEDTalk is by Sir Ken Robinson 'Do school's kill creativity?' which I believe all edcuators should watch (2006 but very relevant).

Scratch

The third favourite was from @digitalmaverick about the Scratch Literacy Project between schools in London and Prague. This project involves year 8 children, but could be a great thing to adapt for younger children. 

Nick Chater also shared this youtube tutorial - how to create a duck hunt style game using Scratch. A great share for our digital leaders.

Ipads

This next favourite is a 'Bloom's taxonomy' in apps shared by @ethinking, created by @aangeli. Lots of great apps, even if you don't necessarily agree with their position in the table.

This was also shared by @ethinking and is a chart of key apps and a 'master plan for a 1:1 ipad programme.

And a final favourite that I felt important to share is this:

Pie Corbett ‏@PieCorbett25 Mar

In an interview, children reckon that writing the objective at the top of their work had never helped - personal targets and good marking do

Need I say any more?

Footnote

Some creative ideas that haven't reached fruition. Yet...

1. A set of story books based around the 'Fairytale Advice Bureau' ... seriously! I've written one. It's got chapters and everything!
2. A set of eco-friendly picture story books. Quentin Clancy lives in a beach hut ...
3. Betty Buttercup's recipe book. (A spin-off from the 'Fairytale Advice Bureau)
4. A blog by 'Billy Buttercup' that shares his personal, social and emotional problems, requiring children to help him through with their comments. (Another spin-off) 

There are more ... 

A day in the life of a teacher/ ICT consultant

Today has been a typical outreach day - model lessons and a staff meeting - but I thought it was worth blogging about because the lessons were with my class and the staff meeting was a mini cluster teachmeet.

The first 'lesson' of the day was a model control technology session for a visiting student and NQT. I have asked the question 'What do we control?' at the start of a few similar sessions, but was not expecting the response I got from my children. They seemed to have a clearer idea than much older children as 90% of my class had their hands up straight away. That was a 'wow' moment for me.

During this session I had put out a range of software and hardware for the children to use. I have written about it here so won't repeat myself. I would like to say here though that my recent de-cluttering of one (just one) of my display boards is great for showing off WOW work. I was able to showcase one child's accurate Gruffalo journey (using textease turtle) for immediate impact.

This is maths work - Gruffalo photo coming soon

After play we started to create our puppet pal movies. The children had written stories about Mr BB being scared by a monster in the woods. To be honest, the children had taken me in a totally different direction with this mini mantle/enquiry, but the outcomes were the same. They had created monsters, described them in detail and written detailed stories using a story path plan. They seemed very motivated by the subject matter - both by the monsters and Mr BB! You can see one of the films below and catch the others on our class blog. (Photos of Mr BB were available, but Jasmine preferred to improvise!)

My afternoon was spent writing a letter to the local press about our digital leaders, reading through a couple of Rising Stars great ICT units and preparing for our cluster schools teachmeet.

I wanted to do a teachmeet on digital literacy because raising standards in writing is an aim in the cluster and I was sure that lots of us would have examples of good practice and resources to share. The point of doing a small cluster one was to raise awareness of the power of teachmeets for cpd. Teachers shared the following gems:

Digital literacy project and prezi as a presentation tool
Inanimate Alice

Games for writing

Teacher in role

Night zookeeper

Drama for writing - dinosaurs

Puppet pals animations

Slow writing

Using film for story writing

Stories to teach e-safety -  EYFS / KS1

Morfo

Crazytalk

SEN word books

Three great online tools - Teach your monster to read, literacy shed, livewriting

Show me / explain everything apps

Hot-seating and use of easi-speak resources

The great thing was that everyone came away having learned something new - as well as having the chance to share and celebrate their practice. One of the comments afterwards, from a teacher who was unsure about the teachmeet encapsulated the feelings of many. She said how it was very relaxed, not at all as she had imagined and that she could find ways of using the ideas from other key stages that were talked about. Perfect! 

Programming morning with year 2/1s

This morning we had a session in class dedicated to the control and modelling strand of ICT (I call it programming with the children, but will endeavour to use the word 'algorithms' in future in light of the draft computing curriculum.) Children had the choice of what they did and could move freely between the activities. Phoebe blogged about the morning on our classblog, showing she had a clear idea of our learning intentions, even though they weren't made specific (no WALTs or WILFs in our class). My mini digital leaders also took time to talk to a student and an NQT during assembly about how they used the ipads for learning. The adults were very impressed with the children's skills, knowledge and understanding and I felt very proud of them!

For this session I included controllable toys, iPad and computer games and activities. These included:

Cargobot

Charlie Chimp - on ipad and PC

ALEX 

Xanthe (year1) loved Daisy Dino

Textease turtle (with a Gruffalo)

Getting the Gruffalo turtle to his destination!

Beebot app

Cato's hike

Flobot by Sherston

Probots - a step up from beebots (we had beebots out too)

Flobot

Charlie Chimp

ALEX proved a very popular app as it does a similar job to the beebot app, but with a robot. This appeals to the children in class who find the beebot character a bit twee. Daisy dino was another hit, though I encouraged them to try Cato's hike and cargobot too. I will save Move the Turtle, Pettson's inventions and creatorverse for another day.

You can find some more of our favourite programming apps on my ipad site.

On the PCs we had Sherston Flobot and Charlie Chimp's modelling party, which the children really enjoy playing. I had also created a textease turtle resource that required children to move the Gruffalo towards the cave, following a specific route.

What did the children think? They loved the session! This was partly because although they knew they were learning, it didn't 'feel like learning'. I will repeat this session so that they can try more things, as some of them were having such fun with certain activities that they didn't want to move around. I also want to gain more of their views about the tools that they were using. The next session will be called 'try something new and CARRY ON LEARNING!'