do your bit - SDG - micro:bit challenge

I have been waiting for this for a month now since it was announced on twitter.

This brings in the ideas of designing and developing a digital outcome, based upon the Sustainable Development Goals using the micro:bit.

The two goals that are at the front and centre of this are

A new BBC micro:bit challenge for children and teens to combine creativity and technology in solutions for the Global Goals.

The Challenge

This challenge will focus on Global Goals 14 and 15. We want you to come up with innovative ways to use your micro:bit to help protect life on land and below water.

You can learn about the Goals, understand some of the problems facing our oceans and natural world and then get started developing ideas and solutions using technology.

I think one of the activities that really highlights the Designing and Developing Digital Outcomes, input - process - output is 

evidence could look like, I like the fact that through the resource, that they get students to think about bigger areas and whether it might be the right algorithm.

I look forward to investigating the ideas and activities more.

Reflection

"I haven't done one of these in a while," was a comment from my hub students on Friday, neither have I.

Sports
Adventure Racing
The term started off being a challenge for me, the Get to Go Junior Hillary Challenge was coming up and we have entered this for the past 3 years. After a bit of messaging, emails, talking with students (They don't check there emails, or read the school notices) I managed to get a team together. With the help of two of the Senior Get to Go students, training started. It has been great to see the leadership and ideas that the senior students brought to this, they bring a different sense of what it means to them to be part of this squad. They are able to talk about the challenges, the way they reflect afterwards. It allows them to gather the skills to work with 7 other people when you are tired and grumpy. The positive spirit in the group and the talking in the van between the different challenges showed that they had fun, enjoyed the day. I hope that they will join the senior squad next year.

Mountain Biking
This continues with the last race mid September, I have seen my team grow and develop their racing and now showing the skills and training that they have been doing pay off. The last race showed that even the parents work together to support each other when one of our riders was injured. I help out with the timing and general organisation of the race when running, we have not had a race like this in a while where a number of things didn't go to plan, a lost rider that didn't make the start, was found, a injured rider that needed assistance, all ok, a protest due to a rider cutting part of the track. It just goes to show when you are a teacher, you can deal with more than one thing going on.

E-Sports
League of Legends High School League.
This is a new one for me, I am looking after a e-sports team. It has even got me playing the game so I know what is going on now. I have taught these students for the past 3 years, and I am seeing a completely different side to them now. The team work in this and communication is essential for good game play. They too, reflect after the game and talk about the strategies that they use and things that went well and not so well. It has been great seeing one of the students who has taken on the role of captain communicate and encourage his fellow team. We have yet to win a game, but that is not the objective, as with the Adventure racing, there are other objectives that we are working towards.

Learning
The MODULE I have at the moment is Mathematics and Digital Technologies where students are learning how to code. We are using snap coding, as it is an alternative to scratch, the students have said they welcome not seeing the cat when it loads up. It works within a browser, as we have mac's windows' and chromebooks within the class. The biggest thing I hear from the students is that this is hard. When we unpack this, and I am more this week as part of my inquiry, is that this is the first time that they have done anything like this. They have not had to code before. Trying to work out how to get a computer to figure out the highest number when you enter three numbers, they can look at the three numbers and say it straight away, getting them to unpack how they do it, is a little bit harder.


FX, Learning how to do editing and creation of graphics is fun, thats what they are saying. They are looking forward to the challenge of the Fair Go Kid Ad Awards and spent the day on Friday researching different ideas from the 70's to make cool again. Even looking at old ad's to see ideas that they could bring in.

Challenges
Digital technologies Curriculum Workshop
I was unable to go to the teachers one of these when in Auckland, and ended up going to the parents and industry meeting, which gave me some different insights into what they are thinking the challenges of the new curriculum is. Communication with parents on what schools are teaching seems to be a partly missing gap. What is it that the community would like to see us teach?

Developing understanding of the micro:bit
Next term I am running a SPIN based upon electronics, I am using the ideas of the mindkits brainboards, bbc micro:bit and adafruit sparkfun express.
We have been lucky that a New Zealand Supplier has just started and is bringing these into the country. Learning Development is offering a bulk discount for a set of 10 micro bits. https://www.learningdevelopments.co.nz/product-page/bbc-microbit-starter-kit-10pack

I have been thinking about the next steps with this, and starting to think what are the best resources or projects that could be developed by the students. This is one of the first results when searched, https://enterprise.microsoft.com/en-gb/articles/industries/public-sector/citynext/educated-cities/7-perfect-microbit-projects-for-pupils/

Supporting other schools
I have had a number of visits by primary schools in our area looking at what their technology programme looks like and how it may link in with what we are doing as a school. It has surprised me that schools are doing the one project for all students still.
How can secondary schools support the local schools in developing the ideas while still holding onto their identity. For me, it will be the progress outcome statements that I am looking for when a student transitions to secondary. These will provide better guidance on where a student is at. Maybe something for the SiSi project to have within it.

To end this reflection, we had the political parties and people in our area talk to the senior students, it was great to hear them talk and understand what is happening.

I am still working on the ideas of the habit stick, I now have some laser printable rubber to be able to create some stamps with the hobsonville habits on them.

Developing ideas for Design and Developing Digital Outcomes Progress Outcome 2

I have been thinking about this for a while, and have done some action to work on the ideas.
A couple of years ago I used the mindkits brainboards to develop the ideas of coding with some electronics. With this the arduino provides students with an understanding of how to program. So I have been thinking about this and what the next set of gear could be.

Now, the micro:bit is available. I managed to get two of these through sparkfun earlier in the term. The great thing about these is the matrix, as well as they have an accelerometer and compass.

Now, I received an email through the nzacditt network which
In case you hadn't seen this in the news: Code.org is giving low-income students a chance to learn how to code through a free course called “Computer Science Discoveries.” The yearlong course, unveiled this week at Code.org’s TeacherCon conference in Houston, will be taught by more than 800 teachers during the school year. It’s designed for students in grades 7-9 and teaches Web design, physical computing and game creation. Link to new article

The adafruit circuit playground is part of the course, now I have had an opportunity to look at and develop during the last day and I must say that I am impressed. a small board with a lot of grunt, the part I like is the opportunity for it to record data. This makes it a great start for Internet of Things opportunities.
Stick a battery pack on this and it can be used anywhere...

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3000

Now there is an updated version coming out, with some more sensors on it and a bit of reworked system, that allows for a few more languages to be used. I am more using this a gateway to electronics, something that can be easily adapted and developed, however as students learn about the sensors and what they can do, or can't do, then other alternatives need to be looked at and developed. 

How does this look in relation to the new digital technologies curriculum. Is it Computational Thinking, or is it Designing and Developing Digital Outcomes.

It is something that I find rather difficult to put in a box for now, the guidance just isn't there. 

Mind you, I have not given what the purpose of the the idea is.

With some thought on what the purpose of the outcome could be:

Develop a solution that can record a runners temperature, and what effect the run has on a person using an accelerometer. Graph the results of this. 

It is only then that I look at this is around Designing and Developing Digital Outcomes, rather than Computational Thinking. 

• Given some parameters/criteria and tools and/or techniques they are able to make decisions (largely independently) about creating, manipulating, storing, retrieving, sharing and or testing content (developed for a specific purpose) within a fundamental system.
• Understanding the particular roles of components in a fundamental input, process, output system and how they work together.

Students could then talk about how they could show a couple of other aspects of this, talking about better storage opportunities through a sd card, as well as being able to record longitude and latitude through a gps receiver.

• Understanding that inputs are transformed into outputs within a fundamental system and the “control” role that humans have in this. 
• Purposefully use an increasing range of applications (software and file type).

Some may be thinking you have aimed for the wrong progress outcome with this, considering no student currently has any progress outcomes reported against them, I think Progress Outcome 2 for Designing and Developing Digital Outcomes at year 9 and 10 is a good place to start. Considering Progress Outcome 3 is Given some parameters they are able to make decisions (largely independently) about the best tools/ techniques to solve the problem.  

How can they make the decisions when they haven't been given the learning to support those yet?

While other may look at the Computational Thinking and look at combining these, I feel they could lose opportunities for evidencing there learning.