New dates: GCSE & A-level Computing CPD courses for London teachers from @TeachingLDNComp #LondonEd

We’ll be running two 10-week CPD courses for London Computing teachers. Thanks to funding from the Mayor of London and Department for Education we are able to offer each course at the reduced price of £150 for London teachers (£300 for teachers at schools outside London).

The GCSE CPD courses will run on Tuesday evenings, starting Tuesday 7 October, at KCL (King’s College University) and the A-level CPD courses will be held on Wednesday evenings, starting Wednesday 8 October, at QMUL (Queen Mary University of London in the ITL building*).

We’re also looking at dates for more of our popular (and free!) unplugged-style workshops.

Please note: one of the things we’ll be asking for when you sign up for a course is your school’s ‘URN’, which you can copy from Edubase.

Next GCSE CPD course will run on the following TUESDAYS
7 October -2014 (Week 1)
14 October (Wk2)
21 October (Wk3)
28 October (Wk4)
4 November (Wk5)
11 November (Wk6)
18 November (Wk7)
25 November (Wk8)
2 December (Wk9)
9 December (Wk10) – note that we will run the course through half-term.

Booking details will be added to the GCSE Course page soon.

Next A-level CPD course will run on the following WEDNESDAYS
8 October 2014 (Week 1)
15 October (Wk2)
22 October (Wk3)
29 October (Wk4)
5 November (Wk5)
12 November (Wk6)
19 November (Wk7)
26 November (Wk8)
3 Decmember (Wk9)
10 December (Wk10) – note that we will run the course through half-term.

Booking details will be added to the A-level Course page soon.

*In the ITL or Informatics Teaching Laboratory which is in Godward Square at QMUL. Nearest tube stations are Stepney Green (a short walk) and Mile End (slightly longer walk) and the 25 and 205 buses will drop you off very close to the entrance to the square. We’ll have tea / coffee and biscuits but more substantial fare is available from a Co-op just by Stepney Green or a small Sainsburys very close to Godward Square.

 

 

 

For primary school computing teachers: Barefoot Computing website now live & competition

From the Computing At School website’s news page:

Barefoot Computing CAS

 

“The Barefoot Computing project is about helping primary school teachers get ready for the computer science element of the new computing curriculum.”

 
The website is now live at http://barefootcas.org.uk/ and they’re running a competition “for primary school pupils to design a mascot for the Barefoot Computing Project. There are iPads to be won! The closing date is 23rd June and more information can be found here. ”

 

[New] *10 week course* Computing CPD GCSE – 7 May 2014 at KCL

Teaching London Computing runs several courses throughout the year, at different London locations, for computing teachers in London.

This is a ten week course beginning on Wednesday 7 May 2014 and you can also see details of all our other CPD courses.

Computing CPD (GCSE) Summer – ten weeks (KCL), 7 May 2014

Eventbrite - Teaching London Computing - Programming & more: CPD for GCSE computing

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.

More information on what’s taught on the courses can be found at our GCSE computing page.

Key facts
Course start date: Wednesday 7 May 2014 (ends on Wednesday 16 July 2014 with a half-term break on 28 May)
Course duration: Ten Wednesday evenings
Times: 5.00pm-8.00pm
Tutors: William Marsh and Margaret Derrington
Course code: Computing CPD (GCSE) Summer 10w

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.

Fees and other information
Cost of Course £300.
Less Discount   £150 (for London Teachers) – please see our information on Fees and Funding.

Eventbrite - Teaching London Computing - Programming & more: CPD for GCSE computing

*Short course* Computing CPD GCSE one week Easter 2014 (7-11 April) at KCL

Teaching London Computing runs several courses throughout the year, at different London locations, for computing teachers in London. Our next one will take place at King’s College London (Waterloo Campus) and is an intensive 5-day course running from Monday 7th to Friday 11th April 2014. You can register and pay for tickets at KCL’s website directly.

Computing CPD GCSE one week Easter 2014
(info below taken mostly from the ‘Overview’ tab, but see the other tabs on that site for full information)

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.

Key facts
Course start date: 7 April 2014, Monday to Friday 11 April 2014
Course duration: Five days full time
Times: 10:00am-16:00pm

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.

Academic Lead: Margaret Derrington

Fees and 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 TLC project from the London Schools Excellence Fund.
Cost of Course £300.
Less Discount   £150   (for London Teachers)

The full price of £300 must be paid by students who are not ‘London Teachers’ covered by the LSEF funding, ie who do not live in London and do not work at schools in London LEAs.

 

 

Turing lecture – free livestream on Monday 24 February, 6.30pm GMT

“Beyond silicon: cognition and much, much more” Monday 24 February, 18:30 GMT

The IET / BCS Turing lecture 2014 is being given in four cities this year (London, Cardiff, Manchester, Edinburgh). The London talk (at the Royal Institution) is fully booked but the IET will be hosting a free livestream of the talk as it’s given on the Monday evening.

Visit the IET’s Turing Lecture webcast site to see if your computer setup will let you view the stream.

More information at the BCS’s website on Beyond silicon: cognition and much, much more, and on the speaker – Bernard S Meyerson. The Turing lecture is given in honour of Alan Turing, an important figure in the history of computer science.

Free resource from cs4fn
We have a free PDF / web-based version of ‘The Alan Turing Issue‘ of cs4fn magazine (issue 14) for schools.

“…2012, marks one hundred years since the birth of Alan Turing. You may not have heard of him before, but he is one of the most important scientists of the last century. He worked on maths, logic, code-breaking and most importantly, he came up with some of the fundamental ideas that make computers work. He was one of the very first computer scientists.

In this issue we’ll explore Turing’s world-changing life and ideas, and we’ll check out the latest research in subjects he cared about. You’ll read about computers made from chocolate, the best ways to keep a secret and an animal that can survive being chopped into almost 300 pieces. It’s a pretty amazing world out there, made all the more amazing by Alan Turing’s work.”