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UCL code clubs for 13-18 year olds, via @alomshaha

corp-identity-dark-greenUCL is running a code club on Thursday afternoons (2.45-5pm) at Stratford Library – some of the sessions are fully booked but you can add your name to the waiting list in case a space becomes available. The sessions on 14 August (tbc) and 21 August (Programme your own sensor) still have places.

“Digital technology, coding, 3D gaming, virtual reality. Come to Stratford Library over the school summer holidays, try your hand at some cutting edge technology, and learn digital skills from the experts. All sessions are aimed at 13 – 18 year olds and will be held upstairs in the library computer suite.

Places are limited so please book in advance.”

Full information at http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-coding-club/

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Teaching London Computing’s new CPD A-level Computing course features on the #LondonEd website, via @LLSinfo

Teaching London Computing is one of several projects funded by the Mayor of London’s ‘London Schools Excellence Fund’ (LSEF). You can find out more about the funded projects on the LondonEd website (which is part of the London Leadership Strategy @LLSinfo) on their blog.

London Ed

The Logo for the LondonEd website

This is also a site where the projects can share their learning with each other, and everyone else, and there’s some good advice in their ‘Sharing our learning‘ document (PDF) for anyone who has a message they want to share with others.

Their post on the Teaching London Computing project – CPD for Teachers of A-Level Computing – highlights our new course for teachers of A-level Computing (which will run from 18-22 August 2014) and also mentions our free booklet (also available to download as a PDF) on human factors in computing: Searching to Speak.

If you would like to find out more about our A-level course please visit the course page, and you are welcome to sign up to our mailing list to hear more about our future courses, free resources and workshops.

 

 

 

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A new CPD course for A-level Computing teachers – 18-22 August @QMUL

Teaching London Computing will be running a new one-week intensive course for A-level Computing teachers, from Monday to Friday (10-4pm) 18-22 August 2014. The teaching will take place at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and will be led by Dr William Marsh.

Eligibility
The course will follow on from our GCSE Computing courses and those attending will need to be familiar with Python.

More information
There will be more details about the course on our dedicated A-level Computing CPD course page and places can be booked at Eventbrite (see button below).

Fees
Thanks to funding from the Mayor of London we are able to offer London teachers a 50% reduction in fees (£150), for teachers outside London the full fee is £300. Please see our Fees and Fundingpage for more information.

Book a place for the next “A-level Computing CPD for teachers” course which runs during 18-22 August 2014, (10am-4pm) Monday – Friday, at QMUL
Eventbrite - Teaching London Computing - A-level Computing CPD course

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Paul Curzon gave a keynote at the Keycit2014 conference in Potsdam today

Prof Paul Curzon of Teaching London Computing, cs4fn (Computer Science for Fun) and chi+med* gave the keynote talk at the IFIP KEYCIT (Key Competences in Informatics and ICT) conference earlier today in Potsdam, Germany.

His talk / workshop “Unplugged computational thinking for fun” covered some of the ideas we encourage teachers to use when introducing computational thinking into the classroom. Paul included the Locked In activity, Invisible Palming (magic, with a computer-human interaction angle) and the Create-a-face activity – all of which are free to download, easy to use and highlight that computational thinking isn’t just about computers but about people too.

They are also part of wider thematic workshops, more information below:

The talk was recorded and we’ll share the video when we have it. Meanwhile others have been kind enough to share short video snippets of the free workshops for teachers that Paul does, and here’s a photo from his talk today.

 

*chi+med means Computer-Human Interaction for Medical Devices and is a project looking at ways in which interactive medical devices can be made safer.

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Coming up in July & August from Teaching London Computing: two free workshops, GCSE CPD course, A-level CPD course

What: “Teaching Computing Unplugged to Young Children”
Where: Goldsmiths, London
When: 8 July 2014
Audience: Primary school computing teachers
Find out more

What: Programming unplugged: learning programming without computers
Where: Cardinal Pole School, Hackney
When: 9 July 2014
Audience: GCSE Computing teachers
Find out more

What: Computing CPD GCSE Summer Holiday
Where: KCL (King’s College London, Waterloo Campus)
When: 4 – 8 August 2014
Audience: GCSE Computing teachers
Find out more

What: CPD A-level Computing (one week intensive)
Where: QMUL (Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Campus)
When: 18 – 22 August 2014
Audience: People teaching the A-level Computing curriculum
Find out more – more details will be posted here soon.

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OCR exam board apparently removes Controlled Assessments from GCSE Computing, via @tonyparkin

Updated 1 July 2014 2.30pm – the OCR has agreed to let students continue with their controlled assessments. More information available at http://www.ocr.org.uk/i-want-to/subject-information-updates/# (look for July 2014 » + GCSE Computing (from 2012) – UPDATE)

—–

Updated 30 June 2014 1.30pm – the OCR will contact centres tomorrow to give their final decision.

 

— Original post below —

A few excerpts from the post OCR assessment shock hits GCSE Computing students are included below; there is a lot of Twitter discussion on the #withdrawnCA hashtag.

“In a major blow to thousands of students taking the OCR’s Computing GCSE, the exam board has withdrawn the controlled assessment task for June 2015 that many of them have already completed – and in some cases have already submitted.”

…

“In a surprise twist just after 9am this morning (Monday June 30), the notification letter was suddenly taken down from the OCR website, without any explanation. Whether this marks a shift in thinking at OCR, or merely means that the letter was posted too early online, as indicated by its curious July dateline, will no doubt emerge shortly.”

…

“As news of the letter reached the teachers involved, a storm broke online as they took to social media and web forums to discuss their reactions over the weekend. Prominent among them was Drew Buddie, well-known as @digitalmaverick on Twitter, who has started the #withdrawnCA hashtag to bring together the online discussion, and offer support from NAACE. Drew is currently Naace senior vice chair on its board of management.”

Further reading
Computing assessment scrapped amid fears of cheating (30 June 2014) tesconnect.

 

 

 

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Paul Curzon’s workshop at #CASconf2014 (Computing At School conference)

A couple of people have shared YouTube videos and photos of Paul’s workshop at the Birmingham CAS conference this weekend – thank you very much, we’re glad you enjoyed it and here’s a collection of the tweets below.

All the free resources that Paul mentioned in his workshop can be downloaded from our section on Inspiring unplugged classroom resources.

Paul has a few free workshops coming up in London:

 

 

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Round-up of Teaching London Computing’s free workshops, courses – and a CAS hub event

I’ve just emailed this to people who’ve signed up to receive info about our events and thought I’d post it here too.

We’re on Twitter @TeachingLDNComp.

Free workshops
25 June 2014, Hackney
Invisible Palming! Intelligent paper? So what is an algorithm?
4pm, Wednesday 25 June 2014
Cardinal Pole School, 205 Morning Ln, Hackney, London E9 6LG

8 July 2014, New Cross
Prof Paul Curzon will be giving a talk, “Teaching Computing Unplugged to Young Children” for primary school computing teachers on 8 July 2014 at a two-day workshop event at Goldsmiths in London. Please note that registration for this event is via Goldsmiths (given in link).

9 July 2014, Hackney
Programming Unplugged: Learning programming without computers
4pm, Wednesday 9 July 2014
Cardinal Pole School, 205 Morning Ln, Hackney, London E9 6LG

Courses
We have a new short CPD course for GCSE Computing teachers which will take place at KCL from 4-8 August (Mon-Fri) 2014. “Computing CPD GCSE Summer Holiday (1-week intensive)” costs £150 for London teachers (thanks to funding from the Mayor of London) and £300 for those outside London (if space is available).

Other events
Computing At School (CAS) – East London hub meeting, 8 July 2014, 4.30 to 6pm.
This event will take place in Islington at the City & Islington 6th Form College and is free to attend. As well as being a networking event for computing teachers the event will also plan ‘a practical using the Arduino Uno’ and discuss the new CAS document ‘Computing in the National Curriculum – A guide for secondary teachers‘.

 

 

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Two new free computing workshops with Paul Curzon – 4pm, 25 Jun & 9 July in Hackney

We’re delighted to announce that Paul Curzon will be running another two free workshops for Computing teachers in London. These will take place in a school in Hackney on Wednesday 25 June (A) and Wednesday 9 July 2014 (B).

Workshop A – Invisible Palming! Intelligent paper? So what is an algorithm?
4pm, Wednesday 25 June 2014
Cardinal Pole School, 205 Morning Ln, Hackney, London E9 6LG

Workshop B – Programming Unplugged: Learning programming without computers
4pm, Wednesday 9 July 2014
Cardinal Pole School, 205 Morning Ln, Hackney, London E9 6LG
Eventbrite - FREE workshop with Teaching London Computing - programming unplugged for a free place.

Our other events and courses
FREE: Paul is also presenting a talk “Teaching Computing Unplugged to Young Children” for primary school computing teachers, on 8 July 2014 at a two-day workshop event at Goldsmiths in London. Please note that registration for this event is via Goldsmiths (given in link).

NOT FREE: We also have a new short course for GCSE Computing teachers which will take place at KCL from 4-8 August (Mon-Fri) 2014. “Computing CPD GCSE Summer Holiday (1-week intensive)” costs £150 for London teachers and £300 for those outside London (if space is available)

 

 

 

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*New course* Computing CPD GCSE Summer Holiday (1-week intensive)

Teaching London Computing will be hosting a week-long intensive CPD course in GCSE Computing at its KCL site in the week beginning 4th August 2014.

You will need to book directly through King’s website (look for the ‘Apply’ tab).
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/prospectus/shortcourses/index/name/tlc-gcse-summer-holiday/

Computing CPD GCSE Summer Holiday

4 August 2014 to 8 August 2014
One week: 5 days full time
10am – 4pm for 5 days

Location
King’s College London, Waterloo Campus

This course has been developed in collaboration with the Computer Science Department at Queen Mary University of London

Academic Lead
Margaret Derrington (KCL)

Tutors
William Marsh (QMUL)
Tricia Lockhart (KCL)

Entry requirements
Qualified Teacher Status in ICT or experience of teaching ICT in a secondary school. It will help to have some experience of a ‘drag and drop’ programming language such as Scratch and perhaps turtle drawing programs like LOGO. Teachers who have absolutely no experience of programming and prefer a slower start may prefer to do the Primary to KS3 course which looks at ‘drag and drop’ programming in Scratch and LOGO rather than Python and ‘unplugged’ activities for understanding how computers work.

The course is aimed at experienced ICT teachers who would like to develop their subject knowledge in order to teach the new Compting Curriculum and the new Computing GCSEs.

Course overview
The aim of this course is to prepare ICT teachers for the new Computing Curriculum and to give them the subject knowledge to teach Computing/Computer Science up to GCSE level and to give them the confidence to set up Computer Science courses in their schools. The programming language used is Python3 and we assume that participants will be ICT teachers and that they will have at least tried out Scratch. Python 3 and Scratch are free downloads.

How is the course taught?
Online materials in KEATS include recorded lectures, forums and online tests. Face to face workshops will focus on practical programming work. To get the best out of the course, participants should expect to do additional study using the VLE and continue to practice programming between classes. It will help to have some knowledge of a ‘drag and drop’ programming language such as Scratch.

What will I get out of it?
The intended outcomes are that students will learn and understand the subject knowledge to begin teaching computing and programming at KS3 and KS4 ie from Year 7 up to GCSE

Fees & other information
This course is partly funded through the Teaching London Computing project run by Queen Mary University of London in collaboration with King’s College London.

A number of teachers in London schools will benefit by receiving a 50% discount on the cost of the course through funding received by the Teaching London Computing (TLC) project from the London Schools Excellence Fund.

So for London Teachers the course costs £150
and for teachers from outside London £300.