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ICT in Practice, Issue 8
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P3 / ICT GARAGE ACADEMYOnline platform for Computing
P5 / GIFS RE-BORNMaking gifts and gifts in use
P22 / CODING RESOURCESApps, Programs and Websites for teaching coding and game design.
P18 / COMPUTING and an NQTSurviving and Thriving with Computing as an NQT
ISSUE 8
ICT in Practice
www.ictinpractice.com
Transforming education through sharing knowledge and practiceCreated by educators from around the world
SUMMER EDITION JUL 2014
ISSN 2053-5104
Welcome to your space where we continue to share and learn in full gear!I would like to start with giving big thanks to the wonderful educators from across the Globe who have shared their experiences of using technology in education through their articles in this issue. YOU ARE AMAZING!I would also like to give a warm hug to Elliot Plumb as a new member of our Editorial board. I am sure his positive energy and endless creative ideas will create a dynamic buzz in our minds!
We have some exciting news. First, we now have an ICT in Practice Forum for you to come and speak out your mind about any issues related to the use of technology in teaching and learning. Just visit http://forum.ictinpractice.com/ and start chatting!
We have also decided to hold monthly Google hangouts to discuss some exciting ideas related to Technology Enchanced Learning. The first one will look at the ideas of using Minecraft in education. So watch our forum or follow us on Twitter to first find out about it. Any suggestions, just drop us an email.
I have met many people on the Internet over the years, some I clicked with, some I didnʼt get on well with. There are also people that when I met them made me say wooow! Assoc. Prof. Dr
Selcuk Ozdemir is one of them. I was so impressed with his work in Computer Science in Turkey, I felt the need to share it with everyone. This is how we connect with innovative minds from around the world. For me his work is invaluable. He is someone who has used extensive research to design tools to help young people to develop computational thinking. Most importnatly he did not do this to make a name or get fame, he did it for the young learners. He wanted to help them to develop skills that would be useful for life not only in specific subjects in school. I hope you will spend some time to read about his work.
Thank you for supporting us, you are our driving power. Please spread the word and let more people join our learning journey!
Yasemin AllsopEditorTwitter: @yallsop
Contents‘ICT Garage Academy ’by Assoc.Prof.Dr. Selçuk Özdemirpage 3-5
‘Gifs re-born’by Tim Brookpage 6-8
‘WEB 2 Tools in our Comenius Project ‘Citizen of Care-Land’ by Marijana Šundovpage 9-11
‘Using Desmos To Explore Taylor and Maclaurin Series in AP Calculus’by Daisy Zhang-Negrerie, Ph.Dpage 12-15
‘Children, mobile technology and eSafety’by Jamie Mortimerpage 16-17
‘Surviving and Thriving with Computing as an NQT’by Elliott Plumbpage 18-19
Scratch and Sniffby Ian Stephensonpage 20-22
‘Is technology damaging our children's Language Skills?’by Yasemin Allsoppage 23-24
“A quick evaluation of apps and Web Sites for Programming”by Yasemin Allsoppage 25-26
From the editor
ICT GARAGE ACADEMYBilisimGarajAkademisi.com
The “God Par6cle” needed to transform a Download Community to an
Upload Community:
Bilisim Garaj Akademisi (IT Garage Academy) is an
online portal supplying coding, web design, 3D
design and robo@c/electronic design curriculum for
children from the ages 7-‐8, 9-‐12 and 13-‐16. On the
portal, Turkish youths, star@ng from 7 years old,
learn:
* coding using Scratch or MS Small Basic,
* web design using Notepad,
* 3D design using Sketchup
* robo@c / electronic design using various safe
electronic materials,
* and entrepreneurship through IT.
Why?The slogan of the plaSorm is “From a Download
Society to an Upload Society.” This moXo aims to
aXract Turkish people’s aXen@on to an important
problem. Turkey is one of the top countries using
social media and mobile internet. For example,
Turkish people are among the top Facebook users.
On the other hand, Turkish people produce ICT
technology much less than they consume. To
illustrate, applica@ons produced for mobile devices
such as smart phones and tablet PCs have the
market volume of 65 billion US$ around the world.
Turkey’s contribu@on to this market volume is
smaller than 0.5%! Another example is that Turkey’s
annual ICT market volume is 36 billion US$. In this
volume, high technology produc@on including
hardware, sobware or embedded technology is
smaller than 1%. The volume of the ICT market in
Turkey is formed by mostly communica@on
technologies such as GSM operators and internet
service suppliers.
The youth is devoid of the skills required to produce
with IT, because the educa@on system doesn’t
equip the new genera@ons with the skills such as
coding, web design or robo@c design especially at
primary and secondary levels. Gaining produc@ve IT
skills is postponed un@l university years. In the
country, the general percep@on is that computer
literacy is equal to computer use. However,
computer use is a much broader concept covering
computer literacy. In this informa@on age, proper
use of IT in educa@on helps students to gain 21st
century skills such as cri@cal thinking, crea@ve
thinking, scien@fic thinking, collabora@on with
others especially in a problem based learning
environment.
What?To change this percep6on and increase the
awareness of the concept of computa6onal
thinking, Dr. Selçuk Özdemir started the
BilisimGarajAkademisi.com portal 18 months ago
in Turkey. Now, more than 40 training centres
and more than 10 primary/secondary private
schools use his curriculum.
The curriculum used in BilisimGarajAkademisi.com
has two dimensions. The first dimension (called
Package 1) aims to present kids with their first
threshold experience. With the modules in the
Package 1, the kids realise that they can program
computers, design web sites, 3d models and
robots/electronic devices. In the first year in
Package 1, the kids learn all of the four subjects
separately. The priority in the first year is to show
the kids who is the boss, because the students
realise that they can tell computers what to do.
In the second year, the whole curriculum runs
around an entrepreneurship problem. In Package
2, the students develop solu@ons for a given main
and sub-‐problems using coding, web design, 3d
design and robo@c design and programming. The
entrepreneurship problem helps students u@lize all
technologies to produce many related solu@ons for
a real life problem. U@lising this holis@c approach,
in addi@on to advanced IT skills, the students have
the opportunity to gain entrepreneurial
competences defined by European Union. These
entrepreneurial competences are classified as
knowledge, skills and aitude. The students learn
about “being ini@a@ve user”, “self-‐confidence”,
“thinking on what new things can be developed”,
“being op@mis@c”, “leadership”, “marke@ng”,
“collabora@on”, “the importance of being cri@cal
and crea@ve”, “the concept of supply and
demand”, “concept of cost-‐benefit” and “the
importance of patents”.
Star@ng from this October, the students will gain
more than 50 entrepreneurial competences whilst
they develop a solu@on for the problem of energy.
The students will be informed that energy
resources come to an end and the world needs
new and clean energy resources for especially
transporta@on. In four modules of the Package 2, a
student’s task is to:
* design a 3d model of an electric car which
consumes solar energy (3D design module of the
curriculum),
* calculate the cost of the produc@on process of
the solar energy car and protec@ng the
confiden@al informa@on (Coding module of the
curriculum),
* produce and program a solar energy robo@c car
using real electronic circuit components (Robo@c
design module of the curriculum),
* promote and market the solar energy robo@c car
(Web design module of the curriculum).
How?Bilişim Garaj Akademisi has a very simple and
running methodology:
Curiosity Produc@on Exhibi@on
Curiosity is core to the Bilişim Garaj Akademisi
curriculum. Edgar Morin emphasizes that without
curiosity, learning doesn’t take place. In each
module, the students are presented a concrete
task to complete. The students create a new
produc@on in each hour of each module. Being
able to create new things helps children to develop
their self-‐esteem. Finally, children love
demonstra@ng to others what they can perform or
produce. In accordance with our moXo “from a
download society to an upload society”, the
students can upload their own works to the
“Project Gallery” module of the portal so that
others can download and examine.
Finally:
Coding, in general producing with IT, is the “lingua
franca” of the new age. In the future, all
professions will need to do something which
cannot be done by computerised machines. The
new genera@ons have to be equipped with
produc@ve IT skills before their university years.
Thus, they will be aware what computers can do or
cannot do. This awareness will help them to see
the innova@on opportuni@es in their professional
field.
Bilişim Garaj Akademisi aims to be an interna@onal
portal. The en@re curriculum is being translated
into English and the English content will be
published via an English domain name.
Best regards,
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Selçuk Özdemir
The Founder of Bilişim Garaj Akademisi
@drselcukozdemir
Bilisimgarajakademisi.com
hXp://w3.gazi.edu.tr/~sozdemir/index_eng.htm
Way back in the mists of Web 2.0, when YouTube
was a glint in Google’s eye and Wikipedia was
Encarta’s weedy rival, I built a website. I had
neither the finances, nor the @me, to buy and learn
to use Flash. So, to give my site a bit of pizazz, I
used a fair old sprinkling of downloaded Gifs. Not
too many because they can be preXy distrac@ng
and, besides, in those ISDN days they slowed page
loading to a speed that allowed you take a comfort
break...
When I came to build my
new, improved site I had
acquired Paintshop Pro
which came with an applet
called Anima@on Shop.
Anima@on Shop lets you
create or edit Gifs frame by frame or by adding
effects and transi@ons to images. You can
download it these days for free, and it’s s@ll very
useful, although the user interface betrays its age
and it possibly won’t run on Windows 8. I’m s@ll
very fond of some of the Gifs I created with
Anima@on Shop.
I thought liXle more about Gifs for some years,
un@l I began to become aware of a re-‐birth through
Tumblr sites I was visi@ng; but it was only when I
chanced upon Zeega that I became really
interested once more -‐ enough to start making gifs
again. Zeega allows you to acquire gifs through
giphy and mix and match them with text, and
Crea@ve Commons licensed s@lls and music.
Zeega’s main man Jesse Shapins (of luxuriant
beard) gives an excellent starter tutorial here. I
was par@cularly interested by the simple way
mul@ple gifs and s@lls can be made transparent and
layered allowing crea@ve combina@ons. Completed
zeegas can be embedded in sites and blogs.
The great advantage of the gif is that it is an image
format not a video, which means it can be added
directly to a web page or included in a presenta@on
without the need for video uploading to a host.
Making gifs has certainly come on a bit. Complex
and sophis@cated work has given rise to the idea of
gif as an art form My daughter’s phone made a gif
from a series of pictures
she took, without even
asking her. There is
currently a brief history
of the gif on Zeega -‐ all
told with gifs, of course.
Googling ‘making gifs online’ produced a swathe of sites, all offering free conversion and
edi;ng of online videos. The ones I tried
worked pre?y well, but when I got interested in making my own stuff again, I wondered if
there was a free download for desktop use. Need I have wondered? Several arrived
complete with irrita;ng toolbars or apps which
caused me to uninstall them immediately – and the junkware… (Note to self: do not
download free apps when ;red).
GIFS RE-BORN by Tim Brook
Gifs and Me
Making Gifs
Finally I came upon Instagiffer freeware, with a
pleasantly func@onal interface and all the video-‐
to-‐gif func@onality I needed -‐ and no ads or -‐ erm
– troubling -‐ toolbars. It allows the clipping of
online video or will convert your own videos. You
can also capture gifs from any moving item on
your screen. Clips can be edited from your chosen
start-‐frame to end-‐frame or individual frames
removed by double-‐clicking. Size and quality can
be adjusted. Images can be cropped. There are
even some special effects. The finished gif will
save to a folder of your choice. The only thing I’ve
found missing is the ability to iden@fy the number
of plays, but Anima@on Shop can do this with your
finished gif if you wish and maybe to add a cross
frame fade as well, to smooth the characteris@c
end-‐of-‐gif ‘jerk’.
Aber giffing about a bit with my own and online
videos, I wondered about screen capturing video
from other tools that will animate images, like
Photo Story 3, for example, which creates a ‘Ken
Burns’ video from s@lls. And then I tried screen
capturing from Powerpoint.
If you have never tried Powerpoint’s object
anima@on buXon for fear of having your
presenta@ons sneered at, now’s your chance to
play. The custom anima@on sidebar allows a
surprisingly large amount of flexibility including
drawing paths for the objects to travel along,
delays and mul@ple anima@ons at the same @me.
Do choose the advanced @meline as you can drag
the anima@ons to the length you require. You will
only need to screen capture the anima@on Play
preview window (rather than the full screen) as it’s
plenty big enough for a gif.
Finally it occurred to me that by inser@ng the gif
you had just made, into a
Powerpoint page, and adding a
mask on top (a picture with a
transparent hole in it) you
could create shapes with
animated insides. You can do
this too with the Powerpoint
anima@ons themselves. To make a mask, remove
the insides of a simple line image. This easily be
can be done by using the ‘magic wand’ selec@on
tool of any half-‐decent image editor (I use
Paint.NET). Save it as a png. or gif, as JPEGs don’t
do transparency. Bring it to the front of your stack
of Powerpoint objects with the anima@on paying
behind the ‘hole’. Using Instagiffer’s screen
capture tool you can end up with a TV with moving
images on the screen or a boat full of swimming
fish. My current personal favourite is a lightbulb
with a firework display inside i.e. lots of brilliant
ideas!
Capture with Instagiffer and the surrounding blank
page area can be cropped. I use white pages most
oben but you could colour your mask the same
colour as your page. If you want a completely
transparent surround for your gif the Online Image
Editor (no signup) has a transparency wizard that
will do this for you.
Two more gif must-‐havesIf you have never seen, or previously wriXen off,
the Pivot Animator freeware, download it now and
start playing. Peter Bone, the deviser of Pivot has
fairly recently produced the first non-‐beta version
4, which will animate objects (sprites) as well as
s@ck figures. Pivot anima@ons will now save as gifs
or video. There’s a good support site too.
Microsob Research offers a free download of
Cliplet which allows the crea@on of those
anima@ons with s@ll backgrounds (known as
cinemagraphs). It comes with free tutorials. Some
fairly sophis@cated anima@on can be achieved. In
the classroom this could involve detailed planning
and edi@ng while using very short ac@on clips
which might take only a couple of minutes to
capture saving groups wandering around with
cameras for hours. The file sizes are rela@vely
small as only part of the screen is animated, which
means you can have pages full on your class blog…
Gifs in use There is something strangely
compelling about the animated
gif. Students love them. There are some truly
beau@ful gifs out there as well as a fair collec@on
of the dull, obscene, sparkly or limp -‐ preXy much
like the rest of the web. They certainly add visual
interest to your presenta@ons. If, like me, you are
a fan of Inanimate Alice you’ll have some great
models for wri@ng with anima@on.
I’m geing interested in the language of gifs. All
stories need some form of punctua@on: pauses,
full stops or slow fades for example. The animated
gif sits between a s@ll image and video. It plays
without the need for ac@on on the viewer’s part.
Naturally movement is key but in a story perhaps
they need to loop without over-‐obvious junc@ons
to convey a sense of con@nuity. Perhaps, like all
punctua@on, it best signals a changeover. My
Magic Lantern anima@ons were headings which
hinted at the page contents. A blazing fire could be
the beginning or ending of a piece and used to
symbolize leaving or arriving home; ripples on
water: dissipa@on or a response to a whim...
Gifs can allow for close observa@onal wri@ng.
Ac@on clips could be used as scenes from the
middle of a story, for which students can suggest,
or write, beginnings and endings.
Simple, moving diagrams can be made by you or,
even beXer, students collabora@ng , to
demonstrate processes in Science, Technology and
Geography and assembled on a shared Padlet wall.
Now, if all this has wheXed your
appe@te but the techtalk has leb
you cold, you’ll perhaps be glad
to know I’m in the middle of
planning, wri@ng and recording a
free online course, DIY GIF , covering all this and
more. It should be finished by the end of August.
So keep your eye on my Digital Glue blog for
regular updates on the progress of the work. You
could be making some lovely autumnal gifs or
maybe even moving scenery for your Christmas
Produc@on.
And have some very engaged learners…
Tim Brook
hXp://www.digitalglue.org/
WEB 2.0 TOOLS IN OUR COMENIUS PROJECT 'CITIZEN OF CARE-LAND' by Marijana Šundov
I work as a primary school teacher in Pujanke Elementary School for several years. I use modern teaching methods (Web 2.0 tools, E-learning, Moodle, E-twinning) with my pupils. Also, I have extensive experience with Erasmus+ international cooperation of European schools. I try to connect my pupils with pupils of other European countries, and empower them to use different web tools while they mutually communicate online and create various project activities together.
'You are only limited by your creativity'I introduced some web 2.0 tools in educa@on for
our commenius project mee@ng in Estonia (March
24-‐29, 2014). The project was called 'Ci@zen of
Care-‐land', 2013-‐2015. Teachers from 12
european coutries aXended the conference,
amongst them my school, Pujanke Elementary
School. I decided to make a presenta@on and
show it to the teachers in order to bring them
closer to some of the web 2.0 tools. My
main aim was that teachers returned back
to their schools and disseminated their
findings about web 2.0 to their pupils, as
our project's aim is to use ICT amongst
teachers and pupils. We have our
Twinspace (private area of our project) on
the E-‐twinning plaSorm, where we share
all project ac@vi@es. Teachers and pupils
have their separate areas to communicate
with each other, upload and share photos,
videos etc. Our project is focused on pupils
ac@vi@es; pupils make presenta@ons showing a
certain ac@vity and then present them at each
project conference. I therefore first decided to
show them how they could improve their
presenta@ons by using Prezi tools for crea@ng
presenta@ons instead of the more tradi@onal
Power Point.
My presenta@on for that purpose was created in
Prezi, and it was interes@ng that teachers could
learn how to navigate with Prezi whilst they were
watching at the presenta@on at the same @me. All
of the teachers were in front of the computers,
listening to me and following the steps. First, I
explained what Prezi is; that it is a new way of
crea@ng, collabora@ng, edi@ng and sharing user-‐
generated content online. Prezi allows you to
design your own dis@nc@ve, eye-‐catcing
presenta@ons.
I also showed them that these presenta@ons can be
flowing; that they can arrange text and images in
any way they like, they can also choose the order
and amount in which each element will be zoomed
into. I then explained the process for crea@ng an
account on Prezi.com (I suggested seing up a free
account for the first @me). Finally, I showed them
how to create a presenta@on aber crea@ng an
account simply by clicking on 'New prezi' and using
basic tools on a blank canvas (A place where you
create your presenta@on). The teachers were
fascinated with the fact that they become like
ar@sts in Prezi, where they decide about the
appearance of their presenta@on. I showed them
'a wheel' that gives them easy access to all of the
main tools where they simply clicked and dragged
what they wanted. If they wanted to write
something, they could just double-‐click anywhere
to begin typing. It was very interes@ng when they
realised that they could insert files (pdf, power
point, video, photos..) into their Prezi. I also
introduced them to very important tools in Prezi,
to paths that allow them to create the order of
their presenta@on aber they have put all the text,
videos, photos etc. Using paths, they began clicking
on the element they wanted to zoom into first and
they con@nue clicking on each object in the order
that they wanted them to appear in their
presenta@on. I highlighted that they can always
edit everything. Finally, I showed them that they
can edit, delete or download Prezi, and what is
more important, share Prezi using 'embed code' or
copying the link. We shared our Prezis on the
educa@onal plaSrom E-‐twinning, on Twinspace. In
May, during our Project conference in Spain, pupils
had the task to create presen@ons about 'Women
rights in Europe', and the great surprise: -‐ many
presenta@ons were created in Prezi. It was great!
The second tool that I wanted to introduce to them
was Voki, a speaking avatar that is a great tool for
classroom ac@vi@es and makes learning fun. I
wanted teachers to incourage their pupils to
communicate with pupils from different countries
using Voki. Voki can easily be embedded on our
Twinspace, so we decided to create virtual
presenta@ons with Voki tools. Voki is a very simple
tool, on www.voki.com you create your username
and login. When you enter, you decide upon the
appearance of your Voki character (you can choose
a character that is similar to you or not), and when
you click 'Customize your character' you can change
the colour of its eyes, clothes, even the colour of the
skin etc. The most important is to give your Voki a
voice, and you can select from a few op@ons how to
do it (recording with a microphone, uploading an
audio file or the easiest op@on – you just type in
your text). Aber you have typed the text, you can
even choose the language and the voice and accent
of your avatar. Sharing Prezi is also great (you can
email your Voki, copy the link or embed the code).
Our pupils use Voki to communicate with each other
about ceartain topics, they like it very much as they
find Voki interes@ng and funny. Our teachers have
made their own Vokis too and shared them on E-‐
twinning to present themselves to other teachers.
My final tool was Glogster – online interac@ve
posters that allows you to combine text, pictures,
graphics, video and audio into an interac@ve poster.
I wanted to introduce this tool to teachers in the
project, because in our project we have pupils visits
other countries, not just the teachers.
Pupils from one country host pupils from another
country in their home. I found this tool great for
introducing each other, making a poster of him/her,
and he/she can write, draw, add videos and
everything else that chracterises him or her. In this
way, our pupils learned about each other, and made
closer connec@ons before their visit. They enhanced
many skills using this tools-‐crea@vity, effec@ve
communica@on, student collabora@on, literacy skills
etc. It can be done in a short @me, so our pupils
used this tool .You simply register at Glogster edu,
write some info about yourself and start playing by
clicking and dragging text, image, graphics, video,
sound etc, and share your Glogster on website or
somewhere else. Our pupils shared their Glogsters
on the Pupils' area on Twinspace, and through
email.
I encourage my colleagues all the @me within my
school, within the project and my pupils to use ICT
as it is fun, crea@ve, and pupils learn faster through
games without realising that they are actually
learning at the same @me.
I am a fan of Desmos, a web-‐based graphing
calculator completely free and accessible at
www.desmos.com. There is no download needed,
and it is extremely easy to use – the func@ons are
well organized, and all are available at the click of
a mouse. Most of my students learned how to use
the calculator within 15 minutes, by using the
site’s tutorial.
Even though Desmos does not contain as broad a
variety of func@ons as a tradi@onal graphing
calculator (e.g. TI-‐84) does, I do appreciate its
dynamic feature of a built-‐in slider, as well as the
colored graphing lines, the much faster speed of
carrying out calcula@ons, and the ability to project
the image on the whiteboard in a classroom. All
these features make Desmos superior to the
handheld TI graphing calculator.
“Infinite sequences and series” is one of the last
topics covered in the AP Calculus (BC) course.
Personally, I find it is an exci@ng topic, the
content of which touches on all the fundamental
concepts of calculus, i.e. evalua@ng limits (in the
ra@o test), finding deriva@ves (in construc@ng the
Taylor series), and applying all the techniques of
integra@on (the integral test to determine the
convergence of a series), and taught during an
exci@ng @me – one month before the AP Exam.
Therefore, it serves as a natural bridge between
wrapping up the learning por@on and moving into
the review por@on for the big Exam.
Unfortunately, students oben find the content of
this chapter unforgivingly abstract, and the @ming
of it effec@vely shakes their confidence. For years,
I have been trying to find a way to improve my
teaching methods, including leaving more @me
for it and giving more exercise for prac@ce, but
the results were no more than marginally
posi@ve.
The discovery of Desmos revolu@onized the way I
teach this chapter, and as a result, students’
learning experience, as well as the learning result,
was improved by leaps and bounds. In this ar@cle,
I share some examples of using Desmos to teach
the Taylor and MacLaurin (a special case of Taylor
series with a=0) series.
In the first example, students were asked to
construct the Maclaurin series of , wri@ng out one
term at a @me first and then express the series of
y= sin (X), with the sigma nota@on. Students were
asked to type out the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 10th-‐
degree Taylor polynomial as a func@on in Desmos,
and have each func@on ploXed out (Figure 1).
As Figure 1 shows, each func@on is color-‐coded
corresponding to its graph. Students were guided
to discover that:
1. The one-‐term Maclaurin polynomial, y=x, gives
a very poor representa@on of the sine curve, with
no matching at all except for the point at x = 0 .
2. As the number of terms increases, the area of
superposi@on between the curve of the
polynomial and that of the sine expands
symmetrically on both sides of x = 0 .
3. As the number of terms approaches infinity,
the polynomial curve is foreseen to match with
the sine curve in the en@re region, extending
f r om -‐ to
4. Based on observa@on 3, the interval of
convergence, which is, in other words, the group
of x values that yield the same y values by the
infinite series as the original func@on y= sin(x), is
surely
Using Desmos To Explore Taylor and Maclaurin Series in AP Calculus
by Daisy Zhang-‐Negrerie, Ph.DConcordia International School, Shanghai
The second step in this exercise is to take
Similar tasks were to carry out, such as wri@ng out each term in the Taylor polynomial, expressing the polynomial in sigma nota@on; construc@ng the 2nd and 4th-‐degree Taylor polynomial and ploing out the expressions in Desmos (Figure 2). In addi@on, a slider func@on was incorporated in this exercise, where the number of terms was set as a variable, , and was scanned through from 1 to 15. Students were guided to observe that,1. Each mathema@cal expression of the polynomials in the new series is visibly different from that in the Maclaurin series. The ones in the Taylor series are
even func@ons, while those in the Maclaurin series are odd func@ons. 2. The area of superposi@on expands as the number of terms increases, same as in the Maclaurin series, except that in this case the area expands
symmetrically around .
3. The interval of convergence is, again, the en@re domain Students are further guided to conclude that:1. The Taylor series with different a value are seemingly different, but each represents the original func@on and therefore they are equal to each other.2. The a value corresponds to the value where the matching area expands. The graph helps one
visualize what it means by “expanding about x=a ” in Taylor series containing the
.
3 . T h e i n t e r v a l o f convergence (as well as the radius of convergence) remains the same and is independent of the a value for the sine func@on.
Figure 1. Graphs of and its Maclaurin series containing 1, 2, 3 or 10 terms.
Figure 2. Graphs of and its Taylor series (), containing 2, 3, or 10 terms.
The second example was a logarithmic func@on,y=In(x+1). Students were asked to repeat what they did in the previous example. Through this exercise, students were guided to observe:1. As the number of terms increases, the area of matching increases.2. As the number of terms becomes sufficiently big, the interval of the matching area is restricted to between
, which agrees with the interval of convergence predicted by the ra@o test.
3. The Maclaurin series cannot be used to express they y=In(x+1) func@on outside of the interval.
Figure 3. Graphs of and its Maclaurin series containing 1, 2, 3, 4, or 23 terms.
Figure 4. Graphs of y=In(x+1) and its Taylor series (a=1), containing 1, 2, 3, 4, or 30 terms.
The second exercise in this example was to construct the Taylor series a=1 . The graphs are shown in Figure 4. Results help students conclude that the interval of convergence is (-‐1, 3), twice as big as that in the Maclaurin series. This observa@on is in sharp contrast to the sine func@on.
The third exercise was to explore the rela@onship between the interval of convergence, by seing the value as a
variable and using the slider feature. This exercise helps students to visualize the rela@onship through seeing the
playing out of how the intervals expand as the value increases.
Students were assigned addi@onal problems containing more complicated func@ons to be ploXed out in
Desmos, and where then tasked to write up their observa@ons. Students’ feedback of these exercises indicated
that they were finally able to visualize the radius and interval of convergence, what the value of “means and
does” in the series, and the fact that each func@on can be represented by an infinite number of Taylor series,
but not all Taylor polynomials represent every point equally well. Their feedback signifies their deep
understanding that any teacher can be proud of. Another bonus of this exercise is that students aberwards
became experts in deriving the terms in the Taylor polynomial as well as wri@ng the sigma nota@on, thanks to
the interac@ve nature of the Desmos graphing calculator. Any wrong terms will be immediately recognized, with
“debugging” involving coming up with the correct term or sigma nota@on un@l the curves match.
I hope this ar@cle encourages AP Calculus teachers to try out Desmos in classroom and develop new projects
around the capacity of this sobware. If you would like to discuss this topic, or exchange @ps, please feel free to
contact me at:
daisy.zhang-‐[email protected].
Figure 5. Graph of the Taylor polynomial of y=IN(x+1) with a=7 in a dynamic exploration of the relationship between the interval of convergence and the value of a.
CHILDREN, MOBILE TECHNOLOGY AND E-SAFETYby Jamie Mortimer
Children and young people love our phones. I don’t
mean landlines, a prac@cally obsolete piece of
technology that we all rent for a monthly fee just so
we can then pay another monthly fee to get an
internet connec@on. I’m talking about our mobile
phones, and more specifically our smart phones. It’s
not a surprise. From the moment our children are
born they see us holding them, looking at them and
talking to these liXle shiny boxes. The same applies to
tablets. When we grew up we used to see our parents
reading the paper, reading a book, using a telephone,
wri@ng leXers and having a cup of tea with friends.
Now we do all of these things on our phone or tablet.
My son is nearly 7 years old. One of the first phrases
he uXered when he was liXle was, ‘oo tube’. He
knows that Facebook is a website. He knows that
people post messages on twiXer. He knows that you
need a wi-‐fi connec@on to get on the internet. He
knows what the internet is. He knows that an iPhone,
an iPod and an iPad all use an iTunes account. He
knows what an account is and why you would give
your personal informa@on to create an account.
So when he was 6 he was given an iPodtouch and I’ve
stuck to a few very simple rules when it comes to him
using it. Let’s start with the device. Its setup using my
iTunes account, which means I get the email invoices
for all purchases once a week. So what did I lock
down? I kept it straight forward. No Safari; that’s the
internet browser, so he can’t get on to websites with
his device.
Jamie Mor@mer is a husband and father of two boys and has a real passion for technology, learning and the outdoors. Once a week he volunteers with his local Scout Group as a Beaver Leader and loves introducing children to technology in new and exci@ng ways.
He graduated from Newcastle University in 1998 with a degree in Mapping Science and since then has held a number of roles in the sobware and technology industry. In 2009 he took up post as Computers and Technology curriculum manager for Community Learning and Skills Development, Adult Learning in Suffolk, where he completed his PGCE and has led the curriculum to a recent good Ofsted Inspec@on.
He was part of a collec@ve that established the Suffolk E-‐Safety Strategy and currently sits on the Advisory Panel for the Jisc Regional Support Centre in the Eastern region, who support FE and Skills in the use of technology in teaching and learning.
uk.linkedin.com/in/geekylearner
@geekylearner
jamie.mor;[email protected]
A password is required to purchase apps; this includes
free apps as you s@ll have to technically ‘purchase’ the
app. No Face@me or iMessage app; that means no
video chaing or text messaging to anyone, and that’s
it. He can then do preXy much anything else; I don’t
need to block content based on age ra@ngs or content
as he can’t get access to it anyway. You’d be surprised
how easy it is. You just go in to the seings and
restric@ons and you literally toggle the apps on/off.
We have just two rules. Firstly, I look aber it and he
has to ask when he would like to use it. The second
and most important rule is that he only gets to use it
downstairs. I’ll explain. I need to monitor what he’s
doing on it and his behaviour or how he responds as
he plays games or reads books. It’s my job to make
sure I promote acceptable behaviour and make sure he
isn’t accessing inappropriate content. When he gets
older and I do grant him access to the internet I want
us to have formed a rela@onship of open trust when it
comes to discussing what he has read and viewed on
the internet. Once he has access to the internet it’s
going to be crucial that he isn’t using his device on his
own in his bedroom. If he’s been allowed to use it like
that before, he isn’t going to want to change his
behaviour because ‘he’s always been allowed to do it
that way and it isn’t fair’ and he’d kind of have a point.
Here’s the warning shot across the bows though. We
all know technology changes at an ever increasing pace
and that’s where I was caught out very recently. His
favourite game at the moment is Sonic Racing and it
pops up that there is an update, so he updates it. He
even tells me he’s got an update and he’s going to
download it. Brilliant! Thanks for telling me; I’m really
pleased you told me. Well the next day I can hear
machine gun fire. Mobile gaming is shibing towards
more free apps with ‘in-‐app’ purchases to enhance the
game play. This means games allow you to purchase
tokens to buy extra content and features, and to draw
you in (and generate adver@sing revenues) they give
you free tokens for watching adverts. These adverts
typically promote other apps you might want to buy
and download and there is always one for a game that
requires you to blow the head off something or a
zombie dripping in blood. It may only be 20 seconds
but its 20 seconds you don’t want your 7 year old to be
viewing, at least not for a few more years. He now
knows he must not view the adverts and thankfully we
are well on our way to developing a healthy respect
towards technology together.
Community Learning and Skills Development delivers
courses across Suffolk to complete beginners to gain
confidence in using technology and the internet safely
and also to support parents or carers with promo@ng
safe use of technology to children and young people.
To register your interest or enrol on a course in a
centre near you contact us on 0300 456 2050 or at our
website: www.clsd.org.uk.
Happy and responsible gaming!
Jamie Mor4mer
uk.linkedin.com/in/geekylearner
@geekylearner
jamie.mor;[email protected]
Surviving and Thriving with Computing as an NQTby Elliott Plumb
3 ways you can engage primary
pupils in ‘Computing’ during your
first year of teaching
Whether you are about to enter teaching or you
have just finished your first year, there are always
subjects that you feel you haven’t sunk your
teeth into as much as you may have wanted (P.E.
for me!). There may have been @metable clashes;
a lack of resources or it may be a lack of
confidence in the subject (Again, P.E. for me!).
Compu@ng can some@mes be that subject. 2014
will see huge changes for the Compu@ng
curriculum. ICT has evolved into ‘Compu@ng’ and
with the name change comes a huge shib in the
content we are required to teach. Out go the
PowerPoint presenta@ons and spreadsheets and
we welcome coding and algorithms. This ar@cle
aims to provide three ways in which you can
make the new Compu@ng curriculum easier and
more engaging for the children in your class.
Resource Awareness:A fantas@c aspect of teaching is the community
you are immersed in. As an NQT most teachers
are willing to help and assist you with your
prac@ce. The same goes for the borough you
work in and any educa@on centres that you may
be fortunate enough to have in close proximity.
Before you begin swea@ng over all of the new
technical vocabulary, go along and see your
Compu@ng co-‐ordinator. If there is not a co-‐
ordinator, ask your phase leader. Some schools
have a Compu@ng suite and some have trolleys of
iPads and laptops. Importantly, every school
should have a range of technology that you could
incorporate into your lessons. Flip Cams,
Raspberry Pi’s and a whole host of useful
programs could all be available in your school.
Don’t forget to ask staff for successful Compu@ng
lessons they may have completed in the past.
They may even offer you the planning they used.
You don’t ask, you don’t get!
Looking beyond your school is also a great way of
finding useful Compu@ng resources. There are so
many different (free) resources available to
schools from your local borough. Some boroughs
have centres with computer suites that can be
used by local schools for free. This could be a
brilliant opportunity if your school lacks the
resources you might be looking for. Do your
research and search wide for what free resources
are available to you.
Lastly, Educa@on Officers and Advisors that are
spread across your borough can be a great help.
These people come in many forms; some work at
local museums, some are class teachers and
some work at your local Civic Centre. Developing
strong links with the local council can provide
amazing opportuni@es. They oben have a great
vision and access to resources that you might not
have thought existed!
ll
Cross Curricular Planning
Another way in which you can flex your Compu@ng
muscles is to assure that you consider Compu@ng in
all aspects of your planning. Whatever the subject
may be, ask yourself – Could I incorporate any
computer skills here? From Literacy through to
Geography, you could take your topic of choice and
make links with the new Compu@ng curriculum. Not
only will the children enjoy it but it could also give
them a chance to consolidate learning. Children
could make a game using ‘Scratch’, they could build
Lego robots or you could use iPads to make
anima@ons or films. The possibili@es are endless.
Pupil Involvement:Finally, you must not underes@mate the prior
knowledge that the children of today have when it
comes to technology and computers. Pupils have
been an invaluable resource for previous projects as
u@lising their knowledge has benefiXed everybody.
Ways in which you can involve children in the
teaching of the subject can range according to how
comfortable and confident you feel about your class
and their knowledge and behaviour. Discussions as a
class about their knowledge before you begin
planning can be an extremely informa@ve guide.
Genera@ng a discussion can draw out how much the
children know already. This allows you to
differen@ate into ability groups and also
differen@ate the ques@oning in your planning.
Pupil-‐led compu@ng sessions whereby par@cular
children take the lead in groups and troubleshoot
issues that may arise is worthwhile not only for the
pupils, but for the teacher too. Being brave and
leing the children guide the learning and the
discussions can be hugely beneficial and more
enjoyable for everybody.
2014 will see almighty changes across the
Compu@ng curriculum. Many schools are ready for
this change and can offer fantas@c opportuni@es
and resources. If you are applying for a post or
interested in taking on Compu@ng in your current
school, ask a plethora of ques@ons about resources
and where the school is going next with
Compu@ng. Compu@ng is taking an extremely
exci@ng new direc@on and rather that shying away,
embrace it and let the children run with it!
Eliot Plumb is a Year 5 teacher at Wilbury School in
Edmonton. He graduated in Educa@on from the
University of Cambridge in 2013 and enjoys
inspiring children through teaching Compu@ng,
Dance and History.
Scratch and Sniffby Ian Stephenson
———————————————————————————————————
As a university lecturer in a computer related subject I as invited last year to run a CPD workshop for compu@ng teachers from local schools, introducing them to some technologies that they might use on STEM projects. I hope they learnt something from the sessions, but what I learnt from them was that they were very excited, but also apprehensive about the new compu@ng curriculum.
There seemed to be a preXy good consensus that at KS2 the go-‐to tool was Scratch. Both teachers and pupils loved it and were keen to show off any number of fun projects they’d produced. They loved the immediate feedback, and being able to build programs from simple blocks.
However this relaxed confidence disappeared abruptly somewhere around KS3. At this point there was a vague no@on that they should move on from Scratch to something more serious, but there was no clear plan as to what that might be. There were mumblings that Raspberry Pi was supposed to help, but no real idea what it was good for. Python seemed to emerge as a grudging consensus, but not with any enthusiasm -‐ rather that people had heard that other people were using it and they probably should be.
Both staff and children appear to be geing lost in the transi@on from Scratch to “real” programming. To address this we need to consider why and when we transi@on from Scratch, and subsequently why children who were happy and enthusias@c working with Scratch fail to successfully transi@on to (for example) Python.
Why Stop Using Scratch?
The first ques@on “Why stop using Scratch?” is actually quite tricky. Why isn’t Scratch suitable for KS3, KS4 and beyond? The obvious answers: “Because its just for beginners”, or “its not powerful enough”, are quite simply wrong. While its true that Scratch has limita@ons, most seriously with respect to data structures, children in KS3 are almost certainly not scratching the surface (sorry!) of what it can do. It’s possible to implement many degree level algorithms in Scratch. In fact Scratch’s model of parallelism is far in advance of most other common programming languages.
It may be that Scratch’s worst enemy is it’s logo -‐ the same cat that made programming friendly in KS2 looks childish to the cynical minds of KS3. Scratch simply looks like a KS2 program. It would be interes@ng to compare how older children would approach a version of Scratch with more age-‐appropriate art work.
However artwork alone isn’t enough to keep Scratch viable for more experienced users, regardless of age. The real reason to move on from Scratch is that graphical programming is tedious. Like a menu in a restaurant it provides helpful sugges@ons as to what you might choose, but if you already know what you’d like, then looking for it in the list of available meals is tedious. New Scratch users can browse the tools paleXes un@l they see something they think might help, but experienced programmers become frustrated looking for the block they’ve already decided they need.
Why Not Python?At a certain point programmers become sufficiently experienced that they’re ready to write code rather than choose it. So why might they fail to transi@on to Python? It would be easy to pick on Python here, and note that it has a number of problems. It also doesn’t help that Python has aXracts the type of programmers who love to show off all its quirks and features. All the strange features you can do that Python advocates love are best kept away from children. (If you Google “python hello world” the current top result is a post asking why the exact code recommended in the second search result doesn’t work.)
However the real problem isn’t Python’s fault. The real issue is that any mainstream programming language would be big leap. We’re asking novice programmers to go from “choosing from the menu” to “invent your own meal”. While they should be ready to do that (if not s@ck with Scratch), they’ve been training to “pick their own Pizza toppings”, and suddenly they find themselves in an Indian Restaurant. Not only are they asked to create a meal by themselves, but the whole meal structure is completely different to what they’ve seen before. Scratch programmers ready to move on from choosing to wri@ng are ready to write Scratch. It’s a big leap to go from choosing in Scratch to wri1ng in Python.
Wri4ng ScratchIf Scratch is more powerful than we give it credit for, and the only obstacle to wri@ng more complex programs in Scratch is the graphical programming paradigm, then the obvious next ques@on was “what is it like to write Scratch?”. What would Scratch look like if you took the blocks and GUI away, and just kept the bare, text based language? The short answer is surprisingly powerful and nice to work with!
I implemented a compiler which would handle text files containing almost exactly the same words
found on the Scratch blocks. The new programming language “Sniff” implements all of the blocks from Scratch 1.4, with the excep@on of those rela@ng to sprites, as these of course don’t exist without the GUI. The only significant change is that variables are now declared as being either numbers or strings (or lists of number/string) as this allows the code to run efficiently and effec@vely on low powered machines.
Programs like the above are essen@ally iden@cal in Scratch and Sniff, which means pupils bring their Scratch experience with them, and can immediately
start crea@ng in Sniff. In fact the transi@on can happen gradually, and at the students own pace. Long before Sniff is formally introduced teachers or children are likely write something similar to Sniff on the board, without sugges@ng its anything other than Scratch. It’s perfectly reasonable to support both languages in parallel: either moving stronger children to Sniff, while others retain the support of Scratch, or even allowing children to build code fragments in Scratch before typing them into Sniff.
Being Engaging in a Screen Based WorldWhen I got my first computer the first program I wrote printed my name on the family TV set. Its impossible to overstate how big a thing that was. Televisions were the only screens we had, and TV was something that was sent to us by “the powers that be”. To have your name on television was totally subversive, and was in a very real way the first steps to the screen based environment we have today. While broadcast television is s@ll important, developments from those first home computers (and first home computer users) have democra@sed our screens to the point they’re ubiquitous. Unfortunately this also means the appearance of a screen is no longer exci@ng in the way it was when home computers were new.
Sniff can be run on a desktop computer, but it most of the work is targeted at Raspberry Pi and Arduino. To flash an LED on an Arduino the Sniff code is:
make LED digital output 13
when start.forever..set LED to on..wait 1 secs..set LED to off..wait 1 secs
which takes us effortlessly from the GUI based Scratch into physical compu@ng. Being able to engage with the real world beyond the screen creates real opportuni@es to integrate compu@ng into the wider curriculum, controlling robots, controlling stage ligh@ng, displaying a heart beat logging weather, and measuring the speed of toy cars have all been implemented in Sniff with only a few lines of code, and provide a jumping off point to explore other issues. Wri@ng code to “actually do things” rather than just display things on screen is perhaps the most important tool for promo@ng compu@ng engagement.
Ge;ng Involved
Sniff is free to download, and currently runs on Mac, Linux, and Raspberry Pi. Compiled programs can be run on the host plaSorm, or on an Arduino board. While Arduino is ideal for physical compu@ng, you can also use the Pi’s GPIO ports. Wri@ng code to handle Pi boards such as the PiBrella, and 7Seg is oben easier in Sniff than using the provided Python library.
I’m in the early stages of taking the system out into schools, so if you’d like to get involved, download an install the code from www.sniff.org.uk. There’s demo code there, including a bunch of physics experiments just wai@ng to be turned into lesson plans.
About the author
Ian Stephenson is a lecturer at the Na;onal Centre for Computer Graphics at Bournemouth University where he teaches compu;ng within an art based framework. Through the University's Centre for Excellence in Media Prac;ce, and STEM outreach programs he is also lead developer on the Sniff, post-‐Scratch programming language.
IS TECHNOLOGY DAMAGING OUR
CHILDREN’S LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT?by Yasemin Allsop
———————————————————————————————————
Recently I read many ar@cles on the internet
blaming technology for children's lack of language
skills. I can't say I am surprised. I agree that
technology is changing the way we use language. I
am sure that you have spent @me trying to
understand your child's text messages. I certainly
did. When I receive text messages from my son, I
some@mes have to google them or phone and ask
him exactly what he meant with all these acronyms
and abbrevia@ons.
Looking at my own teaching prac@ce, I have used
wikis, blogs, anima@ons, films, podcas@ng, web
design, game making and many other technology
tools to teach over the years. Each one of these
mediums offers great opportuni@es for children to
develop their language skills. I remember when our
Year 5 students wrote their own children's rights
raps and recorded them using their backing music.
They didn’t just create their songs, they spent a
long @me discussing their ideas before deciding. I
also remember our web design ac@vi@es. Where
children had to create their own content and use
html to design websites to present their work. The
amount of reading and wri@ng they had to do and
not even one complained.
So what is the problem here? Are we s@ll thinking
of technology as a magical wand designed
specifically to solve our long standing issues in
educa@on. We need to abandon this idea by now as
technology never had such a claim. Technology
appeared in our classroom as a teaching tool used
by teachers, remember our IWBs, then it swibly
changed posi@on and became a learning tool in the
hands of our learners. I believe this was more
confusing for us than the learners. Our learners
quickly adapted into their new role. But us teachers
we are s@ll thinking about where we fit into this
scene. If the learners are holding the tool, what are
we going to hold? How are we going to teach? Do
we need to teach? Do they need us? Are they
listening? Are they learning? How do I manage the
classroom now? We all go through these endless
worries. I think the reason for this confusion is that
we don't exactly understand how children learn
with these new technologies and we haven't got
the @me to find out about it. So, why not blame the
technology?
Once one of my tutors told me that a pencil is also a technology.
It didn't make sense to me at the 9me, but when I think about it,
he was right, a pencil is also a technology tool.
You can use it for different purposes; for wri9ng stories, for drawing, for taking notes or
mixing your tea which I have done many 9mes. But if your hand wri/ng is not very good,
would you blame the pencil for it? Something
to think about!
Let's go back to our conversa@on about language. For many years language was seen as just a tool for communica@on. This approach today is s@ll very current and impacts on our pedagogical approach to learning. But I am thinking about my own observa@ons of children learning using technology for the last 10 years. Especially over the last few years where we have focused a lot on computer game design, there is a clear shib in the use and purpose of language. I watched children touching the computer or tablet screen and mumbling when making their own computer games. I observed them planning their work-‐some@mes aloud when crea@ng their own world in Minecrab, or ques@oning their own decisions when crea@ng websites. What was interes@ng is that as the task became more complex, the percentage of children’s self-‐talk ac@vi@es also increased. It seems to me that they did not use language merely as a tool to communicate, it become a func@on in their minds. For my learners, language became a func@on to think with, a func@on to decide with, a func@on to regulate their own learning. This is not a new concept either, Vygotsky men@oned private speech in the 1970s. He argued that private speech is form of thinking, problem-‐solving and self-‐regula@ng. All this self-‐directed talk helps my learners to focus, plan, make decisions, organise. In other words it supports them to process tasks using their cogni@ve resources.
Another issue is that we don't seem to grasp how new technologies impact on our learning behaviours. Look at the image below, does it look familiar to you? Probably not. This is a travelling library for people in Turkey during the 1940’s. It was aimed to help those living in rural areas to have an opportunity to read. I recently found out about this and I am so fascinated by the idea. I am not familiar with it as I was brought up in a city, not that I have been to the library. I didn't even know what it meant. But my friends have seen these government librarians travelling from village to village on a donkey. What kind of learning habits would they have developed when they accessed knowledge through this way? What would
they do with what they had learned from the book. Have a discussion? Create things? I don't know, but today when our learners in their expression 'can touch their learning' on their smart phones or tablets, you can imagine they would have completely
different learning habits.
When will we realise that learning is not an outcome, it is a process and the process doesn't just stop with an end product. Learning is a quest powered by endless adventures spur@ng out from every corner of one's mind on the way. It is the next stage of what learners do with what they have learnt that is remarkable. They use their experience to share, make, or to create something, in other words go on a new learning journey. Look at the videos, podcasts, photos, stories, songs, games shared online by children, young adults and adults. Surely we are not learning in the same way as we did before.
So let's go back to our ques@on 'Is technology damaging our children's language development?. My answer is, it depends on which specific technology is used and how. If we focus on how technology shapes our learning habits rather than poin@ng fingers at technology, we could develop beXer strategies to support our learners.
But the magical key is to teach people, young or adult, how to learn and love to learn.
A BIG LIST of apps, programs and websites
for teaching coding and game designby Yasemin Allsop
Web based Programs
http://www.crunchzilla.com
http://appinventor.mit.edu
http://www.playmycode.co.uk/
http://scratch.mit.edu/
http://www.sploder.com/
Programs for your PC/Mac
http://www.kidsruby.com
http://hackety.com
http://www.appdesigner.com
http://gamesalad.com/
http://education.mit.edu/projects/starlogo-tng
iPad and Android Apps
for teaching kids coding
Hopscotch-‐ iPad Daisy Dinasour-‐ iPad
Scratch Jr-‐ iPad (soon) Move the turtle -‐iPad
A.L.E.X -‐iPad i-‐LOGO-‐iPad
KineScript -‐ iPad Cato’s Hike-‐iPad Light Bot for iPad and Android
EDITORIAL TEAM
Yasemin [email protected]
Christopher [email protected]
Elliott [email protected]
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