This post aims to serve two purposes. It is partly aimed at meeting the university assignment criteria that this blog was originally set up as part of. This requires proof of “other’s engagement” and I hope this post provides evidence towards this.
But most importantly, this post is to say thank you to everyone who has visited and commented on my blog – I’m glad you have found it useful! Some highlights from outside the blog have included being featured in the ScratchEd Weekly Roundup and being “scooped” as part of someone’s Scoop.it site.
I have also received some great messages on Twitter, alongside being re-tweeted by a whole host of people. This lovely message is one of my favourite:
I think the experience since “going live” has emphasised to me the benefits of blogging. Blogging provides an opportunity to share ideas with the internet and receive comments and feedback from people from all over the world. I can imagine how excited children must feel when someone comments on their blogs and I will definitely comment on different school blogs in the future.
One way that schools can ensure their blogs get the publicity they deserve is through signing up to QuadBlogging. The QuadBlogging website states that in the last year 100,000 pupils in 40 countries have been involved in the scheme. There is a great video on Youtube that outlines the process:
Furthermore, my colleague, Lindsay Morris has provided some more insights into Quadblogging on her blog and I suggest you check it out.
In the spirit of sharing I wanted to finish this post with a song that was recommended by TES SEN on Twitter, who posted a link that contains lots of songs that include Makaton signing. This particular song is being sung by some of the people from Shabang. The TES website states that this could be a great ice-breaker or introductions song, which I think ties in with the theme of this blog update. Plus, I think it’s a really catchy tune that could be used in special or mainstream settings. Enjoy!
Following on from last week, Kerry, Lindsay and I worked together to produce a unit of work using Scratch. The unit of work is aimed at Year 6 children, as their final ICT project before moving to secondary school.
Overall unit objective: We are learning to create an animated game.
Part 1: Testing games
In the first activity the children are to work in mixed ability pairs to play a range of games from the sqowrl set. They are to add words about what makes a good game to the class answer garden. Children can all work on the class answer garden at the same time, with the words presented updating in real time. If a child likes someone else’s word they can click on it and then re-submit it. This makes the word bigger, showing that more people agree with this opinion.
The answer garden can be turned into a word cloud (the one in this blog post was made in wordle). The class can discuss the different words that they have come up with together to ascertain what the most important ingredients of a video game are.
Part 2: Fish tank game
Discuss as a class how video games are created.
Introduce the children to Scratch. Go through how to create a simple fish tank game. Get the children to work in friendship pairs. Provide the children with the online video demo of the game, so that they can refer to it when making it in their pairs.
When the children have created their fish tank game they can upload it to the Scratch website and to a class sqworl link (containing the games made by the different pairs). They can then select different scratch card activities to help them further explore the potential of Scratch.
Part 3: The Dragons’ Den
Show the children the Morfo video of Duncan Bannatyne setting the challenge for the children by clicking on this link: The Dragon’s Task. When creating Duncan Bannatyne’s speech we used the voice changer built into the app to make his voice have a lower pitch (to disguise our own); however on reflection this can make it difficult to ascertain what is being said. It would be great if future versions of the app had different degrees of voice changing, so that the low-pitch wasn’t too low and the hi-pitch wasn’t too squeaky.
Generate success criteria for computer games with the children using Spicynodes. The children could have a baseline target for how many of the different elements to include in their games, for example 3. Here’s an example of a success criteria we created earlier:
Part 4: Making games
Children work in friendship pairs to create their games. They use wallwisher as a working wall to document their ideas and queries. We liked the idea of this in principle, but we found that in practise it was clunky and we’d prefer to have it for refernce at all times – not just in ICT.
Part 5: Poll rating
In the final stage of the unit of work the children present the work to a panel of Dragons. This can be supported with a poll on the class blog for children to vote for their favourite game.
Guy, M. (n.d.) What is a Computer Programmer? [online]. Available from: http://www.wezs.com/~danguy/monguy/CP.html [Accessed 21st October 2012].
Computer programming was explored in the first year of my course. We looked at how programming could be introduced early in the primary school through the use of floor and basic on-screen turtles.
This was developed further by looking at LOGO, developed by Papert in 1980. The aim of LOGO was not to create things, but to allow children to explore abstract mathematical ideas earlier than they usually would (Potter and Darbyshire, 2005). LOGO requires detailed subject knowledge before using it, including understanding of geometry, angles and directions, hence why it was not taught until later in Key Stage 2 (Easingwood, 2008).
There has since been a shift in the role of ICT in schools. The national curriculum for ICT lost its legal force in September 2012, although the subject remains statutory and the government has said this will continue to be the case. The government has also stated it wants to see an increase in the teaching of computer programming.
This increase has been supported by reports by NESTA and The Royal Society, both of which state that there should be a shift in school from an ICT curriculum focusing on “office skills” to one that focuses on computer programming. There’s also a video online from the Royal Society, which overviews the changes they think should happen to ICT in schools. One of their main recommendations is to restructure ICT, with a greater focus placed on computer programming and its importance in the wider world.
An interesting article on ReadWriteWeb considers the changing role of ICT in schools, questioning if being able to write code could become as important as learning to speak or write. It does conclude that this is unlikely, although it is interesting to think about how this would change things. Furthermore, it underlines the seriousness with which the move towards introducing computer programming is being taken in schools.
This shift has been supported by the development of Code Clubs, designed to provide children aged 10 and 11 with the basics of computer programming. There is an aim for 25% of schools to be running such clubs by 2014.
The software used in these clubs is not based around LOGO, instead using a free programme called Scratch. This programme was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
We tried this programme in our second ICT session. At first I was worried that it was going to be laborious and uninspiring, like LOGO was. However, this was not the case at all! This programme requires a “drag-and-drop” approach to programming, instead of typing in code, making it very easy to pick up and use.
This is a PacMan-style game that I managed to produce in about 45 minutes, which I created following a tutorial and though tinkering with the software. The aim of the game is to collect the bones. Before starting the game you need to press the green flag to activate the maze.
As you can see the game isn’t finished. I could improve the game in a whole host of ways, such as by adding a timer, improving the visual appearance of the maze and by adding PacMan-like ghosts. But I think it’s a good start, especially when compared to what I was able to make in LOGO (see left).
Other games can be made using the Scratch cards from the MIT website and there are lots of ideas on Helen’s blog. I particularly like the diagram she’s included, which shows computer programming as a cycle. This was originally developed by the MIT lab.
This cycle shows that maybe I don’t need to be the person who makes the changes to my game, instead other people in the internet community can come and develop it. Indeed this is what the tagline of the software emphasises: “imagine. program. share”.
The online community on scratch’s website help to develop each other’s work to make it better.
For example, the above Pacman has been edited by 84 people to improve it. This editing can get complicated, as the work goes backwards and forwards between people, as this remix visualisation shows.
An interesting article by Olabe et al. (2011) states that Scratch was built for social computing and that this is an essential part of the software. I would take this further and argue that this social nature is at the heart of what ICT should be all about.
References:
Easingwood, N. (2008) Teaching Information and Communication Technology: The Practice. In: Boys, R. and Spink, E. (eds.) Primary Curriculum: Teaching the Core Subjects. London: Continumm. pp. 156-169.
Potter, F. and Darbyshire, C. (2005) Understanding and teaching the ICT National Curriculum. London: David Fulton.
This post aims to serve two purposes. It is partly aimed at meeting the university assignment criteria that this blog was originally set up as part of. This requires proof of “other’s engagement” and I hope this post provides evidence towards this.
As you can see the game isn’t finished. I could improve the game in a whole host of ways, such as by adding a timer, improving the visual appearance of the maze and by adding PacMan-like ghosts. But I think it’s a good start, especially when compared to what I was able to make in LOGO (see left).
