Google NZ CS Partnership Summit

This week I have been lucky to be part of the first CS Partnership summit in New Zealand, representing NZACDITT. An initiative that was brought to us by the Hutt City Libraries. This brought Google as well as all the main people in New Zealand having an impact of CS education at primary, secondary and some of the tertiary providers that offer CS4HS together to talk about next steps.

It has been a pretty full on day, hearing about the past CS partnership summits, some of the stats from Google about the issues that Australia is facing and the opportunities that this is bringing as well. Hearing about the action that have taken place in New Zealand with the Digital Technologies curriculum at senior levels that other countries would like to have.

A favourite from the “godfather” Tim Bell, is him talking about the computation of finding a route, then adding in 4 more places that you have to go to, then adding in 16 more. How long will that take to find the best route. Considering the amount of calculations that have to be done, there are just some problems that take years to find out. Why is this important, and how does learning Computer Science help with these problems.

The use of parity checks is also shown, and a quick looking back soon finds a bar code that can be tested. The other is a look at human machine interaction and how having a cancel button that is green and a conform button that is orange plays with people into causing them to have not a good experience with a webpage. I wish that he would use some of the examples that have been developed in the csfieldguide.org.nz to help illustrate some of these to help people see the development of the resource.

Moving onto the stats, how has the development of the Digital Technologies curriculum impacted on the amount of students, number of schools offering these standards. How can we get more school interested in teaching these standards.

The issues of PLD and resources are always quick to be brought up. But these need to be drilled down and given actions and responsibility to someone to help make a difference. That’s what the rest of the day worked towards.

Having lightening talks given by some of the groups at the meeting helped develop an understanding of what are highlights of their offerings, as well as what is making it hard for them. Listening to their ideas and having some feedback from Google really helped to develop an understanding that what they are facing others have done before, and extra conversations would be needed to support them with their longer term strategies. 

Having the moonshot thinking of what are opportunities and barriers really helped, being able to write down what could be carried out if money, time and other barriers were removed. 5 minutes is too short a time to get all ideas written. These were then paired up with someone else and you were able to combine ideas, then working with the table and putting them into categories and ranking them from most important down. This helped everyone start to see opportunities that all groups were facing. Having to vote on what was important to us through dots helped people develop the understanding of what is important to the group.

How to deal with the PLD.

How to communicate better.

The curriculum.

Getting the message out.

The next 50 minutes seemed like it was 5 minutes, ideas on how to deal with these, what were some of the barriers, actions to be dealt with, how could they be validated, developing metrics. 

Then reporting back and having to work on key tasks, developing the actions a bit more, when were they to be actioned, by who, or what group was needed to make it happen.

This has lead to some pretty interesting ideas that are being followed up next week. 

I will make one comment, I thank the teachers and management team at HPSS around the work that they have been doing around developing growth mindsets, working with the students around moonshot thinking. I think that without developing that culture and ideas through the school.

One of the other participants of the summit has blogged about what makes for effective PLD - http://blog.core-ed.org/derek/2015/07/what-makes-for-effective-pld.html

Also I need to check out http://google-au.blogspot.co.nz/2015/07/careers-with-code-setting-up-our-young.html

The Wall

There is this wall at school. Not much happening with it. Wait till you see what we have planned for it. 

Challenge accepted

When I first came up with this SPIN I thought I would just go through and do the same old tasks in python that I had been doing with my students for the last couple of years. However, this place makes you want to challenge yourself.

That is what I have been doing over the past 10 weeks, challenging myself in what I am doing with my SPINs. In Term 1 I had a SPIN for programming where I used the programming language Scratch. This term I took it up a level to a text based programming language, called python. This is able to be freely downloaded and installed on the computers without having a licence which makes it work in our BYOD environment as well as being able to be installed on the school computers.

The challenge of programming is that sometimes it is just maths problems that get created and solved. I decided that I wanted to look at game development. Not your normal games of multiplayer environments in 3D. The simple games of Quizes, 8 Ball, Hangman, Paper Rock Scissors and High Low.

These are games which can be developed to increase in skill and ability. Perfect for a differentiated class. Why you might ask. The class that I teach is not just one year level. It is 4 year levels in one.
I have year 8, year 9, year 10, and year 11 in the same class. One thing is that we do not have the achievement standard to contend with. This is about the learning. Students come in with all levels of ability already, working the tasks into the different scaffolds helped. It meant that a student could still succeed. Working with groups of students around the class provided opportunities for support, most of the time it was a student asking before they tried the code themselves. They wanted the validation, yet the answer was almost always the same, "Have you tried it?"


A number of these ideas have come from other resources on the Internet, but being able to develop these and work them towards our students knowledge and understanding. Bringing in our schools Learning Design Model helps students understand the common language in our school as well as areas that they may need to look at and develop.

Using self assessment tools like SOLO taxonomy provides students with feedback and those next steps in their learning.

As I near the end of term, I reflect back at where we started with code being copied from the TV and whiteboard, through to now students planning, testing and developing work as an individual or peer programming. Through the use of other items such as playing cards for high low and working out what has to happen, and what steps are required. Through to playing hangman in class and working out the word, a list of letters tried and how many guesses left(which is interesting as some are as little as 8, where some have 16). Getting students to work out the planning through playing the games has helped immensely.

But one thing that still gets the students are the use of the less than and greater than signs (< >) in programs.
if num1 < num2 : # num1 is less than num2
if num1 > num2 : # num1 is greater than num2

Why is it so difficult?

Awareness of Digital Technologies

One thing I think people are struggling with is how many students are doing certain subjects, tonight I started playing around with an idea.

Showing the schools and how many students sat the standard.

Sitting down beside the fireplace

This week is a special time in my life, it is when I decided to go back to Christchurch four years ago. I took up a position at a traditional catholic school. I had been at my first teaching job for 8 years up till then. The move south opened up new friendships, new ideas and a great change for me, a subject area called Digital Technologies. Over the next two years through the school I tried new standards, sometimes the idea failed, but in others they helped developed new innovation and thinking for my students.

I look back fondly at the end of my time at my first school. It just so happened that my final week at the school the Whare Nui was opened.

This was an amazing event for staff and students. I often think back to the dawn ceremony and the pride that the community had that day, and since then.

Moving south that weekend, happened with the front bonnet of the car taped down as an unfortunate rain shower caused traffic to not be its normal self and I went into the back of another car. Snow and quakes were to show me the way the first couple of months at the school. Working on a different timetable as we were site sharing offered new challenges and new ways to look at assessments.

The classroom, although when I left the monitors and computers had changed.


One thing that stood out were the students. Throughout the rough times and travelling from all areas of Christchurch their learning continued on.

Watching areas of school coming down due to quake damage allowed thinking to happen about what would replace these areas. New classrooms with Modern Learning Environments. But how to make this change within a traditional school. 

Being able to attend conferences in Christchurch around Modern Learning Environments started me thinking about what this could look like. I was also able to attend a BYOD conference in Auckland at a new school. Going to this conference brought with me new ideas, I still remember saying in a session at the end with the teachers from my school, "This is the school I want to work at."

I still feel very lucky to have a position at the this school, to be thinking of new ideas, student centric learning, looking at what Modern Learning Practice is in reality, but there is one thing that I still miss, sitting beside a fire at night in winter staying warm after a day of teaching. It allows for reflection, to talk to others in the flat, and to think up new ideas.

I look forward to tomorrow and the challenges it may bring and where the next couple of years will take me.

changing it up

In the past, I plan at the beginning of end of each year and the beginning of the next what I will be doing with the students. I ask students what they want to do and work around that. It normally is the same each year and although you can innovate on some ideas there are always obstacles in the way. be it a trimester, school sports, special character activity, mid year exams, end of year exams. There seems to be always something that inhibits something.

I feel so far that there has not been the obstacles, Thursday is known as SPIN day, it is almost an obstacle free day. You know that the students will be there barring sickness. 

The one and a half hour sot allows you to focus, and as I have posted previously they do focus.

So far I have done with students, there is no year 9 and year 10 in the class, they are learners, nothing about what they have learnt the year before and building up. The course is structured in a way to help define curriculum levels, and the students work towards different levels based upon ability. I have year 10 students that could be working towards level 8 of the curriculum, and others that are working towards level 4.

Term One

Scratch programming

Webpage design using html5 and css3

Digital Information

Term Two

Python programming x 2

Sketchup

Planning term 3

Programming using hardware

Digital Media
Something special

Term Four,
waiting for student voice

The freedom to change your course up, try new thinks, be innovate, engage and inspire. 

To make this work we are using SOLO rubrics, for Digital technologies they are brought back from NZC level 6, since they do not exist at levels 4 and 5. However I am also working towards the Technology Curriculum at Levels 4 and 5 as well. So I have a skill and a Achievement Objective from Technology that I am covering.

As well as the SPINS that are changing, I am also changing Semesters, Going from an English/Digital technologies mix to a Health and Physical Education/Generic Technology mix. Currently this is still being developed on the HPSS Planning document. Through this I am working towards Brief Development under an Innovation Theme. The second half of the semester I am working with Functional Modelling under a Transformation theme, (I can see flexible filament in a 3d printer being used here) having a context to work under within the technology curriculum is amazing. 

Computational thinking, computational participation

Computational thinking represents an excellent starting point, the broader conception of "computational participation" better captures the twenty first century reality. Computational participation moves beyond the individual to focus on wider social networks and a DIY culture of digital "making".

In 2006, computer science professor Jeannette Wing coined the term computational thinking in a short essay that was published in communications of the association for computing machinery, the monthly journal of the world's largest professional organisation for computer scientists. She defined computational thinking broadly as all "aspects for designing systems, solving problems, and understanding human behaviours" that highlight the contributions of computer science. She argued that understanding the world computationally gives a particular lens to understanding problems and contributing to their solutions. Computational thinking is often associated solely with computer science, but it applies computer science principles to other disciplines to help break down the constituent elements of any problem, determine their relationship to each other and the greater whole, and then devise algorithms to arrived at an automated solution. Computational thinking is not limited to mathematics and the sciences, and it does not necessarily involve the use of a computer.
Jeanette Wing's essay on computational thinking provoked a wide range of responses within the computer science community and beyond. Members of a discipline often begin to define its essence by discussing its core ideas and contributions. But the effects of computational thinking have reached far beyond the boundaries of academic computer science, and it has become a catch-all term for what understanding computer science, and it has become a catch-all term for understanding what computer science can contribute to the increasing digital world in which we live. These discussions on computational thinking also noted that technology courses that teach only word processing and presentation software do not engage students in the deeper analysis needed to think creatively and critically with digital media. They also made clear that most young people know little about computer science as a discipline or the ways that they can apply it to their own daily lives. In short, computational thinking has become the rallying cry for those who study what youth need to know about computer science and what it means to think systematically about solving all types of problems, big and small.

Computational thinking has progressed since Jeanette Wing's 2006 article. What started as a concept now exists in curricula and pedagogy in K-12 schools and school based clubs across the country. Although computational thinking offers a framework for how to use technology more rigorously and critically in schools, there also remains a question of outcome. Teaching children to think more rigorously and critically is an admirable goal, but it is hardly a new one. Many curricula (in Ancient Greece, philosophy and rhetoric; in the nineteenth century, Latin; and in the twentieth  century, computer programming) were intended to develop more rigorous critical thinking. And despite the fact that many K-12 schools have had the machines for over 30 years, little progress has been made in programming education.

Those who would like to return programming to schools need to articulate an argument that extends beyond the common desire to make children more rigorous thinkers. Learning how to think is an admirable goal, but it is a limited conception of what programming affords young learners. If programming is promoted solely as a more effective way to think (and not as an effective way to communicate logically and creatively), then we will again fail to understand what teaching and learning code can afford us in a networked age. learning to code ultimately manifests it's worth when it increases an individuals capacity to participate in today's digital publics. Programming is a form of expressing oneself and of participating in social networks and communities. Through the book, they argue that computational thinking needs to be thought of as computational participation because the computer programs that are being created, used, repurposed, and shared have become our social connections. This view of code as connected has implications for how programming is learned, what is being designed, and where it is being shared.

The development of creative and critical networks to share information and ideas stand as the model for students who wish to create a more collaborative and open society. It is not enough to be "hanging out" on the computer and "messing around" on occasion, as media researcher Mizuko Ito and colleagues discuss in their 2009 book on youth engagement with digital media.  Referring to a third category as "geeking out", Ito and her colleagues note that few youth engage in such activity and that such engagement with technology is rarely found in schools. Computational thinking represents schools' attempt to remedy this lack of engagement and provide students with the concepts and skills that will allow them to solve problems algorithmically. Computational participation focuses on the practices and perspectives that are needed to contribute within wider social networks, including but not limited to schools. within the wider network of creative and critical thinkers, educators have the chance to take the "geek" out of "geeking out" and set new academic and social norms for what it means to use technology meaningful.

The near lack of computational participation in any introductory technology based coursework means that few students consider computer science principles or even encounter computer science at any point in their K-12 education.

Connected Code, why children need to learn programming, Yasmin b. Kafai and Quinn Burke. 2014

Student Voice for semester 2

Part of the work that goes on around school is one on student voice, Over this week meetings have taken place with students around what they would like to see in teh next semester round the themes of Innovation and Transformation.

Currently reading through these and starting to think of plans to enhance Technology and Digital Technologies with our junior students.

Innovation

Innovation with natural materials

Making video games

Youtube channels

Drama: Improv & Script to Stage

Sci/Tech combos

Dance or Arts & Maths

Music - recording and composing

English - start with same context then turn into whatever form you want

Nanotechnology

Neuroscience

Artificial Intelligence

Starting businesses

Sculptures with clay, wood, lego

3D Printing

Making new plants

Making new foods

Make original products

Technology - hands on creating

Sports products

Life Hacks

Biofuel

Creating websites to share module learning

Construct a boat

Transformation

Upcycling

Chemical reactions

Evolution

Food - change of state

Transforming 1 subject into another e.g. a play into a sculpture

Psychology

Architecture

Choice of building materials

Animal transformations

Geometry

Changing creative writing into formal writing

Tracking how an idea changes/grows as creating the final product

Human Biology

American Civil War

Chemistry

Mathematical Evolution

Social Change - discrimination/stereotypes/misconceptions

Wearable Arts/Prosthetics

Microbiology

Music - covers/remixes

Pixel Art

Putting sculptures in different places

Numbers - equations

mytime

One thing that I have seem to have embraced at HPSS is the mytime option.

When I was introduced to this last year, I thought about all the things that could do with a one hour slot a week that could constantly change. This year, the slot is set for a term. This allows for new ideas, and also to develop new learning. It is interesting that some of the feedback I had from students was that they wanted the same mytime to happen again this term. It seems that they are excited about the new opportunities to work towards their goals (set in conjunction with their learning hub coach) and to work on their hobsonville habits.

For me its also about developing an expose to things that you may not have had to opportunity to do before, pushing yourself out of your comfort zone to try new things.  I think I have taken this on as my challenge.

Term One saw me developing a weekly challenge around the point developing students observation skills, through orienteering. Called finding your way. Map reading, puzzle finding and having to make your way around 4km of construction, roads, fields, people and ever changing routes was a challenge for students. This was enjoyable as I got to know more areas of the point, and learn a bit more about what is going on as a whole It is a pity that I was never able to develop this to a next level as part of the point that I wanted to use is out of action while they remove asbestos from some of the old buildings. The other mytime was around guided learning.

Finding your way

This term, I had done some investigation, I explored the FabLab in Christchurch. At one of the open days they had students working on Hama Beads developing art. To me, it looked like the 8bit pixel art of the old days, and the students were engaged, developing an idea, purposeful, creative, reflective and resilient.

Developing a design

Over the holidays some tweeting was required to get some more details, where was the best place to get hama beads, how many would be needed over ten weeks, with 28 students. So 100,000 beads have been purchased, baking paper, an iron and some containers to keep special colours separate. Watching the students faces yesterday as I opened the box, started putting together my first creation, working our what I needed to do, what other equipment I needed, going to have to get some more trays to put beads in for students to be resourceful. The other part is, once students have developed one design, normally off the internet, they need to develop their own.

Getting your pixel on

The other part of "get your pixel on" mytime is that they have to share their work, something that I need to make more explicit next week. Also, I need to make sure that I have everything packed up and tidied up before the class ends. This is something I have to work on.

The second mytime come out of the "Finding your way" mytime. Currently it is a 5km run, an active recreation module, though I am not too sure if we are still calling them that? It is one that is electronically timed using some gear that I put together, and is in the previous blog post. One thing that was pointed out to me today that this is great for our students who need to work on some fitness as part of their sports team. The coaches would love to work on skills and technique as part of their weekly training, not really wanting to use it for fitness training, though when you drop the ball, you are still going to have to do ten push ups. This is something that I am getting into as well, though I am working up to it. I have the bike at school and I ride it, just to make sure the students are ok, and normally mens that I have to do it twice just to catch up with the tail end.

The top of the bridge, 2.5km turnaround point

I like the last part of the video, "over time, as you can make good decisions around your learning, you will earn a passport that will allow you more and more freedom around your choices."

How does your school develop freedom around students choices in their learning?

Challenging myself

It is interesting how much a goal for myself has now influenced some of my development as well as a module.

I love mountain biking, I enjoy cycling. But one this is, I need to work on my fitness levels. We look at goals with our students in out learning hubs, be it around my learning, my being or my community. Students have been busy this week looking at their goal from term 1, and working on a term 2 goal. Modelling what I would like to see from the students I included a goal, to be able to run 5 km.

This is a challenge for me, on tuesday I went out onto the field after school and went for a run... I did not get 5 km. But I have goals to help me get to the 5km.

Working towards a goal does sometime require smaller goals, this was something that I took away from the presentation on Wednesday from Live more Awesome, to be able to get to the goal, how are you going to get there. Also "ask for help".

Last year, I decided to try and develop a system to help people work towards a goal, it was to be associated with a Physical Education option as well as helping students develop fitness through running.

I purchased from mindkits.co.nz  a USB RFID reader and associated aerial, some RFID tags, which I have now found are 125MHz, so my idea of using something that had on them (metrocard or AT Hop Card) didn't quite work, as I have now found that there are other frequencies.

Development had been on hold, however I have been playing around with how to get it working, doing readings.

Last week I planned my mytime through the HPSS planing sheet.

I decided that I wanted to try and do something different, to be able to record the data through an electronic system. To develop a way to celebrate personal bests. This whole mytime is around developing personal bests. I am talking to the specialists at school about how to do this, as well have looked at other websites that work towards getting communities of people running and how they manage it.

This is a proof of concept and waiting for an area of the community to be reopened. The idea is develop a way for our community to be a part of this. It needs to be simple enough, accessible and informative.

At the moment the timing system is started by a RFID tag that is setup to reset the timer. Then any tags after it will record a finish time as well as show the student their time. This will be saved to a csv file as a backup. the idea will be for it to be sent live to a mysql server in which it will run a webpage showing a graph, number of km run and also to support the student by showing personal bests.

The hardware was brought through mindkits.co.nz

The extra RFID tags were bought through seeedstudio.com

Programming has been done in python at present using http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-Internet-Gizmo/step9/Install-the-software/ in particular the sample program simple_internet_gizmo_v1.py

To make the data go through to a website running php and mysql, I needed to install mysql.connector for mysql https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/python/
as well as pyserial to be able to link to the rfid usb reader https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyserial

Now I want to make it as small as possible for the environment that it could end up in, so I have it running on a Raspberry Pi at present, though doing some reading I came across that I needed to disable UART on the RPi.
You need to disable uart on rpi to allow serial usb to communicate https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-nfc-rfid-on-raspberry-pi/freeing-uart-on-the-pi

Now to change the code to get usb port working on the rpi
serial = serial.Serial("/dev/ttyUSB0", baudrate=9600)

Testing on the bench this afternoon

Installed in its location, with some more graphics and details to come

It is now setup to start timing based upon a RFID tag that has been programmed through its unique number to start a mass start of students. Interesting that I also have one to quit the program as well. They are labelled so I don't get them mixed up.

Next steps, program individual start's through the users RFID tag.
Push all results through to a mysql database (requires a wireless adapter or network connection enabled in its location)
Enable a better user management system rather than using dictionary in python.

Reflection from term one

I sit here on the last day of the school holidays thinking. There has been a lot going on around me this term. 

The challenge of a new school that is challenging me to think different. The challenge of a curriculum area that I am being questioned about at a local level, but also a national level. The challenge of developing innovate courses, which engage and challenge students thinking in a way that is challenging me to come up with new ways to report their progressions but also to get them to understand where they are at and what steps forward they can look at. Developing learners.

It has been a difficult term in the way of mindsets. Almost the whole staff went on a growth mindset professional development day, and I went to a ncea workload reference group meeting. In some ways this is summing up things at present. With the vision of our school, we are looking at the wellbeing of students through the framework of ncea. In which case is challenging me as president of a subject association. With ncea not being taken out of the picture, but having the focus on learning, rather than high states assessment. There have been a number of requests to drop some of the computer science areas to level one. this would mean that the data representation area would be replaced by possibly the programming components. I have always wondered sometime where things are, but I am starting to develop a better understand of what future focussed possibly means. Was it the intention that was thought about in 2010 when these standards were written that there could be the possibility of ncea level one not being taught in secondary schools in New Zealand. When I look at these standards now and what we are teaching them is it possible that this could be the intention of a junior curriculum, to develop this knowledge and skills?

Though I did gain some new understanding from the ncea workload reference group. We were asked to look at the fact sheets that were put out in 2011.

From 2014 there will be no unit standards based on the New Zealand Curriculum. http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualifications-standards/qualifications/ncea/understanding-ncea/the-facts/factsheet-2/

The NCEA workload reference group was an interesting meeting, though as all good things, it will take time to be able to make some difference.

The introduction of SOLO has been a bit hit and miss with me at present. But as I go through this year it is something that I am finding important. Something that possibly didn't hit me until Thursday when I went through the objective, description of each of my SPINS and then explained to the students what the SOLO levels were for each of them. The students probably understand this more than me at present as it is language that they are getting in every single block, and not just from one teacher.

I am lucky enough to be sitting on a reference group for the positioning of digital technologies. The first part of the meeting was looking at a vision. The vision of the New Zealand Curriculum and what this could mean for a learning area. It is interesting what education could look like in 2025. We were given a A3 paper in which it had what this could look like. It is interesting when I look at it I can see our school, not in the images that are used in it, but in what we are trying to achieve. Where students, teachers, and the community fit in. One area that I have been thinking about for a while is the one of peer to peer learners. Students learn a lot from each other and I saw that when I was going through school. I struggle to see how separating desks in a classroom helps with the learning, something I have never been able to do. 

Being aware of other teachers teaching, this is something that I am enjoying, no longer being in a room, locked away from others, instead I have teachers teaching around me. Seeing how they work with students, have the mini chat, working with students one on one or in some cases one to many different groups. It sparks ideas.

The challenge of the open plan office. This is something I am working on. It is interesting that both my brother and my father work in open plan offices and in talking to them I am now becoming aware of the positives and negatives. 

What have I managed to cover this term,

Manufacturing

Technological systems

Outcome development

The need for a onesie. An essential for International Onesie day, which we celebrate at school.

It was great catching up today with a number of staff from my old school, one comment was "How happy you look".

Now I am working through my planning for next term, working through python exercises, 3d modelling in sketchup and trying to work out ideas for mytime. Thank goodness for POND and the ability to add resources in that I can look at later. Some of the resources that I am finding and putting together will make interesting lessons.

Resilience - moving beyond the learnt helplessness

Starting life in a new school is often one that is busy, trying to figure out what is happening, how things are done and the culture of the school.

We have these Habits at our school, the Hobsonville Habits. Unpacking these takes time and is part of the focus on the extended hub time.

Resilient: I don't give up when times are tough.
Curious: I am inquisitive and playful. I explore in search of awe and wonder.
Creative: I am imaginative and I explore the what if. I dream. I view things in different ways.
Reflective: I look back to look forward
Adventurous: I am will to take risks and look for opportunities which may not yet exist. I give everything a go.
Purposeful: I do this with intent and determination.
Contributive: I make a difference by using my skills, thoughts, and ideas when working with others.
Compassionate: I work with and learn from others.
Responsive: I am empathetic, aware, and flexible when making decisions and taking action.
resourceful: I use my initiative to seek our resources and use them in different ways.

One of the habits that I suppose I have seeked out to work with the students is one around Resilience.

Developing problem solving and resilience to combat learnt helplessness in Digital technologies.

I have been now teaching Digital Technologies for a number of years now and I have seen varying degrees of learnt helplessness. 

But what is learnt helplessness, it is a strategy for getting other people to solve problems for you. In the classroom, for pupils it may be getting the teacher, the teacher aide or other pupils to solve the problem for you.

In digital technologies, learnt helplessness can be seen in different ways. Sweet helplessness often manifests to the teacher as a pupils putting in a sweet helpless voice and declaring they are stuck. Aggressive helplessness manifests with a cross tone and the implication that they think the work is "stupid" or they don't get it. Being stuck is never a problem, but if you ask what they stuck on and the pupil cannot tell you or describe the problem of they give vague indications that they are stuck on everything, then there is a good chance they are using learnt helplessness to get you to solve their problem. Similar strategies will often be used with their peers, tailored to make the problem solver feel valued, superior or pressured into helping.

The problem us that many teachers and pupils will respond to this strategy in digital technologies by solving the problem for the pupil. Often excellent teachers, who wouldn't dream of doing work for pupils in other areas of the curriculum, will jump in and solve the problem for the pupil. The fact that so many pupils use learnt helplessness suggests that it has been a successful strategy for many.

Getting someone else to do the work for you would be an issue in any subject, but it is the antithesis of computer science with its emphasis on problem solving and debugging. In fact to solve a problem for a child is to deny them the opportunity to debug code or fix algorithm and as such is debilitating.

How has it come so prevalent in digital technologies? It is suspected that it has grown out of teacher fear or unfamiliarity with the subject material coupled with a belief that pupils know more about technology that adults combined with a n emphasis on the finished product rather than the process. All these factors have lead teachers to fix things for pupils rather than steer them to find solutions for themselves.

If we recognise this as an issue, how can we counter this and encourage resilience and problem solving.

1. Recognising that this is an issue is the first step. We can't effect any change without recognising that something needs to change.
2. It helps to know that this will take time to change your own practice and move students onto better strategies. 
3. Establishing a positive class attitude towards problem solving. Computer science is very useful in that it calls errors bugs and find errors debugging. Although all bugs are caused by humans, the language is much more impersonal than mistakes which imply blame or fault. Using bug and debugging language is helpful. It is also important to let students know that mistakes/bugs are a normal part of digital technologies, they are to be expected, that professional programmers write code that have bugs all the time and that you will not be cross or upset if their work has bugs/mistakes. This needs to be made explicit in those first few weeks of class. This is part of the process.
4. Even though it is a job of the teacher to help students through the learning, it is not the teacher job to fix their algorithms or debug their code. It is the job to provide useful strategies they can use to fix themselves. So that when they come to me they know they are looking for strategies to find and fix things themselves. 
5. For those students that are transitioning from learnt helplessness to useful problem solving, they need to see what they are doing. Are they trying to get me to fix their code? Or are they trying to get me to solve the problem for them? In the same way we cannot move on until we recognised the issue. Of course good teachers will do this tactfully and with regards to the pupils known issues, but an element of challenge is inevitable to identify the issue. Warm and demanding. 
6. Encouraging the class to not solve problems for others. They can describe what to do, but are not allowed to fo it for them, or give them the full solution. As you model this they will reflect this attitude to their peers. Having a ban on touching anyone's else keyboard or mouse is a good start. This could be compared to writing in someones maths or english exercise book.
7. Moving students away from the language that personifies digital machines. "My computer hates me," is typical. If we look at Deterministic algorithms if we continue to put in the same inputs, we will get get the same outputs. We need to encourage students to think that an answer might not be available due to the logic of the computer, which is a attitude that is anti problem solving and incorrect.
8. Have the other teachers in your class, including the teacher aide using the same strategies. Train them to help using good strategies and hints rather than solutions. 

If we don't identify the problem nothing will change. Is there a learnt helplessness within the other staff in your department or faculty. Is it worth the hassle to challenge this? We need to be tactful and recognise the good practice of teachers and the good problem solving strategies of other curriculum areas. 

Being Resilient: I don't give up when times are tough.

mytime challenge

I have been busy over the last few weeks coming up with a weekly mytime challenge. One it is challenging for me in setting it up, but the other challenge is in the students knowing their community.

"Finding your way"

Each week students are given a challenge that is based around orienteering. Something that I found fun and exciting that still attracts me to the sport today.

I have had

• the students do a photo challenge around the school.
• A score challenge in which students have competed to find the most points
• Had the students try and make their own score challenge
• A orienteering course - solo
• GPS based course in groups

I have been doing some research, and in an area that keeps changing due to construction of a new community it is a challenge. From cranes delivering panels, through to an asbestos clean up down at the point, each week throws up new challenges. But also new areas that can be added in.

I found an orienteering map from 2011, and also found out that Hobsonville Point was the first place to have an orienteering map 42 years before.

After a 2 year lapse, British athlete and Orienteering champion Gordon Pirie got a group interested and on 19th June 1969, N.Z.'s first official orienteering event was conducted at RNZAF Hobsonville; 1:25,000 map, bomb dump included! (http://www.cpearce.orconhosting.net.nz/Archive_AOC/COC_AugSep_83_OCRO.pdf)

I will keep the challenge going, this week by entering Hobsonville. An area beside the school in which there a few historical challenges that can be included for the students.

http://www.routechoice.co.nz/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=153

opportunity around N4L POND

A year ago, I was invited to be part of an opportunity to help give some guidance to a new product. The Network for Learning were developing a portal for teachers to share resource, best practice, learning and ideas. The portal that was being developed was to cater for New Zealand teachers and education providers. Being one of the educational advisers allowed me access to its early release last year, to put in items and think how this could help other teachers who are working on developing new courses for NCEA or junior units. A pioneer educator event provided discussions with the developers what worked and what didn't through an awesome day with other teachers and the development team. A lot of what you see in POND now came out of that day.

Tonight, was a large release in the eyes of N4L POND. I was invited to see this release in person. This has seen months of work come to life around 5pm on Tuesday. When Maintenance Mode was initiated. This is also the same screen that you see when things go wrong. During the last couple of months Ian and his team have been busy working on developing POND to see new ideas, new frameworks and of course the teachers feedback be developed. Through the software development methodology, agile, this allows for features to be added as the product is being used. Rather than a build it all and then release it, N4L POND has been developing a working solution for the past 330 days (going by the new stats available for every POND user). This means that bugs are fixed and new features added almost every two weeks. This means that users are getting to have input on how they use the N4L POND and what features they would like added to make it a product that works for all. This is where feedback is important, if you find something that doesn't work or would like a feature added, Feedback. It's as simple a clicking the Feedback button, clicking how you are feeling, what type of feedback you are commenting on, they do like feedback on what is working for you as well with a Compliment. The feedback is shown on a TV screen in real time right beside the developers desks, where at 10am every morning they go through the feedback.

Tonight was no exception, through a variety of Quality Assurance tests while developing and in the past couple of months a number of developments have been made. When a release goes live, the developers are in straight away testing to make sure that the database, registration and common features are tested to make sure users get the experience that they have always had. It is surprising that a number of new features work on the Quality Assurance server and not on the Production server. During the two hours down time that users were experiencing, POND was running, you just couldn't access it. Final testing was being completed and a whole re-index of the database was happening. From version 6.0.0, 2 hours later version 6.0.7 was running for POND users to access. This is rather a stressful time, as you don't want your product to be down for too long.

Throughout the walls of the office in N4L POND are the next developments, the ideas, screen shots, posts it notes giving thoughts and ideas on design and features. Whiteboards have timelines drawn on them and I must say there are some pretty good features coming out in the next couple of months that will enhance N4L POND.

complex digital media

One thing I am often asked about demonstrating understanding of digital media, is what is complex?

To me, it is around understanding someones else's code and having to implement it.

Case in point KAMAR web portal, the authentication is in the top of the page, however when you have a full banner, as most schools do, the authentication information, i.e the button to hit logout is in hidden the the bannar.
You need to be able to change it, you need to be able to read someone else's code and change it.

      <div id="wrap">  
           <div id="header">  
                <h1><h1>  
                {auth_head}  
           </div>  

now the {auth_head} which is a function needed is required to be moved to another location in the code.

The other example is being able to use a front-end framework.

What is a framework?
A framework is a standardized set of concepts, practices and criteria for dealing with a common type of problem, which can be used as a reference to help us approach and resolve new problems of a similar nature. 

In the world of web design, to give a more straightforward definition, a framework is defined as a package made up of a structure of files and folders of standardized code (HTML, CSS, JS documents etc.) which can be used to support the development of websites, as a basis to start building a site 

Most websites share a very similar (not to say identical) structure. The aim of frameworks is to provide a common structure so that developers don’t have to redo it from scratch and can reuse the code provided. In this way, frameworks allow us to cut out much of the work and save a lot of time.

bootstrap, angularJS are two frameworks that I use with students, why, because they need to be able to understand how to get these going and what can be done to support the website that you are creating. Be it responsive or adding in some extra control.

NCEA Digital Technologies, Digital Media looks like, simplified,

Level 1 basic, create a website using a text editor, add some css into it.

Level 2 advanced, start to use more complex css and HTML5 to design a webpage.

Level 3 complex,
Complex tools and techniques may include:
Web page design: HyperText Markup Language / Cascading Style Sheets (HTML/CSS), scripting (manipulating content), dynamic data handling, interaction between user and content, multiple device outputs

Some schools introduce php and mysql here, however to me that is level 2/3 information.

Without specific advice and guidance, this is a very hard area to plan and develop to work within your course. Looking at where I want my students to go, I want them to work down this pathway. The conversations I have with industry/polytechnic/Private Training Providers this seems to be the pathway that they would like students to go down. It means that students have understanding and demonstrate knowledge around this area.

The knowledge based standard is intended that students explore at least two complex digital media outcomes in order to discuss complex tools and techniques, and associated design elements, legal and ethical considerations used in relation to the requirements of the outcomes.

I am getting students to look at Network for Learning POND as a case study around this, as with the videos they can start to understand the design elements, the release notes provide some understanding on changes that have been developed and the whats coming section allows for students to see what is coming up. I hope soon that student access will be made available so students can develop a better understanding.

Classrooms, what might a pen and paper look like in digital

I often wonder what it would be like to work in a classroom, where you have your desks, chairs students sitting in rows and working on a task. A chair fails, you get another chair, you don't have a desk for a student as your numbers grow, you grab another desk. A student arrives without a book you can grab them a piece of paper and they can carry on.

Now imagine you are in a computer lab, a computer stops working and you need it fixed? No access to do that, have to wait for the technician.
Your numbers grow in your class and you need another computer? No.
The students need the same piece of software to learn a new skill that is part of a teaching and learning programme that you have asked for weeks before to be installed, it hasn't been done yet as it is further down the tech's schedule of work, and you are hoping it will it be fixed by Monday.
You can't move furniture around a room because the desks are screwed to the floor.
You want to take your students down a path where they are interested to get them to learn more about the world wide wide through ports. Nope, locked down by a school firewall.
Get students working on robots where they need to connect a USB Cable to a computer? No, locked down by the technician.

This has been a great issue with teachers ever since the introduction of the computer lab in schools. They are locked down so students can't cause any trouble with the equipment. They normally are the last to see any tech hours to fix issues because there are wider infrastructure issues at play. This is essential in our jobs, how can we say to a student, sorry you can't do your lessons today as the computer doesn't have the software installed even though all the others in the room have it. That we can't teach you web development it has a perceived security risk as the students will be accessing a server.

Five years ago new digital technologies standards were introduced, where an level 3 assessment task on TKI asks students to install and manipulate a Content Management System. This is something that is widely used today by many websites on the internet. Something you think would be quite easy to do? With the introduction of php and mySQL at NCEA Level 2 as well. Getting students to create dynamic websites. Getting students understanding what they are about and how to create them. If a school does not have a LAMP stack on a server with access for students it is pretty hard to deliver what is an essential part of the curriculum.

There are ways of doing this with USB sticks or Local admin rights on computers, but when you are a byod school using chromebooks, these will not work for teaching web development.

You need a good relationship with your schools technician to make these things work. To ask for a web server to be created and setup in such a way to make it work on the network, things like opening up firewall constraints and port 22 to allow students to ssh into the server to create their mySQL database in the terminal, and port 21 to allow FTP traffic, as well as DNS to access the server name and HTTP traffic to allow a student to actually view their created content.

How do teachers manage to ask for these things to be done, that is now almost essential to deliver to students to get them to develop a understanding of the world wide web, digital information and programming. As I say, this is our classroom, the book, the pen and the paper to be able to innovate, engage and inspire. Are schools listening?

I had a question why port 22, the reason why having students having the ability to access this port allows them to work on a newer version of python for programming, as the chromebook apps that we have managed to find are at version 2.72 rather than version 3.4.x in which all other devices can support. So being able to do development using a server would support more students.