Modelling & Computer Programming

Last week was directed study week and so I didn't update my blog, although on my study week I spent time in my placement school where I actually got to see some of these ICT resources being used which was brilliant to see and the children really enjoyed them!

This week's session focused upon modelling and computer programming.

What is Modelling?

The idea of modelling involves children questioning ideas such as asking ‘what happens if’ before doing something, to develop their thinking skills.

Modelling allows children to:

• Persist at something and keep trying
• To be active learners
• To explore
• To be creative and use their own ideas
• To problem solve
• To make predictions on what will happen
• To make decisions on how to approach a task.

I would recommend the purple mash website as this has endless amounts of interactive games and activities.  2Simple & 2Simulate are two programs to check out! I was also lucky enough to see 2Simple being used during one of my placement visits, in which children made pictures for Art, but it can be used for other subjects aswell such as Maths.

Computer Programming

Computer Programming is great as it has lots of opportunities for modelling and allows children to develop their problem solving skills and other skills mentioned above! This idea of programming has already been introduced during the ICT workshops where we looked at programmable toys such as the Beebots (see earlier blog post). This idea of programming goes beyond the programmable toys however and can progress to various software packages such as Logo, Scratch and Kodu. These are FREE to download.

Logo

This software introduces the basic concepts of computer programming and allows children to input simple commands such as ‘FD 10’ and ‘RT 10’ to create shapes and patterns. It is a great software for developing thinking skills as it gets children to anticipate the commands needed to reach a desired outcome. As well as entering commands individually, they can be inputted as a repeated instruction to save time, which encourages children to think about every individual move needed to create their particular shape, and if it involves repetition. This can then speed up their thinking & enable them to complete tasks quickly. It links perfectly with maths for learning about shape and space and about angles when considering how far to turn to create a particular shape. It is a simple programme but very effective!

Scratch

I spent a lot of the session playing about with the Scratch software and it proved to be a lot of fun, and I know children absolutely love it! It still uses programming but does so through allowing children to produce cartoons, storyboards and art pieces. Children can choose a sprite (character) and can program them to move in a certain direction or do certain things. You can incorporate sounds as well, have costumes, background settings – theres so much to do, you could play on it for hours. Which is great as children can be engaged at school and at home. Scratch supports literacy really well and children can create story boards and sequences based upon stories they have read for instance. To the side is an example of what I managed to make in the lesson. I know the children would make things a lot better than this, it took me a while to get to grips with it! But it is really captivating and it exposes children to the language of ICT and programming through using words such as sprite, control, and mathematical terms also when thinking about angles, directions and timings. In an ICT Ofsted report, Scratch was seen being used effectively within a classroom. It was noted that 'The choice of task and software motivated pupils who were enabled to make good progress' (Ofsted, 2011: 15). 

Kodu

This is similar to Scratch, however it is purely for the designing of games.  The language within it is very simple and uses a lot of pictures which means it is really beneficial for EAL students. I did not get much time to experience this software though so will have to look at it again when I have some free time.

Why not go and test them out for yourselves? Bye for now!

 

References

OFSTED (2011) ICT in Schools 2008 - 2011. Available at: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/ict-schools-2008-11 [Accessed December 2012]