I had the oppatunity to chat to Joe from Browser Media about technology and education this week. It was a great chat which you can watch below. I have included an extract from the original article as well as a direct link to the interview.
For episode 10 of The Digital Brew, I went back to the classroom.
To be more specific, I was chatting to Matt Britland, Director of IT and Digital Strategy at the impressive Alleyn’s School, about the impact that digital technology has had in education. Digital technology has changed all our lives but I was interested to explore how education has evolved during the digital revolution.
I really enjoyed chatting to Matt and we clearly failed to hit our target of 20-25mins for our chat, but there was still a lot that I was hoping to discuss that we didn’t find time for.
Grab a brew, turn up the volume, sit back and enjoy Matt’s words of wisdom:
This article was published on the Barclays Life Skill website in March 2016.
You might have seen the news that the BBC micro:bit is now being sent out to all year 7 students. The aim of these mini, programmable computers is to inspire students to develop creative and digital skills through coding, and get more young people interested in science, technology, engineering and maths. It is clear from this alone that coding has become the hot topic for technology in the classroom, having been made a part of the curriculum as of September 2014 [1]. With over 12 million people in the UK unprepared to fill the looming digital skills gap, it’s no surprise that coding has been highlighted as such an important aspect of current and future teaching models [2]
Though coding may seem very technical and sometimes daunting to tackle, confined to the realms of the computer labs, I’d like to dispel this myth. Granted, the digital skills learnt from coding are a major benefit to the changing needs of the labour market; in today’s digital world, it’s not enough for the next generation to know how to use programmes and software – they also need an appreciation for how these things are developed and how coding is used to produce them. But we shouldn’t consider it a teaching practice exclusively designed for computing lessons.
“Thank you for an excellent, well focused inset on the integration of iPADs into ICT teaching in particular and the curriculum more generally. The presentation and demonstrations inspired confidence in the classroom use of iPADs and helped reassure staff as we go 1:1 in September. It was good to get an insight into cutting edge use of Apps and to swap ideas with a consultant who has current day to day experience as a Head of Department.”
Nick Williams, Head of Business, Computing and ICT: Millfield School
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.
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.
Download the Computing curriculum / template (Google Template)
Use it in anyway you like
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
mattbritland.com 