F. Course Introduction Quiz

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Dana Nistor / Romania

The first step to introduce children to computer science is to participate in the Hour of Code, the largest learning campaign in history. In one hour, students (and teachers) can learn that computer science is fun, easy, and accessible at all ages.

In our country, students have in curricula TIC. They have some elements about e-safety. They must pass an exam about digital literacy at the end of their high schools. Here are no elements for coding, and they don't work with robots. 

1.5 Module 1 Quiz

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http://csunplugged.org/

http://csunplugged.org/activities/

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Learning Objectives for this Module:

1. Acquire an understanding how educational robotics can develop a range of key competences

2. Reflect about the value of visual programming tools in the classroom

3. Understand reasons for focusing on mobile development in the classroom and experiment with two mobile app development tools

Scratch is a visual programming language. It can be accessed as a free desktop and online multimedia authoring tool that can be used by students, scholars, teachers, and parents to easily create games and provide a stepping stone to the more advanced world of computer programming.

The MIT Media Lab is an interdisciplinary research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology devoted to projects at the convergence of technology, multimedia, sciences, art and design.

• Scratch (most well-known tool with a huge community behind it)
• Blockly (from Google and used in Code.org activities)
• Alice (3D programming environment with drag n' drop of standard coding syntax)
• TouchDevelop (App development tool from Microsoft)
• Appinventor (App development tool from MIT)
• Project Spark (Advanced 3D game design tool from Microsoft)
• Kodu (Simpler 3D game design tool from Microsoft)
• Lego Wedo (tool to programme lego machines)

Launched in July 2009, ScratchEd is an online community where Scratch educators share stories, exchange resources, ask questions, and find people.

Since its launch, more than 7500 educators from all around the world have joined the community, sharing hundreds of resources and engaging in thousands of discussions.

Join the ScratchEd community for free at scratched.gse.harvard.edu.

Blockly is a client-side JavaScript library for creating visual block programming editors. It is a project of Google and is open-source under the Apache 2.0 License. It runs in a web browser, and resembles Scratch.

Blockly uses blocks that link together to make writing code easier, and can generate JavaScript, Python, PHP or Dart code. It can also be customised to generate code in any computer language.

Applications using Blockly

1. Blockly has been used to build Blockly Games, a set of educational games that teach programming concepts such as loops and conditionals.
   
2. Blockly is used by MIT's App Inventor to create applications for Android.
   
3. Blockly is used by Code.org to teach introductory programing to millions of students in their Hour of Code program.
   
4. Blockly is used by Wonder Workshop to control their Dot and Dash educational robots.
   
5. Blockly is used by the Open Roberta project to program Lego Mindstorms EV3 robots.
   
6. Blockly has also been used in commercial products, such as snapp, to build mobile applications for smartphones, tablets and smart devices.
   

More examples can be found in the Blockly Documentation

Blockly Games : About

Blockly Games is a series of educational games that teach programming. It is designed for children who have not had prior experience with computer programming. By the end of these games, players are ready to use conventional text-based languages.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/16074797/

Of course, to have robots in your classroom does require a bit of investment and as many of you were pointing out in previous modules, not even having enough computers is often your first challenge. But not all robots are expensive pieces of equipment and you won't necessarily need many of them to engage your students. So even if you don't have computers available in your classroom, it is worth exploring at the level of your school if instead of extra computers it is worth to invest in a few comparatively inexpensive robots such as the Beebots for primary level or theArduino Robots for secondary level (for an example of using Arduino see next module). 

I don't have any experience of robotics but I like to discover this new world.

Dana Nistor / Romania

https://robotsandcomputersclub.wordpress.com/

https://robotsandcomputersclub.wordpress.com/category/ideas/

The two tools we'll introduce here are more relevant for secondary level. 

The first tool is called TouchDevelop which allows you to create mobile apps pretty much from any device and - even better - also for pretty much all platforms available. 

The second tool is called AppInventor. AppInventor was originally created by Google and is now run by a team at MIT. It's a fantastic tool to develop mobile apps for Android devices with a very similar setup and design to the other visual programming tools that are out there. 

3.6 Module 3 Quiz

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Learning Objectives for this Module:

1. Explore a range of game design tools and understand the potential of the different tools as well as the use of game design tools to teach computing more generally

2. Understand what a microcontroller is and can do and how to use it in the classroom

3. Identify a range of tools that can be used to explore internet search, computer networks and web desing

4. Reflect on the topics on the course and how to implement them in your classroom by designing a lesson plan for the Hour of Code

So if you only do one thing from everything addressed on this course, make sure to explore the games design tools that are out there to get children into coding, programming and many other areas of computing.

Ollie provides a great introduction to the topic in the video below, also highlighting the cross-curricular potential of games. He then briefly introduces some simple games design tools. Some of these will be more relevant to the primary teachers amongst you, but others, like PowerPoint and Keynote, are excellent tools to think about game design and computing concepts also with secondary students.

If you want to start using these tools with your students you will have to become more familiar with them. So choose one of the tools Ollie presents in this section (PowerPoint, Keynote, Scratch Junior, 2simpleDIY) or the next section (Scratch, Kodu, Project Spark, Minecraft) and prepare a short game that you could use as an example to show your students (most of the tools are available free of charge). Post a link or description of your game in the Padlet below.

https://www.facebook.com/events/930765600333977/

Microcontrollers are small and cheap computers, usually the size of a credit card. This makes them perfect for use in the classroom. There are different microcontrollers out there which have been specifically designed for the use in schools. In this section we want to introduce two of the most popular ones: Arduino and Raspberry Pi. In the examples we will focus primarily on Arduino but the type of activities can also be done with the Raspberry Pi or other microcontrollers out there. 

So check out the videos and resources below. The first video gives you a quick introduction to Arduino. For more general info on Arduino, make sure to also browse through their website. In the next two videos Patrick provides two concrete examples of what you can do with the Arduino. In the example he actually combines the Arduino with the popular visual programming tool Scratch which we looked at in a previous section. You can find more about Scratch for Arduino here.

As these videos only show the Arduino also make sure to take a look at the introduction to the Raspberry Pi below the videos and browse through the ton of great resources and ideas available on their website. 

You can find links to all the resources mentioned by James in his presentation (and many more) in his Scoop.it here. Please note that the video is an edited version of a much longer video produced by James which you can access here.

After watching the video, share your experiences, resources and ideas for teaching these topics in the classroom. Have you designed a website with your students? Have you explored how a Google search works? What other tools and resources are out there that we could use to address these topics? Share your thoughts in the Padlet below.

I used and still use Google Sites with my students

1. Prepare a lesson plan and
2. Review the lesson plans of 3 colleagues. 

Your lesson plan

The idea is for you to reflect on everything you have learned on the course and integrate this into a final course product that is directly useful for your work in the classroom.

To design the lesson plan we ask you to use a very nice tool called the Learning Designer which was developed by the London Institute of Education.

Your peer reviews

You will be required to provide 3 reviews of other participants' lesson plans.

Test done

Your result in the test was: 100%

You have passed the test.