Integrators Conference Summary 2014

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Association for Independent Schools IT Integrators Conference 2014

Two days of connecting and information information about 

  • computational thinking, 
  • makerspaces, 
  • coding, 
  • the Australian Curriculum, and 
  • inquiry learning.
Now for the hard part, to take what I have learnt and implement it. For future reference I have decided to summarise my experience of the conference. There were lots of amazing speakers unfortunately I could not attend as many as I would have liked. This is the first part of a series of posts about the conference.

 The Twitter feed #AISITIC14 an amazing wealth of resources, links, quotes, pics and a small amount of silliness.
An AIS conference is not complete without +Amanda Hogan  sketch notes. She has graciously given me permission to use her summaries as a part of my blog.

Grok Learning - James Curran +Grok Learning @GrokLearning

What a great keynote. He spoke on the importance of Computational Thinking in the K-12 classroom. He spoke of the importance of teaching kids to code. The new Australian curriculum has a Digital Technologies component which focuses on integrating technology across all key learning areas K-12. There must be an intention to teach computational thinking. Many teachers are already doing this without realising it. We now need to formalise the process and get more depth to the thinking. Many are just paddling on the surface.

 James also then ran a workshop that looked at one way to introduce coding using a tool called +Grok Learning @GrokLearning NCSS Challenge is a 5 week competition. The python programming competition would be suitable for secondary students, or primary students interested in coding.

Coding in a primary school - Meridith Ebbs+Meridith Ebbs  @iMerinet

Coding was run by me. I spoke on how to implement a programming in the Primary year. I have been teaching coding for 4 years. This year I have started a girl kodeklub. I have also developed a coding resource for use in the classroom called kodeklubbers.weebly.com The site is continually being updated as I find new resources.

 I have recently added a teachers resource section and a makerspace section.
Here is a link to my talk on Coding in Primary schools. It has sites, apps and my proposed scope and sequence for K-6.

 I have decided to create multiple posts about this conference as it is going to be too long. Following the summary of the workshops I attended I will include my ideas on implementing them in the classroom.


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