Computer programming in the primary school (McGann & Leavy)

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Infographic on binary coding

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

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          

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.

Creating a binary code game!

Although I am an early childhood student, and aim to teach in the P-3 sector, I can still see the relevance and learning in introducing the binary code as early as possible. Ideally, parts of a computer need to be  tinkered with first, as computer users and I see this even in Kindergarten! Understanding place value is imperative to understanding binary code, so this concept is really not going to be introduced into the curriculum until children have mastered this abstract concept of number and positional  notation!

I have designed a very basic game that can be done in small groups or even individually.

The resources to play the game are:
1. counters
2. egg cartons (cut in half length-ways so each child gets a line of 6 egg cup holes) Using a niko pen, record the positional notation value of each egg cup (e.g. 32's, 16's, 8's, 4's, 2's, 1's colums)
3. a pack of decimal digits printed on card (these numbers would be 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1, 12, 6, 48, 24, 3, 56, 60, 62, 63, 7, 15, 31)

Instructions:
Each child has their egg carton row in front of them, They each take turns in turning over a decimal number from the card pack. Each child must race their peers to show this number in binary by placing counters in the egg cups in the relevant column. Zero spaces are shown with no counters.
The score for each round is recorded by tally and the student with the most wins per round, wins!

My level of experience with Digital Technologies

I was very encouraged by the focus (and admittance!) on our level of expertise in this domain. I believe that a teacher never stops learning, and this is an example of that. I have no experience with coding/binary code. I am a little scared about creating a binary learning game this week. I am a basic computer user. I have enough experience to feel my way around an interactive Whiteboard, software and ICTs for use in the classroom, but this digital technologies focus is quite new to me.

I watched the TedX talk about coding in education. Scratch Jnr is amazing! A student that may not be efficient in reading and writing, may still use scratch to code actions for stories and much more.
I can see Marina's point that it is not a truly collaborative task when they are sitting in front of a screen.

I am so in a awe of her dedication to early childhood introduction to coding; logic, sequencing, logic and creative expression!

The integration of curriculum and coding is ingenious. The only experience that comes close to what Marina explains is when I have used Bee Bots in a Year 1 class. We used Bee Bots in maths to find treasure. The children coded the bot to do certain moves to get to the treasure. We did dances too!
The children even made outfits for their Bee Bots and it was so engaging for them.

The example of Zora speaks to me immensely. Zora has many opportunities that most children her age do not, but, she has many things in common with the average child. Zora began her journey playing and mastering apps and IPad software and had a natural 'feel' and inclination to use those skills to create a game. So the question is, within the school curriculum, how do we get students to go from users of digital technologies, to becoming creators?

My recent return from a teaching practicum in a remote location!

It is good to be back and to be able to sink my teeth back into the semester of learning. I have missed so much as my remote location has little to no internet connection. I took my Telstra 3G dongle and had put $100 worth of credit onto it. I was away for 16 days on Palm Island and everyday, the best my connection could do was open my email with the icon 'spinning around' forever. Alas, I was not able to participate in the blog postings and weekly discussions. I will be working so hard to catch up Wendy. It is really very hard to be a cross institutional student as the assessment requirements do not align. I found my practicum to be very challenging and very tiring. I was on full load teaching so I think I was in shock at how much I had to do every night to be prepared for the next day! A teacher does not get enough credit for all that they do.

You can just see my little unit where I stayed. This was taken from the beach on low tide.

To jog my memory about Task B:

You will maintain, in your blog, a record of the learning process as a digital diary that records the following:

• Your initial definitions and understandings of teaching and learning in Digital Technology;
• The conceptual understanding and ways of working and thinking you developed in the challenges; and,
• Descriptions and reflections on your participation in the challenges

Your reflections will be maintained week by week (I may need to be considered for exceptional circumstances Wendy), and your collection of reflections will be submitted in Week 8, on Friday, through the uploading of a Word document that contains a link to your blog url.

EDCU12039: Design and Digital Technologies: Assessment Task 1

Part B:

Participate in a series of digital learning challenges to develop an understanding of the conceptual foundations and the different types of thinking required when working with digital technologies. Maintain a digital diary throughout the process that records the following:

• Your initial definitions and understandings of teaching and learning in Digital Technology;
• The conceptual understanding, and ways of working and thinking you developed in the challenges; and,
• Descriptions and reflections on your participation in the challenges

The diary you create to record your experiences should be maintained weekly and submitted with the final response to this task.

Criteria	High Distinction	Distinction	Credit	Pass	Fail
Use participation and individual reflective processes to develop professional understanding of content knowledge and teaching and learning in the Digital Technologies learning area.	Journal and reflections demonstrate analysis and evaluation of personal learning experiences that are linked to the curriculum aims and rationale to demonstrate an outstanding and creative understanding of the nature of, and pedagogy associated with the Digital Technologies learning area.	Journal and reflections demonstrate analysis and evaluation of personal learning experiences that are linked to the curriculum aims and rationale to demonstrate an excellent understanding of the nature of, and pedagogy associated with the Digital Technologies learning area.	Journal and reflections demonstrate analysis and evaluation of personal learning experiences that are linked to the curriculum aims and rationale to demonstrate an excellent understanding of the nature of, and pedagogy associated with the Digital Technologies learning area.	Journal and reflections demonstrate a sound understanding of the way that the learning experiences are linked to the curriculum aims and rationale.	Journal and reflections demonstrate limited understanding of the way that the learning experiences are linked to the curriculum aims and rationale.

My Assessment Task A

This subject has allowed me to delve deeper into the Australian Curriculum’s Design and Digital Technologies learning areas. I now have a better understanding of how they are linked to one another, and to futures thinking, and how they also very different, requiring different types of thinking from learners and therefore, teaching.

Through my own project management of a design, I have been able to think like a ‘learner’, ‘teacher’ and ‘student’ simultaneously.  I reflected on this in my blog (see Digital Pedagogy: Web 2.0 and classrooms).

The thinking that is required from students is different throughout the processes of a design cycle. The design cycle is the foundation of technology education. For me, understanding and defining the thinking involved was so important and very productive for preparing myself as a teacher in this KLA. Design thinking pedagogy would involve lots of discussion about why we design, what needs design fills in society. This would involve looking at many examples of design and the intentions to ‘improve life’ for particular individuals and groups. Furthermore, I have come to realise that design thinking involves research based decisions based on available materials, sustainable choices, and the properties they have. Peer feedback from Sarah improved my thinking about teaching during the investigation process involving the available materials for the investigation and also, real life designs and how they were managed.

I have reflected on computational thinking (see Design thinking vs computational thinking). I have realised that design thinking is broader in scope, and comes before computational thinking requires students to show their procedures, their design problems broken down, in physical and other creative ways. It is here that I have been given so many opportunities to consider teaching practices involving visual literacy and graphic organisers, including ‘graphicacy’ (Beaudry, 2015). This is related to my discoveries about how children learn technology, but I realise we must guide them explicitly, to bring structure to their ideas, and to help bring their thinking processes to life with visual and multimodal tools.

I have considered, Mawson’s (2003) researched data about student design behaviour and their need to explore materials and their mind’s eye (rather than a focus on drawing design first) and have come to the conclusion that a flexible approach is best; teaching skills as they are needed within the design cycle. Additionally, I now see the design cycle as being very non-linear, and flexible. I took many turns back and forth in the process of my design challenge. Allowing children to choose their starting strategy may be beneficial.

The ability to evaluate a product (an existing one, or an idea for one) was a learning curve. The resource ‘Evaluation of a marketed product’ was encompassing of so much scope. The questions that students have to think through, using the tool, was very adaptable to an early childhood setting by simplifying these questions. 

One of the big ideas I came away with, was social constructivist methodologies in this learning area is effective and also mandated. This affected the way I think about design and digital technology pedagogy; discussing ideas, creating and organising ideas and sharing ideas using digital technologies. Furthermore, how to create safe online environments is an element of my active learning whilst using online 2.0 tools and collaborative spaces during this process. By taking part in actively creating these digital spaces, I have gained the confidence to use them in a classroom, and can see many diverse ways in which it can help engage and excite children.

Engaging with the design cycle was an important element for my thinking to become clearer about how to teach at each stage, and why. Developing a criteria for success, for designs, is an important element that I discovered, is vital in the early stages. I developed a criterion and would consistently use it to make sure my designs were ‘on track’. The criteria also became helpful when decision making was involved.

There were many challenges along the way. I had only words on paper to guide my discovery of these new digital technologies. I fumbled, but relied on the procedures given to me. A student will always need scaffolding when encountering new things. The idea that design decisions can be made using objective judgement, based on a matrix, was very new to me, and valuable. I will use the weighted decision making process with future learners. It took the subjectivity and aesthetic judgement out of it.

In regards to peer collaboration, feedback, and evaluation, I really did not benefit consistently throughout the process. I had general feedback that my design planning was ‘good’, but nothing (at the stage when I needed it) to assist my reflection. I received peer feedback immediately prior to submission of Task A. Although late, I did benefit from some insight. I wonder if it was because I am an external student, and we rely so much on the digital technologies for support and feedback. This makes me consider the timing of collaboration, at poignant parts of the design process within the classroom. This has to be balanced, small group/pair situations where everyone is participating. One sided feedback is not helpful or equitable to all learners.

Also, in giving feedback, I found that I needed a ‘format’ to guide me in giving the best, balanced feedback that I could. I based it around the design cycle itself, and you can see my creation of a wiki page to discuss this idea. It was an analysis tool, and I can see how important it would be to guide children’s questioning and ways to give feedback using strategies in an early childhood classroom.

References

Australian Curriculum (2015). F-10 Curriculum: Technologies rationale. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/technologies/rationale

Beaudry, J. (2015). Visual Literacy for all teachers and learners: Essential knowledge and skills to create, use and assess concept maps and graphic organisers. In Younie, S., Leask, M.,  & Burden, K. (Eds.), Teaching and Learning with ICT in the Primary School (pp. 54-70). New York, New Jersey: Routledge.

Mawson, B. (2003). Beyond `The Design Process': An Alternative Pedagogy for Technology Education. International Journal of Technology & Design Education, 13(2), 117-128.