Learning Technology Monthly Update #2
The students in Year 1 have now begun using the laptops in their Learning Technology Lessons and will be continuing to do so for the coming weeks.
The focus is on navigating around the computer using the touchpad and keyboard as well as starting to access websites and resources. As one of the tools we will use for this is the Code Studio at http://studio.code.org then also the students will be continuing with the work they began in looking at forming sequences of instructions to move an object.
Students in Year 2 have also been making a start with using the Laptops in The Cloud for their lessons. The focus in Year 2 will be for students to begin independently moving between websites and starting to log in to sites in order to save and access resources.
A big part of this will be starting to get the students used to logging in to The Beacon using their Google Accounts which will begin next week.
Students in Year 3 have started learning how to log in to their Google Accounts and access their stored docs.
Over the coming weeks we will learn how to create Documents, Drawings and Slideshows in within their Google Apps and how to work collaboratively on them using the sharing features.
In Year 4 we have just started learning how to create infographics using http://infogr.am . We will be combining this with ways to collect data using Google Forms and also the Google Research tool.
Students will then be making their own infographics using data they have collected and researched.
In Year 5 the students have just begun to look at using Scratch as a visual programming tool. Over the coming weeks students will look at more advanced features of building code in Scratch such as the use of variables and movement of objects along x and y axes.
Students will also be encouraged to think about the use of the MakeyMakey devices we have in school (http://makeymakey.com) to use Scratch to create an invention.
Year 6 students have also been looking at Scratch as a visual programming tool. Once we have learned the basics we will start to look at producing a flowchart to plan out our code. Students will then be creating simple games using Scratch that involve the counting of scores using variables and the passing of information between different sprites on the screen.
In the past few weeks we have been very excited to have added two 3D printers to the equipment available to students in The Cloud. These have been used initially by Year 6 students but we will be teaching students in Year 4 and 5, later in the term, how to use TinkerCad to create 3D objects that can be printed.
Also the school has had our first MakeyMakey devices arrive that work well with the programming work in Scratch that students in Years 3-6 will be doing this year.
In Year 1 and 2 their new iPads are ready to go to the classrooms for students to start using. There are 6 iPad Minis for each Y1 and Y2 class and they will be used for a variety of tasks to enhance current teaching.
