I decided that this was the year that i would head overseas. I missed seeing my brother when he lived in Melbourne a number of years ago, and my other brother now lives in Adelaide.
I decided that I wanted to go and see him while he was over there, and since being a school teacher, the only way I am going to be able to do that is during school holidays. A quick search, I found all the cs4hs projects happening in the world http://www.cs4hs.com/projects/ I found that there was one happening in the October school holidays.
Booking flights, trying to get a passport and converting money to aussie dollars has been a bit of a rush, but well worth it. I just have to make sure that I do not misplace my passport.
However, The University of Adelaide brought in a couple of hundred students in 2011 when the quakes close the University of Canterbury. Doing my current EDEM626 paper also meant that I am able to use a system called eduroam, https://www.eduroam.org/ which allows me to connect to the wifi network using my credentials from the University of Canterbury. This is an awesome idea, and one that I hope that N4L would be able to look at as part of its network for learning. The ability for a teacher to login to another school when doing Professional Development, it means that the teachers has access to their material, and brings in an opportunity to use the tools that are being provided with the network.
The first day we looked at AppInventor, and also got to use our programs with the Nexus 7. It is quite nice to complete a program and shake the device to get a ding sound and action on the screen.
Also got given a book from the day on more projects that could be done with AppInventor than just the tutorials.
Day two looked at computational thinking, as well as some csunplugged activities. This allowed for a chat on why computational thinking could be part of the schools curriculum, though is it just another way to deliver problem solving skills through the use of technology.
Moving onto the processing programming language, this look interesting and is more like the old logo, however you are stating shapes and sizes, and you can still do repeats, conditional statements. It might be interesting to try this with a year 9 class. I note that there is a khan academy course that could be useful in delivering content.
Also shown was a alternative to NXT, called enchanting. This is a BYOB alternative of scratch. Getting students familiar with scratch and being able to take this further could be a possibility.
I must say interacting with other teachers and hearing the stories and issues that they are facing, maybe across the ditch isn't the answer.
I also got talking to the CS students that came into help. They were interested in the csfieldguide and loved the videos that have been produced that put the concepts of computer science through a different spin. They loved what is happening in New Zealand and would loved to be kept informed on what is happening over the other side of the ditch.
Monday, 14 October 2013
Sunday, 29 September 2013
BYOD SAMR Model
The SAMR model relates to technology adoption in education, and they have found it useful and relevant for their BYOD implementation. Start at the bottom, where it is traditional teaching with technology replacing existing techniques without additional benefit, rising to redefinition - doing things that would not have been possible without the technology. I think this reassured many of us that we don't need to do it all at once, that we can take small steps, and that we will move up and down this ladder as we balance integrating new technology with the normal stresses and time constraints on teachers!
Friday, 27 September 2013
reflection
Copied from: http://seniorsecondary.tki.org.nz/The-arts/Learning-programme-design/Context
The questions in the design decision making framework are framed to support teachers and programme designers to think more consciously and intentionally around the decisions that you make to support valued outcomes for all learners.
Use them for:
- faculty or departmental review
- individual teacher review
- gathering student voice.
Examine the effectiveness of what you do as leaders of learning in relation to valid and worthwhile learning for all students within the arts.
Each question has a snapshot from the arts, such as, dance, drama, music – sound arts, and visual arts as well as an integrated programme, using visual art as the context with media studies and English.
Read the Programme planning - Design decision making framework questions:
Even though the context for this is the Arts Curriculum, it resonates with some of the thinking that I am currently working through of the courses that we offer in my area.
The other one is a decision making process available from http://dtg.tki.org.nz/Implementing-the-DTG/Planning-process/Planning-process-explanation
As part of my review of this years courses, I am thinking what has worked.
Interactive database design with php/mysql
Opening up the context of the digital media assessment for the student. Though the amount of work could have included a technology standard.
Not enough knowledge based standards or technology based standards.
Programming continues to challenges students. some struggle with the concepts. Managed to work through the planning, but not the programming itself.
The challenge of level one, at what level should it be operating. Looking at the best practice workshops and what is being developed nationally, am I assessing correctly. There has been a wonderful post in the association listserve which looks at what is being asked for.
We need to be cautious of over working the students and ourselves to make sure that we achieve the standards.
This was a problem within the old Technology Standards whereby we made the kids do more and more and more just to ensure a pass.
Often we made kids do the criteria for Achieved over and over and over, so that they had not a great show at M or E, but had the worlds best and most thorough Achieved result.
We need to refine the work and get efficient at doing that, other subjects have had a decade and a half or more head start on refining their standards. I went through the conversion to NCEA in Science and the initial problems, and concerns were EXACTLYT the same.
Please endure you look at the criteria, and then provide an opportunity to allow the kids to demonstrate understanding.
The criteria below is all kids need to do to get an achieved. When you look at it, its not too bad.
The problems occur when we take our years of Unit Standards approaches, and then overlay them onto an Achievement Standard, expecting the kids to complete every single stage of every single aspect. That is the fundamental difference between Achievement Standards and Unit Standards.
Image this, a student hands in a Desktop Published document that summarises the outcome from the America's Cup. It has Information about the event, it has tables and graphs from the results over the races, that were imported from a Spreadsheet. The student saved their resources in an organised way. They check the data is accurate and reference their sources. The document has obvious design elements included.
Achieved.
Even if it has some errors, or doesn't look stunning, its still an achieved. If you asked the kids why they put the data into the spreadsheet rather than into The Desktop Published document to start with, and tick off their response you have that evidence.
If they did the document accurately, and without help
Merit.
If they did the document efficiently, and without help, using the best tools
Excellence.
You as teachers do not need to have all evidence from the students as typed out full explanations with screen shots in triplicate. Create a checklist, ask the kids a number of questions. Build up a sheet of evidence that shows that you asked kids why they were doing what they were doing. Why they did it that way. Just have tick box answers. Look at the kids as you move around the room. Which ones are on task efficiently using time.
Which ones need help. Tell them to ask the question, if it will affect their grade, then tell them that they can have the answer and be shown, but it will affect their grade. Document when you help them. Just a clickboard and a class list with some columns. Send this off with your moderation, saying I gave this grade because of these observations.
Make a dummy document before hand to show them how to do the things you will be assessing them on. Like on school swimming day.
My advice is look through the schedule you are using and see how many times you are re assessing the Achieved Criteria over and over and over again.
Once they have shown they can do the requirements... thats it... they have shown they can do it.
Make the standards work for you and the kids.
• applying a set of techniques to produce a digital information outcome that meets specifications
• selecting the appropriate software applications and specific features to manage and present information
• applying file management procedures
• applying design elements and/or formatting techniques as appropriate to the outcome
• applying data integrity and testing procedures to ensure the outcome meets the specifications
• following legal, ethical and moral responsibilities as appropriate to the outcome
Looking at the terminology used for level one and the standard, I need to focus on terminology
Here's a quick attempt to answer the question below… Linda, you're right, you are probably already doing all those things. I've taken the main terms from AS91076, and put in the main examples of blocks in Scratch that you might use:
variables
make a variable/list, set x to _ (x is the variable, and can appear in lots of other commands e.g. move x steps; say x for y seconds)
types of information
number, text and lists are different types (if you set x to 5, you can add numbers to it; if you set x to "Hello" then it's text)
assignment
set x to _ (assigns a value to x); change x by _ (also assigns a new value to x). Operators will tend to be used as part of this.
sequence control structure
the idea that the the control of a program starts at one block, and then goes to the one below it. Sticking blocks together creates a sequence
selection control structure
if, if … else (selecting which path to follow by testing some condition)
iteration control structure
forever, repeat, forever if, repeat until (iterating over the inner block some number of times)
predefined actions (e.g. predefined methods, functions, or procedures)
play sound, switch costume, pen down, pick random, wait, goto, glide, change costume… there are lots of these to choose from in Scratch
input from a user, sensors, or other external source.
ask _ and wait, key _ pressed, mouse x, mouse y, mouse down (basically any of the sensing blocks)
Others who have been using Scratch might want to suggest some other useful/common ones.
Getting students to start looking at some of the issues that came up in the mashup competition or some of the issues that came from the nzta meeting in wellington.
Getting students to look at real problems is needed. As well as using the first weeks of 2014 to do the computer science standards.
The students are interested, will work well, and it will offer a challenge to put some of the concepts learnt into action. Also the need to do the technology curriculum. Looking at some of the strategies for engaging students and feeding back through moodle could offer students with a insight.
Thursday, 26 September 2013
Database assessment
An idea that quickly came into being tonight was one for the database assessment next year.
Street name database for Christchurch, based upon suburb, list alphabetical, and then clickable to show on a google map.
Street name database for Christchurch, based upon suburb, list alphabetical, and then clickable to show on a google map.
Download Christchurch street and place name listings
- Christchurch place names A-M [1.22 MB PDF]
- Christchurch place names N-Z [971 KB PDF]
- Lost Christchurch [1.14 MB PDF]
- Miscellaneous [899 KB PDF]
Street names
- Christchurch street names A [621 KB PDF]
- Christchurch street names B [1.04 MB PDF]
- Christchurch street names C [1.2 MB PDF]
- Christchurch street names D - E [807 KB PDF]
- Christchurch street names F - G [973 KB PDF]
- Christchurch street names H [801 KB PDF]
- Christchurch street names I - K [721 KB PDF]
- Christchurch street names L [485 KB PDF]
- Christchurch street names M [1 MB PDF]
- Christchurch street names N - O [425 KB PDF]
- Christchurch street names P - Q [638 KB PDF]
- Christchurch street names R [711 KB PDF]
- Christchurch street names S [773 KB PDF]
- Christchurch street names T - V [741 KB PDF]
- Christchurch street names W - Z [796 KB PDF]
Now, are we allowed to use this data?
Copyright statement
Unless otherwise indicated, the Christchurch City Council holds the copyright on all material on the Christchurch City Libraries’ websites. This material can be used for personal and non-commercial purposes free of charge without the permission of the Christchurch City Council, provided that the source and copyright status of the material is acknowledged and it is not used in a misleading way.
Wednesday, 25 September 2013
The new role of the teacher
Watching http://blip.tv/core-ed/sharon-friesen-new-roles-for-teachers-2920007
Sharon Friesen addresses a number of misconceptions about 21st century teaching, and discusses the instructional practices and expertise required of a teacher in today’s classrooms.
Sharon Friesen addresses a number of misconceptions about 21st century teaching, and discusses the instructional practices and expertise required of a teacher in today’s classrooms.
Teachers still need to be part of the process.
Sunday, 22 September 2013
Future Learning
http://stevemouldey.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/future-learning/
Some of the brief highlights of this book for him were:
- “Knowledge is innovation. Its role is to generate new knowledge, to do things.”
- The importance of developing systems level of understandings and higher order thinking skills
- A need to shift focus from skills to dispositions
A possible future course - 3D printing and robotics
I have just been introduced to Jimmy the Robot,
Jimmy is part of the brain child of Brian Johnson, Intel Futurist. Jimmy is 3D printed, and all the
development and changes will be open source.
http://allthingsd.com/20130921/intel-futurist-shows-how-youll-download-and-program-your-own-robot-next-year/
Robotics and 3D Printing - Jimmy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAWbr3dUnhY
For more information
http://robots21.com/
"If we get this open source and apps into peoples lives, they will start to come up with the really cool stuff. They will come up with the next twitter for robots." Quote from Brian Johnson, Intel Futurist. This quote resonates with me rather well, in the age of BYOD, and the New Curriculum, is there opportunity to extend and open ourselves with new ways of teaching and learning. (Page 36, New Zealand Curriculum, 2007)
The Science Fiction book 21st Century Robot explores the fictional world of Jimmy the Robot and his human, Simon Egerton. Future release of the book will contain open source design files for you to modify your very own 3D printable Jimmy the Robot!
http://robots21.com/21st-Century-Robot-Book-Maker-Faire-Edition.pdf
Imagine this as a project for a technology scholarship or student project next year, what will the student be able to get out of it? Technology in action.
Jimmy is part of the brain child of Brian Johnson, Intel Futurist. Jimmy is 3D printed, and all the
development and changes will be open source.
http://allthingsd.com/20130921/intel-futurist-shows-how-youll-download-and-program-your-own-robot-next-year/
Robotics and 3D Printing - Jimmy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAWbr3dUnhY
For more information
http://robots21.com/
"If we get this open source and apps into peoples lives, they will start to come up with the really cool stuff. They will come up with the next twitter for robots." Quote from Brian Johnson, Intel Futurist. This quote resonates with me rather well, in the age of BYOD, and the New Curriculum, is there opportunity to extend and open ourselves with new ways of teaching and learning. (Page 36, New Zealand Curriculum, 2007)
The Science Fiction book 21st Century Robot explores the fictional world of Jimmy the Robot and his human, Simon Egerton. Future release of the book will contain open source design files for you to modify your very own 3D printable Jimmy the Robot!
http://robots21.com/21st-Century-Robot-Book-Maker-Faire-Edition.pdf
Imagine this as a project for a technology scholarship or student project next year, what will the student be able to get out of it? Technology in action.
Sunday, 15 September 2013
Reflection about CS standards and when to teach the course, plus fsm
Reflecting on my students and my course. My students are tired, they take a long time to do anything currently, they are being blown out. My school has them to do six subjects, something that I cannot change, as we are a state integrated school Religious Education is the extra one, and it has achievement standards attached to it. Looking at students achievement standards sheet, some are doing 138 credits. NCEA Level 3 requires them to get 60 + 20 credits from another level, so they could get 80 level 3 credits.
Leaving the computer science to the third term seems like a mistake at this current point in time. I am thinking about getting the students when they are refreshed, not tired, enjoy learning in term 1 as a possible change for next year.
So the question is, when are you looking at learning and teaching the computer science standards next year, L2, and L3?
I put this question out in our community group as part of my uni work. The response from the lecturer;
Another example is real world example of FSM in game development, http://jessewarden.com/2012/07/finite-state-machines-in-game-development.html
Leaving the computer science to the third term seems like a mistake at this current point in time. I am thinking about getting the students when they are refreshed, not tired, enjoy learning in term 1 as a possible change for next year.
So the question is, when are you looking at learning and teaching the computer science standards next year, L2, and L3?
Two ideas I've heard from teachers who have had success with the standards:
- teach the ideas in term 1 and get them started, but do the write-up later
- teach some of the ideas in year 9 and 10, so there isn't much learning, just revision while doing the writeup in year 11.
This reflects a couple of observations:
- NCEA students can get so focussed on assessment that they don't learn (just tell me what to do for the assessment, don't confuse me with interesting stuff about the subject)
- most other subjects have years of buildup, for the ideas to mature in the students' minds and build up vocabulary. Imagine if science or maths was first mentioned in year 11?!
Unfortunately teaching a little early doesn't always fit school structures. But I would suspect that a student who did 3 hours in year 10 and 3 hours in year 11 would achieve more than one who did 6 hours in year 10.
I have just been writing reports, and one thing that caught me was when writing a students comment, he constantly asks me what he needs to do to meet the assessment. The student is not interested in learning, he is in six subjects, has many assessments, he is just looking for credits. I am thinking about what I need to do for this course right now, and I must say I probably am the same, I just want to know what I need to do just to pass. The subject that I am investigating is an area that I have had little experience with, finate state automata. Finate state automata is a device that can be in one of a finite number of states. Ok, that is simple, however when I do a search on the internet for it, I get lost in the maths symbols that follow.
An example of a finate state machine could be a digital watch, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKSuzNAiR1A
One of the other class members has suggested that I look at are the links for a guided tutorial on Regular Expressions is really helpful from the CS field guide when replicating real life applications. My students saw the benefit of capturing round brackets strings so much clearer after attempting the Tutorial. Regular expressions and interpreting is a breeze for my higher achieving students.
I am currently starting to investigate the resources that are listed, http://www.i-programmer.info/babbages-bag/223-finite-state-machines.html
and
http://www.ccs3.lanl.gov/mega-math/workbk/machine/malearn.html
Some of the links don't work which is causing some issues, especially when it comes to writing notation.
This is the next part of what I am teaching the students.
Started off with the Train station task, was simple and had the students interest, but as soon as they completed it they trailed off. This comes back to the statement earlier, students only want to know at this stage of the year what they need for the assessment. they don't want to learn.
Following this we started to look at states and transitions and what this means.
Some of the links don't work which is causing some issues, especially when it comes to writing notation.
This is the next part of what I am teaching the students.
Started off with the Train station task, was simple and had the students interest, but as soon as they completed it they trailed off. This comes back to the statement earlier, students only want to know at this stage of the year what they need for the assessment. they don't want to learn.
Following this we started to look at states and transitions and what this means.
Subject selection feedback
Students this year have had difficulty logging in. Mainly due to details being incorrect within our student management system. This is of huge concern.
Other reason is students not following instructions. dd/mm/yy they have been entering ddmmyy
90% completion rate.
Things that went wrong, year 11 students could not select CAL3 or STA3, as a number of students have been advanced.
Enhanced english at year 10 was not available, this is a selected number of students.
Form tutors were given a verification form on Friday, year 9, 11, 12. Looks like i forgot to include year 10, this will be caught up on monday.
Also on monday we have to import all 2014 subject selection into musac. this will allow us to start developing a plan for 2014.
Last year running this. A project that started off as an idea and so many years service. It will be nice to start looking at another project and using my knowledge and help improve an aspect of education.
Other reason is students not following instructions. dd/mm/yy they have been entering ddmmyy
90% completion rate.
Things that went wrong, year 11 students could not select CAL3 or STA3, as a number of students have been advanced.
Enhanced english at year 10 was not available, this is a selected number of students.
Form tutors were given a verification form on Friday, year 9, 11, 12. Looks like i forgot to include year 10, this will be caught up on monday.
Also on monday we have to import all 2014 subject selection into musac. this will allow us to start developing a plan for 2014.
Last year running this. A project that started off as an idea and so many years service. It will be nice to start looking at another project and using my knowledge and help improve an aspect of education.
coder on Raspberry Pi
I was alerted to a new development for the raspberry pi on Friday by a visitor to the school.
The part I like is that it is getting students out and trying something different, a little download with a big outcome.
UPDATE: have managed to get this up and going, rather than using code.local I have had to use the IP address of the RPi to be able to access it. Password requires two Capital Letters and lowercase letters.
Interesting concepts are shown on the first screen with an introduction of how to use it.
You need to have it connected to a physical network before you can setup the wifi through the settings console.
More than one user can access the RPi as long as they have the password, but cannot collaboratively change it, you need to save the changes.
An issue: how do you add more than one page to a project? This will also impact on the css link as well.
Coder is a free, open source project that turns a Raspberry Pi into a simple platform that educators and parents can use to teach the basics of building for the web. New coders can craft small projects in HTML, CSS, and Javascript, right from the web browser.
A simple yet great idea, I have downloaded the installer and will put on a Raspberry Pi on monday to try it out.
The part I like is that it is getting students out and trying something different, a little download with a big outcome.
UPDATE: have managed to get this up and going, rather than using code.local I have had to use the IP address of the RPi to be able to access it. Password requires two Capital Letters and lowercase letters.
Interesting concepts are shown on the first screen with an introduction of how to use it.
You need to have it connected to a physical network before you can setup the wifi through the settings console.
More than one user can access the RPi as long as they have the password, but cannot collaboratively change it, you need to save the changes.
An issue: how do you add more than one page to a project? This will also impact on the css link as well.
Monday, 2 September 2013
educampTimaru
On saturday I had an opportunity to travel down to Timaru to attend a unconference. These unconferences are organised by teachers to show what they are doing, discuss, develop their knowledge on a range of topics. Almost any topic goes, from curriculum delivery, assessment, teaching and learning.
Arrive at Craighead, a all girls school in Timaru you get to see the old buildings, the park like setting and the teachers.
The start of day as normal starts with a smackdown, where people inform others about various applications, apps...
However, there was one special moment during the day, one of the teachers from the school introduced us to her work. She is a design teacher who had just been given a App Crayon and was thankful, it worked faster than her stylus. She introduced us to a couple of her recordings, which she makes available to her students. Introduction to Pinterest, dropbox and one other. Now what amazed us was the level of detail, interactions with the students, reflective on her practice. She kept talking about not being an expert. But hey, what is a expert these days. Her words were constantly, "But I have only been doing this for a year", a year of development, a year of interactions with students, a year of BYOD, a year of developing a new Level 3 programme.
Amazed at the what was happening, a number of us in the group want her to share her practice with others. This is a teacher who is passionate, developing the curriculum through the first section, developing effective pedagogy and using BYOD to enhance and encourage learning.
Her response - "But I have only been doing BYOD for a year"
Arrive at Craighead, a all girls school in Timaru you get to see the old buildings, the park like setting and the teachers.
The start of day as normal starts with a smackdown, where people inform others about various applications, apps...
However, there was one special moment during the day, one of the teachers from the school introduced us to her work. She is a design teacher who had just been given a App Crayon and was thankful, it worked faster than her stylus. She introduced us to a couple of her recordings, which she makes available to her students. Introduction to Pinterest, dropbox and one other. Now what amazed us was the level of detail, interactions with the students, reflective on her practice. She kept talking about not being an expert. But hey, what is a expert these days. Her words were constantly, "But I have only been doing this for a year", a year of development, a year of interactions with students, a year of BYOD, a year of developing a new Level 3 programme.
Amazed at the what was happening, a number of us in the group want her to share her practice with others. This is a teacher who is passionate, developing the curriculum through the first section, developing effective pedagogy and using BYOD to enhance and encourage learning.
Her response - "But I have only been doing BYOD for a year"
Sunday, 1 September 2013
year 9 students and a 10c piece
I have been busy changing my year 9 course, so far we have not touched any office products. We have been use google docs as our productivity suite. Setting up documents in word processing, sheets. It is the sheets that I have had fun with. First task was to put in cities within new zealand and then find the top temperatures for the next five days. Simple enough task, metservice, however, students have a different opinion on what a city is. Once completed, they them average the temperature, min and max.
Second task, test results for 10 students, also a good way to get to know your students. 5 Test results and leave one out due to they were "sick" that day. average, sum, min, max and count. Now they have to explain why there is only 9 results on that test and not 10 like the others. I also brought this is as error checking, starting to bring in some simple computer science into the course.
Next task, flipping a coin. Now I must admit I got his idea out of a maths book. 100 flips of the coin. Easy enough, now list the number 1 to 100. Students learn about the use of fill down. Students then go through and list Heads or Tails depending on what they tossed. Then a introduction to the COUNTIF function. And also introduction to the division (/) to find out the percentage where they get to use the % button.
Now to do the simple stuff like, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
But what amazed me was that in the 9 years they have been doing mathematics, not once had they ever flipped the coin?
Imagine what would happen if I brought a bag of m&m's to the class and worked out how many of each colour there would be in a packet?
Yes, I did get all of the 10c pieces back at the end of class.
Second task, test results for 10 students, also a good way to get to know your students. 5 Test results and leave one out due to they were "sick" that day. average, sum, min, max and count. Now they have to explain why there is only 9 results on that test and not 10 like the others. I also brought this is as error checking, starting to bring in some simple computer science into the course.
Now to do the simple stuff like, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
But what amazed me was that in the 9 years they have been doing mathematics, not once had they ever flipped the coin?
Imagine what would happen if I brought a bag of m&m's to the class and worked out how many of each colour there would be in a packet?
Yes, I did get all of the 10c pieces back at the end of class.
Wednesday, 28 August 2013
Formal Languages
Sorry, am I am having to put my normal post on hold. Too much other stuff going on this week so far and still have the assignment to finish.
I have had a good start on it, looking at two resources, though I am unsure of how to develop my conclusion at present.
Thursday won't help at school,
Faculty meeting at 8am,
Modern Learning Environments PLD at 8:15-9:00
Non contact, fill in application for funding for 3d printer
Classes
Interval
No assembly today, instead its target forward interview will year 10-13 students
Classes
Classes
Lunch
Classes
Classes
End of school, think I may have students coming back for a re-assessment, tidy up room
Parent teacher interviews 4-7pm, 32 interview slots filled
Association Committee Meeting 7-8pm
I think somewhere in there is something else I have missed.
I have sent a draft away to lecturer, will see what returns.
Oh, I was supposed to grab the sand from my brothers and fill the cups tonight for algorithms tomorrow!
Currently doing some coding - compressing a 30 Gig video file down to 4Gig and trying to keep the quality of the footage.
I have had a good start on it, looking at two resources, though I am unsure of how to develop my conclusion at present.
Thursday won't help at school,
Faculty meeting at 8am,
Modern Learning Environments PLD at 8:15-9:00
Non contact, fill in application for funding for 3d printer
Classes
Interval
No assembly today, instead its target forward interview will year 10-13 students
Classes
Classes
Lunch
Classes
Classes
End of school, think I may have students coming back for a re-assessment, tidy up room
Parent teacher interviews 4-7pm, 32 interview slots filled
Association Committee Meeting 7-8pm
I think somewhere in there is something else I have missed.
I have sent a draft away to lecturer, will see what returns.
Oh, I was supposed to grab the sand from my brothers and fill the cups tonight for algorithms tomorrow!
Currently doing some coding - compressing a 30 Gig video file down to 4Gig and trying to keep the quality of the footage.
Monday, 26 August 2013
modern learning environment
This week we are having some staff professional development on modern learning environments. Earlier this year core education hosted a day at wigram where they showed a floorprint of a modern learning environment as well as a variety of furniture that would make up one. The classroom environment is changing, gone are the days that a silent classroom is working well, they are actually probably on their cellphones texting each other.
Where is the front end of the curriculum, and participating with others, students will most likely not work in isolation at university or work, so why do we make them work in isolation at school. Why do we have classrooms that are rows and columns individually set-up. Is this to allow control?
This week I look forward to the speaker and what ideas he will bring.
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/~/media/MinEdu/Files/EducationSectors/PrimarySecondary/PropertyToolbox/StateSchools/SchoolPropertyStrategy201121.pdf
Core education ran a modern learning environment even earlier in the year, as well as provided some excellent speakers. http://events.core-ed.org/modern-learning-environme, Stephen Heppell provided for me
a great look at how different ideas can be incorporated into designs. As well as the need for students to be involved in the design phases. Classrooms are used by both teachers and students, yet they seem to be designed by teachers. Should students not have a say in where they will spend there time. Furniture is also something that needs to be looked at. I have been testing a Hokki Stool which is being used more and more by my students, rather than the chairs they normally sit on. Another idea that was introduced to me at the expo was the idea of whiteboard tables. throughout my classes we draw up ideas, work through problems, when we had the CRT screens I used to use a whiteboard marker on them to draw an idea or example on the glass. I am little to scared to do it on the LED monitors now in class. We have a number of whiteboards in the school that are too small for the environment that they were set up in. This has allowed me to get the caretaker to cut one down and attach it to a table. I will hopefully add an image later on how I am using it.
But back to Stephen Heppell, such ideas still have me thinking about what a classroom could look like in the future, and I hope that I will never have to work in a computer lab again. It is a lab, it is not a classroom. I would like to see how other schools are delivering digital technologies in 21st century classroom environments.
Where is the front end of the curriculum, and participating with others, students will most likely not work in isolation at university or work, so why do we make them work in isolation at school. Why do we have classrooms that are rows and columns individually set-up. Is this to allow control?
This week I look forward to the speaker and what ideas he will bring.
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/~/media/MinEdu/Files/EducationSectors/PrimarySecondary/PropertyToolbox/StateSchools/SchoolPropertyStrategy201121.pdf
Core education ran a modern learning environment even earlier in the year, as well as provided some excellent speakers. http://events.core-ed.org/modern-learning-environme, Stephen Heppell provided for me
a great look at how different ideas can be incorporated into designs. As well as the need for students to be involved in the design phases. Classrooms are used by both teachers and students, yet they seem to be designed by teachers. Should students not have a say in where they will spend there time. Furniture is also something that needs to be looked at. I have been testing a Hokki Stool which is being used more and more by my students, rather than the chairs they normally sit on. Another idea that was introduced to me at the expo was the idea of whiteboard tables. throughout my classes we draw up ideas, work through problems, when we had the CRT screens I used to use a whiteboard marker on them to draw an idea or example on the glass. I am little to scared to do it on the LED monitors now in class. We have a number of whiteboards in the school that are too small for the environment that they were set up in. This has allowed me to get the caretaker to cut one down and attach it to a table. I will hopefully add an image later on how I am using it.But back to Stephen Heppell, such ideas still have me thinking about what a classroom could look like in the future, and I hope that I will never have to work in a computer lab again. It is a lab, it is not a classroom. I would like to see how other schools are delivering digital technologies in 21st century classroom environments.
Sunday, 25 August 2013
being connected
I have just read another Blogpost about being connected. Not just about being connected online, but being connected to other teachers. Through Facebook, twitter, vln and Google groups. I have been teaching now for 10 years and without the collaboration from other teachers I don't think I would be. 10 years ago there were blogs but they were difficult to use. Instead when I did my teachers practice I emailed my father each day about what I had observed, tried in the classroom and reflected back on my day and teaching. I still remember the comment back from my professional studies teacher about my reflections. From there when I started my first year I had a Linux box sitting at home running a web server that I created a MySQL/pho install that I would update with my thoughts.
Today I still reflect on my practice, professional development. In 2007 I was introduced to twitter which allowed me access to industry, teachers and other people. Through these I have found myself being able to ask questions and get responses that have added to. Me as a teacher and also provided contact with unions. Having a teacher ask a question and know who to get the immediate response from has been a great way to solve issues within the workplace, yes it was done through direct messages.
Collaboration through Google groups. I belong to three great groups, techies, mle reference group and the digital technologies teachers association. In the early days of the mle reference group it was a direct connection to the ministry, so much information, being able to ask questions, get feedback, introduced to other teachers and technicians. The added value I had from this group. )no longer does it have this pass through of information) Allowed me to become the ict innovator within the school. Myportfolio, single sign on, Google apps for education and the early days of live@edu. It gave me access to the right people at the right time for me, but the school was not ready for it, it needed the infrastructure, faster connections and pld.
The association listserve has been a way for teachers to talk about unit standards in the beginning, it started change, from computing unit standards, to information management standards and the issues of generic technology. It brought a massive number of teachers together, although sometimes it went bad with people either getting angry that they were wrong or that people did not have the same ideas on where computing/ict needed to go. Nzist was introduced to me when I was at teachers college, it provided me a way to see where things were at, what was working within schools and what wasn't. It also allowed me to feel part of a community, a community that would support me through my first few years. Since then I have been posting and sharing, and collaborating with the new association listserve since. I have now posted over 700 entries into the new listserve, be it articles, ideas, professional development or what is happening within schools. It has been amazing how many people have emailed back saying thank you, these people have got to a point where they needed help and within minutes they had an answer and were able to carry on. Without this group I do not be live we would be where we are currently. It has allows people to talk about the new standards, what was wrong with the draft standards, as well as what is wrong with the current standards. It has allowed for friendships to be made.
Through going to a education event I wrote a Blogpost about the event and the lack of education and technology that was part of it, the next day I had a comment asking to contact the venue and help assist with the educational reference group to help plan the next couple of years development. It also allowed me to go to a couple of other events where I stood up to explain that education needed to have a space and that it had been left out of the models that were being presented to the community. Yet another reason to be connected.
One would say that ulearn would be a way to get connected, I have been to three ulearns and many more through online environments, one year I think I was one of the top 15 twitters at the event, and I wasn't even there. Being connected is a part of my teaching practice, through pd at school I am online looking for articles or tweeting the personal learning network I have on some of the ideas that I am getting so they can be involved.
It also moves into my area outside of teaching as well. Through meetups in Auckland as well as being part of a brand that I like, we have been able to communicate directly with customers, inform them of stock levels, create a hype and make them feel part of the experience. Being connected is a way of my life.
Being connected has had a profound effect on what I do in the classroom and how I do it.
How do others in other subjects areas without groups or communities develop their understanding of the curriculum, assessments and ideas?
Today I still reflect on my practice, professional development. In 2007 I was introduced to twitter which allowed me access to industry, teachers and other people. Through these I have found myself being able to ask questions and get responses that have added to. Me as a teacher and also provided contact with unions. Having a teacher ask a question and know who to get the immediate response from has been a great way to solve issues within the workplace, yes it was done through direct messages.
Collaboration through Google groups. I belong to three great groups, techies, mle reference group and the digital technologies teachers association. In the early days of the mle reference group it was a direct connection to the ministry, so much information, being able to ask questions, get feedback, introduced to other teachers and technicians. The added value I had from this group. )no longer does it have this pass through of information) Allowed me to become the ict innovator within the school. Myportfolio, single sign on, Google apps for education and the early days of live@edu. It gave me access to the right people at the right time for me, but the school was not ready for it, it needed the infrastructure, faster connections and pld.
The association listserve has been a way for teachers to talk about unit standards in the beginning, it started change, from computing unit standards, to information management standards and the issues of generic technology. It brought a massive number of teachers together, although sometimes it went bad with people either getting angry that they were wrong or that people did not have the same ideas on where computing/ict needed to go. Nzist was introduced to me when I was at teachers college, it provided me a way to see where things were at, what was working within schools and what wasn't. It also allowed me to feel part of a community, a community that would support me through my first few years. Since then I have been posting and sharing, and collaborating with the new association listserve since. I have now posted over 700 entries into the new listserve, be it articles, ideas, professional development or what is happening within schools. It has been amazing how many people have emailed back saying thank you, these people have got to a point where they needed help and within minutes they had an answer and were able to carry on. Without this group I do not be live we would be where we are currently. It has allows people to talk about the new standards, what was wrong with the draft standards, as well as what is wrong with the current standards. It has allowed for friendships to be made.
Through going to a education event I wrote a Blogpost about the event and the lack of education and technology that was part of it, the next day I had a comment asking to contact the venue and help assist with the educational reference group to help plan the next couple of years development. It also allowed me to go to a couple of other events where I stood up to explain that education needed to have a space and that it had been left out of the models that were being presented to the community. Yet another reason to be connected.
One would say that ulearn would be a way to get connected, I have been to three ulearns and many more through online environments, one year I think I was one of the top 15 twitters at the event, and I wasn't even there. Being connected is a part of my teaching practice, through pd at school I am online looking for articles or tweeting the personal learning network I have on some of the ideas that I am getting so they can be involved.
It also moves into my area outside of teaching as well. Through meetups in Auckland as well as being part of a brand that I like, we have been able to communicate directly with customers, inform them of stock levels, create a hype and make them feel part of the experience. Being connected is a way of my life.
Being connected has had a profound effect on what I do in the classroom and how I do it.
How do others in other subjects areas without groups or communities develop their understanding of the curriculum, assessments and ideas?
Wednesday, 21 August 2013
Looking at the computer science standards
It has been interesting doing the course to date. Maybe I have been thinking about aspects that are complex and difficult, however through the work of Tim and others I am now realising that the majority of the course is available through csunplugged.com. This is providing an opportunity to take some aspects out of a computer lab. Through a discussion last night students like to work with big pieces of paper, do a physical activity rather than on the screen.
Do we as digital technologies teachers think that everything has to be done on a computer? Do students expect that everything has to be done on a computer?
Last year I did an exam problem, the seven bridges problem. Drew it on the quad at school in chalk and had the students running around for half an hour while they tried solving it. In a classroom they would have had it on paper, drew some ideas and told me 5 minutes layer that it isn't solve able. Sometimes I wonder what they will remember the most?
Its always the big activity :)
Tuesday, 20 August 2013
Coding
Interesting lecture tonight. Coding is now used to represent programming, code.org, coder dojo and a number of other sites related to teaching students programming techniques. However the word coding means something different for those in Computer Science. It is error detection, compression and encoding.
Updates may happen tommorow as I read back through my notes
Checking parity bits (interesting that I was introduced to this through my certificate in business computing through data transmissions, we knew them as the "party" bit could have been some confusion here) though in the context that we are looking at we are checking wether is byte has been sent right. Introduce csunplugged activity here http://csunplugged.org/error-detection.
In the compression we looked at a variety of compression techniques though lossy was shown as an example and probably as much as students need to know for there assessment. Students being able to compare a variety of compression techniques and what it does to an image. Imagine one if the high quality photos converted to a low quality jpg, gif, png with various changes made on quality, introduce grey scale as well. Simple activity that students can gather so much from.
Also look at what happens when you zip, what's happening in the background.
The last one we looked at encryption or encoding. Why do we want to encrypt a message, could be an interesting task in a class for students to encrypt messages and pass them around and have the teacher intercept them not knowing what the message is. Who is going to give up the cipher?
A possible activity could be http://csunplugged.org/public-key-encryption
A possible activity could be http://csunplugged.org/public-key-encryption
The different types of attacks were takes about. An attack is a way of solving a cipher.
Brute force
Introduce the rest of the attacks.
A great lecture plus I also was able to talk about the assessment with the lecturer. I have started well but need to rein in my quotes and not get lost in the work. This is about resources and wether they would be good for teachers. Don't forget heading and sub heading.
Updates may happen tommorow as I read back through my notes
Sunday, 18 August 2013
christchurch mashup
There were seven. Business scenarios that we could choose to develop, the students started off by selecting one rather than developing ideas for each of the seven. Although this takes up time, one of the mentors suggested that doing this allows for more than one idea to develop and combine with another. This allowed the students to look at two of the scenarios and be able to bring the ideas together. The two days have been busy with more business development, normally why I would call brief development, concept development and planning, though the planning was done for is really, but students had to work to timeframes, complete progress reports, as well as still work on their development. It is a pity that we could not really work through one of the main aspects of the mashup which was prototyping
Prototyping was 15 points, it may not seem much, but to have something working is better than nothing and could assist with the way this was run.
I had a great time during the two days, first working with students providing some advice and ideas, but also working with technical mentors as well. Something that I need to get more. I need to work out how to
: get access to I data
: work out how to get the data I want/need
: export the data in a usable form
: get the data into an application, be it leaflet or ArcGIS
: integrate another set of data to make it more valuable.
This to me is where digital technologies starts coming into play, as well as geography. I med to chat with my Geography teacher on how to present this data in a more useful form.
Though it great for my students to do well, one prize for best entrepreneur, and another one for Best Public Safety and Community Partnership Mashup.
Thank you for making the data available, ecan, linz, data.govt.nz, cdc and transportforchristchurch, without your feeds we would not have been able to do what we did.
For more information about what happened this weekend, see http://chch.mashup.co.nz we look forward to next years one in march, which has another positive for us, it means that this could be project for the rest lf the year based upon generic technology.
Steeping back I would like to see a couple of the ideas that we came up enveloped, as I think they are feasible, however, as it came out this weekend, what is the funding stream?
Coding homework
Have been given this for homework
http://computerscienceclub.org/raidarrays/raid.html
This is a simple game that asks the user to change the status of a image, the aim is to make the black boxes even. This is a simple parity check to see wether there is issues with a hard drive or that data has been transmitted properly.
The following are screen shots of the game in action. It starts off getting the user to interact to provide an experience of what is required, This requires two clicks, to change the state to black and then to white.
http://computerscienceclub.org/raidarrays/raid.html
This is a simple game that asks the user to change the status of a image, the aim is to make the black boxes even. This is a simple parity check to see wether there is issues with a hard drive or that data has been transmitted properly.
The following are screen shots of the game in action. It starts off getting the user to interact to provide an experience of what is required, This requires two clicks, to change the state to black and then to white.
1: Do you think your students could play this game without prior instructions?
Yes, as most games on mobile devices now show the user how to interact, there is not much difference between this and other applications
Yes, as most games on mobile devices now show the user how to interact, there is not much difference between this and other applications
2: Do you think your students could learn from this game, if accompanied by an appropriate discussion?
The error checking is simple, being able to quickly compare data.
The error checking is simple, being able to quickly compare data.
3: Do you think your students would find this game motivating?
At the start, but there is a logical conclusion. You can only run the game so many times before you cannot get any higher on the best score. But will they realise the final outcomes,
The education at the start: This might seems like a strange thing to do, but it is a technique used in major data centres like Google and Facebook... Carry on to find out more
At the end there is text at the bottom which reads, Big data centres have thousands of hard disks in the, and each day several are likely to fail.. carry on to find out more.
This is not clickable, or does it take you to any more information to allow it to be used as an informative way.
At the start, but there is a logical conclusion. You can only run the game so many times before you cannot get any higher on the best score. But will they realise the final outcomes,
The education at the start: This might seems like a strange thing to do, but it is a technique used in major data centres like Google and Facebook... Carry on to find out more
At the end there is text at the bottom which reads, Big data centres have thousands of hard disks in the, and each day several are likely to fail.. carry on to find out more.
This is not clickable, or does it take you to any more information to allow it to be used as an informative way.
4: Do you (did you?) think this game is easily accessible, or would you prefer a different format, such as an unplugged game?
Easy accessible, and runs quickly. responsive. For me personally its does look csunplugged already with the simple graphics. It already looks like the parity game.
One thing that I found with it was that it was easier when the questioned block was beside the black squares than when it was further away. Also within the first three questions it provides you a easy way to figure out if they are right.
Yet later in the game the even section is removed
Easy accessible, and runs quickly. responsive. For me personally its does look csunplugged already with the simple graphics. It already looks like the parity game.
One thing that I found with it was that it was easier when the questioned block was beside the black squares than when it was further away. Also within the first three questions it provides you a easy way to figure out if they are right.
Yet later in the game the even section is removed
5: This game Teaches a bit about raid arrays, however the gameplay may outlive the educational content. Do you think the game's replayability should be artificially shortened?
Yes, add in more hard drives to check, bigger raids, how many drives could you check before it caused issues?
What is the differences between RAID levels?
Right, just worked out what this is for, http://computerscienceclub.org/ which is also in development.
Yes, add in more hard drives to check, bigger raids, how many drives could you check before it caused issues?
What is the differences between RAID levels?
Right, just worked out what this is for, http://computerscienceclub.org/ which is also in development.
Friday, 16 August 2013
Year 9 reflection
Over the years I have been doing reflections, however I have now started to reflect through different ways. Year 9 trimester 2 has just finished and I asked some questions about the course.
What did you learn that was new?
Certainly interesting that programming came up quite highly, as well as learn. Student learnt how to program in scratch as well as through there robotics unit. As it is an introduction course, students worked through digital information skills, email, and internet searching skills through the innz natlib challenge, as well as fireworks, mindmapping and robotics. It has been a pretty full on course. This trimester I used more online environments as well as changing the course. Though we could not do this with all the classes as there is not enough robotics kits for the students to use.
Group work also became a focus during the trimester as students has to build, program and test the robot. This has also been a challenge as what happens when a group member is at music or sick.
How do you think the course could be improved?
What did you learn that was new?
Certainly interesting that programming came up quite highly, as well as learn. Student learnt how to program in scratch as well as through there robotics unit. As it is an introduction course, students worked through digital information skills, email, and internet searching skills through the innz natlib challenge, as well as fireworks, mindmapping and robotics. It has been a pretty full on course. This trimester I used more online environments as well as changing the course. Though we could not do this with all the classes as there is not enough robotics kits for the students to use.
Group work also became a focus during the trimester as students has to build, program and test the robot. This has also been a challenge as what happens when a group member is at music or sick.
How do you think the course could be improved?
Interesting that students want more challenges in their work, maybe they are so used to do the same thing or doing the same type of task over and over. It is also interesting that time and think also come up. Time to grasp a new concept, or to much time given to a concept.
Thursday, 15 August 2013
Should we go Google?
Almost every day I hear at school, why can't we access our documents on the BYOD wifi, this is due to protection to stop virus' and being a drop box for school as we can't store all the students data. I understand this, however, why can't we move towards google docs or skydrive, because we need to store the students data. Hang on, we need to store students data? Why is this? I understand some of the data that we need to store, certain application require data to be store within My Documents, however students documents, spreadsheets, presentations are something different. Large photoshop images ares something that is just too big, but with fibre now and the uncapped connection, is it not possible to make a folder, or folders sync up.
Have the tools been created to allow a better syncing method as students don't sit on the same computer, is there a tools that allows a sync to happen to the server?
This would allow students to access data at home, work on essays both at school and at home. I use dropbox a lot, it alllows me to edit documents on my mac and save them, then access the same docs at school to allow me to continue editing.
What is annoying is that I can't use dropbox sync on my Chromebook or surface.
I can't use google drive sync on my surface.
I can't use skydrive on my chromebook.
I wonder what would happen if I installed all three systems on my mac to sync the same folders?
What sync do you use?
Have the tools been created to allow a better syncing method as students don't sit on the same computer, is there a tools that allows a sync to happen to the server?
This would allow students to access data at home, work on essays both at school and at home. I use dropbox a lot, it alllows me to edit documents on my mac and save them, then access the same docs at school to allow me to continue editing.
What is annoying is that I can't use dropbox sync on my Chromebook or surface.
I can't use google drive sync on my surface.
I can't use skydrive on my chromebook.
I wonder what would happen if I installed all three systems on my mac to sync the same folders?
What sync do you use?
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