Scratch

I would describe Scratch as a sort of game that you can play on the computer, which consists of programming stories, games, animations etc. The age group would be roughly between 8 and 16 years.

"Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively; which are essential skills for life in the 21st century" (Scratch website)

It is used in education all over the world and is cross curricular, you can incorporate it into science, maths, English and obviously I.T.


Mandy showed us an introduction video to it, although I was familiar with it as they talked about it in Technocamps. She then gave us a step by step guide and we had to create our own animation based on set instructions.

I have to say that at first I found it really difficult, could not grasp it at all! It took me quite a while to understand the steps involved, but as I got it I found it easier to do it. I still found it hard but I understood the point of it and the outcome.

Scratch is a very useful tool to use throughout the curriculum and increases a child's computer literacy greatly!

TechnoCamps

Today I took part in the Technocamps conference in the Liberty Stadium, it was called: Computer Science Teachers Conference in collaboration with Technocamps 'Creating a Digital Future'- The transition to Key Stage 3.

Technocamps provides free workshops to give you the chance to learn new skills about the world of Computer Science and STEM. It's a project that provides free workshops to young people on programming, robotics, game design, app development and much more and about getting young people (11-19 years) in Wales excited about Computer Science and STEM and challenging them to think about the world around them in a different way.

Whilst there I observed two workshops, the first was about the science or higher order thinking behind card tricks, and how you can train yourself (with specific rules) to always know the answer to the tricks. The second was CoderDojo which was a computer coding group, where you had to accomplish different levels of coding to finish the game. I enjoyed the card tricks the most as it was fun and easy to understand, I didn't enjoy Coderdojo as much because I found it difficult to understand as, to me, it was a complicated process.

Overall, I enjoyed the workshops/observations but there was too many talks/speeches.





Games Day

This lesson consisted of being in small groups and there were 5 'stations' that we all had to go around. These 'stations' had a different kind of computer game on there using a different form of console or technology, and had a different kind of game to play. The games were:

- Wii sports

- Just Dance on the Wii

- Doctor Who on a table top tablet (Image on the left)

- Mystery game on the ipad

- Adventure Land on the Xbox Connect


After playing each game we then had to fill in a sort of feedback form, which included questions like:
- What did you learn?
- What aspects did you find difficult / easy?
- What skills were involved? (e.g. following menus, practical sills, problem solving)
- How could these skills be transferrable?
- How could you use this game in teaching? Links to subject areas?
- What age group do you suggest to use this game?

I didn't enjoy playing all the games as I found some frustrating, boring etc. but I really enjoyed the Adventure Land game as it seemed more fun and accessible. This lesson showed how using a game that we ply with our friends could be incorporated into teaching!

Making the game

At first, when Mandy explained to us what tasks we were going to be doing in the seminar yesterday, I was very sceptical whether I'd enjoy it or not. Basically the task was to use the computer programme '2Do It Yourself' which gives you tutorials to make your own game. I chose to make a Princess Maze game, at the start it really annoyed me and I found it very hard to use. I found it really frustrating, but after watching the tutorial videos a few times it became a lot clearer on what to do and how to do it. I found that the game could be a very useful  way to teach young children basic moral issues or basic maths etc.

My game was called: Race against the trolls. And there was a princess who had to travel along the maze and collect gold coins to gain points, whilst avoiding the ugly trolls, and if the princess came across the magic fairy you would have extra bonus points.

After the initial scepticism I enjoyed the design aspect of the game and found it quite interesting.

2Do It Yourself game