Computer Science and Digital Competency

23/04/21 We are going to talk about Loops, which is the third basic knowledge children need to know in order to have a basic approach towards programming. Loops in programming are used to make the program repeat the code several times, it is very useful for animations and exercises!   To introduce the concept of "loops" we can tell the children they are like setting the table. One set of actions could be to set a plate, a glass, a fork and a knife in the table, but if you want to set the table for 4 people you can just repeat that set of actions 4 consecutive times. We can practice this basic concept by making use of Primary Code , since the coding is already done, and children will only need to understand it. Then, we can explain this same concept of repeating a certain action a number of times. To make the concept a little bit more hard we can add variables into the mix. In the following picture we have three variables: a, b and i (increasement). When the value of i is less...

21.04.21 This is the second lesson on programming; today we are going to learn about conditionals and we are going to apply them to metaphor methodology, Primary Code and Scratch. We can tell children that if "x condition is true", the screen will show us "passed", if it is false it should write"failed". We could explain this better using a metaphor, such as spanish omelet: if there are eggs, then we can make spanish omelet. Then the conditional concept is the ability for the computer to make decisions.   In order to have a first approach to the concept, with the application Primay Code we can understand these examples clearly.  First of all, in the Figure 1, we have to variables, a and b. The students can assign a value to these variables. In figure 1 we assign the value 1 to the variable b, and then we ask the computer to show the larger variable. In this case, since the biggest number is 2, the computer will show the variable A. Figure 1. Primary...

16.04.21 We are going to start to learn programming. We need to teach metaphors to make kids understand programming. In this case they used cooking. For example, they say the memory is like the pantry of the computer. The measuring cup is the variable. Following a recipe is like programming. First, we are checking out a software created by a Spanish student that will help children to learn programming concepts: Primary Code. Kids in primary can learn three basic concepts: 1) Inputs and outputs 2) Conditionals 3) Loops As this first introduction is about inputs and outputs we will focus in these concepts: Input is anything you put into the computer like the mouse or the keyboard. Output are the things that come out of the computer like the screen or a printer. It will tell them how to write instructions on the screen. A variable is like a little box you put things into. The things you put into the variable will appear on the screen. Input is harder to understand, according to the ...

14/04/21 The last topic of lesson nine is about the research in education. As teachers we have to stay updated and discover new applications and software that our students can use to learn everyday. To do research we have to follow these steps: 1) Think of areas where your students are having trouble in: maybe they are bored, they can't comprehend the lesson entirely, they could have some more fun with it, etc. 2) Think if you can solve this with technology or without it. 3) Explore the internet for resources or create your own 4) Create the interactive activity for your students. The exercise we did today consisted on following these steps and creating two activities related to the topic of our group (newspapers). Cerebriti  This is an online and quite intuitive app, which allows you to create different types of exercises. For finding this application you can type on your Google Chrome search engine "gamification for teachers". However, in some cases, it is difficult to ...

  09/04/21 This new entry of the blog is a continuation of the last one, also related to JClic. In this case we are going to do two more exercises: Association exercise This type of exercises allow us to create dynamic lessons, by associating images and text. You can choose different layout options and themes for the background. Figure 1. Association exercise Explore exercise It is an interactive activity through which only by clicking on the image, they get some definiton or meaning with learning information about it. We can separate the image in square, make cuts, etc. I prepared an activity about the different parts of a Newspaper. Figure 2. Exploration exercise However, it is also possible to join two different activities by going to the "Sequences" tab and choosing the "Jump to" option . In this case from two different members of the group, as just clicking on the arrows that are on the left corner where we can move from one activity to another.     Figure ...

07. 04. 21 Today we are going to talk about JClic, which is a software quite similar to Hot Potatoes. Nevertheless, this one is easier to use, and we can create different activities using the same tool; it is not like Hot Potatoes, where we had to choose the activity that we had to do, and then several tabs would appear. In addition, JClic is a free software divided in three applications: one for teachers to design the activities (JAuthor), other for students to do them (Regular JClic) and another one for grading the activities (JReport). We have prepared four different activities in order to learn how this software works:   Information screen (welcome activity):  This is a simple introductory screen to let the students know what the activity is about. We can add information, set different colors, the sizes of the boxes and add things like a timer and an "error" count although in an information screen it should not be used. Figure 1. Welcome activity Puzzle activity: ...

26. 03. 21 Hot Potatoes, a software designed by the University of Victoria in Canada to help teachers create a variety of exercises for their students. These exercises can be accessed through a webpage. Hot Potatoes is an open source software, that means that it is free for everyone to download. We have six kinds of hot potatoes, which are: JCLOZE: This potato lets you create a text with gaps for your students to fill. You can add clues, alternative words and much more. This type of exercise is very useful for your students to memorize key elements in a text because they use the words in context. In my case I decided to do it about Parts of the Newspaper, as our group topic is about Newspapers: Figure 1. JCloze from Hot Potatoes Figure 2. JCloze from the web page created JMATCH: This potato creates a match type exercise for your students. They will have to select the correct word for each element. Also we can add pictures. Figure 3. JMatch from Hot Potatoes Figure 4. JMatch from t...