Comuter Programming and control

Two blogs in one this time -

I'll be talking about computer control, and computer programming.

There were taught over two sessions. And yes, I really did find my inner child. I loved playing all the games, and designing new games for others to play.

ROBOTS



Let's start here. We were given a Bee Bot to play with. It can be programmed to move in a variety of ways.
One soon became two, and then the idea of synchronised bees just got us going. On Jack's blog, you can see the video of our final effort. I was the very steady-handed camera man.
Why haven't I put it up here? Well... It was a group effort and I think credit should be given to all of us.

We also used this session to look at other resources like visualisers and microscopes.

The beauty of these is that you can simply plug them into your computer's USB drive and start using them right away. Some come with very simple software.

I love using these, and have been doing so in class. It makes reading a story to the children a very different experience, as they can all look at the pictures, up on the smart board. FANTASTIC!

PROGRAMMING...

I'm all for doing this with children. HOWEVER...

My experience with schools has so far only been at Key Stage one.

I struggle to imagine my previous year 1 or year 2 classes settling down to do this work.

ICT is so great, but I need to make up my mind on when I will introduce it to kids. I think the best idea is to do it slowly and build up their confidence.