Primary Computing

There are a lot of concepts in Computer Science and it is important to teach them in a sensible sequence. This post is for primary children, for Secondary the planning is well defined in the Compute IT series. (I am one of the authors) So here are some of the tools that I use and when I use them.

UK Year group	Age	What I use
1	5-6	Beebots & iPad Apps
2	6-7	Beebots & iPad Apps
3	7-8	Lego WeDo / Scratch & Scratch Jnr
4	8-9	Lego WeDo / Scratch & Scratch Jnr
5	9-10	Scratch, html (via webmaker.org/tools & Blue Griffon)
6	10-11	Scratch, html (via webmaker.org/tools & Blue Griffon)

This is really just an idea of the tools I use and I also ensure children have a good grounding in core ICT skills. In the 21st century, ideally we should cover all angles. We don't want Computing students at University who can't write an essay in Word or explain a project with appropriate slides! Below is a much more thorough presentation taking you through most of the tools available that I gave at the 21st century learning conference.

If you are looking for a ready made curriculum, check out my Ready Made Curriculum post.

Tuesday, 9 September 2014

An Internet Minute

In every minute of every day, loads of data are being generated. Just how much, you ask?

On average in a minute...

YouTube users upload 48 hours of new video
Instagram users share 3,600 new photos
Brands and organizations on Facebook receive 34,722 "likes"
Over 100,000 tweets are sent

Saturday, 6 September 2014

Taking Your first steps in Programming

Taking your first steps in programming can be a little scary! However don't worry, there are lots of great tutorials to get you started. You can buy a book, watch a video or follow some simple tutorials. I am going to start by suggesting Scratch. It's a friendly, visual language and a great place to start to learn to code. I can get most students to make their first game in less than 30 minutes, so I promise it doesn't take long to get started!

When my son was 9, he made this Screencast to help other children get started and I think it's probably the best way to see how simple coding can be!

Once you have seen that, probably the best place to start is the help Section of the Scratch Website. http://scratch.mit.edu/help/ It includes lots of help and some lovely tutorials. After that, on this blog, have a go at the Making Your First Game tutorials. Once beyond that, Shaun The Sheep is happy to help.

If you have an iPad and a computer together, then David Phillips has made a nice app to help. There are also some excellent books to buy on Amazon. Super Scratch Programming Adventure and Learn To Program With Scratch

Thursday, 28 August 2014

How to run your class like a Video game!

John Hattie says, "Video games know exactly what your prior achievement is, they then set success criteria not too much and not too little above it, but unlike many classrooms they don't change the success criteria. They don't say, ahh you're not doing very well or we'll make it easier. They keep it and then they make you practise until you get and once you get it, they raise the bar and that's a good teacher, a teacher who knows where you are, how to set the bar and not change it." A very interesting interview on Radio 4 with John Hattie. Well worth your time and available internationally. Also check out my article on Visible Learning.

Saturday, 9 August 2014

We need a plan for Primary Computing right now!

After the summer, every school in the UK should be teaching Computing and this is a great challenge for many primary teachers who had enough difficulty with the requirements of older curriculum to do sequencing. If you are a teacher with enthusiasm for Computing then you will enjoy finding the apps and playing with Scratch and even Shaun The Sheep to deliver a truly engaging curriculum. However this is a blog entry for head teachers who need a plan and they need a plan now!

These are the options that can be bought right now, both have free samples so you can give them a try and see if they are worth ordering. If money is an issue, I would priorities Upper Key Stage 2, because this is where it gets most complicated and much of lower curriculum can be covered with a few apps, turtles and Maths that is familiar.

iCompute

http://www.icompute-uk.com/Sample.html

Written by Liane O'Kane who is a primary computer science master teacher teach computer science to primary pupils of all ages and train teachers in how to teach computing. The total cost for all of the packs is £600, which is substantial but includes all the planning needed.

Switched on Computing

http://www.switchedoncomputing.co.uk/

This is written by Miles Berry, who has had many years of experience in NAACE and with Computing at School. The full pack costs £965. There are discounts available if you bought Switched on ICT.

Tuesday, 29 July 2014

Teaching Hardware

I have found some rather useful resources to help students and teachers get a better understanding of hardware. It is not completely jargon free, but I love the idea of ripping apart a PC and always used to ask parents to bring in old PCs they wanted to get rid of. It was a real treat for the students to pull it apart. (Bear in mind large amounts of sharp objects inside.)

There is also a great website with animations too. It is called PCItYourself. Somebody did a great job on the Flash animation and its much clearer than most of the Spec guides. If you want an idea of how much you can store on a PC. See the Seagate Guide.

Glossary of Terms

Component	Explanation
CPU (Processor)	The part of the PC that does the thinking. The faster the better, but make sure you have enough memory for best performance.
Memory (RAM)	Think of this like your working memory. The computer needs this for what it needs to hand. If you do not have enough then the PC will slow down a lot. (It can use the harddisk, but this is a lot slower. 100,000 times slower than a normal HDD in fact.)
Hard Disk (HDD)	These come in two varieties, normal HDD and Solid State Drive (SSD). SSD is much more expensive, because it is a lot faster. They are measured in size by GB or TB (1TB equals 1024GB)
Operating System (OS)	Most consumers use either Microsoft Windows or Mac OS (Used only on Apple machines) There are other operating systems and Chrome OS is becoming popular. This operating system is designed to just be a Web-browser. However it is very simple to use and popular with education, because the laptops are very easy to maintain. More sophisticaed users may decide to use Linux, which is very flexible and allows you to change nearly any aspect of the opertaing system.
Graphics Card	If you want to play more graphically demanding games then you will need a seprate graphics card.