This is my car.
It is a 1956 (I think) Morris Minor. It has had a lot of changes made to it in its lifetime, most for the better. It is not the one I drive to work every day although there was a time when it was. It does not have all the modern conveniences of my other car. It does have a heater, which is handy in the cold weather even if it barely takes the chill off before I am almost home. It has variable speed air-conditioning, depending on how many windows I wind down and how fast I am going. It does have a radio and I moved the CD stacker from a previous car into it although it is a little hard to read the buttons. I am quite good at the volume control, the control to switch from radio to CD and back again and the change CD button. The radio is difficult to hear with the air-conditioning on full but that is OK. It doesn’t have a satnav but it has quite a good Street Directory. There is no Bluetooth but I can usually hear my phone ring and I am able to pull over. Since I have had it a lot of extra work has gone into it (including fixing things that had been “fixed” by the farmer who owned it before me) a large percentage of which was done by people with far more skills than me.
I am always amazed at how farmers can fix anything with some baling twine and a couple of nails. They seem to be able to look at a problem and think outside the square to come up with a range of solutions. Some people call it divergent thinking, the farmers think of it more as “see problem, fix problem”.
Someone once said to me that in our world “there are no problems just solutions waiting to be found”. Some of these solutions will need to be huge if we are to make the world a better and fairer place for all who live here. It is vital that we all support our children to be creative thinkers otherwise we will live in a world with problems rather than solutions waiting to be found. We need future generations to be finding the solutions. Besides which, I will need someone to help me fix my Morris for many years to come.
The best reason why your students need to learn how to code is not for building websites or mobile apps, but for problem solving, critical thinking, understanding and making use of all the information surrounding us.
Now that we are warming up to the idea that we must teach computer science or “coding” in our schools, the next question is “Where do you start?”
This workshop explores the Digital Technologies curriculum and looks at ways of developing skills. Starting with sequencing we will look at how Bee-Bots and Pro-Bots can be used to support emerging programming skills. The use of iPad tools such as Kodable, LightBot, Tynker and online visual programs Scratch will be examined in addition to unplugged activities all linked to the Australian Curriculum outcomes.
Led by: Jackie Chambers
When: Week 6, Thursday 19 November, 2015
Time: 4:30pm – 6:30pm
Where: Cybrary, St. Andrew’s School, 22 Smith Street, Walkerville Map and Directions
Cost: $20 Members, $40 Non-members
Note: Please bring your laptop and iPad