Computer News Week Ending 11 January 2013

The seniors are on exam leave for prelims but I though the third years still deserved a Computer News spot. So here it is: lumpy flat-screens!

At least one girl was unimpressed with this but I thought it was a really interesting idea. I love using my iPad but would love to try entering text with a tactile, on-screen keyboard like this one from Tactus. The only problem from a teaching point-of-view is that it may make it possible to send texts while the phone is in your pocket again.

As before, there are some brief speakers notes which you can see if you click the wee cogwheel icon in the presentation.

What do you think? Better way to type on a flat screen or useless gimmick that will never take of?

Computer News

My friend Mags told me ages ago that she had started a weekly computer news spot with her classes and that the pupils enjoyed it so much that they started creating their own news spots when Mags didn't have time to prepare them herself. I always liked the idea, so I stole it... and I've been delivering a weekly news spot to my senior classes all this year.

Each week, I have put together a four slide presentation on an item of news that caught my eye, and after I've shown it to my classes, I've been printing it out and posting the pages on the wall outside my classroom. I was pleased one day to overhear a second year pupils saying to his neighbour that he'd forgotten to read the computer news.

For some time though, I've been meaning to publish the presentations online... And at last, I got around to doing so:

If you click on the Options icon (looks like a little cogwheel) and choose "Open speaker notes" you will be able to see more information about the topic.

I made the mistake, at first, of starting the lesson with the computer news but I found it was getting longer and longer each week as the pupils realised they could keep me going for ages by asking questions and making comments. So now, I end the lesson with it instead!

So far, it seems to be going well. I enjoy picking the topics and putting it together and recently, the pupils have started suggesting topics themselves.

What do you think? A worthwhile exercise or a waste of time for all concerned?

Fun On Friday #146: Facebook fool

It was this article that particularly caught my eye: Criminally Stupid.

International Money Pile in Cash and Coins,
a photo by epSos.de on Flickr.

Clearly the robber in Criminally Stupid has never had an Internet safety lesson, or if he has, it wasn't very effective! It made me wonder if funny news stories like this could be used as a starter to more serious topics.

Backbytes in general is worth a read. Other recent stories that amuse me include An education in tweeting, The very definition of a geek, and They know where you live.

What's your favourite?

TESS - Get With The Program

There's a great four page feature on Computing in schools in last week's Times Educational Supplement (Scotland). It's titled "Get with the program".

277/366: Drag and drop,
a photo by DavidDMuir on Flickr.

It starts, inevitably, with the Raspberry Pi (see Raspberry Pi - Further comment if you don't know what this is) and then gives a quick summary of what is happening in England. It talks about a report from the Royal Society (which I want to say more about in future post) but then moves onto the state of play in Scotland:

"So where does that leave Scotland? Most experts argue that Scotland’s delivery of computing science has been superior to that of England for some time - but that it too needs to raise its game."
-- Time Educational Supplement Scotland, 9 March 2012

It's a good article - by which I mean it says a lot of the things that I've been saying for years. :-) For example, it quotes Scotland's chief science advisor as saying she wants, "schools to treat computing science on a par with physics, chemistry and biology." Brilliant!

Other good stuff includes a brief description of Computational Thinking (which some people think should form the basis of Computing courses), a section on National Qualification Group Awards featuring Kate Farrell and a plug for Computing At School - Scotland.

It doesn't say anything that I haven't heard from fellow Computing specialists before but it packages together statistics, ideas, links and discussion points and brings them all to a wider educational community.

Lots to think about and lots to discuss. If you haven't read it already, check it out now and let me know what you think we should talk about first.

Raspberry Pi - Further comment

I wrote about the launch of the Raspberry Pi in Rasberry Pi Is Launched and enjoyed following some of the comment posted by others. I particularly liked an article, The Raspberry Pi can help schools get with the program, which I was directed to by The UK ICT Education Daily.

Raspberry Pi pre-release board,
a photo by jared_smith on Flickr.

The article is good. First, it explains that the 10,000 units were sold out within minutes of the site opening for sale. Now, compared to the number of units a company like Apple ships, that may be small potatoes but the Raspberry Pi is a very niche product. Ten thousand units sold out in minutes, and goodness knows how many more ordered by people who were late to the party - I think that's stunning.

The article is also interesting because it talks about a distinction that needs to be drawn between ICT and Computing. This is something that I have banged on about many times before but I was especially struck by this sentence:

We've taken a technology that can provide "power steering for the mind" (as a noted metaphor puts it) and turned it into lesson for driving Microsoft Word.

This may not be an entirely fair characterisation of current courses but the phrase "power steering for the mind" is a powerful image.

The article also talks about Computing Science and asserts that:

...there's a major body of knowledge in this field – complete with a stable and intellectually rigorous conceptual framework that is independent of today's or yesterday's gadgetry...

It is good to see people talking about the science of computing, something that I think we need to communicate much more clearly. Perhaps there is then an inference that programming equals computing science which is too simplistic but at least gives a starting point that may help non-computing people see that there is more to the subject than ICT.

There are a couple of aspects though that I would want to challenge, or at least discuss further. First, there is a hint of the "Computing is the new Latin" argument in the article. It is not stated explicitly but it is suggested we are not teaching children to program because we want them to learn programming; no, we want them to learn citizenship and democracy, or logical thinking, or... But I want them to learn programming because I think it is good to be able to program! The fact that most pupils will not go on to be professional programmers is neither here nor there - there's loads of stuff that I learned at school that is apparently of no practical use to me in the job I do now - but I still believe it was worth learning and worth doing in the first place. Education and knowledge have a value beyond the utilitarian.

My other concern is the article talks about ICT education in "this country" in a way that seems to assume there is a common curriculum in "British secondary schools". Despite having Computing courses (and programming) in Scottish schools for around 30 years, we are still facing almost the same problems as the ones the experienced in England. We are finding numbers taking Computing at school are in decline and there is a drop in numbers for Computing courses at university too. We also see the same confusion between ICT and Computing muddying the water for pupils, school management, politicians and employers alike. My concern is that teaching programming in schools may be a necessary or even a desirable first step but on its own, it is not sufficient to bring about the changes the more enthusiastic supports of the Raspberry Pi hope to see.

The comments generated by the article are interesting too. Take time to read it and let me know what you think.