This chapter poses that the constructivist ideology is at the heart of perspectives on programming, and I agree. This si even more so when students are creators of digital technologies and programs because they have worked through all the problematizing.
Game design are the most common forms of coding that we will see. These skills include: computational thinking, design thinking, reflection, creativity, The idea of VISUAL PROGRAMMING is at the core of the early introduction to these coding skills. The visual language bridges the gap in the lack of literacy skills, and the drag and drop multimedia assisting with children's ability to master the activities (i.e. scratch from MIT).
One of the biggest skills involved is creating clear ALGORITHIMS.
Higher order thinking is a natural consequence of this type of learning experience, earnt through experimentation and trial and error, using a computer based activity. The students are actively engaged in identifying the correct problem based answer to the coding activity.
Thursday, 21 May 2015
Unplugged activities and computer activities
As an early childhood educator, I would allow children to have free, open experimentation with computers as a precursor to explicit teaching. My ideas have changed somewhat, based on readings in this subject. I discovered, based on how children learn best, that sometimes experimentation is the way for them to discover things. Building on that, slow introduction of key metalanguage and explicit teaching is necessary to extend and build a knowledge base.
The unplugged activities that I ave seen are all wonderful entries to the concept building that is important with younger learners. The build a face activity is very adaptable to an early years classroom. The concept of a=b is important! The idea that n computer science, it is clear, objective input into a computer system that will result in an output. Even activities that are about early algebraic thinking are very good precursors to this style of thinking; can a student create a short message using shapes that correspond to letters of the alphabet, a code! So these ideas of abstraction, of algebraic thinking, are all very big cognitive elements of computer science and coding ability.
Unplugged activities allow for TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE back and forth from actual experimentation with computers in the classroom. I could introduce a concept with an unplugged activity and extend on it, as a formative assessment, when using computer programs. There has to be a balance of both.
The HOPSCOTCH program and app are great ways to introduce coding, as is the Angry Birds and flappy birds activities. Unplugged activities to strengthen these concepts are giving instructions to a blindfolded friend, playing real human bee bot adventures where the directions are solely controlled by an instructor to achieve a particular outcome.
The unplugged activities that I ave seen are all wonderful entries to the concept building that is important with younger learners. The build a face activity is very adaptable to an early years classroom. The concept of a=b is important! The idea that n computer science, it is clear, objective input into a computer system that will result in an output. Even activities that are about early algebraic thinking are very good precursors to this style of thinking; can a student create a short message using shapes that correspond to letters of the alphabet, a code! So these ideas of abstraction, of algebraic thinking, are all very big cognitive elements of computer science and coding ability.
Unplugged activities allow for TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE back and forth from actual experimentation with computers in the classroom. I could introduce a concept with an unplugged activity and extend on it, as a formative assessment, when using computer programs. There has to be a balance of both.
The HOPSCOTCH program and app are great ways to introduce coding, as is the Angry Birds and flappy birds activities. Unplugged activities to strengthen these concepts are giving instructions to a blindfolded friend, playing real human bee bot adventures where the directions are solely controlled by an instructor to achieve a particular outcome.
Digital literacy and how it intersects with media and visual literacy
It is a well known fact, and one that is embedded throughout our Australian Curriculum and Government Policy (Melbourne Declaration) that literacy in the modern age means so much more than reading and writing skills. We have moved to an age where digital literacy and media literacy are critical and valuable skills for young people as the jobs and economies they will encounter are dense with digital technologies and persuasive media imagery.
Being digitally literate also means being digitally competent; a technical ability with digital technologies as well as social aspects of digital technologies and impacts on individuals, communities and societies.
Having media literacy is more about thinking critically about the mass media that surrounds us; news, magazines, advertising, social media etc. The boundary between living alongside and freely choosing what media we come in contact with is blurred by the amount that is actually embedded into our daily lives, and the lives of children. An understanding of the moral implications of how we communicate, the impact on people, and cultures is imperative for our young people of today who will grow to be our next producers and consumers of media. In the school curriculum this looks mainly at communication skills, critical thinking and information management skills. The curriculum looks at the way students need to be critical consumers of media in society.
I definitely agree that these terms are complementary to one another, but I do see a shift in the way that students could not only be consumers, but more on 'critical watchdogs' being morally aware of stereotypes, bias, racism and other subdued elements of media.I see a shift in how students can not on be participants in digital literacy, but creators and planners of it too!
Being digitally literate also means being digitally competent; a technical ability with digital technologies as well as social aspects of digital technologies and impacts on individuals, communities and societies.
Having media literacy is more about thinking critically about the mass media that surrounds us; news, magazines, advertising, social media etc. The boundary between living alongside and freely choosing what media we come in contact with is blurred by the amount that is actually embedded into our daily lives, and the lives of children. An understanding of the moral implications of how we communicate, the impact on people, and cultures is imperative for our young people of today who will grow to be our next producers and consumers of media. In the school curriculum this looks mainly at communication skills, critical thinking and information management skills. The curriculum looks at the way students need to be critical consumers of media in society.
I definitely agree that these terms are complementary to one another, but I do see a shift in the way that students could not only be consumers, but more on 'critical watchdogs' being morally aware of stereotypes, bias, racism and other subdued elements of media.I see a shift in how students can not on be participants in digital literacy, but creators and planners of it too!
How will I teach students about digital systems and devices in early childhood?
To do this, I will need to have real, computer parts for the children to see, touch and feel. We could make computer models out of craft odds and ends and discuss what labels to place on parts. I could make a licence available in class for all students who are able to build, show and elaborate on the parts of a digital device; a computer. This would be a fun and motivating way for students to learn and engage with this.
Wednesday, 20 May 2015
Digital Learning challenges!
a) Ideas to use generic software such as Word to teach abstraction
b) Ideas to teach coding at the Learn Code website
c) Interactive activities to learn about the components of a computer, and a network
d) A video to help you understand the internet
Document your learning journey in your blog as you work through these activities.
You are asked to reflect on your proposed approaches to teach coding in your own classroom.
Code Monster website How to draw shapes by manipulating code. This is block coding, representing shapes and colours.
Khan Academy
Code.org Resources to help teach code, 'unplugged' without the need for a computer.
Unplugged lessons in computer science for students aged 9-14.
Coding lessons for younger students (Disney, angry birds, robot vocabulary, light bot, code combat, flappy bird,
This website, by Edutopia has many internal links to help children code even from 5 years of age. This is great for early childhood practice.
I chose to use the Angry Birds challenge because it is intended for children from four years of age, and I am an early childhood specialist, so this is where I will concentrate. This challenge uses 'blockly' which is creating code under the guise of print that you can move and drop..
On the screen you have the 'maze' on the left, the 'toolbox' in the middle and the 'workspace' on the left. The literacy demands of the task would require assistance, as would the non linear aspects of reading and working within this space. The icons and processes would need to be explicitly taught first.
The tutorial allows a child to complete lines of coding that are very simple, first. These are 'move forward' functions. Then turns were incorporated, as well as avoiding objects in the way. Mistakes on coding can be corrected very easily.Students can change their turn block to left or right. The students are introduced to the repeat block after doing over 20 lines of coding.
b) Ideas to teach coding at the Learn Code website
c) Interactive activities to learn about the components of a computer, and a network
d) A video to help you understand the internet
Document your learning journey in your blog as you work through these activities.
You are asked to reflect on your proposed approaches to teach coding in your own classroom.
Code Monster website How to draw shapes by manipulating code. This is block coding, representing shapes and colours.
Khan Academy
Code.org Resources to help teach code, 'unplugged' without the need for a computer.
Unplugged lessons in computer science for students aged 9-14.
Coding lessons for younger students (Disney, angry birds, robot vocabulary, light bot, code combat, flappy bird,
This website, by Edutopia has many internal links to help children code even from 5 years of age. This is great for early childhood practice.
I chose to use the Angry Birds challenge because it is intended for children from four years of age, and I am an early childhood specialist, so this is where I will concentrate. This challenge uses 'blockly' which is creating code under the guise of print that you can move and drop..
On the screen you have the 'maze' on the left, the 'toolbox' in the middle and the 'workspace' on the left. The literacy demands of the task would require assistance, as would the non linear aspects of reading and working within this space. The icons and processes would need to be explicitly taught first.
The tutorial allows a child to complete lines of coding that are very simple, first. These are 'move forward' functions. Then turns were incorporated, as well as avoiding objects in the way. Mistakes on coding can be corrected very easily.Students can change their turn block to left or right. The students are introduced to the repeat block after doing over 20 lines of coding.
Year 3 and 4
Digital Technologies Processes and Production Skills
Content Description
Define simple problems, and describe and follow a sequence of steps and decisions (algorithms) needed to solve them.
Elaborations
- explaining what the problem is and some features of the problem, such as what need is associated with the problem, who has the problem and why describing, using drawings, pictures and text, the sequence of steps and decisions in a solution, for example to show the order of events in a game and the decisions that a player must make
- experimenting with different ways of describing a set of instructions, for example writing two versions of the same simple set of instructions for a programmable robotic device
- explaining to others how to follow technical instructions, for example how to capture and download images from a mobile device
- defining and describing the sequence of steps needed to incorporate multiple types of data in a solution, for example sequencing the steps in selecting and downloading images and audio to create a book trailer
I would use the Angry Birds tutorials in small groups, each with laptops or Ipads. These groups would complete the first few examples of coding and then design a mud map of the game block and write sentences about the steps they took, how they coded the steps and what the outcome was. This in sense, would be to show their computational thinking skills when the students have to decide what critical pieces of information to code into the system to reach the pig. The students would need to show the alogithim they used to complete the task.
[Write the directions] Student pairs deconstruct
the pathway into segments and build the directions from what they see.
Highlight Problem Decomposition: Break down task into smaller, manageable parts.
[Find an alternative way] Tolerance for ambiguity.
[Evaluate the pathway] Looking at alternative options requires students to analyze possible
solutions that are most efficient.
[Do other tasks] Students can generalize and transfer this experience of creating directions to
other situations in which skills are required.
[Write the directions] Student pairs deconstruct
the pathway into segments and build the directions from what they see.
Highlight Problem Decomposition: Break down task into smaller, manageable parts.
[Find an alternative way] Tolerance for ambiguity.
[Evaluate the pathway] Looking at alternative options requires students to analyze possible
solutions that are most efficient.
[Do other tasks] Students can generalize and transfer this experience of creating directions to
other situations in which skills are required.
Monday, 18 May 2015
Sunday, 17 May 2015
Infographics
The websites on info-graphics are great, but one pulls it together in the most thorough way. This website is:
Info-what? Developing visual literacy through infographics
This site manages to pull the educational value of info-graphics, into content that is also broad in nature. The links to ACARA are a delightful list of researched relevance, already done!
ACARA has a focus on visual literacy and information management within the curriculum. These elements cross KLA's and include English, Science, Maths and History.
All in all, the three ways to use info-graphics in the classroom was shown.
These are:
1. As a source of information (students and/or teachers can construct visual info-graphics to present knowledge in a summarised way; to show relationships, conclusions and connections that might otherwise be missed)
2. As a tool to teach visual and creative literacy (students could write a persuasive text and also create a persuasive multimodal text, like an info-graphic. Students could also deconstruct negative examples of these in order to understand their worth and power)
3. As a way for students to express their own data or the data of others on a particular topic
If I was to create an info-graphic on the core elements underpinning the concept of the binary code, i would have to connect straight to the Australian Curriculum as back up to my ideas about place value and positional notation being the number one underpinning element. Below shows my understanding that this would be introduced, in it's simplest form, in Year 3 as a minimum, but my instincts would say that Year 4 would be the ideal teaching year.
Mathematics / Year 3 / Number and Algebra / Number and place value / ACMNA053
Apparently there is a company that will provide teaching online to Australian students. It is called Learnables. These are the programs that they will teach children to master:
CSS, HTML, Javascript, WordPress, Android, iOS, Ruby, Photoshop.
SCRATCH is a program that I would use to introduce younger students to the ideas of coding, without the need for place value knowledge. If a student could animate their name using the program, they are being introduced to the concept of coding information to create a desired outcome using digital technologies. They can design interactive cards, create story boards or games.
I feel, as though the language used will change, but the student will be familiar with the concept. Instead of code, the language surrounding a script, or instructions could be used to describe the programming steps a student could use.
If I was to create an info-graphic on the core elements underpinning the concept of the binary code, i would have to connect straight to the Australian Curriculum as back up to my ideas about place value and positional notation being the number one underpinning element. Below shows my understanding that this would be introduced, in it's simplest form, in Year 3 as a minimum, but my instincts would say that Year 4 would be the ideal teaching year.
Mathematics / Year 3 / Number and Algebra / Number and place value / ACMNA053
Content Description
Apply place value to partition, rearrange and regroup numbers to at least 10 000 to assist calculations and solve problems.
Elaborations
- recognising that 10 000 equals 10 thousands, 100 hundreds, 1000 tens and 10 000 ones
- justifying choices about partitioning and regrouping numbers in terms of their usefulness for particular calculations
CSS, HTML, Javascript, WordPress, Android, iOS, Ruby, Photoshop.
SCRATCH is a program that I would use to introduce younger students to the ideas of coding, without the need for place value knowledge. If a student could animate their name using the program, they are being introduced to the concept of coding information to create a desired outcome using digital technologies. They can design interactive cards, create story boards or games.
I feel, as though the language used will change, but the student will be familiar with the concept. Instead of code, the language surrounding a script, or instructions could be used to describe the programming steps a student could use.
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