13.8.2019- Session Four
Focus: Computational Thinking
Today was my forth session in the DFI (Digital Fluency Intensive) course. These are some notes and reflection from today.
Connected learners share. Human's have always shared things (cave paintings, scrolls, art, books etc) things have just changed. It is important when we talk about 'share' that we realise all the things we share. Our failures, successes, what we achieve, our food etc. It is something that makes us human, however we all like to share in different ways.
2005 a whole heap of social media came to be in existence, e.g Twitter, Bebo, Facebook, You Tube. The tag lines for these sites were all similar about sharing your life with your friends/the world. The speed that you shared your life changed. It became very quick and was amplified to more people.
In the past our young people had certificates that would be shared on the fridge and it can now be shared with the whole family online. Children started to want to share online too.
Sharing is not either, or. The previous ways to share things go hand in hand with how we are sharing now with Manaiakalani. There is more. We have gone from sharing within our school and we can now share with the wider local community and globally.
Sharing with purpose- in writing we think about the audience. There is the compulsory audience (class, teacher, school etc) who can be forced to listen. The children often know it is not authentic or wanted. We are trying to create an authentic audience for our children.
Why Manaiakalani chose Blogger- a lot of sites were looked into.
It's not about how we are doing it with the children it is teaching them how to do it correctly. The school board is the owners of these Blogs as they are underage. They are authors because they're legally underage in NZ for social media. Comments can all be monitored.
On our blogs we should have a side bar with all blogs we access. The setting should be set that the most recent post goes to the top. It makes it easy to check in with comments.
Cybersmart Curriculum- Delivered on a regular basis across the school and cluster with the same language. This has become a tool to help have a positive, thoughtful presence online.
Share to finish learning- The purpose of finishing to be seen not to sit in a book to never be seen again. Sharing to begin new learning is also a direction these children can go into. Feedback to feed forward (John Hattie). Feedback from all these external sources can feed forward into other learning and covering next steps.
We teach out children that if they are going to comment online these comments need to be... "Positive, Thoughtful (connect with it), Helpful (feed forward)".
The reading and writing from leaving comments will help raise achievement in itself.
You cant just lie back and think you can make a blog post and people will come and comment. You have to have a few tips and tricks. We are doing it as part of our sharing time- go to another DFI members blogs and leave a comment. The longer you linger in a blog it changed the Google algorithm with google to come up more higher in searches.
Some positive things can be developed from AI. E.G "Skin Vision" to diagnose moles being cancerous. Cost is still quite expensive for some of these apps.
Employer values vs our values
Our employers values are often ones that can be replaced by machines. Our values are often more feelings based or around our families/friends.
Curriculum Deep Dive-
“Computational thinking is about understanding the computer science principles that underlie all digital technologies, and learning how to develop instructions, such as programming, to control these technologies.
Designing and developing digital outcomes is about understanding that digital systems and applications are created for humans by humans, and developing knowledge and skills in using different digital technologies to create digital content across a range of digital media. This part of the curriculum also includes learning about the electronic components and techniques used to design digital devices."
Binary
CS Unplugged
Coding- Presentation
Hour of Code- A site to have a go at coding games. These take one hour.
Toxiccode (ComputeIT)- more advance coding
Scratch
10 block challenge and Maze
Junior Coding- Scratch Junior and Hopscotch
Kia Takatu- Digital Readiness
This is the Curriculum that will need to be taught next year (2020).
Links- OMGTeach!
Circuits and Robotics- Ideas
3D pens- $30 Ali Express, Makey Makey is $25 on Ali Express.
Cardboard robot "Stumblebot"- Adafruit will have a tutorial but will also be on the OMGtech! website. $8 each.
Reflections-
Today I felt like a big kid. It was fun having a play with the different coding sites available to be used. I enjoyed playing around and figuring out how the Scratch site and Hour Of Coding sites. We made a maze game that we coded to get a character through. We thought we could make a game up for our storytelling story this term, "The Blind Man and the Hunter", and the aim of the game could be to get the blind man through the maze to the rainbow bird from the story.
I do think this is above the capabilities of the children in my class however after speaking to Kawana from OMGtech! I was recommended 'Scratch Junior' and 'Hopscotch'. I will have to have a play with these sites to then be able to introduce these to my class, which I look forward to.
At school we also have 'Osmo'. We have the coding kit which is very junior level based. This is something my class has used in the past but I need to get out again. I was also suggested putting out large grid paper and getting the children to write instructions for each other. e.g "Move forward two squares, go right 3, forward 1, left 5". This would be a great intro to beginning to code before moving onto coding games to give a basic understanding.
Initially when Kawana started to talk about 'Binary' I could feel myself getting confused however I am pleased to say I got there. Woohoo!
Kawana showed us some great tools for circuits and robotics. WOW! This would be so engaging for some of our older kids and I would be keen to see how they would go with this. The Conductive paint may be great to play around with the younger students if it fit in with our topics.
It was interesting to hear from Dorothy this morning about how 'sharing' has changed. I had forgotten how far we, as humans, have come when sharing our thoughts, feelings and experiences. These tools we use these days seem to have become second nature with the addition of social media. It was good to be reminded of this and how as humans it is natural to want to share about ourselves. I remember the excitement of my first social media site on Bebo and I could see that this would be a similar experience for teenagers in more recent years, if not more exciting, due to social media being that much more common.
My aim for this week is to get out the OSMO coding kit to show my class to get them to experience coding.
Share-Connecting with Manaiakalani- Mark and Dorothy
Connected learners share. Human's have always shared things (cave paintings, scrolls, art, books etc) things have just changed. It is important when we talk about 'share' that we realise all the things we share. Our failures, successes, what we achieve, our food etc. It is something that makes us human, however we all like to share in different ways.
2005 a whole heap of social media came to be in existence, e.g Twitter, Bebo, Facebook, You Tube. The tag lines for these sites were all similar about sharing your life with your friends/the world. The speed that you shared your life changed. It became very quick and was amplified to more people.
In the past our young people had certificates that would be shared on the fridge and it can now be shared with the whole family online. Children started to want to share online too.
Sharing is not either, or. The previous ways to share things go hand in hand with how we are sharing now with Manaiakalani. There is more. We have gone from sharing within our school and we can now share with the wider local community and globally.
Sharing with purpose- in writing we think about the audience. There is the compulsory audience (class, teacher, school etc) who can be forced to listen. The children often know it is not authentic or wanted. We are trying to create an authentic audience for our children.
Why Manaiakalani chose Blogger- a lot of sites were looked into.
On our blogs we should have a side bar with all blogs we access. The setting should be set that the most recent post goes to the top. It makes it easy to check in with comments.
Cybersmart Curriculum- Delivered on a regular basis across the school and cluster with the same language. This has become a tool to help have a positive, thoughtful presence online.
Share to finish learning- The purpose of finishing to be seen not to sit in a book to never be seen again. Sharing to begin new learning is also a direction these children can go into. Feedback to feed forward (John Hattie). Feedback from all these external sources can feed forward into other learning and covering next steps.
We teach out children that if they are going to comment online these comments need to be... "Positive, Thoughtful (connect with it), Helpful (feed forward)".
The reading and writing from leaving comments will help raise achievement in itself.
You cant just lie back and think you can make a blog post and people will come and comment. You have to have a few tips and tricks. We are doing it as part of our sharing time- go to another DFI members blogs and leave a comment. The longer you linger in a blog it changed the Google algorithm with google to come up more higher in searches.
OMGTech! Intro- Speaker Kawana Wallace
Under Pam Fergusson Charitable TrustSome positive things can be developed from AI. E.G "Skin Vision" to diagnose moles being cancerous. Cost is still quite expensive for some of these apps.
Employer values vs our values
Our employers values are often ones that can be replaced by machines. Our values are often more feelings based or around our families/friends.
Curriculum Deep Dive-
“Computational thinking is about understanding the computer science principles that underlie all digital technologies, and learning how to develop instructions, such as programming, to control these technologies.
Designing and developing digital outcomes is about understanding that digital systems and applications are created for humans by humans, and developing knowledge and skills in using different digital technologies to create digital content across a range of digital media. This part of the curriculum also includes learning about the electronic components and techniques used to design digital devices."
- INQUIRY includes data modelling, spreadsheets, access to online databases, searching, access to virtual labs, online observatories, virtual field trips
- COMMUNICATION includes word processing, e-mail, virtual conferences, graphics software, blogging, vlogging, presentations, websites and tutorials
- CONSTRUCTION includes robotics, computer-aided design, control systems, programming, electronics, digital manufacturing, game design and sensors.
Binary
CS Unplugged
Coding- Presentation
Hour of Code- A site to have a go at coding games. These take one hour.
Toxiccode (ComputeIT)- more advance coding
Scratch
10 block challenge and Maze
Junior Coding- Scratch Junior and Hopscotch
Kia Takatu- Digital Readiness
This is the Curriculum that will need to be taught next year (2020).
Links- OMGTeach!
Circuits and Robotics- Ideas
3D pens- $30 Ali Express, Makey Makey is $25 on Ali Express.
Cardboard robot "Stumblebot"- Adafruit will have a tutorial but will also be on the OMGtech! website. $8 each.
Reflections-
Today I felt like a big kid. It was fun having a play with the different coding sites available to be used. I enjoyed playing around and figuring out how the Scratch site and Hour Of Coding sites. We made a maze game that we coded to get a character through. We thought we could make a game up for our storytelling story this term, "The Blind Man and the Hunter", and the aim of the game could be to get the blind man through the maze to the rainbow bird from the story.
I do think this is above the capabilities of the children in my class however after speaking to Kawana from OMGtech! I was recommended 'Scratch Junior' and 'Hopscotch'. I will have to have a play with these sites to then be able to introduce these to my class, which I look forward to.
At school we also have 'Osmo'. We have the coding kit which is very junior level based. This is something my class has used in the past but I need to get out again. I was also suggested putting out large grid paper and getting the children to write instructions for each other. e.g "Move forward two squares, go right 3, forward 1, left 5". This would be a great intro to beginning to code before moving onto coding games to give a basic understanding.
Initially when Kawana started to talk about 'Binary' I could feel myself getting confused however I am pleased to say I got there. Woohoo!
Kawana showed us some great tools for circuits and robotics. WOW! This would be so engaging for some of our older kids and I would be keen to see how they would go with this. The Conductive paint may be great to play around with the younger students if it fit in with our topics.
It was interesting to hear from Dorothy this morning about how 'sharing' has changed. I had forgotten how far we, as humans, have come when sharing our thoughts, feelings and experiences. These tools we use these days seem to have become second nature with the addition of social media. It was good to be reminded of this and how as humans it is natural to want to share about ourselves. I remember the excitement of my first social media site on Bebo and I could see that this would be a similar experience for teenagers in more recent years, if not more exciting, due to social media being that much more common.
My aim for this week is to get out the OSMO coding kit to show my class to get them to experience coding.
Kia ora Jess
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your insigtful comments, particular about the word SHARE. I also take on board your explicit view about teaching our students ‘correctly’ and with responsibility. I am pleased you referenced ‘John Hattie.’ His work on visible teaching and synthesis of meta-analyses relating to achievement is very relevant in the context of DFI. I had worked with John Hattie in the good old days before anyone knew him. He is a good man. I look forward to reading more of your blogs in the future. There is a definite sense of learning purpose in your writing, well done, and all the best.
Kia ora Jess,
ReplyDeleteI love hearing the excitement in your writing about your new learning, I think the robotics would be engaging for any year level.
It is interesting what social media platforms have survived over time and what changes have occurred. It seems that Facebook potentially maybe going the same way as Bebo with a lot of teens commenting it is an old person app.
I look forward to hearing how your journey with coding goes with your class.
Nga mihi,
Mark