Hour of Code Week (7th-13th December)

Just a quick post from us - did you know our Director Dr. Ahmed Kharrufa also works at Newcastle University? He is involved with many things but one, this week, is particularly relevant: SOLE CODE, a computational thinking after-school club. They have organised a brilliant event as 7th-13th December marks Hour of Code Week, organised by Code.org.

From the brilliant SOLE CODE team:

"We are organising a 2-days transcontinental event, where we link 9 - 11 years old children from Amberley Primary School, Newcastle (UK) and John B Russwurm PS197, an elementary school in Harlem, New York (USA) to take part in the international Hour-of-Code.

Day 1:
On Wednesday 9 December (2pm GMT: 9am EST), the children will be taking part in the same Hour-of-Code tutorial at the same time and discussing their progress on Twitter with teachers and researchers from Newcastle University’s SOLE Central using #solehour hashtag (Anne Preston is our Twitter host).

Day 2:
On Friday 11 December (2pm GMT: 9am EST), the two schools will host a SOLE CODE session, during which the children will be connected over Skype. In the SOLE CODE session, we will challenge the children to bug the famous Flappy game. If you do not know the story behind Flappy, this Forbes piece is a good start.

Some of us discovered a possible heritage link and/ or shortcut between Newcastle and New York. They went to explore it (see photos below). They hope to join the connected classroom from the other side of the Ocean next Friday. We wish them best of luck (they need it) with homeland security officers at US borders.

To support us please follow @SOLECODE_NCL, retweet about #solehour and about our connected classroom on Friday."

Why is learning to code important?

Code Week EU  is 10th – 18th October 2015. This initiative aims to bring coding and digital literacy to everybody, in a fun and engaging way.

The question is though, why?

Well, as they mention on their website, the way we live has changed dramatically. The way we work, communicate, shop and think. Learning to code doesn’t just build a sense of how tech works, but also helps people to develop skills to adapt to living in this new era.

There are ways to get involved – we’ve summarised them from the Code Week EU website.

Organise an event
-    Toolkit for organisers
-    Add an event here

Code Week EU ambassadors are on hand to help, just click here for more information.

Join an event

-    Look for an event near you
-    Here’s a list of resources to help get you started

Can’t organise an event or join one? Then spread the word!
-    Code Week EU blog

-    Join in on Twitter with #CodeEU and @CodeWeekEU or Like and Share on Facebook

Last but not least, is our own suggestion: Get stuck in!

There is some great advice out there on coding/programming/computing. This is regardless of your level of knowledge, understanding or experience with these topics. This comes in many forms – experts’ blog posts (see ICT Evangelist for a good start), websites (Computing At School) or through exploring Twitter hashtags. You could also explore our blog – see ‘Which programming language should you choose?’ and ‘What is computational thinking?’ for some interesting ideas.

To support the initiative, we have made our computing apps 3 for the price of 1. For the whole of Code Week.

There are six apps – three for 8-11 year olds and three for 11-14s. They cover lots of different topics and ideally, they are worked on in small groups. You only need one iPad per small group though, as that’s how the apps are designed.

Each bundle of three apps is £1.49/€1.99/US$1.99 – which is the cost of ONE app on its own.

8-11 years: click here
11-14 years: click here

8-11 years

11-14 years

How to teach programming logic with an app bundle

In recent times, there has been a large interest in helping children across the world develop skills related to programming. While some countries refer to it slightly differently, the concept and content remains very similar.

Computing has made its way into national curriculums, brought about lots of initiatives across the world and has also had a lot of attention in the media – it is now seen as a vital skill for young people to be learning.

While there are many great apps across different technologies for introducing students to actually writing code themselves, the question is, what is the best way to learn the ‘computational thinking’ and 'programming logic' side of coding?

For this very reason, we created some unique apps to help deliver this. They have been out for a while as individual apps but we have now made them into bundles; so you get three for the price of two.

There is one for age 8-11 year olds and one for age 11-14 year olds:

8-11 year olds: www.bit.ly/DMcomputing1

11-14 year olds: www.bit.ly/DMcomputing2

Let us know how you've approached this topic in your class with a comment, we're really interested in hearing your ideas.

How can KS3 use the logic behind coding without coding?

There are many useful coding tools which are doing wonders in classrooms. The question is though, what’s the best way for KS3 to learn the ‘computational thinking’ side of coding; part of the new computing curriculum?

It could be argued it’s to introduce students by using ‘real-life’ topics which they can relate to and get excited by. Small groups of students can discuss and debate certain situations, exploring what they may or may not do. The important thing to note is that these topics don’t even need to be directly coding-related.

Take, for example, each group being asked to ‘help’ a team of game developers decide whether they should make their new athletics game browser-based or for a console. They’re given short snippets of information on the dilemma such as how certain languages don’t allow for amazing 3D graphics, whereas others may make multiplayer easier.

Much of the decision depends on what features they see as most important, but also facts on actual programming languages. Students become engaged because they’ll be discussing their own personal opinions, imagining themselves ‘in’ the position of the gamer but also the developer too. While doing this, they’re being introduced to the kind of real-life decisions coders make every day.

This mystery in particular introduces programming languages at a higher level than specific details of languages, but gets across the point that in many cases, as a coder, compromises must be made.

There are two other computing mysteries for KS3 students to solve, and all come with three levels of difficulty. As a summary, one is a ‘whodunit’ which introduces students to Boolean Logic and the other asks groups to think of a solution to sorting out lots of new books.

If you’d like to try these tasks out at your school (plus have access to a Mystery Creator), we have a special Christmas offer.

Buy Digital Mysteries before Christmas and we’ll give you 50% off our usual price (12 month subscription). You and your students can get started shortly after you order, yet your official 12 months won’t begin until the New Year.

For £200, have your whole class using these tasks, as well as access to over 30 other KS3/4 mysteries in various subjects. To find out more, click here.