Barefoot Collaborating approach
What is collaborating?
Collaborating means working with others and it frequently achieves the best results. Teachers plan together and observe one another to develop good practice. Collaboration motivates us to persevere with tasks which might otherwise seem too confusing or difficult. Computer scientists and software engineers often draw on or improve upon others’ work and coding, and this is facilitated greatly in open-source software.
When programming, many see ”pair programming” as a particularly effective way to write code, with two programmers sharing a screen and a keyboard. Typically, one programmer acts as the ‘driver’, dealing with the detail of coding, whilst the other takes on a ‘navigator’ role, looking at the bigger picture and offering guidance. The two regularly swap, so both build up experience in each role.
Pupils working on a project together
Why is collaborating important?
Problems and systems are decomposed into separate tasks. Software development involves different teams with distinct specialisms working together. In the example of a computer game, specialisms include the programming but also the design of the game, art and animation. Teams are dependent on and responsible to each other, so effective communication is vital. Online tools and websites such as GoogleDocs and GitHub enable files to be shared and simultaneously edited by collaborators scattered around the globe. In much modern software development, customers are considered part of the extended development team, helping finesse a good solution.
A screenshot of Google Docs, which allows multiple people in different locations to create and edit content whilst chatting in real time using the instant-messaging feature.
What does collaborating look like in the curriculum?
There are several characteristics which relate to collaboration, including: personal, social and emotional development; self-confidence and self-awareness; managing feelings and behaviour; making relationships. Collaborative group work provides an opportunity to share success and has long held a place in Primary education. In computing and other lessons, pupils’ skills in
logical reasoning, perseverance and debugging develop with opportunities to bounce ideas off classmates and to explain things to them.
Barefoot Why is computational thinking important?
Computational thinking is the building blocks of our digital world, with the concepts forming the basis of much computer science. Computer scientists are interested in finding the most-efficient ways to solve problems, maximising accuracy and minimising resources (e.g. time / space). They look for solutions which can be applied elsewhere to save resources in the future.
Plenty of other people benefit from computational thinking, and not just when using computers themselves. A team of software engineers creating a new game is not really so different from teachers working together on a school play: in each case, it’s necessary to identify the key steps or rules for getting a complex task done, thereby breaking it down (decomposing it) into smaller, more-manageable parts. It can also be helpful to consider the ways in which previous projects were successfully accomplished.
https://www.barefootcomputing.org/
Program a teacher / Sandwich Bot
Children have to program their teacher to make a jam sandwich using basic commands. It is not as easy a it seems. You can view the planning here. http://code-it.co.uk/csplanning.html (Sandwich Making Algorithm)
Critical thinking in six kid-friendly animations
Watch the next videos at
https://gizmodo.com/critical-thinking-explained-in-six-kid-friendly-animati-5888322
eTwinning/ Jobs with digital devices
Students were asked to
“Name three jobs that you do with the help of digital devices or tools”
Here are some results from the forum
More eTwinning activities under tag eTwinning
Visit the website by LTEE
Learning Technology and Educational Engineering Lab, University of Aegean
Σύνδεσμος Moodle
eTwinning
