Week 7: Code engagement activity

I have been asked to design an activity similar to those on the Khan Academy site.
My activity is for students to design a shape, letter, number etc. and its coordinates on the page e.g. x(distance from left side of page), y (distance from top of page), w (width), h (height). Then swap coordinates with other students so that they have to design what the other student designed, using the coordinates they have been given.

This aligns with the Processes and Production skills strand of the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies F-2 band:
Follow, describe and represent a sequence of steps and decisions (algorithms) needed to solve simple problems (ACTDIP004) (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2015)

I believe it is an excellent game that students can easily play and would enjoy participating in whilst educating them about how code works in an unplugged environment. It is further developing their computational thought process to further align with other lessons on code that have been mentioned throughout my journal.  Such as using their new knowledge about code in sites like the Khan Academy and http://code.org/.

References
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2015). Foundation to Year 2 Content Descriptions: Digital Technologies Processes and Production Skills. Retrieved from  http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/technologies/digital-technologies/curriculum/f-10?layout=1#cdcode=ACTDIP004&level=F-2

Week 8: Anna and Elsa game

This is a Frozen game from the Hour of Code website. I had looked at this game in week 6 when I researched binary code games for my classroom. I found this game to be a little difficult (embarrassingly) when first starting out learning code and understanding that she only turns left/right, not walks left/right. Once I understood this I quite enjoyed the game and could see the appeal to both genders of students especially at a young age. This theme is a wide spread one that all ages are thoroughly enjoying and a good tool for grasping students attention to education.

Image 1: CODE STUDIO, 2014. 

References

CODE STUDIO. (2014). Hour of Code: Frozen. Retrieved from http://studio.code.org/ 

Looking back at week one computational thinking

Once again looking back at week one, I found a wonderful resource that helps me to remember the differences between design and digital technology and to think about computational thinking more and hopefully understand it more in depth.


                        Design and Technologies                Digital Technologies

Thinking	Design Thinking	Computational Thinking
Focus	On the design and production process of creating solutions through the design process	On the use of digital systems, information and computational thinking to create solutions for identified needs and opportunities.
Nature	Design thinking is predominantly heuristic in nature. It includes using strategies in order to understand design problems, generating creative and innovative ideas, and analysing and evaluating those ideas to find the best solution.	Computational thinking is predominantly algorithmic in nature. This includes problem solving techniques and strategies, such as organising data logically, breaking down problems into components, and the design and use of algorithms, patterns and models
	Design and Technologies: Provides students with an opportunity to consider the environmental impact of decisions and re-design and re-engineer products, services and environments to support more sustainable patterns of living, for example, sustainable food supply. Students will reflect on the future impact of decisions from ethical, economic and social perspectives. They will apply futures thinking across a range of contexts, including food and fibre production, and evaluate designed solutions and traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies from the point of view of sustainability.	In Digital Technologies: students will assess the role of contemporary and emerging digital technologies in creating more sustainable patterns of living including technologies used to: manage and monitor natural, managed, constructed and digital environments; model data and identify trends; control conditions and machinery to enable systematic increases in productivity and significant reductions and efficiencies; and facilitate social interaction and the development of ethical forms of entertainment that develop world views.

Figure 1: Fasso, 2015

I also found this table to be useful to jog my memory of the two strands of technology and their differences and similarities.

Aims - Design and Technologies  In addition to the overarching aims for the Australian Curriculum: Technologies, Design and Technologies more specifically aims to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to ensure that, individually and collaboratively, students: develop confidence as critical users of technologies and designers and producers of designed solutions investigate, generate and critique innovative and ethical designed solutions for sustainable futures use design and systems thinking to generate design ideas and communicate these to a range of audiences produce designed solutions suitable for a range of technologies contexts by selecting and manipulating a range of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment creatively, competently and safely; and managing processes evaluate processes and designed solutions and transfer knowledge and skills to new situations understand the roles and responsibilities of people in design and technologies occupations and how they contribute to society.

Aims - Digital Technologies In addition to the overarching aims for the Australian Curriculum: Technologies, Digital Technologies more specifically aims to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to ensure that, individually and collaboratively, students: design, create, manage and evaluate sustainable and innovative digital solutions to meet and redefine current and future needs use computational thinking and the key concepts of abstraction; data collection, representation and interpretation; specification, algorithms and implementation to create digital solutions confidently use digital systems to efficiently and effectively automate the transformation of data into information and to creatively communicate ideas in a range of settings apply protocols and legal practices that support safe, ethical and respectful communications and collaboration with known and unknown audiences apply systems thinking to monitor, analyse, predict and shape the interactions within and between information systems and the impact of these systems on individuals, societies, economies and environments

Figure 2: Fasso, 2015

References

Figure 1 and 2: 

Fasso, W. (2015). Week 1 Materials: What are the differences between the Design and Technology, and Digital Technologies subjects?. Retrieved on April 4, 2015, from CQUniversity e-courses, EDCU12039 Design and Digital Technologies, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au

Looking back at week one curriculum focus

Looking back at week one and the curriculum links provided on moodle, I watched a video provided there

Video: Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2015

I found this video interesting and very educational. It broke down key ideas from the curriculum in language easier to understand and adapt rather than reading the Curriculum text.

Key ideas I gathered from this video are as follows:
Words such as: Systems thinking, Computational thinking, knowledge and understanding strand, Processes and Production Skills strand, Digital systems, representation of data, abstraction and data

• Every aspect of life is heading towards digitalisation
• It is important to learn digital technologies to keep up with society
• The curriculum is based on a framework of thinking
• Computational thinking is a problem solving methodology
• Teachers work holistically and the Digital Technologies Curriculum allows integration across all learning areas
• Every student in their future and present will require basic computer skills to survive the ever evolving technological world, environment, society and the job force.
• Transferable knowledge and skills across all areas to when they leave school 

References

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority: Technologies. (2015). Overview: Rationale. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/technologies/rationale

Week 7: Digital pedagogy

I like how Wendy has explained algorithms with flow charts, making it easier to understand and relate to, having just designed these in the last few weeks.
"Algorithms, by definition, involve a process. Processes are best depicted in a flow chart. This may be branching or non-branching, iterative or linear" (Fasso, 2015).

When I looked up 'Flow chart for algorithms' I was swamped with charts full of information I could not understand which was a little daunting to be honest. Making me think 'huh should I know this?'



Figure: Avrams, Flowchart solution, 2008

I had a brief look at the website 'gliffy' mentioned by Wendy and as she had stated it has great ways to make and utilise flow charts and would be a fantastic digital resource for my journal.
I am finding this entire course very interesting, challenging and hugely resourceful for my career.

References
Avrams. (2008). Pseudocode/ Flowchart: Solving Problems - Algorithms Representation. Retrieved from http://www.avrams.ro/polynomial-2.html
Fasso, W. (2015). Week 7 Course Materials: Digital Pedagogy. Retrieved on May 4, 2015, from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au

Week 7: Algorithms- Abstraction activity

I was given a set of instructions to change my Microsoft word setting and write a sentence using the 'developer' tab in word. Once I completed these steps my sentence looked like this:

If is select the choose an item section in the sentence, a drop down menu appears, from which I can select from various responses. Once those options are selected the sentence looks like any other normal sentence, however I can still select the word that had been selected previously and change it to any other on the drop down menu. This is a great tool that could be used for a myriad of tasks either for the teacher or the student. It would be a great tool for gathering information or data.

Reflection on Process and Production example

Example:

Your tuckshop wishes to gain some information about student and teachers' preferences for their menu next term. Your task is to:

Create a survey to gather data about what is on offer, and what is suggested. Discuss these ideas with the Tuckshop convenor. Based upon the survey results and your discussion, create a Word input document with key information that you believe is important. Use your word input document to collect everyone's preferences. Analyse the information and present it in a suitable form, with justification and data displays and explanation to the tuckshop convenor and the school Principal. 

It will be done in groups of four

Curriculum links

F-2

Collect, explore and sort data, and use digital systems to present the data creatively (ACTDIP003)

YR3-4

Collect, access and present different types of data using simple software to create information and solve problems (ACTDIP009)

YR5-6

Acquire, store and validate different types of data and use a range of commonly available software to interpret and visualise data in context to create information (ACTDIP016)

YR 7-8



 Define and decompose real-world problems taking into account functional requirements and economic, environmental, social, technical and usability constraints (ACTDIP027)
Evaluate how well developed solutions and existing information systems meet needs, are innovative and take account of future risks and sustainability
Rationale of Digital Technologies
A deep knowledge and understanding of information systems enables students to be creative and discerning decision-makers when they select, use and manage data, information, processes and digital systems to meet needs and shape preferred futures. Helping them effectively use digital systems and resources.
 Aims of Digital Technologies
Design, create, manage and evaluate sustainable and innovative digital solutions to meet and redefine current and future needs
Content structure
Processes and Production skills
Collecting, managing and analysing data


Students will incorporate sustainability in their process and final decisions for the menu options for tuckshop. Students will use their systems thinking with this project by identifying and solving a problem using digital resources. By using this resource they will further understand digital technology and its capacity and usefulness.

Clearly every group will have different ideas and create different products for the tuckshop. Each student is an individual therefore each group will demonstrate individuality and have unique ideas. However they have still had the same criteria and rules structured by the tuckshop therefore some ideas will be similar to other groups and there will be overlapping occurring whilst still having fresh ideas to be added to the menu. Using something similar to the design matrix we used previously in the design challenge, would be a great way to ideate everyone's ideas and form some conclusions/solutions to the problem at hand.

This can be done as a class or per group. You could also use digital mind mapping to see everyone's ideas up close, demonstrate the overlapping of ideas and why they have similar ideas, see new ideas emerge, give more ideas and reach conclusions. This task supports cross-curricular study as it incorporates multiple topics such as, literacy, numeracy, socialising, digital media, design technologies, sustainability, social prejudice etc.

Week 7: Thinking Myself activity

Figure: Prottsman, Thinking Myself, 2011

I found this week, using the site 'Thinking Myself' a very useful game to illustrate the four categories of computational thinking: abstractions, patterns, decomposition, algorithms. It was an enjoyable learning experience I believe students from a variety of age groups would be able to understand and enjoy.

References
Prottsman, K. (2011). Thinking Myself. Retrieved from http://games.thinkingmyself.com/