Teaching children to code, good or bad?

Barclays has been advertising life skills for young people as part of helping people gain new skills. The scheme is called 'Barclays Code Playground' which aims to teach children how to write in code. Their advert shows a child trying to making a dinosaur dance and say hello, by using a coding language. Children would pick up these new skills quickly and some could argue that children are our future so we need to prepare them for the wealth of technology that’s currently being developed. 

However, children be learning the basics of English and Maths before moving onto coding. Are we putting too much pressure on children to learn so much in their early years of education? We need to remember children leave school at 16 or 18 and we want them to love every minute of it while reaching their full potential.

The programme used to code on the video below is very simple and children with help would be able to use and understand what they're doing. I think it is a good idea as long as other subjects don't suffer as a result. Children are entering secondary school without basic English and Maths which is really worrying, should that be the focus or should it be the future?

Web 2.0 app http://taggalaxy.de/

I found this app very interesting because if you type in a tag for instance 'beach' as an initial tag, the universe design show lots of planets with pictures tagged with 'beach'. Pictures from the website Flikr which shared pictures are used to create these planets. The design of having the pictures shown on planets made me feel that these pictures really connect us a species, we share our own pictures and memories for others to see. The pictures sometimes have a preview of what the person that posted the picture put as a caption which I also find to be a good feature because it adds the personal touch from the author who may explain why they took the picture.

This could be used in education by asking children to post their own pictures on Flikr taken of their favourite toy or place for example and share it with the same tag as the rest of the class. They can then put the tag in the search bar and look at everyone’s picture and see all of their pictures put together as a kind of collage. This is a good way of showing children how information can be shared.

Screenshots taken from http://taggalaxy.de/ (Date accessed: 06.07.2015)

Is Web 2.0 a good or bad thing?

The internet has provided us with the means to connect with anyone in the world. The influx of social media and sharing websites have always had their advantages and disadvantages. 

There have been cases of people sharing too much of their personal information, leaving people accessing bank accounts and even stalking in the real world. This is a problem which can easily be resolved with giving people the correct information and a rule of thumb while using the Internet.

Another con is the possibility of lost data, if a website or server is unavailable for whatever reason information could be lost through trying to fix the error. If a user is also new to the service or simply inexperienced with technology they could accidently delete files where they could be no back up.

However, connecting with other people is so important, as humans we need to socialise. The ability to be able to speak to family and friends the other side of the world is still very exciting. Programmes such as Skype give people the ability to connect with people they previously couldn’t.

Information sharing is also important because it helps people to develop their own knowledge on a subject, one example is Wikipedia.

Student life

My two friends at university and myself made a video of what we would consider as our routine as students. I think it's very good to show our point of view as students because we should be the ones at matter. We are not residents of university so it it cannot be generalised for all students, however this is our student life.

I enjoyed making this video because we got to show the bits we like about university and we also tried to show come sense of humour for the audience.

Animation tools for children

I decided to look at how children of a young age can use animation. It is always a good base to show children what animation is through something they can create by themselves. This is where abcya.com's animation tool comes into action for children of a young age.

It is easy to look around the website and make an animation, the design is very basic and colourful so it would be ideal for children. An adult should be there with the child especially if the child is young because it can be complicated because some options are not labelled and you need to guess what they do. It is not possible to embed the animation however it can be saved onto your computer which is ideal for classwork and at home. The clip art has a wide range of pictures that could be used for all p remade backgrounds and can be moved around with ease, making the pictures too small can make the pictures blurry.

Drawing your own pictures is possible but the paintbrushes are a bit too big for the space provided so you can’t fit much in. Copying frames is possible which is especially helpful with children who like to change their mind.

Coolcatteacher, ideas on how to teach technology

I have read parts of Coolcatteacher's very extensive blog and found her very interesting. She shows how teachers can use technology to motivate their students to learn, which is important today. It would be fair to say that most students use technology as part of their lives whether it is using their phone, tablet, consoles or computer. People of all ages in education are more motivated by their technology than their education, so we need to bring their education to technology. This blogger shows how to take notes electronically, how eBooks can be bought and imported with little cost. She also gives information on new tools of teaching through technology I haven’t even heard of, for instance the Sphero that teaches children how to program in a very fun way. I find it amazing because their skills and abilities are physically shown in front of them rather than on a computer screen where they can’t interact with as much as this. Children want to learn but we need to make it fun, technology playing a big part of our lives so we need to change our education techniques so that children have fun learning and are able to reach their potential. 

If you would like to read this blog click here.

Only 12 yet such an inspiration - TedTalks

This boy is only 12 years of age, yet he able to do so much more with technology than I can. Children's ability to master new skills quickly has always been fascinating to me because they carry our current technology and can use it to shape a better future. You hear of children like this little boy that has done extraordinary things, this makes me excited for what more than do. I can't wait to see how they go that one step further to advance our current technology further.

His confidence and well thought out presentation is also something that inspired me, you wouldn't think that this boy isn't even a teenager. His method of presenting reminded me of when companies such as Nintendo, Apple or Sony present their new ideas and games to audiences. He makes me want to try something new in technology, I love technology but don’t have the knowledge to use code and make new games that people will enjoy. He looks at his audience and wants them to enjoy apps that he has made. It is such a breath of fresh air to have a boy who is passionate and is doing something with the skills he has.