Computing

A Contemporary School Computer Room

I wanted to design a Computing room that moved away from the traditional layout. For decades IT rooms in schools have been arranged with rows of computers and have tended to be a very uninspiring rooms to learn in.

The Student Gateway development has given us an excellent opportunity to create an innovative, exciting and inspirational room that will wow students, teachers and parents alike and be an excellent learning environment. It will show Computing as a creative subject that will give students a chance to work in somewhere similar to that of technology companies or universities.

It will contain different areas to provide flexible learning spaces for students to work individually and collaboratively using a range of technologies.

At the front of the classroom is where students will sit to work on their PCs. All students will be able to see each other as well as the interactive flat screen. This will give the room more of an inclusive feel. Student are also able to sit on the soft furnishing at the front for teacher demonstrations and class discussions or to work on their iPads.

At the top left is a breakfast bar style piece of furniture facing a flat screen. This can work as both a collaborative place for students to work as well as a place for the girls to sit and work individually. Students can sit and work on their iPads, work in groups as well as being able to mirror their device to the flat screen to show work for example.  

The area in the top right is for physical computing and soldering, several students can work on this table at the same time. The table also splits in two to giver the space area more flexibility. The flat panel display in this section can be used to connect computers or iPads to.

 

Using Virtual Reality To Showcase Work (Photoshop)

Using the CoSpaces website and Google Cardboard students in Year 9 will create a virtual reality gallery to showcase their graphic design/Photoshop project.

The video below is a tutorial on how they will create the gallery.

(Updated) App Creation – Programming with Appshed: Quiz Builder (Tutorial Videos)

At school I am running an app design project for my year 7 students. Unlike many lessons they have experienced in their previous school life, there is very little teaching from the teacher, I am mostly there as a facilitator. I am of course there to help when necessary but my aim is to get students learning more independently. They must teach themselves using videos I have produced for them.

You can watch the videos below:

Mr Britland’s Open Source KS3 Curriculum: 2014-2015 (Free Download)

(UPDATE: 11th July 2014)

Over the last couple of months I have been working on updating my Computing curriculum ready for release this month. This is the 3rd version and I have tried to do something slightly different with it.

Several months ago Tristan Kirkpatrick, a newly qualified Computing teacher (@Tristan_ICTCS) got in touch with me and asked if I was interested in making the curriculum open source. I jumped at the chance. Tristan began building a new website to enable the curriculum to be shared. All his hard work has resulted in something really exciting.

So…how does it work?

  1. Head to www.ictcomputing.org
  2. Download the Computing curriculum / template (Google Template)
  3. Use it in anyway you like
  4. If you make any changes (remixes), send it back to us by sharing the document with ictcomputingsubmit@gmail.com. Your version of the curriculum will then be available for others to download
  5. Best of all is that it is free for everyone!

Head over to www.ictcomputing.org now!

A PDF version of the curriculum is available from the link below:

Mr Britland’s Open Source Computing Curriculum  


Optimus Education: Computing Conference 2014 (20% Discount)

On 15th October 2014 Optimus Education are holding another one of their amazing Computing conferences.

The conference is called “Deliver and Assess Outstanding Progress in Secondary Computing“, click the link to go to the website.

I spoke at last years event and it was a fantastic day with some great speakers.

If you would like to attend this year, Optimus Education have kindly offered a 20% discount to the readers of my blog.

The promo code is ‘Britland‘.

 

The flyer for the event is embedded below, you can also download it from HERE.

My presentation from last year is below, it is entitled ‘A Guide to Creating a Creative Computing Lesson that Engages Students‘.

A Guide to Delivering Creative Computing Lessons (Presentation)

This is the presentations I gave at the ‘Design and Deliver an Outstanding Secondary Computing Curriculum’ conference by Optimus Education on 15th October.

It was a really great day and I saw some fantastic presentations and talks.

MOOCs – Cambridge GCSE Computing: Free Online Computing Course

The Cambridge GCSE Computing MOOC is well worth visiting, whether you are a teacher or student.

It is completely free and includes hundreds of videos, resources and quizzes.

If you are a teacher looking for some CPD, look no further. This could really help your personal development.

Students will love this too. It is aimed at 14-16 year olds but I have a 12 year old working through this in his spare time. You may not get a GCSE out of it, but you do get a certificate of participation.

It is clear that a lot of time has been spent creating this. I really appreciate those involved in this project, I am sure it will be a great success.

This is work in progress and they are adding more lessons throughout this year and next year.

Give it ago, you may just love it.

Sign up for it here:

http://cambridgegcsecomputing.org/

Here is an example of a couple of videos:

 

Mr Britland’s Open Source KS3 Computing Curriculum V3: 2014-2015: PDF Download (free booklet)

(UPDATE: 11th July 2014)

Over the last couple of months I have been working on updating my Computing curriculum ready for release this month. This is the 3rd version and I have tried to do something slightly different with it.

Several months ago Tristan Kirkpatrick, a newly qualified Computing teacher (@Tristan_ICTCS) got in touch with me and asked if I was interested in making the curriculum open source. I jumped at the chance. Tristan began building a new website to enable the curriculum to be shared. All his hard work has resulted in something really exciting.

So…how does it work?

  1. Head to www.ictcomputing.org
  2. Download the Computing curriculum / template (Google Template)
  3. Use it in anyway you like
  4. If you make any changes (remixes), send it back to us by sharing the document with ictcomputingsubmit@gmail.com. Your version of the curriculum will then be available for others to download
  5. Best of all is that it is free for everyone!

Head over to www.ictcomputing.org now!

A PDF version of the curriculum is available from the link below:

Mr Britland’s Open Source Computing Curriculum  

 


I have been working very hard over the last few months producing my new Computing curriculum and it is finally ready.

Details below:

Feel free to download and use this curriculum. If you use this booklet, its projects or ideas and would like to make a donation for its continuing development, please use the link provided. I would like to keep giving this document away for free so any donation would be amazing. Please click to be redirected to my donation page.

Thanks for your support.

Matt.

This is now version 2 – DOWNLOAD HERE

V2

I have added / amended the following:

  • Amended strand descriptors.
  • Added a new ‘How to use this Booklet’ section
  • New section on what software and websites are used, including free alternatives to paid software
  • Amended ‘Visual Programming: Kodu’ (Year 7)
  • ‘Computer Hardware/History’ project now called ‘How a computer works/computing history’ and now includes software. It is now taught in Year 7
  • Added ‘The Web: HTML5 and CSS3’ (Year 8)
  • Added ‘Networks’ (Year 8)
  • Added ‘Google and Algorithms’ (Year 9)

End products have changed for the following projects:

  • Stay Safe Online – Online guide using Snapguide
  • Visual Programming: Kodu – Screencast using Screenr
  • Your Digital World – Online presentation using slide.es

In Development

  • New creative projects
  • How to use an iPad to teach this curriculum

If you would like some help with creating your own resources or would like me to produce any educational publications, please visit www.realiselearning.co.uk.

My 2013-14 Computing Curriculum Plan

I have just started to think about updating my current curriculum.  There are a few changes and additions I want to make, hopefully my new curriculum document will be available sometime in August.

In the meantime, here is what I plan to deliver next year.

Mr Britland’s KS3 Computing Curriculum: September 2013 – July 2014

Year 7 (approx 12 lessons a term):

  1. Introduction to the school network
  2. Learning Blog
  3. Effective web searching
  4. Stay Safe Online
  5. Kodu – Visual Programming
  6. Computer Hardware/Computing History
  7. AppShed – App Creation

Year 8 (approx 6 lessons a term) :

  1. Computer Networks
  2. Graphic Design Using Fireworks – Magazine Covers
  3. HTML5 and CSS3

Year 9 (approx 6 lessons a term):

  1. Advanced E-Safety – Privacy, Social Networks, Security, Sexting, Data Protection
  2. Advanced Graphic Design with Adobe Photoshop – Album Covers
  3. Python – Programming

Any questions give me a shout.