Families and ICT

This week holds two important days – ‘International Day of Families’ on Friday 15th May and ‘Information Society Day’ on Sunday 17th May. To recognise these, we have made one of our apps (usually £1.49) free for 7 days – as it combines aspects of both.

The app is aimed at 8-11 year olds. It's all about a family who love technology – and use it for various reasons – but keep forgetting their passwords. It’s a very relevant problem, and one I think we can all relate to. The family – Bob, Barbara, Ben and Bella – come up with a way to create unique, safe and easy-to-remember passwords.

In order to do this, they think of building a simple algorithm, hence the name ‘Bob’s Algorithm’. So, through Bob and his family discussing how the algorithm works, students learn what an algorithm is by the use of variables and some simple logic. As well as this, students’ attention is also brought to digital literacy – keeping personal information private.

If you haven’t used Digital Mysteries before, then as a quick summary, it is a way of learning through collaboration. The unique technology we use allows two students to work on it at the same time, on one iPad. Throughout solving the task, the pair must discuss what they’re reading, think of names for groups (to organise their ideas) and negotiate an answer to “Can you write the algorithm in one line and show what the password would be for a different person and website?”

• The app - click here or search 'algorithm mystery' on the App Store
• Free trial of Windows PC/laptop version - click here
• Email info@reflectivethinking.com for a free PDF version to print out

More information on the awareness days

International Day of Families #DayofFamilies

This day, “proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993, provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families.” It has inspired awareness raising across the world and in many areas provides opportunity to highlight different areas of importance or interest.

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day #WTISD

While this day is commemortated every year, 2015 marks an important anniversary – 150 years since the International Telegraph Convention, ‘an intergovernmental treaty that established the basic principles for international telegraphy’. From these origins on which WTISD is based, the day’s purpose is to help raise awareness of the possibilities the use of the internet and ICT can bring to society.