Previous Page
Page 30
Teachnology
Ann Logan explores a site that teaches primary age children the roots of computer programming through a fun after-school club.
Up to Scratch
Even young pupils can now create software programs – it’s cool, fun and easy. This is the message from Code Club, an after-school project that helps pupils aged ten and 11 learn to write computer programs. It uses lesson plans based on the UK curriculum and involves students in using Scratch, a clever programming tool developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Scratch helps students understand programming concepts without having to learn a whole programming language. They can group together individual programming statements, presented graphically as blocks, to create animations, music, stories and more.
This ‘block’ approach helps them focus on the logic of the project they want to create. It also develops their understanding of the key concepts of programming, such as loops and variables, without having to learn a programming language right away.
To create a program, pupils snap the blocks together to form a stack. The blocks will only fit together in ways that make programming sense, so pupils end up with a cartoon, a moving image, or even a computer game. This is a visual drag-and-drop approach to computer programming.
Each Code Club session lasts an hour after school each week and is run by a volunteer with an IT background. Volunteers use Scratch along with 12 weeks of lesson plans created by the Code Club team.
Students can upload their work on to the Scratch website and learn from what others have done. By creating and sharing projects, students develop skills such as problem-solving and product design. They learn to think systematically about the steps involved in developing their programs and how to work together.
The Code Club team hopes to inspire children to write code, encourage teachers to understand the importance of programming, and offer IT specialists the opportunity to teach the programmers of tomorrow (as volunteers).
Code Club plans to establish after-school coding clubs in a quarter of UK primary schools by 2014. Over 1500 volunteers and 100 schools have already signed up.
If you are interested in having a Code Club volunteer set up a project in your school, visit the site and complete the form.
My ICT favourites
Stuart Barton is a media studies teacher at Sunbury Manor School in Surrey.
Favourite software
Comic Life is a brilliantly simple piece of software which allows students to create comic books by importing their own photos. There are templates, speech bubbles, and the software is intuitive. Most features are ‘drag and drop’. It is great for creating visual narratives with SEN students, as it is so easy to use.
Favourite gadget
My favourite gadget has to be my scanner. It is extremely useful to be able to take a magazine or newspaper, scan it and put a full colour copy into your lesson resources. I also scan students’ original drawings. They can then manipulate them using Photoshop, and combine hand drawn and digitally produced artwork.
Favourite websites
www.dafont.com is a great resource allowing students to download custom fonts for use in most programs. There’s a huge range, categorised by theme. Fonts are simple to download and install, and can make any type of design coursework look more professional.
www.filmeducation.org is a charity promoting the use of film in the curriculum. It provides excellent resources on its website, and will post you lesson ideas and DVD resources if you register. It organises the excellent National Schools Film Week, where hundreds of free cinema screenings are available for students.
www.teachit.co.uk has a fantastic bank of free high quality resources for English and media studies. The resources are relevant to current national curriculum and GCSE specifications and range from primary to A level, categorised by subject and content.
Which websites, software and gadgets help you most in your professional life? Email your favourites to teacher@nut.org.uk by 23 July and you could see them published in the September/October edition of The Teacher. You’ll also win a £15 Pizza Express gift card courtesy of Countdown – see page 45.