Digital Opportunities for Younger Learners

Sue Forndorfler
Methven Primary School

New Digital Technologies Curriculum

• Computational thinking for digital technologies has a Level 1 outcome.
• Getting students to plan and create instructions for problem solving (eg, old maths activities)
• Checking steps make sense and are accurate
• Debugging - did it work?  Can you fix it up?  Reflect - how can it work next time?
• Developing some computer science thinking (basic coding).
• Learn how to store and retrieve work on a device.
• Teaching about digital technologies NOT teaching with digital technologies.

How?

• Integrate with classroom programme
• Make strong links to literacy and numeracy
• Teach the skills of computational thinking
• Give time to practice and explore
• Find class experts

What is computational thinking?  (www.barefootcas.org.uk)

• Check out the above website for a break down of what to teach for computational thinking.
• TKI have exemplars.
• www.digitalpassport.co.nz
• www.csunplugged.org
• code.org
• tynker

Examples of digital learning opportunities for junior children
Start with the school values/learning dispositions

Methven School began with their values that they aligned with the new digital curriculum

• computational thinking
• collaboration
• creativitiy
• communication
• citizenship

Technologies to explore

• Scratch
• Hour of Code
• Microbit
• Beebots/Mouse - plastic sheeting from spotlight and place letters/numbers/nz map underneath
• Mentimeter
  
  More technologies to explore under the different learning disposition 'labels'

Creativity

• Explain everything
• Book Creator
• Chatterpix
• Minecraft:  Education edition.  Staff have an account and children come under that.  Piece of art to be recreated.  3D shapes. Teacher sets up world.
• Paint 3D - what comes next?  Past - present - future idea.  What device do you need?  (Microsoft)
• iMovie
• Mixed reality viewer

Communication

• Seesaw
• Mystery Skype and Skype in the classroom (chn can draw pictures and make notes about what they can hear)
• Learnz

Collaboration

• Student voice using google forms

Citizenship

• Manage the environment - don't put on the floor!
• commonsense.org (digital safety)
• Reading eggs
• Matific

Personal Reflection:

Begin using the new curriculum for digital technologies by starting with computational thinking.  Integrate this into my TAI by introducing maps - pirates - Roomble Froomble.

Action

High interest with the inclusion of the pirates and how it was wrapped in fantasy.  Need to now work on 1/4, 1/2 turns and left and right with more focus.