cs4hs New Zealand

CS4HS New Zealand has finsihed, here are some of the notes that were taken at the end.

what are you planning on doing in 2014

• Learn python
• do 3.44
• Review database plans
• do python
• introduce cs 1.44
• have a go with 3.44
• To look at level 2 and 3 computer science, support what they are doing.
• Programming and digital media combined, with javascript, code avengers
• Fun things for year 10
• waterfall process for planning, development, depth. Rather than just in time agile.
• industry visits
• , preparation
• level 3 course to be more graphic orientated, computer graphics
• do the edem626 course
• cs externals and work together to develop,
• develop a cluster of teachers
• javascript into level 2
• formalise coding club, digital badges,
• edem626 course
• not doubling up on work, using other work to deliver
• ready for level 3 programming
• using databases for one standard and doing regular expressions on the standard to show evidence - practical application.
• getting network protocols chapter sorted to build on top of the infrastructure standard
• Who will you keep in touch with

What questions still need answering?

• Computer clubs to get stronger, dynamic, connected to each other
• How can I get capable students work placement, get out of the school
• Rural is an issue…
• Tour through leading companies
• Sponsor some students to experience companies through google
• NZOI New Zealand Informatic Olympiad (STAR funding)
• Catalyst High School Academy
• Codeavengers
• mashup
• Ministry of Awesome
• How do I encourage the students to come to digital technologies, when it was easy, but now it is hard.
• Credit values for work… This is a new subject, new to the area, we are doing too much for the work…
• Resources that show achieved, merit, excellence.
• Each of the sections and what they got 1.44, 2.44
• how would a video presentation be shown…
• 1.44 why is only 3 credits not 4, doesn’t help with endorsement(14 credits),
• Is there such as things as an IT labourer, what does the non IT professional look like?
• IT Labourer, installation, infrastructure, training and support?
• Developing a range of courses

What is missing?

• Need a DT scholarship
• Literature credits - internal standards need to count for these
• Standards need to last us at least 4 years, they need to be holistic and not dependant on one type of software/application, flexible

Notes from the Unconference

• More computer science for the junior school
• CS Unplugged, more fun activities for juniors/seniors?
• Department of Fun Stuff! Engagement,
• Scratch at Level One, Lower it down to the junior levels, python happening at level one
• Bringing more Science into the junior school, confidence for year 13 class, bring programming in.
• 5 minute things that can be included within the class, lots of little things.

• Just do it!, teach the standards
• Getting intermediate students involved
• Be more adventurous with teaching
• Change from scratch to python
• Using technology to be more mobile while teaching - Splashtop app
• Do more generics, and more CS, using 3.14
• Bridge the gap between what we are going to teach, and how to assess it. Feeling less confident about how to assess than about how to teach.
• Scalability of assessment is difficult

Year 13 digital media ideas

Thinking about projects for students

Virtual rugby competition

Testing system for computing skills, an alternative to moodle

Feedback system for me

Competition system for judging

Spelling quiz

MySQL php system out of the yoobee book could be a good start

Also look for ideas out of last years ideas for digital media apps for the school, most of these require a database to run

I don't know how this would work,
There needs to be a brief, outline what they are trting to do and what outcomes are needed. Inputs and output requirements. Needs to have wireframing and developments of the look and feel of the site. The student could create a fantastic backend, but if the frontend looks bad, its not going to be used.

But this was posted tonight,

now this links to a website which ranks schools in auckland

now, thats not really what I want to get into at this point. Instead it has given me an idea, 

For Level 3 Digital Technologies, students need to create a relational database, we have all the school information available to us through education counts http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/directories/list-of-nz-schools

Which also provides us with, 

Description of Variables

Variables	Description
School Number	Unique number assigned to each institution
School Name	Full name of each institution
Telephone	Telephone number for each institution, including area code
Fax	Facsimile number for each institution, including area code
Email	Email address for appropriate administrative contact for institution
Principal	Current principal at school
Street	Street for location address
Suburb	Suburb for location address
City	Town or city for location address
Postal Address 1	P O Box, Private Bag or rural delivery number for postal address
Postal Address 2	Suburb for Postal Address
Postal Address 3	Town or city for Postal Address
Postal Code	Postcode used by NZ Post for Postal Address
School Type	Type for each institution
Definition	Definition provides further descriptive information on the type of each institution
Authority	Describes the ownership/operation or registration status of each educational institution
Gender of Students	School gender i.e. Gender of students that schools cater for
Territorial Local Authority	The territorial authority area the school is located in.  The territorial authority boundaries are defined by Statistics New Zealand.
Regional Council	The regional council area the school is located in.  Regional Council boundaries are defined by Statistics New Zealand.
Census Area Unit	The census area unit area each school is located in.  Census Area Unit boundaries are defined by Statistics New Zealand.
Ward	The Ward area the school is located in. Wards are subdivisions of territorial authorities.
Ministry of Education Local Office	Ministry of Education Local Office district each institution is located in
General Electorate	General electoral district for the area where an institution is located. Based on the electoral boundaries for the 2008 election
Māori Electorate	Māori electoral district for the area where an institution is located. Based on the māori electoral boundaries for the 2008 election.
Longitude	Longitudinal co-ordinate where the institution is located.
Latitude	Latitudinal co-ordinate where the institution is located.
Decile	A schools decile indicated the extent to which the school draws its students from the low socio-economic communities. Decile 1 schools are the 10% of schools with the highest proportion of students from the low socio-economic communities, whereas decile 10 schools are the 10% of schools with the lowest proportion of these students. A schools decile does not indicate the overall socio-economic mix of the school.
School Rolls	The most up-to-date roll data available.  The roll information will be older that the date of the release of the directory.

Everything someone needs to present information about a school... I love the Longitude and Latitude parts, could make for some interesting Google Maps, but that is not what I am on about at present.

Now, the students would need to gather all the standards that NCEA has to offer, but wait, this is the other relational table, 

Standard Number, Domain, Name, Credits, Internal/External

Simple enough, could try getting the information out of NZQA or out of a student that I know that has it from another school. 

The last part, getting every single secondary schools curriculum guide, be it online or having to get it from the school itself!

Now, do we do this for just one subject area, say Digital Technologies, or do we look at the bigger picture? How would we go about categorising all the courses that are on offer within schools?

Could make for an interesting project.

Brief development, with database with digital media on top and prototyping, credit values 4, 6, 4, 6, it makes a 20 credit project for a student.

The work involved is immense, but I think this could be done. 

---------

UPDATE: Through a tweet this morning,

@ I am thinking of getting students to create a new http://whichschool.co.nz

@ Sounds like a good brief. Also makes students consider relevant data too!

@ I like the comment "relevant data"

This is something that we need to start thinking about, relevant data, I know a majority of teachers have used the information from the resource, which related to a DVD store, but as someone posted in a tweet

@ Yep, I know what you mean... ("What's a DVD sir? I just stream stuff off the net!") ;-)

Are we being relevant with the contexts that we are giving our students.
I now need to make sure that what is being suggested will work with the standard.

UPDATE: One thing that worries me, is that how do I know that a project is complex enough. this is something that haunts me from my polytech days. 

microframeworks

I have been looking over the holidays at flask, http://flask.pocoo.org/ it is a microframework used to create websites with python backends. This could provide a link between programming and web development.

The reason why I have gone down this track is that I have been looking at Computer Science and Technology for Urban Youth. http://cstuy.org/

This looks to be a path that students could get interested in, I have been looking at a program that that are associated with, stuycs githib source and investigating the idea...

https://github.com/stuycs-softdev

This look to have merits and where I think effort should goto.

We need to start getting students to think about the bigger picture with this, and with where we are at the

moment we need to see some good resources come out. But it does come down to, who is going to create the resources. Should this be being created by the owners of the Standards, which are the Ministry of Education, or should it be the association that comes up with the resources for this...

UPDATE: If on python check out django.
https://www.djangoproject.com/
This uses the python language as well.

Setting up django on the Raspberry pi http://blog.mattwoodward.com/2013/01/setting-up-django-on-raspberry-pi.html

UPDATE http://gettingstartedwithdjango.com/