Digital Pepeha at Edmonton School - Part 2

 

Danielle shared her Pepeha with me, her teacher and a small group of peers. She was able to explain how she debugged her original project by tinkering and adding in a new element. She explains that she used a broadcasting block to solve timing problems in her project. Danielle is also able to identify her next steps in developing her project further. It is clear when she shares that she has ownership and agency over her project. I was impressed by her confidence and depth of understanding in the process. I believe this has been enhanced by sharing and working collaboratively alongside her peers. Great job Danielle.

The Pepeha Project

 

Digital Pepeha at Edmonton School - Part 1

 

Mr A selected a group of students to share back their digital pepeha projects - Week 4, Term 4, 2020.  

They were highly engaged and passionate about their projects. 

Maathulan said that he thought having a static character/avatar saying his Pepeha was a bit boring. He had seen this in other examples and he initially created a project like this. So to engage his audience or user of his program he coded his avatar to be controller by the user using the arrow keys to move through his pepeha (See above video). This is a great example of taking account of end-users a primary focus of the Digital Technology progress outcomes. Great project Maathulan.  

Checkout Maathulan blog post in September:  

https://maathulanatedmonton.blogspot.com/2020/09/scratch.html  

I have more video to share from this group. To be continued...Part 2.

Maths Week 2020 - Free Registration

Maths Week 2020 will be on from Monday 10 August until Friday 14 August.

https://mathsweek.co.nz/

Last year there were 288 441 students and 6657 teachers registered throughout New Zealand.  This is an increase of 5594 students and 543 teachers from 2018.

Maths Week is written for all students from Year 1 through to Year 11.

It is available free, on-line, to teachers, parents and students.

Teacher Registrations ....      Teacher Information ...

Getting Unstuck 2020!

We are up to Getting Unstuck Day 4 now. However, it's not too late to join in.
Goto to https://gettingunstuck.gse.harvard.edu/.

From the Scratched Team:
JULY 6-17, 2020
10 days. 10 Scratch projects. What will you make?

Dear friends,
Supporting creative work in the classroom can be challenging, and we want to help! We’re excited to offer Getting Unstuck, a summer learning experience for teachers who want to learn more about supporting creative work with the Scratch programming language.

Every day, you’ll get an email with a small creative programming prompt, designed to help you explore different computational concepts and debugging strategies in Scratch. You’ll have access to a supportive online community of teachers and facilitators. Whether you’re brand new to Scratch or an experienced teacher, we’ll be right beside you, making things and learning together.

Yours in creative computing,
Paulina and Karen

I am starting with Day 1 today and will post my projects on this blog.

Getting Unstuck 2020: Day 1

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."–Arthur Ashe Dear friends, Welcome to the very first day of Getting Unstuck—our 10-day, email-based, creative-computing-with-Scratch adventure! Every day, we'll be playing with a new programming prompt. Today, in our inaugural activity, we'll be using code to create surprises. Create Create a project where a user gets a surprise every time they click on the screen. (Remember, if you get stuck, find inspiration and support in the Getting Unstuck Facebook group, on Twitter at #GettingUnstuck, or in our collection of Getting Unstuck strategies.) Share Add your Scratch project to this studio to share how you approached today's activity. Then, check out and comment on others' projects in the studio! Reflect Take a moment for a written reflection on your creative process in the Notes and Credits section of your project. How did you approach today's prompt? What would you do next, if you had more time? Looking forward to your wonderful surprises! Paulina + Karen  P.S. If you explore, create, share, and reflect on all 10 activities, we'll mail you a physical Getting Unstuck sticker pack! 07/07/2020 - It's Day 2 of Getting Unstuck 2020! 07/08/2020 - It's Day 3 of Getting Unstuck 2020! 07/09/2020 - It's Day 4 of Getting Unstuck 2020!

Minecraft Education Edition for Chromebooks - Beta

Great news for all primary schools using GSuite. Our students can now access Minecraft Education Edition for their Chromebooks. It's in beta at the moment on the Google Play Store. 

What you need to know:

Minecraft Education Edition is free to all staff and students in New Zealand Schools due to the current Microsoft Schools Agreement. To make this work you will need a Microsoft 365 login and password. This can be easily set up by your Schools Tech Admin by uploading everyone's details in a CSV file to Microsoft 365. 

How to get beta on your Chromebooks: (from the Microsoft Zendesk)       

https://minecrafteducation.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360044728212

Getting started with Minecraft: Education Edition on the Chromebook

 

CarrieD

• 3 days ago
 
• Updated

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We are excited to announce that Minecraft: Education Edition has finally made its way to the Chromebook platform! We’re a game-based learning platform that promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving in an immersive digital environment. It’s our mission to build a better world through the power of play, and we’re grateful for your interest! 

Below you will find the steps to play the Chromebook Beta.  

Installing Minecraft: Education Edition on Chromebooks

The Chromebook Beta won't appear in the admin console. You will need an unmanaged account to access the Beta. Please follow Google's directions here:

• Try new Android apps before they're officially released

Once the app is officially released admins will be able to deploy and manage Minecraft: Education Edition using the Google Admin Console or the enterprise mobility management (EMM) console.

 

Minimum Specs/Device Requirements 

• ChromeOS Version: M83 or newer 
• Hard Drive: 350 MB free (~220MB application + space for worlds) per account on the device
• Device supports the managed Play Store apps: Chrome OS Systems Supporting Android Apps 
• CPU/RAM: We will be using feedback from the beta to finalize minimum specs.  

Licensing Requirements 

Every student and teacher using the Chromebook Beta will need to login to the game with an Office 365 Education account with a Minecraft: Education Edition license assigned to it 

• Learn more about Office 365 education 
• Purchasing licenses for Minecraft: Education Edition 
• Managing licenses for Minecraft: Education Edition 

Shared Devices 

There are a couple additional considerations to be aware of if the Chromebooks are shared between multiple students. 

• World Storage: In Minecraft: Education Edition, worlds are stored locally on the device. If students frequently change devices or if accounts are removed when the student signs out, we strongly suggest exporting worlds and saving them to cloud storage or removable storage before signing off of the device.  
• Installation/Hard Drive Usage: Chromebooks keep applications separated for each user, which means each account on the device will install Minecraft: Education Edition independently. You will need to plan for ~220 MB + space for worlds per user on the device. The managed Play Store does keep a download cache that is shared across all users on a device to expedite installation so while it won't save hard drive space, bandwidth to download the application should be once per device. 

Known Issues 

• Performance: You may experience lower framerates and pieces of the world (“chunks”) that are slow to load. There are two potential causes that we are aware of:
1. Chromebook applications can experience performance issues when the device has been changed from its default screen resolution. Ensure that the default screen resolution is set in Device Settings.
2. Your device may be near or below the minimum technical specs for Minecraft: Education Edition. We are continuing to optimize performance and evaluate different devices. We will publish the minimum and recommended specs before the beta ends.

Kauhaurangi Tuihono / Online Digital Technology Webinars for June

Use the links in the title or visit ahikaroa.kiatakatu.ac.nz to register

Kauhaurangi Tuihono / Online Webinars went fully virtual from April 15th and will remain virtual until the end of Term 2. Online Webinars are no more than 30 minutes long, limited to 20 people giving you ample opportunity to discuss and explore the resource with those at your virtual hui.

I have only attended one or two digital readiness online webinars in the past, however, I am planning to attend a few more this month. I am interested in the Design Process two-part series. ICT versus Digital Technologies could be interesting, it's sometimes difficult to separate the two. I have done a lot of work with ScratchJr so this would also be interesting to see what others are creating with ScratchJr. It is worth mentioning you can do a force install and pin of ScratchJr from the Google Admin dashboard. This means you can give all your students a link to the app on their Chromebooks. I have recently done this for all the Year 3 and 4 students at Edmonton School and it worked well. If your thinking of registering for one or more the webinars leave a note in the comments and I may see you there.

Date	Title	Time
Thursday 28 May - Thursday 9 July	Code Club 4 Teachers - Matariki Four-part series	3.30PM-5.00PM
Monday, June 8 & 15	A Design Process Two-part series	3.30PM - 4.00PM
Monday, June 8	How binary digits rule the world	4.00PM - 4.30PM
Monday, June 8	Introduction to DDDO Pīkau Yrs 0-6	4.30PM - 5.00PM
Tuesday June 9 & Wednesday June 17	Fun with Photos Yrs 1-4 Two part series	4.00PM-4.30PM 4.30PM - 5.00PM
Wednesday June 10	Integrating technology: Te Manaaki i a Papatūānuku Rauemi Pīkau Yrs 7-8	3.30PM-4.00PM
Thursday June 11 Thursday June 18	Planning for an Authentic Context Yrs 1-4 Two part series	3.30PM-4.00PM
Monday June 15	Integrating technology: Te Manaaki i a Papatūānuku Rauemi Pīkau Yrs 7-8 Repeat session	3.30PM-4.00PM
Tuesday June 16	Senior Leaders and Digital Technologies	7.30PM-8.00PM
Wednesday June 17 - July 24	Eye Spy Algorithmic Thinking Three-part series	3.30PM - 4.00PM
Thursday 18 June	Solving problems by design Yrs 5-6	3.30PM-4.00PM
Thursday 18 June	ICT versus Digital Technologies	4.30PM -5.00PM
Monday 22 June	Integrating technology: Hauora Rauemi Pīkau Yrs 4-6	3.30PM-400PM
Monday 22 & 29 June	A Design Process Two-part series	4.00PM - 4.30PM
Tuesday 23 June	Pouahi Digital Leaders - Teaching programming and Code Club 4 Teachers	3.30PM-4.00PM
Tuesday 23 June	Senior Leaders & Digital Technologies	4.30PM-5.00PM
Tuesday 23 & 30 June	Exploring the possibilities of ScratchJr, Yrs 1-4 Two-part series	Session 1: 4.30PM-5.00PM Session 2: 3.30PM-4.00PM
Wednesday 24 June	Solving problems by design, Yrs 5-6	3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Wednesday 24 June & 1 July	Planning for an Authentic Context, Yrs 1-4 Two-part series	4.00PM-4.30PM
Wednesday 24 June	ICT versus Digital Technologies Repeat session	7.30PM-8.00PM
Monday 29 June	Digital Technologies in the wider New Zealand Curriculum: How does it fit?	3.30PM-4.00PM
Thursday 2 July	Integrating technology: Te Manaaki i a Papatūānuku Rauemi Pīkau Yrs 7-8 Repeat session	3.30PM-4.00PM

Kia Takatū ā-Matihiko | Digital Readiness · 144 Kilmore Street · Christchurch, Canterbury 8013 · New Zealand

Technological Tools for Playful Learning

I received this email from Tufts.

We at the DevTech Research Group at Tufts University hope this message finds you and your 

loved ones in good health.

Dr. Marina Bers (professor, department chair at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study 

and Human Development and director of DevTech Research Group) taught a course titled 

CSHD 145: Technological Tools for Playful Learning this Spring. 

For the course's final project, undergraduate and graduate students from across disciplines 

at Tufts University created 3-hour literacy-based curricula to help children learn to code using 

platforms such as ScratchJr.

We wanted to share their curricula with you as they might be helpful resources to keep your kids 

engaged in educational ways in the midst of this pandemic.

Shared Lesson Plans and Resouces

Note- the title links to the lesson plans created in Google Docs. 

You will need to go to the File menu and make a copy.  

ScratchJr Introduction using Virtual Learning

by Kallisti St. John & Katey Yang

The focus of this curriculum is for the child to complete interactive challenges and activities with the recorded video and for the parent to help set up with the ultimate goal of creating their own masterpiece through Scratch Jr. This enables the child to be creative on their own with little outside influence, and it also enforces individual problem solving and critical thinking.

Who Wants to Be a superhero?

by Khanh Nguyen, Nayoung Kim & Annie Huang

This curriculum allows children to create their own characters with superpowers through different coding blocks. With the character they created, they will learn to deal with conflicts, problem-solving, and find resolutions to conflicts. This curriculum will also introduce concepts of storytelling and literacy.

A ScratchJr Curriculum for Young Storytellers

by Yifan Zuo & Maitreyi Kale

This curriculum exposes children to the basics of coding with ScratchJr while teaching them to recognize important elements of stories and helpful thought processes that go into writing them. Including three e-books that will be incorporated into each session: Session One covers word bubbles and dialogue-writing, Session Two goes overtime sequence, and Session Three focuses on changing scenes in storytelling.

Outside-In: an at-home ScratchJr curriculum

by Jen Gray & Rebecca Glass

Given the current situation, many parents are home with their children, who need frequent attention and stimulation. This curriculum offers a constructive and fun way to make the most of these circumstances by transforming our all-too familiar homes into creative hubs. This curriculum will make use of household objects to introduce powerful ideas of computer science.

ScratchJr Superheroes

by Juliana Harris & David Zabner

 

In this lesson, kids (ages 4-6) will learn to program using superheroes and ScratchJr. This lesson is unique in that it contains opportunities to practice programming without a screen, use a storyboard, work collaboratively, and build social-emotional skills. This curriculum includes printable cutouts of superheroes, ScratchJr programming blocks, and a storyboard.

Whack-a-corona

by Abrina La Rose, Kianie Ramirez & Yaqara Patterson

 

This activity will provide health and safety tips for parents and guardians to partake in and discuss with their families. In this curriculum, there is a guide on how to use ScratchJr with photos included. Finally, it will provide activities for parents and children to collaborate.

https://www.scratchjr.org/

If you are not familiar with the ScratchJr website it's you should take a look. Under the Learn tab, you can find Tips and Hints and under the Teach tab, you can find nine downloadable activities. I will feature these in a series of posts and make suggestions on how to use them. The first activity for example Drive Across the City can be integrated with maths and also makes a good story starter.

Once children have experienced the starter activities there are many more ideas to explore like the Playground Curriculum. I think Lesson 7 - Mini Golf will make for a fun challenge.      

       Mini Golf

Become a better problem solver by thinking computationally

New CT Activities from Barefoot Computing 

Due to the popularity of the Barefoot Computing free home learning resources, they have added 4 new learning together activities and 3 new interactive online games!
 
Go to the Barefoot ‘At Home’ page, to discover their toolkit of activities that aims to help families develop their computational thinking skills in a fun and interactive way at home.
 
From baking cakes to breaking codes hidden in poetry, families will learn about algorithms, decomposition and debugging in our offline activities.

Shopping List	Code Breakers	2D Shapes	Building Blocks
Activity Instructions.pdf	Activity Instructions.pdf	Activity Instructions.pdf	Activity Instructions.pdf
Supporting Worksheets.pdf	Supporting Worksheets.pdf	Supporting Worksheets.pdf	Supporting Worksheets.pdf

Their new games also promote learning and will whisk children off to our very own Barefoot Farm for an introduction to algorithms and patterns, into Space to learn about variables and even get them using logical reasoning as part of a mission to retrieve a sparkling diamond locked inside a vault…

Barefoot Zoo  -  Sorting it Out  -  The Diamond  -  Asteroid Blaster

 
 
To view all of their home learning resources click the link below:
https://www.barefootcomputing.org/homelearning

Jon Chip talks about Computational Thinking:

Jon Chip computational thinking - Subtitles from Barefoot Computing on Vimeo.

Download the Computational Thinking Poster

Thanks to Barefoot Computing for creating and sharing amazing learning resources!

Scratch Month - Challenge yourself! Create a Project.

Three new #ScratchMonth activities!

Week 2

Interview Anything: http://bit.ly/3fwWpFA

How Do You Peace Out: http://bit.ly/2AjxqFJ

Sprite Art: http://bit.ly/3dzuiUp

Week 1

Recycle Bin Crafts: http://bit.ly/2W23Lcp

Share the Love: http://bit.ly/2L052dI

Scratch Avatar Creators: https://bit.ly/2xZirA2

From Week 2: Sprite Art

Rainbow Cat Circle
by MemeRobot