Ideas from the Computing classroom: January 2016

Scratch Primary Progression

14:53 JEcomputing 0 Comments Category : Coding , Computational Thinking , Computing curriculum , Scratch , Scratch Jnr

Note: This post is best read through a desktop computer rather than a mobile device. This will enable you to view the Scratch projects.

Scratch is probably the most effective and commonly used programming software used in Primary schools. If you haven’t come across Scratch, it is basically a visual programming language, used to easily create games, animations and simulations. The range of things that you can do with Scratch is immense and provides an ideal stepping stone to the more advanced world of computer programming.

You can download various versions of the software or access Scratch 2.0 online, through a web browser such as Google Chrome or Firefox. I have pupils creating their projects through the online version and they then save them to our generic account. However, I would ideally recommend pupils creating their own, individual accounts. This could either be done with their parents at home or with you in class. If your pupils don't have their own email address, you could use one class Gmail address to create your pupils' accounts. This video shows you how. As always, ensure that you have gained necessary parental consent before you create any online accounts for pupils though. Also, bear in mind that if you are using a shared Scratch account, pupils can view each other’s work and could accidentally delete each others projects!

***UPDATE: Since originally writing this post, Scratch have now added Scratch Teacher Accounts. This makes it easier to create accounts for groups of students and to manage your students’ projects and comments. More information about Scratch Teacher accounts here.

Scratch in EYFS/KS1

If you have access to iPads, younger pupils should be given the opportunity to program using the iPad app version, Scratch Jnr. It is less intensive than the desktop version and it's simpler user interface, means that even pupils in EYFS should be able to create something with relative ease.

In unit 2.2 of my Computing scheme of work, pupils use Scratch Jnr to program an informative animation based on a topic or theme. The detailed tutorial video which accompany's the unit, shows you how to do it...

This could link to any current topic that pupil's are studying. For example,

Reception class created some Space animations. Here is what one groups finished project looked like...

Even pupils in Nursery class were able to program a simple animation to show what they had learnt during their 'healthy eating' topic...

Scratch in upper KS1/Lower KS2

Sprite Conversations

Once pupils are ready to move on to the PC version of Scratch, a nice, simple activity for them to start off with, is to program 2 'sprites' (characters) to have a conversation. I originally came across this idea on Phil Bagge's excellent website here. I find that using the 'two person conversation algorithm planner' by Gary Setchell really helps. Also providing a clear cross curricular focus helps keep pupils engaged. In the example below, Year 3 were studying Ancient Egypt and had been learning about Lord Carnavon and Howard Carter (Lord Carnavon being the person who financed Carter's search for King Tutankhamun's body). The pupils loved programming the conversation that they imagined would have taken place when Howard Carter asked Lord Carnavon to continue financing the search...



As part of their Ancient Greece topic, pupils in Year 3 also programmed a conversation involving the two Ancient Greek characters, Icarus and Daedalus...



In Year 4, pupils really enjoyed applying what they had learnt in their French lessons. After importing a relevant stage and two sprites, they then programmed their conversation - this time in French! To help them they also used the Google translate tool when they weren't sure of any exact translations!

Animations

Pupils should them move on to incorporating some of the other blocks (e.g. 'motion' blocks) and perhaps experiment with using the 'broadcast block' as well (this will enable them to link together different scenes). This could be done through programming a simple animation such as this one...

You can see here that pupils are also learning about the importance of using repetition (a key programming concept that pupils need to learn the importance of).

Scratch in Upper KS2

I have previously blogged here about using Scratch to program interactive quizzes. Pupils love this activity. The activity is great for older pupils as it introduces them to the more complex programming concepts of selection and variables. However, I have even had Year 2 pupils make them with equal success too! Here is an example one made by a Year 5 pupil. Have a go!

'De-bugging'

The beauty of saving projects to an online Scratch account is that you can 'remix' other people's projects. If you have an account, why not log in and then press the 'remix' button on this project here. Can you identify the mistakes within the script and then fix it so that it runs correctly? Challenge your pupils to create their own, improved version of it!

If you would like to learn more about Computer Programming in the new curriculum, I am available to run inset training to support your staff. More information can be found here

My experiences of developing school 'Digital Leader' systems.

12:18 JEcomputing 8 Comments Category : Digital Leaders

What are Digital Leaders?

The use of Digital Leader systems within schools is something that has become really popular recently and for good reason. If you're not aware of what Digital Leader's are, they are basically pupil's that have a responsibility within school for developing and improving the way that technology is used.

Why Digital Leaders?

My own experiences of developing school Digital Leader systems started when I developed a team of Digital Leaders a few years ago when I was ICT subject Leader at a Primary School in Oldham. At the time I ran an after school code club with pupils from Key Stage 2 and right from the very first session, I was greatly impressed with their skills and understanding. Wanting to tap into this, and with staff confidence towards the impending new Computing curriculum low, I decided to enlist the help of a select few that had been attending the club. Alongside the STEMNET ambassador that I had recruited and with the permission of their class teachers, I timetabled them to visit classes for one lesson each week. Each 'Digital Leader' was tasked with delivering an appropriate code club project that they had already completed, adapting if need be, so that it was suitable for their particular year group that they would be in.

Having the pupils taking on the role of the 'experts' enabled the class teachers to develop their own knowledge, skills and understanding and ultimately helped to develop their confidence in terms of delivering key Computer Science elements of the new curriculum. The Digital Leaders themselves developed a range of valuable skills and I think the pupils that they were 'teaching' also appreciated having their peers on hand to show them these new skills and supporting them with their work.

Application Process

Fast forward a few years and I'm still utilising the immense knowledge and skills of carefully selected pupils as 'Digital Leaders'. At Our Lady's we have a fantastic team, who were 'recruited' just over a year ago, when I first started working there. Since then, those that were year 6's have now left and have been replaced by peers who have proved themselves just as capable in helping us in our quest to improve the use of technology throughout school.

These new Digital Leaders all had to apply for the role by submitting an application. Some schools, who use Digital Leaders have an application form that they use, such as the one that @BrianEHarkins has made available in this really useful blog post here. Others simply ask pupils to submit a written letter of application. In our case, we asked interested pupils to submit a IT - based piece of work, demonstrating clearly why they would make an ideal Digital Leader. Some pupils submitted videos of themselves, some an eBook, some a PowerPoint and others a simple email to me, in which they stated their case! The one's who were chosen, were carefully selected by myself and the existing Digital Leader team (after much careful deliberation)!

What we do

As a team we meet formally every Wednesday at our 'Digital Leader club'. During this time we plan and carry out tasks that we have identified as priorities. So far the Digital Leaders have;

Helped me with designing and setting up the new school blog
Wrote blog posts each week on behalf of their partner class.
Planned, prepared and delivered a staff meeting for teachers and SLT, which has enabled staff to take over the responsibility for publishing their own blog posts.
Planned, prepared and delivered a whole school assembly on e-safety and using social media.
Held a drop in session for parents, in which they showed them the features of our new school website, Primary Blogger site and also how our new Twitter account works.
Planned a 6 week series of lessons using a different iPad app each, which they will then deliver this half term with their partner class (the idea behind this is that as we are starting to get some more iPads in school, we felt that this would help teachers with having the confidence to incorporate the use of these within their future teaching).

Action Planning

The Digital Leader's are immensely proud of the role that they have in school and are rightly pleased with the work that they have done so far. They all have badges that they wear as part of their school uniform. This ensures that other pupils in school are aware of who they are and they know that they can approach any of them if they have any ideas for them, or if they need assistance with any technology matters.

We spent the final Digital Leader club before Christmas writing an action plan for this year. In it we have agreed on the following plans of action;

To create a separate Digital Leader's blog. This will include more information about the Digital Leader's and what they do.
To embed some Google Forms within the blog. This will enable other pupils and staff to be able to suggest ideas for what they would like them to do and also give them the facility to log requests for jobs or assistance.
To embed a Google Form which gives prospective Digital Leaders the option to apply online if they are interested in becoming a school Digital Leader in the future.
To set up regular 'kids/teachmeet' type drop in sessions (one per half term). This will give interested pupils and staff the opportunity to share ideas around using technology. We have agreed that it will be organised and 'chaired' by a different Digital Leader each half term.
To register our school as part of the Digital Leader Network and explore ways of working with other Digital Leaders within different schools.
To organise and deliver a lunchtime or after school 'drop in' session for TA's and other support staff who are interested in contributing to the new school blog.
To assist me with drafting new curriculum/e-safety documents.
To liaise with the IT technician and complete a list of manageable follow up 'tech' based jobs to be completed each week.
To plan and organise a 'drop in' session for pupils who are new to the school blog or are struggling with aspects of it.
To create an anonymous 'e-safety box', where pupils can leave concerns, questions and queries for the Digital Leader's to respond to and give anonymous feedback on.

What do you think?

Do you run an established Digital Leader system within your school?

What kinds of things do your DL's do?

What do you think about the things that we do and our plans for the future?

I also work independently to support schools in setting up Digital Leader projects such as this. Please contact me through my website for further information.

* Main image taken from www.digitalleadernetwork.co.uk

Using the iPad app TinyTap to make educational games

02:58 JEcomputing 4 Comments Category : Computational Thinking , Computing curriculum , cross-curricular , game making , Literacy , Maths , Phonics , TinyTap

As a treat, I sometimes let my eldest son go on the iPad. Like most three year olds he loves playing on games featuring his favourite TV characters and whilst I must admit that some of these games are very good, I decided that, in readiness for starting nursery school in September, I would make some games that had more of a specific, educational purpose, for him to play on instead! TinyTap, is an app that I know very well, having used it within my teaching and through demonstrating it to colleagues at training days and table hosting at events such as Speed learning. However, having not taught in early years for any sustained period of time recently, I first decided to refresh my memory of the early learning goals, in order to be clear about what is expected of him by the end of EYFS. I then decided to make some games that would help him to practice skills within these key areas. Here is a video showing you how I made a game, using dinosaurs, to help him with the early learning goal:

“The child understands and uses the appropriate language to compare quantities such as biggest, smaller, heavier, lightest and tallest.”

(sorry about the shaky video quality, I was not able to access my usual Screen casting software, so it was recorded on my phone)!

I believe that technology should never be used a substitute for good teaching and that it should only be used if it actually enhances what is being taught. For example, this game, that I made on recognising different amounts of money would never be used as a substitute for the actual experience of handling money in the kind of role play type activities that go in EYFS. However, it did give me a really good understanding of where he is at in terms of:

“Beginning to use everyday language related to money.”

In essence, it served as a valuable assessment tool. We have done a lot of work with him around numbers, especially counting, but haven’t really taught him anything directly about money. Observing him playing the game, enabled me to see which areas he’s not yet secure with (recognising 50p, 20p coins and familiarity with some of the specific language of money, seemed to be the obvious ones) and areas where he’s stronger (numbers up to 10 and recognising notes). Have a look at this video of him playing some of the game for the first time...

Adding video

The makers of TinyTap have recently added the option to include videos from Youtube. This could be particularly useful in designing games for older children; perhaps using one of the thousands of educational youtube videos to introduce or recap a specific topic. In this game, though, I first made my own video, using the Screen casting app Explain Everything. This was then added to the start of the game to act as an introduction to the early learning goal:

"The child finds how many objects there are in two groups by combining and counting them."

I then posted it to my Youtube page before then placing it on the initial page of the game.

Check out this game too, which focuses on the early learning goal of:

" ...say which number is 1 more or 1 less than a given number."

Literacy

TinyTap is particularly ideal for creating your own phonics or sentence/word based games such as this one, focussing on the early learning goal of:

"...recognising, exploring and working with rhyming patterns"

There are some great phonics apps such as PocketPhonics for example, but most are American made, and the different phoneme pronunciations can cause confusion. A far better idea, in my opinion (and now you have seen how easy they are to make), is to create your own phonics games, such as this one, and tailor them specifically to the needs and interests of the children you are designing them for.

You can see all the games I made, as well as a range of other games that myself and colleagues I have worked with, have made for various ages and areas of the curriculum on my Tiny tap page

Uses of TinyTap in the classroom

image: http://worldartsme.com/student-using-ipad-clipart.html

If you (or indeed your class) are planning on making your own TinyTap games, it’s useful to know that you can share them directly to your schools twitter feed. If you have made a game for your class (or a group or individual child), you could direct them to your school's twitter feed and perhaps get them to play the game as a plenary or mini plenary activity. I have also found that getting older children to make their own games can be extremely useful too. You could give the children an objective and ask them to make a game that requires the player to demonstrate that skill whilst playing it. When I taught in year 4, the children in my class did a similar thing to what I’ve done here, and made games for the children in nursey to play on. Having them shared to your schools twitter feed also encourages parents and friends to go on and is great publicity for the games that have been made!

Tiny Tap forms the basis of Unit 4.3 of my Computing scheme of work, which can be found here

If you would like more help or information in using TinyTap to create personalised, educational games for children please get in touch.

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Scratch Primary Progression

Scratch in EYFS/KS1