Over the past semester, I have been working with an integrated module, NOGRAM, linking drama and technology.
Planning document
We have been looking at how to create resources and ideas for teaching year 5 students aspects of computer science. Students investigated ideas from the csunplugged.org website, as well as differing activities within class.
Today was the learning and teaching aspect of this, where students got to teach another group and discuss their resources.
What was put on the board weeks ago.
Here are some of the photos from today's teaching lessons.
What has come out of this...
Some of the discussion at the end,
One of the fantastic resources one of the students has made, though need to get them to share the documents that have been created in google drive.
This week I had an email around last weeks Data Representation work. In the email there were a few comments that I found rather interesting. I include part of it below. The whole entire focus is one around assessment, at the junior level. I must say I read this 5 times trying to understand why? Why the subject requiring 32 credits per semester? Why the assessment driven curriculum? To be clear, the following is not the school that I work at, we work towards Learning Objectives based on our Learning Design Model and NZC 2007, we report on curriculum level and progression, based upon rubrics.
We have a junior diploma which is all about credits, each subject does 32 credits per semester. If an assessment is worth say 12 credits, they'll get 12 credits for getting excellence, 9 for merit and 6 for achieved or something like that. Then students get A/M/E for their junior diploma overall based on how many credits they got out of credits available.
IMHO it's awful because our junior curriculum is assessment driven. Sure we get to decide on the topics and how the assessments work, but once that has been done we still get stuck having to balance covering what's needed for the assessment, and trying to make it catered to their interests. See, we decide on the topics before we meet our classes and then we're locked in, there's not much room for "Hey you guys are fully interested in binary, let's spend a week on data representation (and make some movies like Gerard's class did" because we have to give them a decent shot at their assessments.
To be clear, a week in my classroom for this module, is one and a half hours on a Thursday. As part of our SPIN, Special Interest Module. I include the following on what is being covered.
The work I am developing towards is Technological Systems under the Technology Curriculum, The work you saw as part of the videos and page was on part of the Computer Science module that runs over 13.5 hours
I am using the basis of the computer science badges that the University of Canterbury, Computer Science Education Department developed.
Students will then work through algorithms and finish off with HCI.
Data Representation
The core concept of this topic is the binary digit, which is the basis of all data storage and transmission on digital computers. Students should be familiar with the role of a bit, combinations of bits (such as a byte), and their use to represent numbers, characters and images. This work does not include compressed representations (e.g. mp3, jpeg).
For a student to be successful they need to :
Demonstrate the ability to work with binary and hexadecmimal numbers by showing how to:
manually convert between binary and decimal for numbers up to 8 bits.
Demonstrate the ability to manually convert between hexadecimal and binary for arbitrary numbers, and to convert between hexadecimal and decimal for numbers up to 255.
Demonstrate how to count and add in binary.
Explain how an 8-bit characters are typically stored on a computer.
Explain a system for representing colours with numbers. This might be one of:
Web page colour specification (6-digit hex values)
Colour picker in publishing software that allows RGB or HSV values to be chosen as three numbers
Photo processing software that gives the RGB or HSV value of chosen pixels
Demonstrate a data representation that has a choice of bit sizes, and explain the significance of the different representations. Examples that could be used include:
8-bit and 16-bit characters
24-bit and 8-bit colour
Other Examples could include:
16-bit and 8-bit sound files
56-bit and 128-bit encryption
IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
MAC addresses using MAC-48, EUI-48, and EUI-64
MIDI representation of notes, patch numbers and channels
Convey the concepts of data representation to someone who doesn't know about the topic. This might be:
A short video suitable for non-experts explaining a key aspect of the topic
Introducing it effectively to someone who is considering doing the module themselves
Creating effective quiz questions (e.g. in Peerwise)
The work they did last week in their second class was conveying a concept of data representation suitable for a non expert.
On Wednesday night I stayed a bit later at school to work on the relief for the next day, as I had a meeting in Wellington. I started last week teaching the students the beginning of data representation using bits.
One of the best resources to support teachers is csunplugged.com
Using the resources the focus was teaching the students to learn binary up to 32 places.
This provides them the start of being able to develop the language required. Symbols also help provide clarity for students as well as they are able to see it visually.
I thought about what we have been talking about at school recently and the focus of my teaching as inquiry. I need to think about how I present some of my information.
So I thought of what Georgi has been suggesting that I do, and that is to start creating videos to help for those visual learners.
The first video is of the instructions for today showing two forms of data representation. One using chalk in the carpark, the other using cards. Using the titles at the start to include what was required. Though next time I might change it to be my voice.
On my way to the meeting I thought I needed to include a representation of a message. Thanks to the wonderful flight attendants who cooperated with the request.
How was the lesson. Going by a few of the glass walls around the school and comments from the teachers, they are seeing binary being used around the school. To have a message come through my my phone at 2:39pm form a student with the correct code answer also showed that they were developing their understanding.
I look forward to next week when the student receives the prize, The Air New Zealand lollies.
I plan on teaching ASCII and unicode next. Considering this week was Maori Language Week it would have been a great discussion.
Schools should explore not only how ICT can supplement traditional ways of teaching but also how it can open up new and different ways of learning" -The NZ Curriculum (p36)
