COMPUTING AT SCHOOL NEW SLETTER W INTER / SPRING 2011 CAS NEWSLETTER MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT A BUSY YEAR AHEAD AS SUPPORT GROW S Computing At School is barely two years old but our membership is already over 600. W e‘re a diverse GOES VISUAL group united by a concern that SPRING 2011 Computing, one of the most excit- There can be few contexts as motivational for pupils as developing applications ing disciplines in today‘s world, for their mobile phones. Until now though, developing mobile applications has has been squeezed out of the been the preserve of small numbers of older students. All that is set to change school curriculum. with a new development from Google. Google App Inventor is a web based ap- plication that has the potential to allow anyone to create software for Android Computing is a unique discipline devices. Users can drag and drop objects onto a simulated phone screen and that we believe all pupils should use a graphical interface very similar to Scratch to develop the code required. have exposure to. As Nicholas Negroponte, architect of the One Laptop Per Child Project com- mented, —Computer programming is a powerful tool for children to ”learn learning‘, that is to learn the skills of thinking and problem solv- ing… Children who engage in pro- gramming transfer that kind of learning to other things.“ CAS teachers can testify to the powerful ideas pupils generate through computing and the anti- dote this gives to the increasing ”powerpointlessness‘ of much that App Inventor for Android draws on a large body of research into educational passes for ICT. Growing numbers computing. Open Blocks visual programming, which lies behind the App Inven- are getting SWITCHEDON. Inside tor interface, is distributed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), you‘ll find reports of things being Scheller Teacher Education Program (STEP), home of StarLogoTNG, and is tried and shared, of meetings, closely related to Scratch, a product of MIT‘s Media Lab. Both have a growing initiatives and collaboration with uptake in schools. These projects have been informed by a constructionist the- colleagues in higher education. ory of learning which traces its roots to the work of Seymour Papert and the MIT This issue is packed with ideas to 1 Logo Group in the 1960‘s. The theory highlights programming as a vehicle for take back to your classroom. En- developing powerful ideas through active learning. CAS will be showcasing pro- thusiasm is infectious. If you like jects that emphasise a problem solving approach in our BETT seminar. There what you read, please join us. See are much broader educational benefits to computer programming than simply the back page for more details. getting code to work. There couldn‘t be a better time to get your pupils involved. The —Computing At School“ group (CAS) is a membership association run by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, supported by Microsoft Research and other partners. Its aim is to support and promote the teaching of computing in UK schools. A COMPREHENSIVE SUITE OF MINDSTORMS: COMPUTERS, BUILD YOUR OWN BLOCKS: A RECIPE ANIMATION 11: NOW VISUAL TOOLS FOR THOUGHT LET’S GET SCRATCHING! The release of Google‘s App Inventor for KIDS AND POW ERFUL IDEAS TO PLAY PONG OVER A NETWORK The School of Computer Science Android is just the latest development in a at The University of Manchester suite of free tools that seek to release the Seymour Papert‘s pioneering work with Logo started a Many teachers are now using BYOB, a powerful extension to is once again running its annual creative potential of pupils through pro- revolution. His perspective, which has motivated many Scratch, to develop exiting projects for their classrooms. Simple UK Schools Computer Animation gramming whilst removing some of the subsequent developments in computing education, holds games are well within the reach of young children, but a net- Competition, now in its fourth common hurdles. Visual languages have that programming can be a vehicle for engaging powerful worked game can take their learning even further. John Stout year. The competition has, to been in development for many years and ideas through active learning. shares a successful recipe. date, involved over 4,000 school- Seymour Papert and MIT‘s Media Lab children from 1100 schools across have led developments in this field. Most Papert's thinking, which he called First the required ingredients: On the server create a Ball, and a left the UK, and is funded by Google, recently, Scratch has taken the educa- "constructionism", is a version of con- 2 networked computers running BYOB bat called LeftBat. Right click each Electronic Arts, and the Granada tional world by storm. Developed by the structivist thinking based on the ideas 1 ball (a sprite) sprite and select Share sprite. These Foundation, in association with MIT Media Lab, it has been widely taken of Jean Piaget, with whom he had stud- 2 bats (both sprites) sprites get copied across the mesh BBC21CC and cs4fn. up by teachers and pupils. The bar to en- ied. Constructivist thinking holds that 4 walls (all sprites) and appear on the other machine. The try, the simple interface and snap together individual learners construct or modify 2 scores (both ”global‘ variables, i.e. client should meanwhile create a right The compe- Professor Steve Furber talks about Com puters and Brains at mental models to understand the world for all sprites) bat called RightBat and share that. commands make programming constructs tition is the Anim ation10 easy for children to visualise. Most impor- around them. Constructionism (with an 2 direction changes (both ”local‘ vari- The server now creates and shares open to all Festival tantly, the use of visual snap together N rather than a V) holds that learning ables for the ball, i.e. this sprite only) four walls, called LeftW all, RightW all, UK school blocks removes the syntax barrier. Creat- can happen most effectively in a context TopW all, and BottomW all. These can children ing programs is highly motivational, finding where the learner is consciously en- Second the method: be shared with the other player, then aged be- a missing semicolon is not. gaged in constructing a public entity in From the Share menu on one ma- rearranged on their stage to provide tween 7 the real world, whether that is a sand chine (this will be the server) select the environment for Pong. and 19. The So successful is the Scratch environment castle on the beach, or a theory of the universe in the lab. A teacher's Share - Host Mesh. BYOB will report deadline for that others have developed more powerful role is thus that of a guide and a facilitator, rather than an instructor. the IP address of that machine. From The ball resets the game (scores, po- entries is 1 extensions that allow the development of Constructionist learning involves students drawing their own conclusions the Share menu on the other machine sitions etc) when the green flag is April 2011. programs involving more complex data through creative experimentation and the making of social objects. (this will be the client) click Join Mesh clicked, then starts a game by broad- Entrants structures and the ability to develop proce- Teaching "at" students is replaced by assisting them to understand, and and enter the other machine‘s IP ad- casting the PlayGame message so can create dures and pass parameters (which them- help each other to understand by active exploration of a problem space. dress. The two machines are now the ball moves regularly, bouncing off their anima- selves can be structures). Best known is ”meshed‘ - broadcast messages are bats, top and bottom walls. Scores are tions (max Build Your Own Blocks (BYOB) from It is the notion of active learning: kids learn best by experience - learning received across the mesh, and global updated and the game restarted when duration: 1 Berkeley University which can be used to by doing, by exploring the world. Logo was intended to help teach variables are shared but read through bouncing off a left/right wall. minute) teach concepts up to and beyond A level. maths, geometry and logic by creating a "mathland" that could be ex- the use of sensor value blocks (from using any of the following pro- plored. Turtles came later, and it became obvious that they were a pow- the sensing palette). On the server the LeftBat has two grams: Alice, Scratch, Flash, or erful tool to teach programming, and new ways of thinking. Controlling a scripts responding to up/down key Serif DrawPlus. turtle drawing a line was a simple and easily understood analogy for se- presses by moving and broadcasting quential programming. Robotics, extending from controlling turtles, is a a LeftUp/LeftDown message across There are great prizes. W inners good way to teach computer science including real-time interactions, the mesh. The RightBat responds to will receive their prizes at the Ani- control theory, co-operating processes and modelling. RightUp/RightDown messages by mation Festival, part of an Inspira- moving up/down. On the client the tional Computer Science Day, to Logo, although easy to use, is a complete programming language. It was roles are reversed in that the LeftBat be held in Manchester in July derived from LISP, the main language used for AI programming at the will respond to broadcast messages 2011. Any school may attend, free MIT also developed StarLogo, designed to time, and that in turn was derived from lambda calculus. Logo has been and the RightBat to key presses. of charge, subject to capacity. program multiple agents simultaneously described as "Lisp without brackets".