Creative Teaching & Learning

Computational glitches

John Taylor offers advice on how to identify and fix the ‘numerical’ glitches that can hold some of your pupils back.

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      string(4071) "Nursery children meet Cubetto – Credit – Richard Fitzwarine-SmithOne approach is to introduce computer concepts in the early years through hands-on play. Computer programming is a case in point. There are many products on the market that let children use their brain and hands to create and manipulate code using physical objects. These include Logo, Bee Bot, floor turtles and now Cubetto.Cubetto consists of two parts: the small wooden cube robot and a separate control board with different coloured tiles that slot into it. Each coloured block represents an action: green is forward, yellow is left, red is right, and blue is the function key. Put the blocks on the board to program Cubetto, hit the blue button and the robot will move.Cubetto in a nurseryRichard Fitzwarine-Smith is an ambassador for Cubetto. He runs a company called Amazing ICT and introduces technology into school settings as well as providing training for teachers.Nursery children with Cubetto – Credit – Richard Fitzwarine-SmithHe took Cubetto into Grange Park Primary School nursery in Telford so nursery manager Donna Gray and pupils could see it in action. Eight children sat on the floor and Richard unrolled a mat with different symbols. ‘This is a swamp,’ he said. ‘What can you see?’ The children found trees, frogs, water, a bridge and a crocodile. Then he dug a little deeper and they suggested an alligator, an owl, flamingos, lily pads and insects.He passed around Cubetto in its case and explained that they had to treat it with care as it costs £180. It is the only coding toy that can be used by sighted and non-sighted children in the same setting, creating an equal learning environment that promotes inclusive play.Richard asked the children how they thought it might work and they talked confidently about switches and batteries. He put Cubetto on a lily pad, put one green tile into the control board and passed it to the first little boy who pressed the switch.Cubetto moved forward one square and the children squealed in delight. Their excitement seemed surprising, given that many would have sophisticated plastic toys with all the commercial bells and whistles, possibly controlled via a joystick and capable of speeding away in different directions, instead of one step forward, two sideways etc. Perhaps it is the simplicity that appeals.Cubetto came to some water and the children did swimming actions; they came to a tree and mimed climbing up and down. Then they came to the edge of the mat.‘We have a problem,’ said Richard. ‘Tell the friend next to you what the problem is.’ One little boy was far too excited to talk to just one person and, despite adult interventions, insisted on standing up and shouting out, ‘He’s going to fall off!’ ‘He’s got nowhere to go!’The emphasis throughout the session was on asking questions and encouraging children to think about what they could see and what might happen, rather than giving out instructions. This led to problem solving and hypotheses so children started to talk in terms of ‘could’ and ‘might’ and ‘perhaps’. It seemed that Cubetto provided a bridge between the physical and digital worlds.Cubetto at homeParents are keen that their children learn new computer skills to secure future employment, especially with predictions of increasing unemployment in years to come even before Covid19.Some parents are taking matters into their own hands and introducing Cubetto into the home so children begin to learn the skills they will need in the future. In this video, Emily Lofthouse talks about how Cubetto has encouraged her son to be more confident and independent and the impact she thinks these qualities will have on his future life.If we want children to think critically, communicate ideas and opinions in a confident way and solve problems for themselves they need toys like Cubetto. These will develop the seeds of computational thinking, alongside characteristics such as the ability to work with others, to persevere and to plan ahead."
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Digital Learning

Developing Computational Thinking Without Increasing Screen Time

28 May 2020

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      string(392) "... Computational Thinking?The English Computing National Curriculum takes this approach stating in the purpose of study “a high-quality computing education equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world” (DfE, 2013).Seymour Papert, who coined the term Computational Thinking, had a constructionist approach to ..."
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      string(4474) "Barefoot is looking for schools to trial its new resources that could set five million children on the road to success in a digital world.In 2014, Barefoot was set up by the British Computer Society (BCS), The Chartered Institute of IT and their Computing at School network with funding from The Department for Education.  Their role was to prepare primary school teachers for the changing computing curriculum.Barefoot exists to boost teachers’ knowledge, save them time and help them bring computing to life within almost any subject. They provide free lessons, home learning, engaging teacher workshops and helpful online guides. These have been developed by teachers through Computing at School.The importance of computational thinkingOnce the Covid-19 pandemic closed our schools and learning moved online the public started to take an interest in digital competency.This in turn put a renewed focus on how we teach Computational Thinking which is a set of foundational thinking concepts and approaches.What is Computational Thinking?The English Computing National Curriculum takes this approach stating in the purpose of study “a high-quality computing education equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world” (DfE, 2013).Seymour Papert, who coined the term Computational Thinking, had a constructionist approach to learning about programming and it is still a bedrock for many when teaching programming in primary and secondary schools.Recently however, Computational Thinking has become synonymous with teaching coding.  This has spread like wildfire – appearing in international computing education research, curriculum development, teaching resources and teacher professional development.However, there is no agreement on what the term means and how it should be taught. Some educationalists believe Computational Thinking includes high-level technical concepts such as abstraction, decomposition and generalisation. Others would include softer people skills such as collaboration and perseverance.Will it work in early years?Research shows that teaching computing to primary school children is limited, and in early years it is virtually non-existent. Learning about Computational Thinking in early years settings is new. We all need to work together to decide how, and if, we should include this subject to enrich pupils’ learning experiences.To fill this gap, Barefoot has recently been working with BT and Computing at School. Now they are launching their first-ever set of early years resources – extending the current primary (5-11 age range) provision. The materials incorporate simple definitions of concepts and approaches, simplified notes on vocabulary and more.Barefoot’s roleWe’ve created a range of enjoyable, free resources and activities based around computational thinking concepts and approaches. These help you to teach your pupils the necessary problem-solving skills needed for everyday life.The resources are collaborative, and they offer options for use both in the classroom and at home. They are cross-curricular, so you can slot them into your teaching where you see fit, in order to boost engagement or inject a little bit of something different into the classroom!Using the Barefoot parts of our body picture cards to prompt discussion, children are asked What are your eyes for? Are these eyes the same or different? Is eye colour importantThe activities show how computational thinking concepts might be presented in early years teaching settings through activities such as water play, outdoor play, role play, games and challenges.Each resource has a description, key questions, and assessment support. Busy Bodies is a set of four activities that help children discover how bodies move and grow, the Parts of Our Body activity develops children’s computational thinking of logic, pattern and abstraction.How to get involvedBarefoot will be reviewing the material based on practitioner feedback. We will be producing some case studies and are looking for schools that would like to take part.If you would like to try the resources, please download them from the Barefoot website. If you would like to take part in the case study or provide any feedback, please email enquiries@barefootcomputing.org   Just add ‘Early Years’ in the subject line."
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Digital Learning

Catch Them Young!

8 Apr 2021

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      string(344) "... for one hour a week after schoolduring term timeThe evaluation, conducted by Suzanne Straw and colleagues, assessed the impact of Code Clubson Year 5 pupils’ computational thinking, programming skills and attitudes towards computers andcoding. Twenty-one schools in the UK took part in the trial which used a pupil-randomised ..."
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Leadership Briefing 11.10(130)"
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      string(5221) "Leadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIAL OF CODECLUBS AND PROCESS EVALUATIONKeywordsCode Clubs,process,evaluation,computationalthinking, pupils,coding skills,programming,after school club,transferableskillsSummaryThis National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) study shows the results of arandomised controlled trial and process evaluation of Code Clubs. The results of theevaluation showed that attending Code Club for a year did not impact on pupils’ computationalthinking any more than might have occurred anyway, but did significantly improve theircoding skills in Scratch, HTML/CSS and Python.Code Clubs are a UK network of after-school clubs where children aged 9–11 learn to program bymaking games, animations, websites and applications.Code Club UK produces material and projects that support the teaching of Scratch, HTML/CSS andPython. The clubs, which are supported by volunteers, usually run for one hour a week after schoolduring term timeThe evaluation, conducted by Suzanne Straw and colleagues, assessed the impact of Code Clubson Year 5 pupils’ computational thinking, programming skills and attitudes towards computers andcoding. Twenty-one schools in the UK took part in the trial which used a pupil-randomised design tocompare pupil outcomes in the intervention and control groups. Intervention group pupils attendedCode Club during the 2015/16 academic year, while control group pupils continued as they would donormally.The results of the evaluation showed that attending Code Club for a year did not impact on pupils’computational thinking any more than might have occurred anyway, but did significantly improve theircoding skills in Scratch, HTML/CSS and Python. This was true even when control children learnedScratch as part of the computing curriculum in school. Code Club pupils reported increased usage ofall three programming languages – and of computers more generally.However, the evaluation data suggests that attending Code Club for a year does not affect how pupilsview their abilities in a range of transferable skills, such as following instructions, problem solving,learning about new things and working with others.Key Findings: ■ Attending Code Club for a year did not have an impact on pupils’ computational thinking over andabove changes that would have occurred anyway. ■ Attending Code Club does significantly improve pupils’ coding skills in Scratch, HTML/CSS, andPythonWeek Commencing 22nd May 2017https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/CODE01/CODE01.pdfhttps://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/CODE01/CODE01.pdfLeadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents. ■ Attending Code Club for an academic year results in pupils’ increased usage of computers, as wellas positively impacting on how good they feel they are at making things with code. ■ Attending Code Club for a year does not impact on pupils’ perceptions of their abilities in a rangeof transferable skills, such as following instructions and patterns, problem solving, learning aboutnew things, and working with others. ■ Pupils’ future interest in learning about coding and learning about coding languages were high forboth the Code Club and control groups at both baseline and endpoint. ■ Teachers reported a range of positive impacts for pupils, such as the development of confidenceand skills in coding, IT, and using computers. ■ Early impacts on understanding concepts and developing confidence in coding can be seen atthe end of the first term as a result of pupils working with Scratch. However, two to three termsare needed to see progress in terms of pupils working independently and having the resilience towork out problems for themselves. ■ The factor that was considered the most important for the successful running of Code Clubs wasaccess to the Code Club UK projects and teacher notes. ■ Some teachers reported difficulties in delivering Code Clubs due to insufficient time, technicalissues, lack of knowledge of the languages, and pupil drop-out, though most reported that theirclub had run very smoothly this year.Conclusion ■ Code Clubs can play an important role in improving pupils’ coding skills in Scratch, HTML/CSS,and Python and their usage of these programming languages. They can also have a knock-on positive effect on pupils’ confidence in using, and usage of, computers, as well as theirperceptions of how good they are at making things with code. Teachers report that Code ClubUK’s projects are of high quality, clear, simple, and easy to deliver which makes setting up aCode Club – even for those staff with no prior experience of coding – relatively straightforward.WEB LINKRandomised Controlled Trial of Code Clubs and Process Evaluationhttps://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/CODE01/CODE01.pdf"
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Leadership

Randomised Controlled Trial of Code Clubs and Process Evaluation

18 May 2017

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      string(4753) "their students.As a result of these limitations, during the pandemic, the vast majority of school systems—both for primary and secondary students and for higher education, have primarily turned not to emerging tools but towards two of our very oldest learning technologies: learning management systems and video telephony.Learning management systems, like Google Classroom, Schoology, Canvas, or Moodle are digital spaces for sharing, distributing, and collecting online documents. These systems were theorized in the scholarly literature in the 1960s and 1970s, made commercially available in the 1990s, and available in open source in the 2000s. They let teachers assign and collect digital worksheets.Video telephony was the 1930s name for what we now call video conferencing, services like Zoom or Microsoft Teams that let people see and hear each other online. These two technologies let systems recreate traditional models of schools—teacher lecture, student recitations, individual student practice on worksheets. This hasn’t worked particularly well, but there really aren’t examples of where new technologies are offering much better outcomes to students.Four dilemmasWhat would it look like to have a more robust set of large-scale learning technologies for the next pandemic? To create and implement technologies that work better at large scales, edtech designers and researchers will have to find new ways to overcome four dilemmas that have consistently hindered efforts to transform education with technology.The first dilemma is what I call the Curse of the Familiar. When technologists create novel and innovative new tools for teaching and learning, educators and students often find them confusing and hard to adopt. If you make something very different from traditional school practice, it won’t fit into schools very well. But on the other side, if you build a technology that digitizes existing school practices—if you make digital flashcards or digital worksheets—they tend to not be that much better for learning than existing practices. The only solution to this dilemma is to recognize that new technology adoptions require substantial professional development efforts.Second dilemmaThe second dilemmas is the EdTech Matthew Effect. As we have seen in tragic ways throughout the pandemic, learning technologies tend to be most useful for affluent students with the financial, social, and technical resources to take advantage of new innovations. New technologies typically widen educational disparities rather than closing them.Third dilemmaA third issue is that learning requires feedback, but technology designers are only good at evaluating human performance in domains where correct answers are highly structured. Computers can identify the correct answer to a math problem or even a correctly-pronounced word, but they cannot identify whether an essay shows a student effectively reasoning from evidence. The Trap of Routine Assessment observes that many education technologies rely on automated assessments, but computers can’t assess many of the most important things that our students learning.Fourth dilemmaThe Toxic Power of Data and Experiment highlights how new technologies are powerful platforms for research and A/B testing which can be used to dramatically improve computational systems, but only if communities are willing to tolerate risks to privacy and a growing surveillance over education.Fundamentally, the dilemmas recognize that technology alone can’t transform schools. At best, technology can play a role in helping educators and communities build better learning systems.These limits are not, in themselves, cause for despair. Improving teaching and learning is immensely hard. Education technology can’t solve all of the challenges of remote learning, but it can effectively address the needs of some students in some subjects.For communities facing school closures, teaching young children math will prove incredibly difficult through video conferencing. By good fortune, some of our best learning technologies are adaptive tutors in elementary math subjects. That doesn’t solve every problem that primary head teachers face, but it helps with one of them.For those who are hoping that education technology can transform our existing systems, that’s probably a disappointment. But if you see human development as a slow, painstaking process of gradual improvement, than those kinds of incremental steps are as good as it gets.Justin Reich is the Mitsui Career Development Professor at MIT, director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab, and the author of the forthcoming Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education from Harvard University Press."
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Digital Learning

A Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education

28 Aug 2020

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