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WK 7: Computational Thinking

WK 7: Computational Thinking

Empowered - The way the world has rapidly changed due to technology and its use has dis-empowered many teachers. Being Empowered is not just for our young people but also for teachers.

Technology is not just a tool, if it was 'just a tool' school's would be using much cheaper tool e.g. text books and pencils. Technology in the hands of our young people, our teachers and our whanau can change lives. 

Today we were spoken to by Viv from OMG Tech!

She really brought to our attention the very scary reality in which technology is active in our world. Digital creations such as 'Big Dog', Sophia the Robot, Flightless cars and now Self-driving cars make us think about the Ethics and Morals involved in such outcomes.  
We had the opportunity to think about the values that we as humans see as important, and then the values that the workplace see as important. Our job as teachers is to encourage children to value their own values more than those valued in a future 'workplace'. By doing this we hope that our children can grow up in a world that isn't replaced by machines and/or robots in the workplace.

My brain took a heavy hit when we were later introduced to Binary Maths and my long time arch nemesis....Scratch. The word 'Maths' makes me feel anxious on any given day, however I was able to grasp some of the concepts involved in Binary Maths. How you would use this at school with children however and the actual point of it's use kind of went over my head, even though I am sure it would have been explained throughout the day. Next I once again tried to tackle Scratch. I understand the concept of Scratch however this is where it stops. I don't seem to have much luck when it comes to getting Scratch to do what I want it to do!

From here I think it is back to Scratch Tutorials..when I feel up to it. We did learn about and have a go on the Hour of Code website. I found this much easier to manage, as it was broken up into simple tasks and instructional videos. I could see myself being able to use this in the hub with the children in order to introduce them to coding. 





Comments

  1. Mark Maddren17 June 2019 at 17:26

    Kia ora Sam,
    I like your comment "it is back to Scratch tutorials" when you are up to it, listening to your conversations there are other things you wish to focus on which is absolutely fine. It seems to me at this stage you can not see the value of using scratch in your class programme and I would say do not worry about it, instead focus on it when you are ready. When you are ready find someone in our cluster who uses it in an authentic context that you could then replicate in your own class. Work to your strengths.
    Nga mihi,
    Mark
    Nga mihi,
    Mark

    ReplyDelete

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