Ideas from the Computing classroom

Developing 'Computational Thinking' in EYFS

13:48 JEcomputing 3 Comments Category : Computational Thinking , Computing curriculum , EYFS , Green Screen DoInk , I Can Animate , iPad

Whereas the old ICT curriculum focussed on pupils use of technology, the new Computing curriculum, has a far greater emphasis on developing pupils knowledge and understanding of the key principles of ‘computation’.

‘Computational Thinking’ can be thought of as the art of using computers to solve problems. This doesn't mean getting pupils to think like computers, but rather encouraging them to think in ways that will then enable them to use computers to solve problems.

Computational thinking includes concepts such as;

Decomposition (breaking problems down into smaller sub parts).

Pattern recognition (recognising patterns that help to identify and solve specific problems).

Pattern generalisation and abstraction (putting these patterns in their simplest terms so they can be used whenever needed).

Algorithm design (writing the steps that can be used to solve problems).

Computational Thinking in the new Computing curriculum

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

The Computer Science aspect of the new curriculum states that pupils in Key Stage 1 should…

Understand what algorithms are; how they are implemented as programs on digital devices; and that programs execute by following precise and unambiguous instructions.

Create and debug simple programs.

Use logical reasoning to predict the behaviour of simple programs.

Later on, in Key Stage 2 pupils should…

Design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems; solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts.

Use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work with variables and various forms of input and output.

Use logical reasoning to explain how some simple algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs.

Many schools have a misconception that the new Computing curriculum is all about programming/coding and whilst there is an obvious reference to formal programming within the PoS statements mentioned, pupils also need to have a good grounding of the underlying computational principles that will enable them to be successful programmers/coders later on. Obviously, pupils should experience programming (and ideally have opportunities to code in different programming languages), but they also need to be encouraged to develop their understanding of the key principles behind computation as well.

But how can pupils start to develop their 'computational thinking' skills from an early age? One effective way of doing this is through the use of 'unplugged' activities, whereby key Computer Science elements are taught through the use of games, puzzles and other various non - tech based activities. Phil Bagge has tons of these on his excellent website www.code-it.co.uk

I also believe young pupils need to have plenty of opportunities to actually use and engage with technology as well though. Many schools have invested in iPads and many practitioners such as the excellent Lee Parkinson (ICT MrP) have proven time and again, that if used effectively (i.e. to serve a real educational purpose), then this can really impact significantly on teaching and learning.

I have blogged myself about some of the ways that I have used iPads within my teaching of Computing in EYFS but this has tended to focus more on pupils using the technology rather than to specifically develop 'computational thinking' skills.

Recently, however I stumbled across a way of using the iPad to develop these key computational thinking skills as well. I have always enjoyed using the excellent app Green Screen by Doink and thought I would combine this with the app I Can Animate, in order to enable pupils to create their own realistic stop motion animations. Unwittingly, I soon came to realise that pupils were starting to cover some of these key Computer Science elements as well. The well - developed computational language they were using, for example was particularly evident. As I was teaching the project I realised that;

Pupils were 'writing' their own programmes (i.e. they were working out how to get different characters to certain places within the scene).

Pupils were giving precise and unambiguous instructions (e.g. "move that character 2 steps forward")

Pupils were executing precise and unambiguous instructions (for their animation to be successful they had to move their characters to the correct places within their scene).

Obviously, these outcomes can be achieved using devices such as BeeBots and through the aforementioned unplugged type activities as well. However, by giving pupils learning a real purpose, they were able to keep engaged throughout the duration of the project. Pupils were also covering a range of early learning development outcomes too. They loved the kinaesthetic element and the overall experience of making their own animation - they were truly amazed by the finished result!

Are you a teacher of EYFS? Why not give this unit a go for yourself! Click on the link below and try it out. If you do use this free resource please do let me know what you think.

EYFS Unit 1 : Computational Thinking

This unit will form one of six overall units, that will make up 'EYFS Project Live'. This version of my Computing scheme of work will be available to subscribe to from next year. The Project Live Computing scheme of work (KS1 and KS2) is already proving to be extremely popular with schools.

For more information visit:
http://www.jecomputing.co.uk/project-live.html

* Main image taken from http://www.bu.edu/hic/2012/05/24/computational-thinking/

iPads in EYFS

06:11 JEcomputing 3 Comments Category : A.L.E.X , Aurasma , Explain Everything , EYFS , iPad , My Story , Pic Collage , ThingLink , TinyTap , Videolicious

image: www.eyfstracker.com

Since November I have been working 2 days a week teaching Computing from Nursery to Year 6. Within Nursery I have done some basic stuff tied into the the new curriculum, including some simple programming of the Bee-Bots and some work using the app A.L.E.X. Most recently though, I have been planning activities using the few iPads in school. This has enabled me to teach some basic core Digital Literacy and IT skills at an early age (two out of the three main elements of the new curriculum). More importantly though it has really helped with developing pupils' speaking and listening skills, which is probably more important at this young age. I reckon that iPads are a must within any EYFS setting! Here's some of the ways I have used them recently...

ThingLink

Pupils have been doing the topic 'Food' and have been learning about the importance of healthy eating. After a brief discussion, I asked pupils to draw a picture of their favourite healthy food. I then recorded each pupil talking about why they chose that as their favourite healthy food. In small groups and using the pictures they had drawn, we then designed a poster in Pic Collage. Using the app ThingLink, I then made their posters interactive by linking the pupil's videos to their matching pictures. You can view their work here.

Here is another example of a ThingLink poster (made with year 1 pupils this time and linked to their superhero's topic)...

And again, here is a link to our school blog post about it

Tiny Tap

TinyTap is a fantastic app that allows you to create your own interactive games. This tutorial video I made shows you how...

With the children helping me, we created this game so that they could practice their understanding of some of the initial sounds that they had been working on in class.

http://www.tinytap.it/games/gh14/play/

You can read more about how I have used TinyTap and view other games I have made by reading this previous blog post.

Explain Everything

Explain everything is a must have app! It is basically a screen casting app, which means that you can annotate images or draw on the built in whiteboard - whilst recording your voice at the same time! This then saves as a Quicktime video. In the past I have had pupils using it to make teaching videos to explain concepts in maths. Just before Christmas though, we used it in Nursery to re-tell the Christmas story.

Here is the animation we made...

And here is a video showing you how we actually did it...

My Story

This is probably the most reliable and easy to use eBook creator app that I have used for pupils in KS1/EYFS (for KS2 pupils I would recommend using Book Creator). The pupils had been studying the Three Billy Goats Gruff story so we decided to plan an alternative version using different characters and a slightly different ending! After planning a simple story board we then designed the pages together and the children then recorded the narration and dialogue between the characters.

If you have iBooks on your Apple Mac or device you can view it here.

Note: If you haven't got a dropbox account click on 'Download' rather than sign in and then instead of creating an account just select 'No thanks continue to download'.

One thing that was slightly disappointing though, was that saving it as a movie instead of a book didn't work. This was a bit frustrating as I wanted those without an Apple device to be able to view it as well.

Pic Collage

Pic collage is a really simple, easy to use app that can be used right across the curriculum. One of my favourite ways to use it, is having pupils record their work during science investigations. This time though, as part of some simple Data Handling work, pupils in Nursery made their own pictograms to show what they had for their breakfast.

Videolicious

Children in reception class were studying the topic "People who help us." After some initial discussion, I then showed the children how to search for images and save them to the iPad camera roll. In their small groups, they then found images and saved them to a shared Dropbox folder. Children were then asked to plan a sentence or two about that person, focussing on who they are, what they do or how they help them. Using Videolicious, pupils then took it in turns to record their sentence to match up with each picture. Here is an example of the kind of thing you can easily create...

Aurasma

Once we had made the videos, to really bring them to life we then created this interactive display using the app Aurasma. Now when others scan the picture of them dressed as somebody who helps them on the display board, they get to watch the video that they made!

For a step by step guide on how to set up Aurasma, read this previous blog post about using Aurasma to promote the end of year 6 productions.

For further ideas on using iPads within EYFS, I found this blog post really helpful. In fact I would highly recommend reading more of Lee's posts if you are looking to develop the use of iPads within your teaching and learning (particularly if you are interested in using them to enhance writing opportunities). I also find this blog by David Mitchell really useful for ideas and activities using iPads.

If you would like me to work with your school on developing the use of iPads either within EYFS or other phases throughout school, please do get in touch!

Programming maths games in Scratch

13:39 JEcomputing 15 Comments Category : Coding , Computational Thinking , Computing curriculum , Maths , Programming , Scratch

Having used the programming software Scratch a lot recently I have come to realise just how much it compliments work done in maths. I believe it really helps develop key mathematical concepts such as logical reasoning as well as more obvious, specific skills, such as reading coordinate positions. With this in mind and after reading this excellent site by @BaggiePr, I have been helping some year 5s with making their own times tables games.

We began by playing some games that I had created myself such as this number bonds game, this subtraction game and finally this 4x table game. In their Kagan groups and with talk partners, the children then spent quite a substantial amount of time analysing these games in depth. I really wanted them to develop a clear understanding of the key programming concepts used to create them before starting to plan and then ultimately, make their own. Having uploaded some games to my Scratch account, we then clicked on the "see inside" button to look at the programming scripts used to create each game. The children also had paper based copies of the scripts to look at and make notes on. We looked at the similarities and differences within each game and identified the common structure running throughout each game as thus:

The player presses the green flag ----- the sprite (character) welcomes the player to the game ----- the variable(s) such as score or lives are set ----- a question is asked ------ the player types in their answer ------ the sprite responds accordingly by saying (either through text or sound) that it is correct or incorrect (selection) ------ the variable(s) changes according to the players response (selection) ------ the sprite asks the next question - the process is repeated (repetition)

I then explained the 3 main programming concepts involved, relating this to the pupils' experiences of playing popular games such as Flappy birds.

I explained this as;

1. VARIABLES - i.e. the thing which changes - this could be the player's score (either up or down), the number of lives left, the level the player is on etc. There may be a number of these depending on the complexity of the game.

2. SELECTION - i.e. what happens when the player does something. So in this instance, If the player types the answer x the score goes up by 1 and the quiz master says "that is correct" or else the score goes down -1 and the quiz master says "that is incorrect."

3. REPETITION - i.e. a part of the code which is repeated. Programmers in Scratch, often used a forever block to do this, so as to shorten the amount of code needed. Here is an example...

After "decomposing" (breaking down) a number of these scripts and after I was sure that the pupils had a good understanding of these three main programming concepts, we then identified the specific programming blocks used and where to find them from. This didn't take very long as before christmas the pupils had used Scratch to make their own animations with me.

The KS2 PoS for Computing highlights the importance of decomposition:

I then asked pupils to plan their own maths game, based on the ones that I had shown them. Once planned, the pupils then applied their knowledge of how these games were made as they set about making their own. Some, more advanced pupils even added extra bits of code that I showed them, such as changing to a different background when the player answers a question correct, by using a "broadcast" block.

Overall, I was really impressed with the pupils efforts and in particular how they really developed their understanding of the main programming concepts used to make games such as these. I think it helped that many of the children already spend a lot of time playing games and were able to relate and transfer this game playing experience to making their own.

Below is a video which goes through the process of making a times table game in Scratch (version 1.4), which will be useful to watch before teaching it to pupils...

Finally, please have a look at some of the games they made by clicking on the school blog here http://ourladyswhalleyrange.primaryblogger.co.uk/2015/02/12/year-5-times-tables-games-made-in-scratch/. I'm sure the children themselves would be really pleased if you took the time to leave any constructive comments about their work.

If you would like any staff training on using Scratch or would like me to deliver a similar project with your pupils please check out my website for more details and use the contact page to get in touch.

Using Evernote to record evidence and monitoring assessment

15:15 JEcomputing 2 Comments Category : Assessment , Computing curriculum , Evernote , Evidence portfolios

I first came across Evernote after reading this fantastic blog, a few years ago by David Andrews and have used it ever since. Most recently, I have used it as a guided reading activity, after coming across this blog some time ago, in which the students used it as a way of monitoring and peer assessing their reading fluency. One of the great things about using Evernote, is that the pupils can tag the notes they make, which then makes it much easier for you to search for specific content. I first came across this idea after reading Simon Haughton's blog, in which he talked about using it as an EYFS observation tool - a fantastic, free (albeit slightly more time consuming) alternative to using 2build a profile. I have since used it as a way for children to evidence when they have achieved their maths non - negotiable targets, which has worked really well also.

The basic idea behind Evernote is that it allows you to take notes, sync files across devices, save webpages, capture inspiration, and share ideas. This could be across all subjects or specific curriculum areas (such as guided reading or maths non - negotiables, as previously mentioned). In my current role of supporting schools in developing their Computing provision I am keen to use Evernote as an integral part of my work, particularly in the delivery of this exciting project, that I'm offering to schools.

How to use Evernote as part of assessment in Computing.

Due to a lack of storage space, I would only use the free version for no more than one class, as you will soon run out of space (you get 60mb of data per month). The first thing you will need to do is register for an Evernote account (this is an email address and password). Once you have done this you can set up a unique username, which the children can then use along with the password, when they log on their iPads (or computers).

Once you have an account set up for your class, the next thing to do is to create folders. My preferred method, has always been to set up individual folders for each child in the class. This way children can access each others folders too and this gives them opportunities to leave audio or typed feedback for their peers.

The next thing to do is to create some tags. For my Computing scheme of work, there are 6 topics/units. So for this particular class (year 3), I have created six separate tags for each child (one tag for each unit). You can see this below:

Once all tags and folders are set up, the pupil's can login in and start to record evidence as they are completing their work in each unit.

This could be photographic evidence of a piece of work produced (e.g. a hand drawn diagram of how the Internet works), an audio recording or a typed note with a web-link to an online game they have produced (e.g. a link to a specific blog page they have written or perhaps a Scratch game they have made) - basically anything that demonstrates evidence towards achievement of the objectives within that particular unit.

When the child has added a note, they then need to assign this note to a tag, as below...

...and then select the tag which corresponds with their initial and the name of the unit they are working on.

At the end of each unit

Once a unit is completed, teachers will probably want to assess pupil outcomes and probably assign each child to a particular level, perhaps by using an assessment grid like this progression pathways document by Matthew Dorling or this framework for assessing computing document by Miles Berry. For teachers taking part in the Project Live scheme of work this will mainly be based on the students final, submitted project. However, a range of evidence recorded in Evernote, will also be taken into consideration. To do this teachers and myself will fill in the Project Live assessment sheet and look at the evidence within each children's notebook folders to help us come up with a colour of badge or attainment level for each child. To make this quicker and more efficient, the easiest way will be to search by tags. So at the end of Unit 3.1 for example, we can search for unit 3.1 tag and this will bring up all the individual pupils folders for unit 3.1

Of course, there are lots of different ways you can organise your notebooks and tags within Evernote and this is just one possible way of doing it. If you are a teacher and you use Evernote with your class, please get in touch and share your ideas.

If you would like support in setting up and using Evernote (or other similar free note taking/evidence recording software), you can find more details here.

If you are a school that hasn't got an up to date Computing curriculum, then you might be interested in Project Live - an exciting, innovative, pupil - led, scheme of work, written by myself and available to subscribe to from my website.

Setting up and using Dropbox

07:40 JEcomputing 1 Comments Category : Cloud computing , Dropbox , iPad , Workflow

One of the things that I’m often asked asked by staff at my school is how to print off pupil's work, from the iPad. Whilst there are many ways of doing this, (for example, emailing the work to the teacher), I have tried to encourage teachers and pupils to use cloud based storage to do this. There are different ways of doing this, with the two most popular services being Google Drive and Dropbox. See this link for a comparison between four main iCloud services. In my school, I have linked all iPads and PCs (including teacher laptops) to a school Dropbox account. This means that pupils can share the work that they have produced on the iPad to their class Dropbox folder. This can then be printed out from either the teacher’s laptop or from the school PCs/Laptops. See this video that I made for staff to help them with setting up and using Dropbox (sorry about the background noise - it was a particular loud dinner time outside)!

Other uses of Dropbox

As well as printing out, pupils can also save their work to their class folders (or individual folders if these have been set up),so that others can view them. For example, last year pupils from my class made some excellent books on the Tudors, using the fabulous Book Creator app. Rather than sharing directly into the iBook store, pupils first saved to their Dropbox folders first, so that they could read each others book from their iPad. This saved having to swap iPads continuously with each other in order to view them.

A workflow system using Dropbox

image: http://mattdubois.com/advantages-of-online-file-storage/

Another great use of using Dropbox, is that you can share useful documents that you want pupils to access for a particular lesson (e.g. a video that they might then edit in iMovie or images from a school trip that they then might use to make a poster or photo story using an app such as Splice). Pupils simply go to the appropriate folder in Dropbox and save their video or image to the camera roll. Within the app that they are working, they can then link to their camera roll and access their images/videos. If it’s a text based document (e.g. a worksheet), pupils could save it to an app such as Notability, which will enable them to write on it. You could then even ask them to save their completed worksheet to their Dropbox folder, open their worksheet in Notability yourself and mark it (before then sharing it back to Dropbox folders for them to view)! A complete lesson without a pencil or piece of paper in sight!

If you would like any support in setting up a workflow model using a cloud based service such as Dropbox or Google Drive, please don't hesitate to contact me

Using Reflector as a cheaper alternative to Apple TV

16:03 JEcomputing 2 Comments Category : Airdrop , Airserver , iPad , Reflector , Smartboard

An overview of the new Computing curriculum

03:04 JEcomputing 1 Comments Category : Computing curriculum

Using iMovie and Aurasma!

06:50 JEcomputing 3 Comments Category : Augmented Reality , Aurasma , cross-curricular , Display , Guided Reading , iMovie , iPad , Literacy , R.E. , Virtual world apps

iMovie is a fantastic programme, which has many uses within the classroom. The iPad app version is fantastic and in the past I have used it to enhance my teaching in various areas of both the literacy and numeracy curriculum. Last year I used the virtual world app Castlerama and Return to Catlerama, and asked the children to take a virtual walk around the fictional Italian village of Assisi, taking screenshots as they went (done by pressing the home button and sleep button at the same time). Once in iMovie, the children then imported their screenshots from the camera roll and recorded themselves reading aloud the stories that they had planned/written. I found that adopting this approach ensured that my reluctant writers (particularly boys), were stimulated from the onset and remained on task throughout. Knowing that their ideas could be used to produce something so stimulating, motivated them to included the literacy elements that they had been taught. This enabled them to produce something of a far better quality than they had done on previous occasions, when using only a pencil and paper. I have used this same approach to teach the writing of just the beginning part of a story (a description of a setting), after I came across this page from Tim Rylands, in which he used the beautiful app Epic Citadel to achieve a range of writing outcomes. Below is an example from a year 4 pupil...

You could also use other apps such as 360cities, which gives you access to 100's of awe-inspiring panoramic photographs taken from all over the world. I would certainly recommend it as a way of inspiring reluctant writers in your class!

Taking this one step further using Augmented Reality

To really inspire children in your class you could use an augmented reality app, such as Aurasma, to create a really inspiring display of the movies produced! Aurasma transforms hand drawn pictures into videos and the children are always completely amazed by the effect that it has in bringing a seemingly ordinary picture to life! Using Aurasma, children upload their overlay (their iMovie narrations in this case) and then choose a trigger image (in the case of the Castlerama video stories, we used blurbs that the children had written to go with their stories). When these trigger images are then scanned using the Aurasma app, the video appears on the device - a fantastic way to create a truly magical interactive display!

Using Aurasma as part of guided reading

Over the past year or so I have used Aurasma in many ways. For example, during guided reading sessions, groups of children can now make video recordings of their book review rather than simply showing their written review to a teacher or TA, who in the past, would simply check the written review before the children went off to choose a new book. I have found this has really helped those children that struggle with writing (and as a result would usually not bother to complete their written book review at home), because it means that they still complete their reading independently, but can now show their understanding in a different way, as part of a guided reading activity. I have found that in many cases this has deepened their understanding of the book because knowing that they have to record their review of the book as a video as part of a guided reading session, really focuses them and inspires them to complete their reading at home. During guided reading sessions children design a trigger image, either a blurb or drawing of a character or poster for example, and then after making their overlay (their video book review), create their Aura in Aurasma and add their trigger images to our reading corner display for others to scan and listen to!

Using Augmented reality is really something you could use in all areas of the curriculum. Last year we had an RE week exploring themes such as "What does God mean to me?" Again, children recorded videos of themselves talking about this, before producing a piece of work to go with their video to be scanned and viewed by others. Talking to a colleague recently about Augmented Reality and its potential, we discussed the power of using pupil videos such as these as a really good assessment tool in EYFS. Imagine Ofsted walking in, handing them an iPad and asking them to scan the pupil's display work. The device then brings up a video of that particular child talking about the learning that took place in producing that particular piece of work, what they did, what they learnt etc. This would really show their understanding and provide a much more authentic, deeper range of evidence than you would by just having a piece of work (however beautiful), stuck on a wall.

Using iMovie trailers and Aurasma to publicise our end of year production

This week, we have had a little bit of time, in between production practice, transition day, music week and business challenge, to do some promotion for our year 6 production! I took this opportunity to show the year 6 children how to make movie trailers in iMovie. Here are just two of many fantastic examples...

Production trailer 2.mp4 from Jamie Edmondson on Vimeo.

Production trailer 1.mp4 from Jamie Edmondson on Vimeo.

The children then designed some posters (hand drawn) to promote the production...

We then used Aurasma to bring them to life. These have now been put up around school with instructions to all year groups to allocate some time to take the iPads around school, watch them and vote on their favourite one! The year 6 pupils absolutely loved making these and I think it will have much more of an impact in terms of encouraging people to come and watch the performance! To see the children's examples download the app Aurasma onto your smartphone/mobile device, then follow these steps:

Open the app and press the A at the bottom of the screen
Click on the search option.
Type in JEcomputing and click the option
Press like to subscribe to my Auras.
Open the app and scan one of our pictures (if it doesn't work print out one of the pictures)
Tap on the trailer as it appears to make it full screen

If you'd like me to deliver a similar project in your school please get in touch

Newer Posts

Developing 'Computational Thinking' in EYFS

Computational Thinking in the new Computing curriculum

EYFS Unit 1 : Computational Thinking

iPads in EYFS

ThingLink

Tiny Tap

Explain Everything

My Story

Pic Collage

Videolicious

Aurasma

Programming maths games in Scratch

Using Evernote to record evidence and monitoring assessment

How to use Evernote as part of assessment in Computing.

At the end of each unit

Setting up and using Dropbox

Other uses of Dropbox

A workflow system using Dropbox

Using Reflector as a cheaper alternative to Apple TV

Setting up and using Reflector

Using Reflector with a class set of iPads

Using Reflector and Smart Notebook app

Using Airdrop to share content

An overview of the new Computing curriculum

Using iMovie and Aurasma!

Taking this one step further using Augmented Reality

Using Aurasma as part of guided reading

Using iMovie trailers and Aurasma to publicise our end of year production

JAMIE EDMONDSON

LIKE THE IDEAS HERE? CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO MY COMPUTING SCHEME OF WORK

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Computational Thinking in the new Computing curriculum

ThingLink

Aurasma

How to use Evernote as part of assessment in Computing.

At the end of each unit

Other uses of Dropbox

A workflow system using Dropbox

Setting up and using Reflector

Using Reflector with a class set of iPads

Using Reflector and Smart Notebook app

Using Airdrop to share content

Taking this one step further using Augmented Reality

Using Aurasma as part of guided reading

Using iMovie trailers and Aurasma to publicise our end of year production

JAMIE EDMONDSON

LIKE THE IDEAS HERE? CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO MY COMPUTING SCHEME OF WORK

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recent posts

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