Education Pioneer at Raspberry Pi Foundation, Google Certified Teacher, Vice Chair of CAS #include, Creator of the Geek Gurl Diaries, Moodle Admin, CEOP Ambassador, Nerd, Tea expert, Londoner, and so much more.
As this academic year draws to a close, teachers across the country are not sitting back drinking cups of tea and waiting for home time but are instead frantically analysing data, sorting out classrooms, ordering equipment and writing new schemes of work in preparation of the next academic year. What makes this year more interesting (read: stressful) is trying to prepare for a new programme of study.
Building on the success of introducing Raspberry Pis into my school, I've prepared the following overview of units that my department are now preparing schemes of work for. I'm pretty certain I stole the layout of this from someone but I cant remember from whom. Sorry if it was you, but it's a great layout so thanks! This in no way should become the model for any schools KS3 curriculum. I hope instead that it leads to discussion on what I could do differently or better.
The units may not be taught in the order they are listed. Some will last a couple of weeks and some will take 6 - 8 weeks. Currently these are just ideas to develop, as the bullet points show. Not everything would be covered, for example in Logic & Sequencing we are planning on doing one of the bullet points, we just cant decide which right now!
In terms of assessment I will be hoping to build on the success of the badges system, introducing bronze, silver and gold levels with statements based on SOLO taxonomy. It's a work in progress... like so much of what I'm doing right now!
This month sees the end of an era as the current year 11 leave school to prepare for their final examinations, which frees up time for me to start concentrating on my KS3 curriculum based on the new program of study for September 2013. I'll be attending a DfE meeting in Manchester in June to discuss new schemes of work and resources, so I'm hoping to go fully equipped with some ideas!
I've also been helping a GTP student in my department and a PGCE student over the last hurdle before gaining their QTS. I love working with new teachers as they are so inspiring. They've already given me an idea for a better Databases unit for Year 8. I love this time of year, it's so exciting, and I'm bursting with ideas.
Many computer science graduates may be thinking about now of going into teaching Computing/ICT. The DfE have started a great blog to help encourage them to do so, with real life experiences of trainees, newly qualified teachers, and people like me.
If you are thinking about teaching I say DO IT! It's a great time for the subject and you can be part of the development of it. You get to be part of a hugely experienced group of brilliant people (especially if you are on twitter!) and you get to unlock the creativity and imagination of young people on a daily basis.
It feels weird to say that CAS #include, a working sub group of the Computing At School Organisation, formed to highlight and discuss ways to improve the uptake of Computer science by minority groups such as girls or SEN students, was launched Monday evening at BCS London. It's weird for me because I've been working with Laura Dixon, and originally Samantha Bail, since the start of the idea 9 months ago. Since then we've formed a working committee, I've become Vice Chair, we've published a newsletter, created a wiki, created a website, I've made some robot logos, and we have been helping Laura to organise a workshop day at her school in June. Oh yeah, and we've organised a launch party! Hope everyone enjoyed buffet selection no. 5, because I'm certain we spent three meetings on this alone :)
Like everything I'm involved in there is a certain amount of panic involved prior to the event. Not helped by having to teach a full day, and then get into town carrying loads of stuff. I was pleased to see Rebecca, Dawn and Laura when I arrived although not Reena who could not join the rest of us at BCS (You were missed!). Dawn brought balloons, OCR brought massive banners that did not even fit in a room, I brought the Little Box of Geek, what else says 'party time with Computing teachers'?
Our Visual Minutes from the entire evening created by @CreativeConnec
The evening went according to plan with Laura giving a heartfelt introduction to the busy 9 months we have experienced plus our goals and aims going forward. Kate Russell gave one of the best keynotes I've ever heard about her journey into the world of tech. Ever since I met Kate at a Girl Geek Dinner months ago she has been nothing but supportive of Geek Gurl Diaries and CAS #include. Not many people give up their time on a Monday evening to support teachers. Thank you so much!
The CAS #include team, speakers and some guests
Next up, Amy Morris from Sheffield Hallam University spoke about her study of why girls are not engaged by ICT lessons, and gave some advice, about getting role models into schools and forming clubs. I also ran a panel discussion with Nicki Maddams (who I've been dying to meet for ages) AST Computing at Hartsdown Academy and author of Geek Barbie's Travels, Phillip Bryant OCR Qualifications Manager for ICT and Computing, Dan Bowen ICT/Computing learning and teaching adviser Surrey, and working committee member for CAS #include, who mentioned that the first time he ever met me was at the infamous Raspberry Jam where I was heckled (will I ever shake that story off or will it always come back to haunt me?)
We discussed the issues of running "girls only clubs" whether this might actually alienate girls from regular run clubs, if highlighting the issue of under-representation of girls was doing more harm than good, if the new curriculum and exam specifications were being designed to be 'gender neutral', if it was just a minority of teachers trying to do something to engage all students, how to engage other minority groups, and so on. Eventually I handed questions over to the floor which I think was fun even if that was not clear in the live stream (you should have come to the event!)
By half 7 I was starving, and buffet selection number 5 was calling to me. Laura thanked all our speakers and we handed over to eating, networking, and the interactive displays around the room. Chris Roffey from Coding Club brought some laptops and his fantastic Python books for kids, which I use to create activities for both my Geek Gurl Diaries videos and lessons. Andrew Robinson creator of PiFace brought his talking chicken. Alex Bradbury from Raspberry Pi demonstrated the Sonic Pi scheme of work I have been developing with Sam Aaron at Cambridge University (see previous posts).
Networking was fun as I got to meet Anne Marie from @Stemettes and Anna from @Science_Grrl both doing great work getting girls into STEM subjects. There is so much great stuff going on right now for teachers to check out.
Since January I have been working hard to try and bring computing via Raspberry Pis into my secondary school specifically for key stage 3 students. I chose Raspberry Pi to do this for a number of reasons:
Using Pis would bypass any issues with the school network and workstation configurations that would hinder computer program development.
Using a different device would broaden students understanding of what a computer is (hardware) and what you can do to it.
We would only require a class set of Pis and could use many SD cards for each group.
I was very fortunate to meet Alex Bradbury (@asbradbury) at PyConUK in September and he put me in touch with the foundation to develop a scheme of work for KS3 using Raspberry Pis. The focus of which was to teach programming concepts through using the Pi as a synthesizer. Sam Aaron (@samaaron) programs music and fully understands the power of creativity in getting concepts across to children. He developed the Sonic Pi (@sonic_pi) a way to program the Raspberry Pi to make very cool electronic music. Together we spent December, January and February testing our theories, teaching ideas, and Sam's software on two classes of Year 8 students of different abilities.
Sonic Pi in action
Before I was able to do this I have had to overcome a number of issues with getting the equipment necessary. Simply buying a number of Raspberry Pis, say 30 for one each in a class or 15 for one between two (the option I decided upon) is not enough. There are the hidden costs:
Monitors and Adapters
Firstly, all of our classroom monitors are VGA. This is true of many schools across the country. A large proportion of our school computers are also RM Ones so the monitor is part of the unit and not separate. I did not see buying at least 15 HDMI monitors being feasible.
Many suggested using HDMI to VGA adapters. There are known issues with using cheap HDMI to VGA adapters that can blow the diodes on the Pi. Some people have had success with adapters, but on the whole it is a bit of an unknown. There is a recommended adapter from Farnell but as you can see, it costs almost as much as a pi, which when you times by 30 that you may need for one or two classroom sets becomes a huge cost.
As part of our KS5 BTEC course, we instruct students how to build their own computers, and luckily there were approximately 8 DVI monitors that I could use. I decided to make a plee to the Raspberry Pi community via twitter and the forums for any old DVI monitor they may be throwing out. Someone in Essex responded and I managed to end up with 12 DVI monitors. I then sourced 12 HDMI to DVI adapters that we used in class. They always worked and I had no problems with this solution (other than finding monitors)
SD Cards, Images and Backing Up Work
Again, there are some issues with SD cards and Raspberry Pi's not being completely compatible for whatever technical reason leading to corrupting data. Large sets of SD cards can also be expensive. I opted for ScanDisk 4GB SD cards, which Sam would take back to Cambridge at the end of each lesson to develop the software further. His biggest nightmare being that he would have to re-image 15 cards one at a time nearly every week, and after a few months the cards started to drop off till we ended up with 12 working ones.
For me to roll this scheme of work out across a whole year group, with at least two ICT classes taking place at the same time 6x30 SD cards. I'd also need a way to back up students work from the cards. Sam had designed the software so that it would automatically save the students work on worksheets, and I numbered the cards so that I could assign them to pairs of students, but the work students produced is still on those cards, it would be nice if it could have been exported to a text file students could use for assessment on a standard PC, and for the music to be exported as a wav or mp3 to go with it.
Alex Bradbury has solutions for the problem of imaging multiple cards (as can be seen from his Raspberry Jamboree talk) and also the second issue of being able to back up students work via a 'magic usb' memory stick.
Cases
One of the joys of teaching using Raspberry Pis is to see students being fascinated by the naked board itself and discovering what each part is. However it is not feasible to have the Pis in this form when setting up and packing away in a 50 minute lesson. I used the Pimoroni PiBow cases and found them to be very robust, they are also nicely labelled for the students and they can still see the board. The only problem students found was plugging in the power supply as the connector would slip and not plug in nicely.
Of course they do not come cheap, and they have to be assembled. I think by now I can assemble a pibow in my sleep with the number that I have done since the start of this project.
Micro USB Power Supplies, USB Keyboards and Mice
Easy enough to source these cheaply, but they are another expense. Again some of the classroom equipment was quite old, so some peripherals had PS2 connections, and as we were using separate monitors it seemed more appropriate to use separate keyboards and mice.
Earphones and Audio Splitting Cables
As this scheme of work involved music, splitting the audio output for students to work in pairs was another equipment issue. First it was suggested we use little speakers, however the thought of 15 different noises playing out all at once instructed by 13 years olds filled me with a terrible sense of dread. Instead I asked students to bring in their own earphones or headphones. At first this worked fine but by week 4 they started to forget. In future I will buy some cheap sets of earphones. We also procured some audio splitting cables cheaply through ebay.
Network?
My project did not involve plugging the Pis into the network for many reasons. The first being the complexity of the already locked down school network. I am fortunate in that like many of you I work in a school with a fantastic support staff, who work tirelessly keeping out of date equipment up and running for a large number of users. The last thing this team needs is me asking to add a complete unknown to the network. Yes it would have been nice to find a way to perhaps use sounds from the internet, or have students be able to save their work into their Google Apps Drive, but overall it was not necessary. Perhaps something for the future?
Trailing Ethernet cables and locating ports in the classroom could also have been difficult, with wifi solutions for the pi being an added cost, and something else to configure/potentially go wrong?
Classroom Space, Health & Safety
The problem with using completely separate equipment to that already existing in an ICT classroom is of course space. I had tables set up in the center of the class, with two students per table. I had to run extension cables from power sockets (another expense), which then had to be covered for health and safety, which is not ideal. I'd rather use the Monitor, keyboard, mouse, plug sockets, power cables, and network port already existing in a classroom (as long as it is not a classroom filled with RM Ones) Then all that would be needed would be a Raspberry Pi and an SD Card.
Storage
At the start of every lesson, I moved the tables, put extensions cables in and covered them, and then put all the equipment out onto the desks. I did this a few times on my own when I was lucky to have a free period before or a break. Most of the time I had a team of sixth formers who helped. Without their help it would have been a very difficult task. Another reason to try and use equipment already in place. Students at the start of the lesson plugged in all their equipment and 5 minutes before the end of the lesson shut down their pis, unplugged everything and I collected all the parts into separate boxes which I then locked into a cupboard. I'm not sure how well this will work when multiple classes need access to the equipment at the same time. Sixth formers have to do their own work on occasion!
Finally the Raspberry Pi itself
Out of a batch of 15, one did not work straight from the box. I blame Rob Bishop because he gave them to me. Just kidding. The failure rate was obviously very low as I had no problems after that.
Further Funding
I was lucky in that the Raspberry Pi Foundation invested some funding into this project to get it started so that Sam and I could produce a scheme of work that could be used by other teachers across the country for free. But now I want to roll it out across an entire year group I need funding to do so and the piggy bank is bare.
Schools are facing cuts left right and center. We have equipment that is incredibly out of date, and work in buildings that were not designed for 21st century classrooms. I have just applied for a small grant of £500 for which I had to submit quite a long proposal. There is no guarantee I will get this and so will have to wait for next years budget and hope that after paying for the necessary text books for KS4 and 5 that there is some money left over for KS3.
I have an extremely supportive SLT who see the value in which I have tried to do. I've even been visited during this project by a school governor with a maths and computing background who saw the enjoyment the students had programming the Pi. But the truth is there is currently no funding. Something the government should consider when changing the program of study for ICT/Computing!
The Sonic Pi scheme of work is almost ready for teachers to try. Overall it has been a truly valuable experience and students enjoyed and achieved more than I expected them to. Yes deploying raspberry pis into school is somewhat difficult currently and there are issues that need to be addressed. I will still forge ahead with my plans though. If you are interested in my Pi story so far check out my talk at the Raspberry Jamboree:
Raspberry Jams are a gathering of Pi enthusiasts who share ideas on all things Raspberry Pi. The story goes that Alan O'Donohoe had the idea for Raspberry Jams in the bath! This weekend saw the biggest Raspberry Jam in the form of the first ever Raspberry Jamboree in Manchester to celebrate a year since the release of the Raspberry Pi.
For anyone who does not know Alan (and I cant think why you do not! @teknoteacher) I should probably explain that is ultimate ninja skill is in bringing people together. Last year, he very kindly invited me to this gathering that he was planning. I had no idea then just how big it would turn out, or that I'd be speaking at it!
I've come a long way since my first Raspberry Jam in June (which you can read about here) both in my work to get girls into tech and the maker culture surrounding it through my project Geek Gurl Diaries and getting Raspberry Pis into my school to teach programming concepts to KS3 using music. I therefore thought I'd actually having something relevant to say to teachers about Rasp pi and I think the talk went down a storm. Even Steve Furber was at the book of the room listening to me. (This isn't going to be the only name drop in this post!) I hope there may be a video soon that I can post here.
One of the highlights of the weekend for me, was meeting and spending time with people I speak to online about Raspberry Pi projects like Paul Hallett @phalt_ who talked about how you can crowd fund class sets of Pis, @Rob_Bishop, Andrew Robinson (PiFace) and Alex Bradbury @asbradbury who talked about how you can manage class sets of pis especially when it comes to imagining large numbers of SD cards.
I also made new friends in the form of my current favourite author Chris Roffey, who was talking to me for a good 15 minutes before I realised who he was. If you are new to Python I really recommend his Coding Club books.
It was a real pleasure to meet Paul Beech from Pimoroni who design and make the Pibow cases which in school have been really good. The Pis have been really robust in them and the students can still see all the components. They are incredibly easy to label with numbers for a class set too!
My continuing 'will I, won't I meet Maggie Philbin' saga continued too as the lady herself was in the same building as me, but we again failed to meet in person. I did get a nice tweet from her tho.
Many of the talks and discussions on the day did indeed center around education. I particularly enjoyed the panel discussion with Clive Beale (Raspberry Pi) and Christine Swan and I think more discussions like these should be happening at Jams everywhere.
Finally, the most engaging and interesting talk was given by teenage girl called Amy, about her enjoyment of computer science and her Raspberry Pi project based on Conway's Game of Life. She proved the point that girls can be switched on and get excited by computing. It is using an idea that will hook them, and letting their creativity shine by taking the project further.
Me, Amy and Ben Nuttall - Photo taken by Pete Lomas no less!
My advice, if you are a primary teacher worried about the new program of study or a computing teacher, get yourself to a Jam. It is where the magic happens. It is like hanging out with family.
The Westminster Forum met at Whitehall on Thursday 28th February to mark the day that the Pope retiredreview the new computing curriculum, and amongst the delegates consisting of Teachers, Borough Advisors, Industry Representatives, Ofsted, MP's, and (I only counted one) Lord, was little Miss Philbin, ICT Teacher. When I started my teaching journey, I did not expect to end up speaking at Westminster along side my heroes @IanAddison, Genevieve Smith-Nunes @Pegleggen and Miles Berry @Mberry.
It was with a sense of bewilderment that I made my way to Whitehall yesterday, and was instantly relieved to be see Genevieve in the foyer when I arrived, shortly followed by Ian Addison. The keynote was given by Ian Livingstone, Co-founder of Games Workshop and advocate for the Games Industry. I'd never heard Ian speak before and as I have no real knowledge of the games industry (apart from playing games and attending LAN parties when I was younger).
I still question the real value of learning through games in some instances. From my own experience when teenagers play games to learn, I find they are impatient and will always to try to cheat the system or skip a question/activity. They may be engaged, but learning is not always taking place. Creating their own computer games using Scratch, Pygame or even now programming Minecraft Pi seems to have more value on multiple levels as literacy and creativity are involved.
Anyway I was surprised to see my Geek Gurl Diaries logo appear on a slide towards the end of Ian's keynote and then hear him reference the good work I have done trying to engage girls. Achievement unlocked: recognition of my work by leading expert.
Next up, Miles Berry, Chair Naace and Subject Leader ICT Education at University of Roehampton and all round super trooper for my subject, and Phil Bannister, Team Leader for Computing at the Department for Education spoke together and independently of each other, on the draft programme of study and the process involved in its development. I still think it is sad that so much is missing on the new Computing program of study in comparison to the draft programme produced by the working party.
Following the well planned and executed agenda, the first panel assembled to give 5 minutes each on their take on the content of the programme of study. Ian Addison was the first to speak, and I'm so glad he did. Finally a teacher got their say. He made it very clear that the interpretation of Key stage 1 and 2 could be the downfall of creativity with tech in primary schools, and that the word 'data' should have a footnote to explain that data can be video, images, and so on. The teacher delegates attending the review were clearly delighted to have Ian voice their own fears and concerns, as they applauded his every slide. I think the teachers on this panel, both Ian and Genevieve did a great job representing our profession and could really speak from experience. Genevieve in her talk, explained that she had offered a training course for primary teachers before November and had no one sign up. She offered the course again after the Computing programme of study went online, and now has two sessions of 40 teachers fully booked out. She went on to remind people that the 'fear factor' will see people leaping onto courses and looking for resources so as a community we teachers need to make sure that we work together.
After a break, David Brown HMI, National Adviser for ICT, Ofsted, gave a talk on what he advises school inspection teams to be looking for in terms of ICT. He described an outstanding lessons at all key stages and said something which I've been fighting for, that school networks should allow students freedom of the internet and freedom to create programs. I really want sites unblocked at my school. E-safety is about teaching students to be responsible, so that they can make informed choices. It is not stopping them from using youtube which if used correctly can be such a great tool.
A new panel was assembled where by every speaker was female, including yours truly. The speakers before me all talked about schemes being created and run. By talk number three I was beginning to feel like I was definitely in the wrong place. I was pleased to finally meet Clare Sutcliffe from Code Club however who spoke so well about Code Club and the fantastic work they are doing to encourage children between the ages of 9 - 11 to code. I think if primary teachers need a place to start, getting involved with Code Club is a great place. I winced when she said that "ICT lessons are boring" because I knew this was coming up in my talk.
So finally I could not escape the inevitable, and I stood up to speak. I started with "Hi I'm a teacher" and in my head said "just to remind you what one looks like". Ian gave me a cheer. I realised it was going to be one of those talks where tumble weeds were going to roll past. I've put my presentation here if you are interested in the points I touched on. Remember I only had 5 minutes, so I had to focus on implementing the programme of study and not what is actually on it.
I think Genevieve raised a really important point, that the fear factor will see teachers signing up for all types of courses based, in some cases on a poor interpretation of the programme of study. I think a 'Python 101' half day course is not going to help any teacher develop their subject knowledge. I think it is really important that teachers look to the CAS Master Teachers for guidance as they are best suited to train teachers how to understand and deliver schemes of work that will engage and further students. It's more important that computational thinking, and concepts of programming are understood by teachers before tackling any kind of major programming language. Teachers should also be working with developer communities who have helped me develop my poor skills over this last year as I teach myself. I think we as computing teachers should also have to demonstrate our engagement with coding communities by having en e-portfolio or blog to demonstrate CPD and development of new schemes of work and good practice. Perhaps even a git-hub repository which was suggested to me recently. Finally a new wave of computer science trainee teachers who are enthusiastic and innovative need to work with existing communities like CAS, BCS, and Rethinking ICT to share skills.
Of course time is a major issue in all this. Teachers need time on their timetable to be able to dedicate to continued professional development. Very few teachers (no work life balance people like me) will spend all their free time continuing their development.
Time is also a concern when we are consistently told that Computing is the 4th Science. I heard that expression used in multiple talks that very morning. If it is the fourth science, then why do I only have 1 lesson a week at KS3, when science and maths have 5? If this new programme of study is important to the future of our children and out country then perhaps more weight needs to be given to it on timetables.
Lastly in my talk, I had to speak on the topic closest to my heart, that of engaging girls in computing. I spoke about Geek Gurl Diaries of course, but also Computing At School's sub group of which I vice chair along with Laura Dixon @CodeBoom Master Computing Teacher extraordinaire as projects that prove that you do not need to make every device pink, or fluffy, with rainbows glitter and eye shadow for girls to want to engage in ICT class. Role models, and schemes of work that give children the freedom to use their imagination and creativity are the best way to engaged students of both genders.
When I sat down, I noticed that the chair of my panel, Lord Lucas of Crudwell and Dingwall had the Geek Gurl Diaries website open on his ipad, so I feel I had some success.
