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/

Thinking again

As I sit here after celebrating christmas, I start to think of the 365 days till christmas. Yes, not too long to go. With some more weeks of holidays, then the beginning of the school year. It soon turns into the end of the school year pretty quickly.

I have been thinking over the last couple of days about the courses that I run and what I want to students to get out of them. Or should that be that the students want credits out of the courses that I run, oh and they want endorsements, and they want to do little work, oh did I mention that they have 6 subjects.

Typical course for your bright student, wants to go to university?

English = 19 credits
Maths with Calculus = 23 credits
Biology = 22 credits
Chemistry = 28 credits?
Physics = 23 credits
Religious Education/Theology = 18 credits

133 credits... that is twice what the students need to obtain to receive there NCEA Level 3...

So... why?

Zombie Simulation at Boy Scout Jamboree: Bioinformatics At Work

how would you even start developing something like this?

The 2013 Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree – a great place to celebrate scouting and… get virtually infected by a zombie virus? This year’s Jamboree includes an activity designed to teach kids about the movement of infectious diseases. What better way, than to allow them to simulate a zombie epidemic?

Zombie Virus Game

How does it work? Scouts must have a Virus Tracker app downloaded in order to play, and they must register with the game in order to be ‘infected’ with the virus. Dr. Kristy Collins of the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech explained the game to Decoded Science, saying that the zombies, ages 12 to 18, “…are given an opportunity to receive the needed vaccine by correctly answering an epidemiology quiz question, or by using the app to scan other players who have already obtained the vaccine.

Throughout the day, notifications are sent out to announce “newly discovered” mutations, which will turn the vaccinated players into Zombies if they do not obtain an updated vaccine. (Players can again obtain the needed vaccine by correctly answering an epidemiology quiz question, or by interacting with others who have already obtained the latest vaccine. There is also a resident scientist at the VBI tent, who will dispense the vaccine to those who ask good science questions.)

Individual and Team points are earned through recruiting others to join the game, and by scanning others with the virus and vaccinating them. Overall standings, individual and team rankings, and a variety of individual, team and game statistics can be viewed at any time.”

How do the players infect other kids? By scanning the code printed on a the scout’s address label, wrapped on his lanyard or scan the other child’s QR code, displayed in his Virus Tracker app. Dr. Collins tells us, “Players with labels can also vaccinate each other by visiting one of the multiple scanning booths that we have at the Jamboree.”

Infectious Disease and Bioinformatics

The Virginia Bioinformatics Institute Booth, the source of the zombie virus, is the result of funding from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health MIDAS group and Virginia Bioinformatics Institute. According to Dr. Collins, “The information we are collecting from the scouts is being used in simulations on how infectious diseases spread.”

Why is it important to simulate the spread of infectious diseases? Understanding the way in which a highly-contagious disease spreads among groups of people can help reduce the affect, by identifying at-risk populations and encouraging safe behavior as a preventative measure. One major obstacle is the sheer volume of data available, but computer algorithms can sort the data with ease, once given an appropriate sorting structure.

Using computers to sort and make sense of biological information has been around for yea. Not only does Google keep a regularly-updated Flu Trends Map every flu season, with fast and accurate information about the spread of the flu around the nation, researchers are also using Twitter and other social media signals to track flu symptoms to determine the spread of disease. With vast stores of information available online, only a computer could make sense of it all.

Of course there are no real zombies, but using the popular topic to teach kids about disease can increase interest, and spread information as well as a virtual virus.

Resources:

Virginia Bioinformatics Institute. Virus Tracker. (2013). Accessed July 19, 2013.

http://www.decodedscience.com/zombie-simulation-at-boy-scout-jamboree-bioinformatics-at-work/33530

Where are we at?

I started thinking after an interesting post the other night, what are we getting our students to do in our classes, "the number of ICT projects I have seen from year 13s that are clearly year 9 work" What happens at the senior level, why is this the case?

There are 340 secondary schools throughout the country, what are we seeing that is showing the best from these schools? 

What are others doing?

Earlier this year the UK released details about what they were doing to support Primary Schools http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/data/uploads/CASPrimaryComputing.pdf

NCEA Level 2 Canterbury Summer School

NCEA Level 2 Canterbury Summer School
The Ministry of Education is supporting a pilot summer school programme based at Hagley Community College which begins on January 20. Summer school is aimed at students who require about 8 credits (or one or two standards) to gain a Level 2 NCEA certificate.

This is a fantastic idea.. would be interesting to see how many take up the offer.

coding and cs4hs

Reflection of last week.

Last week I have some awesome opportunities, to try some of the hour of code tutorials with year 9 and the annual google funded cs4hs was in town.

This year was the third cs4hs held in Christchurch, this is now getting to be an almost unmissable event for any Digital Technologies teacher in New Zealand. It provides an excellent array of practical tutorials and workshops through to discussion around the x.44 computer science standards. 

I myself was not able to attend full day sessions this year as I had Big Days Out at school. Where we suspend the timetable and give the junior students an experience. This year for me it was coding. I developed coding based on the hour of code tutorials.

It went like this
code.org video http://youtu.be/r990CWYtx_o

Algorithms, My robotics friends, http://hourofcode.com/ts
Data representation, http://hourofcode.com/th

Processing, programming language for visual artists http://hourofcode.com/pr
artificial intelligence, a taste of python, http://hourofcode.com/gr
code combat http://hourofcode.com/cc

This gave the students an ideal introduction to what is in the programming and computer science standards at the senior levels.

What did the teachers get out of cs4hs and what will they do for next year

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
• Jane whyte method, 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

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 Infomatic 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

Database tutorials

I have been trying to find some decent database tutorials to get my students to have more examples of practice. I was introduced this one yesterday.

http://www.sqlzoo.net/wiki/Main_Page

Great ideas and a great webpage that gets students working through developing their understanding.

Rubber duck programming

During the year a blog post talked about rubber duck programming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging Getting students to explain to a rubber duck how their program worked, or if they stick a problem and didn't quite know how to fix it. This us where the rubber ducks come in.

Students I have found work well doing peer programming, being able to explain to someone else and have them code it or come up with a solution. In a lot of ways this is what happens in my classroom. The biggest problem is that the assessment doesn't allow for this. Students need to be able to independently demonstrate the skills involved.
How can a student debug their code. Buy using the rubber duck technique they can communicate with, even though it doesn't talk back, being able to explain an idea helps the human brain come up with a solution. I have experienced this, being able to sit down and think clearly about a problem, not have the stress, but time to draw, explain, develop has been one of the best techniques I have developed over the years to sort out tricky problems. I have visual diaries full of drawings, text and ideas to sort out solutions.

So to my students in 2014, we will be rubber ducking solutions.

Feedback for the teacher

I am thinking of an idea, each week I give the student a weekly note,

However, earlier this year I was talking with a teacher at a conference and he talked about a worm for use within class, how engaged are our students. This was an interesting project where I developed a jQuery system for students to enter in a rating or use a slider. 1 equalled disengaged, 5 = engaged. Students just wanted to enter a 1. Just because they could.

Now 8 months on, I have been thinking, what if students were able to give me feedback on my teaching, how engaged they were. The only issue is, do I want to know who they are. Should that part be optional? How long should it take them? Will they take it seriously? WIll it fix up some areas of my teaching that I am not aware of? How will it be reported? Do I share it with my students?

What system should I do it in, moodle, google docs, or write one myself?

I do like the idea...

Great RPi resource

http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/by-subject/computing/raspberry-pi/

OCR resources for Raspberry Pi to liven up your lessons

We have been working in collaboration with Raspberry Pi and with leading practitioners to create resources that support the use of the Raspberry Pi in the classroom.

• Getting started tutorials
• Raspberry Pi Resources Link
• Raspberry Pi Resource Map

Recipe cards

• Recipe card - Flashing LED (PDF, 789KB) UPDATED06/03/2013
• Recipe card - Singing jelly baby (PDF, 732KB) UPDATED11/10/2013
• Recipe card - Traffic lights (PDF, 553KB) NEW

Classroom Challenges

• Classroom Challenge - Architecture - Learner sheet (PDF, 239KB) NEW
• Classroom Challenge - Architecture - Teacher sheet (PDF, 190KB) NEW
• Classroom Challenge - Architecture - Drag and Drop activity Flash file (SWF, 688KB) NEW
• Classroom Challenge - Connecting to a network - Learner sheet(PDF, 803KB) NEW
• Classroom Challenge - Connecting to a network - Teacher sheet (PDF, 189KB) NEW
• Classroom Challenge - Simple animation - Learner sheet (PDF, 1MB) NEW
• Classroom Challenge - Simple animation - Teacher sheet (PDF, 190KB) NEW
• Classroom Challenge - Hardware characteristics - Learner sheet (PDF, 373KB) NEW
• Classroom Challenge - Hardware characteristics - Teacher sheet (PDF, 190KB) NEW
• Classroom Challenge - Hardware hacking and robotics - Learner sheet (PDF, 575KB) NEW
• Classroom Challenge - Hardware hacking and robotics - Teacher sheet (PDF, 192KB) NEW

Playing a different game

One thing that gets me about the subject area that I teach is the comment, This is Digital Technologies, we need to be on a computer all the time. FALSE.

The more I start looking at the requirements, the more I start to see that I need to get them off a computer and working out their problems through whiteboards, paper and visual diaries.

Here is a something I got them to do last year, this is the seven bridges problem.

Notice that it is outside.

One thing that I have started seriously thinking of is the issue of security. This is something that some students are interested in and some have a rather bad interest in. I notice in the latest cs4fn magazine that it talks about a board game Control-Alt-Hack, http://www.controlalthack.com/,  this is something that could create an interesting dynamic within the class. Do students play board games in any other classes?

One thing that is stopping me from getting it is the $50 dollar shipping charge from the states.

One thing that I was shown at cs4hs Adelaide was more of the csunplugged activities. This one looked at a tourist town and how you could make sure only a certain number of ice cream trucks could be used at certain corners. 

by the way, the answer is not correct you can do it with six trucks

Digital Technologies Projects for 2014 ideas

On thing that came to light this year was the projects that I had my Level 3 students complete. I had students work on projects that related to Raspberry Pi and come up with solutions to problems that I knew existed. In 2013 we had our first mashup competition, two days to come up with a viable solution that needed a business, marketing plan and presentation. This is something that I wish to encourage the students to do next year, but we need to start somewhere. I am thinking about wether to get students into teams, this will allow a variety of ideas to develop.

1. Environment Canterbury http://www.ecan.govt.nz has lots of useful information for recreational boaties and kayakers including river flows and navigational safety. Create a Mashup that uses some of this information combined with other sources (eg weather photos, maps) that would be useful for people going out on the water.

2. Catalyst IT’s http://www.catalyst.net.nz mission is ‘to make open source the preferred technology choice of New Zealand.’ Develop a Mashup that would promote the use of open source data to secondary students in Canterbury using information from the Catalyst IT website plus other information sources.

3. One of Land Information New Zealand’s (LINZ) http://www.linz.govt.nz purposes is to encourage land information markets to develop and mature. Develop a Mashup that uses some of LINZ’s information sources (plus any others) to encourage greater use of the data by senior geography students in Canterbury secondary schools.

4. Sensing City http://www.sensingcity.org is a project dedicated to positioning Christchurch as a world leading smart city. Develop a Mashup that enables people to enter their house location and then pull together all/any data that is local to their home so that they are better enabled to understand what is happening in their immediate neighbourhood.

5. Canterbury Development Corporation (CDC) http://www.cdc.org.nz works with other agencies to
help earthquake recovery for local businesses and industry. Develop a Mashup that uses some of their
information with other information sources to help the younger business people re-establish themselves more successfully.

6. Removed due to equipment only available at the event. However it could be possible to contact the person at Tait and get some of the equipment out to the school. API development would be a good introduction to the year.

7. Free choice: Develop a Mashup that uses different information sources and is useful for your target
audience. You will need to discuss this with the competition coordinator.

Raspberry Pi and Networks

Luckily our entire staff got to go to CPIT for half a day this week. Through this day I was re-introduced to something that I had done over 10 years ago. Creating a network cable. The week before I had been at another school looking at their programme and the focus on networking, however it was focussed on the networking in CISCO. Now I am not a CISCO certified instructor and don't really want to be. However, I have done networking in my Certificate and Advanced Certificate in Business Computing when I first left school.

This is an area of interest, and one that I wish to get back into. I looked back into my teaching practice and when training at a school, I had students put together a bunch of computers, create their own network cables and network them together to create a Beowulf cluster.

Why have I not done this before...

The standards did not allow me, I was teaching Information Management and Technology.
Now though, I have been struggling to get my head around the new standards, developing understanding with my students and completely forgot what I had accomplished so many years ago.

Instead of trying to find 13 computers and space to hook them up, I have the Raspberry Pi, small, easy to use and so much fun. I can imagine these connected and the students creating their own networks and having to understand IP addresses, subnets and having to work out who gets what address Then introduce them to DHCP and what it allows to happen. But what a fun unit. Getting students to work through this will provide skills and knowledge. Though I plan to do this at Level 3, It is a Level 2 AS91378 skill based on the Body of Knowledge.

So, here is what I am thinking, I have heaps of network cable... I have just brought 4 crimpers, network plugs and have a spare 16 port switch at school. They have to create a network, there is no cables, no DHCP, and no Internet connection, yet! So, they need to setup network address, and connection, ping a machine, ftp a file to that machine, and connect to the webserver to display a webpage. simple enough? Let the challenge begin! I can use my 256Meg RPi to run the server that they will need to connect to.