Developing Digital Skills in my Classroom : Module 4

Showing posts with label Module 4. Show all posts

10.12.2015

Internet of Things

The last part of the module is about the Internet of Things. This is an emerging trend, not just in education, but also globally.

What is the Internet of Things?

The Internet of Things refers to things that are connected to the Internet. This can be anything from refrigerators, thermostats, toothbrushes.

These gadgety things collect data about the way you use them and help you make your lifestyle improvements along the way.

Learnometer

It is basically a small sensor, which is Internet-enabled, which measures classroom light levels, temperature and humidity, sound volume and rhythms, air pollution and CO2 and also air pressure. And the great thing about this of course is that if we actually clicked with this information, we can actually then start to do things that might improve the learning environment. For example, put more windows in, or maybe put some sound proofing in, or maybe think about how we would reduce air pollution in the local area.

Muzzley

muzzley.com allows us to start to link things that are connected to the Internet both in our homes, on our bodies, and also in the local community as well. Muzzley is putting all your smart devices to work together in a way that adapts to your preferences. No wires, no hubs, no fuss. Just your smartphone and the devices you love.

Open.Sen.se allows us again to turn flows of information to action by triggering online applications. Things become smart, versatile and interact in real time with remote things.

littleBits is an Internet-enabled sort of components which you could plug together and link via your own Wi-Fi. It means that you can set things up, draw the curtains in the room, or also turn lights on and off. It is a great way to start to introduce young people to the Internet of Things.

Adafruit Flora Sensor Pack is these little micro-sensors that can actually be sown on to clothing, and young people can programme these to flash, depending on what the conditions are like in the room around them, whether it is hot, whether it is cold, or whether there is any sort of movement.

Dangers of the facts when everything becomes programmable

Anything that is driverless, driven by a computer and linked to the Internet is able to be hacked, whether we are talking about driverless transporting devices or medical devices like heart pacemakers.

Here you can see an example of smart pants which tell you when it's toilet time. Click on the picture and watch the video from Reuters.

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Educational Robotics - Getting Started Activities

There are many examples that demonstrate that we can increase the interest in STEM subjects if we change the way in which we work, starting from the first grade of schooling. Tullia Urschitz gives us some suggestions, selected from some of her lessons, on how to make children grow many competences, starting from problem solving, math skills and digital literacy.

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Educational Robotics - Introduction

Never before we had so many physical and virtual resources that we could potentially use with our students, from Bee-Bot to Lego WeDo to Lego Mindstorm kits. There really are now a rich variety of resources out there and if we cannot afford the physical resources, our rich variety of virtual simulated resources to help young people get better and better at working with machines and working with robots.

Bo and Yana is a great example of that.

We have also got Cubelets and we have also got the SPRK Sphero as well.

Technological tools may promote inclusion; that means that talented students and students with learning difficulties can easily work together.

The use of Educational Robotics encourages students in guided discovery and in problem solving.
Students get used to work in teams to solve problems, find solutions and verify results.
Robotics combine the reconstruction of the knowledge that the students get during the school activities, with creation, invention and conceptualisation, developing skills and competences along the way
Robotics involves students with different cultures, linguistic heritage, age, learning styles, gender.
It increases the learning motivation
It helps to develop entrepreneurship
The continued exchange of ideas among the members of the group enables the improvement of communicative skills

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App Development - Touch Develop

In this video, what we are going to be looking at is how we might use Microsoft TouchDevelop to develop apps.

Key features of touch develop

You can use it on any device. It's cross plattform. Once the app is developed it is accessible from any device.

It has got text and blocks.

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App Development - Getting Started

This part is about app development. There are lot sof different ways to develop apps, so Ollie is going to drive our attention to some websites and services for apps developing.

The first site is Apps for Good, which is a UK based charity, but one can have access to many things like apps that have been developed by children in previous school years.

The next service he is presenting is a service called Appshed, which is all about creatingapps. There's an education version but there is also a normal version.

You don't need to have extendended knowledge about computer programming. There a lot of videos on the youtube channel of AppShed.

See an example

The next service is Touch Develop from Microsoft. You can create apps for your phone, your tablet or your laptop and once it is developed it is completely cross plattform.

Finally Ollie presents a work that he has done for Microsoft. He developed an App Challenge, a set of video tutorials using design thinking priciples to help young people to develop an app. This resource is free and you can download it here.

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Coding - Links to other subjects

Ollie shows us how we could use computer programming or computer coding to be able to link to other subjects.

Computer coding has got a massive potential for cross-curricula project work. We can see examples of cross curricula projects from all over Europe.

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Coding - Pair Programming

Ollie presents a video about pair programming which comes from code.org. The main issue that code.org wants to point out is the significance of successfull teamworking. The pair programming means that two people can work together to create a computer programme.

In pair programming you work as a team, because two heads are better than one.

Each team member has a different role. The driver sits at the computer and is the one using the keyboard, mouse or touch screen and controlling the main actions of the computer.

The other person is the navigator. The navigator helps the driver by answering the driver's questions and pointing out potential problems or mistakes.

Communication is the key for successful pair programming.

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10.08.2015

Coding - Getting Started

Ollie presents at the beginning a video to illustrate the importance of coding. It is a very inspiring video from the website m ade w/ code, a website where you can find numerous resources and projects. Further more you can participate in a community, where ideas can be exchanged and codes can be shared.

Ollie introduces after the video the tools that are needed for coding. He reffers to a wide-ranging set of tools, from tools that are specifically designed to help teachers and young people understand programming languages, such as HTML and CSS, JavaScript, IQuiery, PHP, Python and Ruby on the one hand. But on the other hand, also, more simple programming languages, such as those based on the Blockly programme language or programming languages that have been developed to support certain applications such as Scratch and Kodu.

Ollie starts with the Barclays Code Playground, ,which is aimed at younger children and works well on tablet computer. It helps understand a little bit more about HTML and how it works.

The next website he presents is a website already mentioned above, made w/ code by Google. It specifically aimed at getting girls into computing a little bit more. It͛s got some tutorials and helps understanding the HTLM. It also contains an introduction to a similar code language to Blockly.

The next website to present is scratch, by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a programming language which has been mentioned many times. It uses a Blockly type code language, like LEGO blocks. It͛ is also great for games development as well as animation. There are lots of tutorials available for Scratch. Also there is a Scratch junior version available as well exclusively for the Android platform and for the iPad.

The next programming language is kodu by Microsoft. Kodu helps young people to understand the processes of programming. Kodu is only available for the PC but it is a rich programming language which gives young people instant feedback

Microsoft also developed touch develop. In touch develop you develop on the Microsoft Windows platform. Once you have actually developed your apps or websites, they work well on iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux etc. etc.

Code.org originates from the U.S.A. There are a lot of resources to try and get young people motivated about coding. Also you can find links to a number of other tutorials where you can learn languages such as HTML, HTML5 or JavaScript. Further more there are a lot of interesting exercises.

The next webside is Code Academy. It is a great website for students that want to use and want to learn about programming and coding. They can pick a language, work their way through it in simple, easy to understand exercises. They can earn digital badges along the way and at the end of it. They can showcase their work. They can participate in communities to exchange ideas and get support.

Khan Academy is mentioned here, because one can learn a lot of things from there. Also there are many tutorials that young people can work through to learn about computer coding.

html5rocks.com is a Google project about HTML5. HTML5 is what the modern Web is built on. Many Internet-enabled and mobile phone applications are built on HTML5.

The Codeplayer.com is a little bit different. Instead of giving you step-by-step tutorials, you can watch a video of somebody developing an app or developing a website, or developing a part of a website. It is very appealing to visual learners.

MIT open courseware are a number of courses from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which are available online. You can learn about computer science and you could learn about programming at a level which is equivalent to higher education.

W3schools.com 's target group are not students. Their target group of this site are web developers. The tutorials are offered for free, but an assessment is not cost free.