In today’s session we looked at using programming in schools. We made our own little games using ‘Scratch’ (unfortunately I am not able to download mine onto here!) and also experimented with Bee-Bots, programming them to move certain directions. This was great fun, and I can definitely see that this would be engaging for primary school children!
This week we had a very interesting session which largely focussed on the different between the internet and the web.
We discussed how the web is basically a system of servers (what we see when we go onto websites) and it is the internet that powers the web.
We discussed what the internet would possibly look like if we drew it, and were shown some images of internet visualizations that showed how the internet has changed over time.
We then thought about possible lessons we could teach in school regarding the internet, and looked at various programmes which could be used in the classroom, such as X-ray Goggles, Thimble, Codeacademy on HTML and EAK. These were some great programmes that I can definitely see myself using with my own class. They are accessible and enjoyable to use.
As Data is currently included in the National Curriculum, this was a very useful session to get to grips with the key concepts.
We looked at different ways of looking at Data in fun and exciting ways in school, including using data loggers to help with experiments in Science and using Data as an accessible way of presenting History (using Log Chart)!
We had a go in pairs at creating a pie chart on the subject on our choice. My partner and I chose to do ours on favourite takeaways, and we used the rest of the people in our tutorial group in order to gather data on this. This was an enjoyable activity, and is definitely something that could be done with a class of primary school children.
I recently completed my first BSE, and am going to talk about my experience of ICT in my placement school.
There was a specialist ICT teacher who taught ICT across the whole school. Unfortunately I did not see many ICT lessons as they always took place during my PPA time, but children did have a weekly ICT slot. There was an ICT suite that the children went to for their ICT lessons.
Each classroom in the school was equipped with an Interactive Whiteboard, so I was able to utilize this in my lessons. I was able to create slides for my lessons on Smart Notebook, which I found a highly effective way of making lessons a little more visually interesting and more engaging for the children. There was a high amount of EAL children in this school, so I attempted to make my slides as visual as possible to make the learning more accessible for them. I received good feedback for this.
On Friday we had a very important session on online safety.
We began by discussing the qualities we want to develop in the children we teach:
We then moved discussion onto the dangers children face on the internet. There are three main dangers:
There are two other possible dangers:
We looked at the ways of using the internet safely, such as not publishing your personal info, not uploading inapropriate material and paying attention to websites’ terms of conditions of use.
We then thought about the people that a child can turn to for help if they find themselves the victims of cyber-bullying or experiencing any other issues related to the internet. The order of people they turn to should be the following:
We talked about the way schools use filtering systems to prevent children from accessing inappropriate websites whilst at school. However, this doesn’t always work as children have managed to get past these systems.
Finally, in groups we put together presentations about a specific aspect of e-safety. My group chose to do ours on using social networking sites responsibly:
Thanks for reading!
This was a very interesting session in which we discussed what defines computational thinking. We concluded that computational thinking is NOT:
-Thinking like a computer
-Thinking like a computer scientist
but that it IS:
-Thinking about the steps to solve problems or rules that govern the system
We looked in particular at `algorithms`, which are essentially a sequence of instructions and rules. Computer programs are written with algorithms, and we learnt how much detail needs to go into them. We had a go at writing detailed instructions for how to make a pizza, and then how to make a jam sandwich, and one of us had a go at following these latter instructions (following them very literally), with hilarious results!
I feel that it would be great fun to have a go at this kind of activity with children. You could perhaps split them into threes, and two of the three can try and write intructions for the 3rd child to get to a particular place in the room, having to get around all of the obstacles in the way.
I thought the session today on how to use the IWB was really useful. I learnt that the IWB can be a great way to engage children, particularly if you use it cleverly and take full advantage of the features it has to offer (a good use of pictures during lessons can be very effective, particularly if the children come into the classroom and there is a striking picture on the IWB!). You should not let the IWB blind you from what you are trying to achieve with a lesson, though. You should use it to aid the lesson, not to lead it.
I enjoyed trying it out for myself and creating an activity on Smart Notebook where children could sort animals who live in the amazon rainforest from those who didn’t (unfortunately I didn’t save the activity so can’t share an image with you of the activity that I created). I’m going to download Smart Notebook onto my own laptop so that I can play around with it in my own time.
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