Last night we had the privilege to attend the Royal Society Event regarding the Technology Enhanced Learning project of which our Code Club was a part.
On arrival we were greeted by a host of people excited to see children at such a usually adult dominated event, and were given first hand experiences at the TEL project themselves. We learnt how to become a dentist (although to be honest I would probably only let MJ work on my teeth as the rest were more eager to drill holes through them instead)! We also got to experience using table sized tablets as a source of collaboration within class, an exciting prospect as something which as an ICT subject leader would be very keen to investigate further in the future.
However for the children the most exciting activity was the ability to be able to interact with a ‘touchscreen TV’. Although not strictly a TV display, more a mirrored version of a desktop, the sheer scale of the device was what seem to encapsulate them the most (42” +). Designed to be used as a social communication tool for Autistic children and so built upon the idea of non verbal communication, I could really see this being used effectively in a wider range of settings, particularly within EYFS and KS1 as the touch screen itself uses multi gesture commands allowing more than one user to work on an activity collaboratively – think IWB for many hands.
However, the main reason for our visit, as mentioned previously was that our Code Club was filmed as part of the TEL project, where they (unfortunately) captured myself on camera discussing the impact of a computing based curriculum beginning to be delivered into school, as well as filming and conversing with the children who attended. The lead on the project, Richard Noss, was incredibly interested in the views of Yasmine and as a result, she very bravely spoke about her reasons behind computing and what she feels are the benefits of learning such skills – to over 150 people might I add!
On the whole the evening was excellent and the children really took upon the ideas being discussed and intellectually thought about how they felt in relation to issues raised and discussed. I was so proud as both a teacher and ICT subject leader of all 5 of my/our coders and their superb reflection on the school – even receiving acclaim from the Director of Strategy for Ofsted for our “incredible children”!!
A final version of the film itself is available here, (our children are about 10 minutes in) further information of the TEL projects that have taken place of the past 5 years can be found here. You can also read the ‘live’ blog written by the children during the conference and the questions they posed to both myself and other academics here.
Matt Rogers
ICT Subject Leader
Snowsfields Primary School 