lessons

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.

How to Evaluate iPad use in Education
iPad

iPad

(UPDATE: Read the final report and evaluation)

We are currently running an iPad trial at school and investigating their effectiveness for teaching and learning.

In order to fully understand the impact of these devices it is important to evaluate their use.

I created two evaluations. One for students to fill out once and one for teachers to fill out. These were created in Google Forms and a short cut was added to the iPad to make it easier for students to access.

It was important to me that the evaluations were short to encourage staff and students to fill them out.

Once the evaluation period is over, I will use the evaluations to help formulate a report.

The PDF evaluations are below:

Teacher Evaluation

Students Evaluation 

The great thing about Google Forms is that it is free, plus it gives you a great summary of results  with a selection of graphs.

iPad Trial – Launching to Head of departments (Presentation)

iPad

After a lot of planning, we have just announced/launched our school iPad Trial.

At 16:15 on Monday 17th it all came together. The presentation and demonstration lasted about an hour. HoDs walked away with a shinny new iPad, lots of enthusiasm, plenty of ideas and an understanding of what we have set out to do.

They saw that our trial was well planned and had a vision and aims.

In a week and a bit we will officially launch our trial to the rest of the staff in a whole school INSET, which I am planning now.

Below is my launch presentation. This was originally created and presented on the iPad in Keynote.

I hope you find it useful and perhaps it will even give you some ideas.

Direct Link to Google Docs

Mr Britland’s Open Source KS3 Computing Curriculum V3: 2014-2015

{UPDATED}

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.

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.

iPad Trial 2012-2013 – A few initial notes

iPad

A few notes I have put together with some thoughts of how I will implement the iPad trial in September.

We are looking at buying a class of iPads initially and then taking it from there.

Leading up to September:

  • Buy iPads from reseller
    • Check they will help with the set up. Decent ones will
    • Do we get protective covers?
    • What charging solution?
    • Which reseller?
  • Get a Mac set up for iTunes
  • Think about the Apps we would like to buy
  • Buy an adapter so we can mirror iPad on the board
    • Can we do this for the inset?
    • Is the projector wireless
    • Buy an Apple TV? Could be a winner? Check it works on the wireless. Again…reseller could help with this.
    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy7Q2vrU7uI
    • Would be great for Skype or FaceTime
      • Could use an adapter instead…but it is not wireless.
  • Plan the inset – could be done after the initial 1st day.
  • Produce training resources for staff
  • Set up DropBox account
    • 1 per students?
    • Per class?
    • 1 for the school
  • Email Address?
    • Email for each iPad?
    • Will not be workable in the trail for students having to put in their own school address all the time
  • Do the apps we want to use work on the network?
    • Edmodo
    • Socrative
    • Evernote
  • Create some digital resources
    • iBooks?
    • PDF?
    • Convert some department resources and make available on iPad/DropBox

Trial

  • Show departments some example projects
  • Departments can then bid for the class set
    • Come up with their own ideas
  • Department should have some trial iPads to play with.
    • 1 per department?
  • Each department will have a champion
    • They will be trained.
    • They will train the other members if their departments
    • Ideally they will volunteer.
  • All “champions” will attend meetings
    • Successes
    • Problems
    • Ideas
  • Every class member will be allocated a iPad
    • They must have the same one for the length of the trial
    • Sign out sheet
      • They will need to tic the iPads out
  • Evaluation process for each project
  • Final evaluation for whole trial

Things to consider

  • Make projects creatives, engaging and relevant.
  • We need to use them for the more “boring” projects too
  • How will we manage the classroom?
  • How long will the trail go on for?
    • Till Easter? This will give us time to properly evaluate?
  • What do we want the outcomes to be?
  • If the trial is a success do we buy more?
    • 1:1?
  • If it does not work, what will we do to make sure it does
  • Parents open evening
    • Show what we have been doing
    • Get them involved and engaged.
    • Keep them in the loop
  • Share training videos on iTunes U?
  • If we create some lesson videos, ebooks, audio podcast we can share them too.

Film yourself in the classroom (Video)

I decided to do something today that I have not done since my training year. That was, filming myself in the classroom.

To give you a little background, I am away at the Guardian Computer Science Seminar and I wanted to set some cover my 1st year class. Instead of simply writing down a set of instructions I thought I would film the beginning of another 1st year lesson. I could then make this available to my class in my absence.

The students had already finished most of the Kodu programming and I wanted them to produce some documentation. The main learning objections had already met in previous lessons.

This is not the most exciting lesson you will see. I try to make the start of lessons more interactive, but because it was going to be used for another class (cover lesson) I had to try and make it a little more linear.

During this video, I do cover a few PowerPoint fundamentals. I wanted to cover all the bases to make sure my cover lesson went smoothly. This is also why it pans out like a seminar.

I was also very aware that I had a camera on me. It made me stutter a little, and act slightly differently. Very strange that a camera would make me respond like that as I am not a shy man.

So what did I think? Well, I noticed for starters that I do like repeating myself. I also have a habit of using the same words over and over again. In order to better evaluate my teaching I need to film myself when I do not intend to use it in another lesson. It would be more natural.

Any thoughts let me know.

Is it time to rebrand ICT?

This blog was originally published by The Guardian on 30th May 2012 and is an update of a previous post on this blog.

When I did my GTP several years ago I did next to no training in computing. As we all know the curriculum was very much ICT-based and that was fine with me. The skills I have very much fitted in with the curriculum I had to teach.

Things are now changing. Gove has told teachers that they don’t have to stick to the old curriculum. Over the past year and a half I have been able to teach my own curriculum anyway, as I have moved to an independent school. But it has been made very clear there is a need to teach computing in schools before KS4.

I agree this should happen, and it’s very exciting. However, it is also quite intimidating. I have spent almost seven years (including my training) teaching ICT with very little computing. Where do I go from here? Well, I have already started teaching visual programming usingKodu. I am also in the middle of writing a computer science scheme of work to be delivered next year. This will teach students how computers, smartphones and tablets work.

Is this enough? Like many ICT teachers I do not have a lot of curriculum time compared to other subjects. It would be a shame if state schools were forced to drop ICT and only deliver computing because of a lack of time. In fact, we would be doing our students a disservice.

Like many others I need guidance.

My biggest worry is programming. The reason I didn’t choose programming at university was because I find it very difficult. For me it is like learning a new language. I am very much of the opinion programming is not for everyone. Although, I understand it is very important.

I am sure there are other teachers like me who do not program. If the government want programming in schools they are going to need to stump up some money for training courses.

There is a danger that if teachers need retraining, courses will be supplied by large corporations like Microsoft or Google. Can we trust them to give teachers the training they need or will they simply take the money and create training that directly benefits them?

However, over the last few weeks I have been using Codecademy to learn Java Script and to become more proficient in HTML and CSS. This is free and has been fantastic. Hopefully, this will allow me to deliver more programming next year. Perhaps we do not need to pay for training and we can train ourselves?

If all students were taught to be programmers throughout their school lives would we find masses of them out of work? There are only so many jobs available. The people who will benefit the most will be those paid to write computing courses.

There has to be room for both ICT and computer science.

Students should able to choose between the two, certainly at KS4 or 5. After all students are able to choose which languages they learn or sciences they study.

We need both to be exciting and engaging. Teachers in different schools need to be sharing resources and schemes of work. Many are already, certainly the teachers I know. If we are to change the way ICT is perceived we need to be constantly evolving. If we want to incorporate computer science into schools we need innovative ways to teach it communicated to all.

Conferences like the Guardian Teacher Network’s Teaching Computer Science in Schools are important ways for people in education to get together and discuss what the future holds. These are great as long as teachers are allowed to get time out of school. I fear many may not.

I would also very much like to rebrand ICT, for me it is old fashioned. Perhaps “digital literacy” would be more appropriate?

There are several teachers who I follow on Twitter working on Digital Studies. Is that the rebrand we need? I don’t think there is one answer but I would certainly like to rebrand ICT at my school.

In conclusion, I am looking forward to including computer science into my curriculum. It is intimidating but a great opportunity for personal development. Now I must find the time to teach myself what I now must deliver. Finding the time in an already incredibly busy job may be toughest task of all.

Should all Students Learn how to Touch Type?

Are we preventing our students from being productive users of computers by not teaching touch typing? I think perhaps we are.

The question is; who teaches it and when will it be taught?

My thoughts are that it should not be taught in ICT lessons. Being able to touch type goes beyond ICT and is for many, a requirement for everyday life. But then, who does teach it? I don’t have an answer I am afraid, but would love to hear people’s opinions.

Should students have this skill before secondary school? Do we need to teach it at primary level, and can we expect students to be able to adopt these skills so early on? I see touch typing as asking students to write, without actually teaching them how to use a pen.

With the amount of work students do on computers I think that this skill is vital.

There is no doubt in my mind that many students (and teachers) who would find learning this skill very boring. I am pretty sure we can make it exciting. Especially with the adoption of gamification.

I am not suggesting that typing is now more important than writing, only that it is a skill that warrants teaching.

However, after saying all this, I cannot touch type, but I wish I had been taught. (I am quite fast, but not as fast as I would like to be) It’s on my list of things to do.

There are many schools, I am sure, who do teach touch typing. If you do I would love to hear from you. At present I am trying to see if I can work this into the curriculum myself, this maybe the biggest challenge.

Graphic Design (ALBUM COVERS) Year 9/3rd Year – Example Work

I have been teaching graphic design since I started my teaching career 6 years ago.

My favourite project has always been designing album covers. The students love it and really take ownership of the project as they get to pick the artist.

At present we are using Adobe Firework to create the album covers. Images are edited, combined with several other images, then text and layer effects are added. My plan this year was to use Photoshop, but after we upgraded to the latest software we had a few issues (which have now been resolved) so I stuck with Fireworks.

Next year we shall use Photoshop, although the design principals are the same whatever application you use.

Here are few examples, there is some amazing work here and I wanted to share it.

Enjoy!