The webinar gave participants an exploration into how to use and incorporate coding activities in everyday learning as well as identifying web 2.0 tools and apps to support engaging students in coding activities across the school. The session also provided practical examples of how to implement coding activities and highlighted the value of coding in relation to curriculum needs.

1. CRACKING THE CODE:
U N L O C K I N G C O D I N G F O R L E A R N I N G A N D
E N G A G E M E N T
S O P H I E P A R T I N G T O N
T E A C H E R L I B R A R I A N
W E N T W O R T H F A L L S P U B L I C S C H O O L
Australian School Library
Association Inc.

2. What is Coding?
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 Telling a computer what you want it to do.
 Involves typing in step-by-step commands for the
computer to follow.
For computers and devices are not clever
BUT
they are VERY obedient.
(Cutherberson, 2014)
Think of the devices you own or
use at home or in the classroom?

3. Why all the fuss? How is it relevant?
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 Desired 21st century career skill.
 Research shows there is a growing
need for problem solving skills across ALL jobs.
 Computer science is a growth industry.
 Code powers our digital world.
 We want students be creators not just consumers in our
world.

4. Why all the fuss? How is it relevant?
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 “If you have kids put blocks together to solve the
puzzle, that can be useful for learning basic
computing concepts. But we think it’s missing an
important part of what’s exciting about coding. If you
present just logic puzzles, it’s like teaching them
writing by only teaching grammar and
punctuation.”Resnick-Scratch creator 2014)

5. Why all the fuss? How is it relevant?
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 We teach how plants grow, or how electricity works, so
we should allow students the opportunity to understand
how the internet works and how an app is developed.
 Most importantly students should be able to understand
the technology shapes their world
 Coding develops and uses
 critical and creative thinking
 problem solving,
 inquiry
 planning & evaluating
all relevant as a part of the Australia Curriculum general capabilities.

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 Digital technologies curriculum-
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/technologi
es/digital-technologies/curriculum/f-10?layout=1
Australian Curriculum Digital Technologies

7. Australian Curriculum Expectations F-2
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By the end of Year 2 students will have
 had opportunities to create a range of digital solutions
through guided play and integrated learning, such as using
robotic toys to navigate a map or recording science data with
software applications.
 Begun to develop their design skills by conceptualising
algorithms as a sequence of steps for carrying out
instructions, - identifying steps in a process or controlling
robotic devices.
 designed solutions to simple problems using a sequence of
steps and decisions.

8. Australian Curriculum Expectations 3-4
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 By the end of Year 4, students will have..
 had opportunities to create a range of digital solutions, such as
 interactive adventures that involve user choice,
 modelling simplified real world systems
 simple guessing games.
 Used the concept of abstraction to define simple problems using techniques such as
summarising facts to deduce conclusions.
 They record simple solutions to problems through text and diagrams and develop
their designing skills from initially following prepared algorithms to describing their
own that support branching (choice of options) and user input.
 Their solutions are implemented using appropriate software including visual
programming languages that use graphical elements rather than text instructions.
They explain, in general terms, how their solutions meet specific needs and consider
how society may use digital systems to meet needs in environmentally sustainable
ways.

9. Australian Curriculum Expectations 5-6
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 By the end of Year 6, students will..
 Have had opportunities to create a range of digital solutions, such as games or
quizzes and interactive stories and animations.
 Have further develop abstractions by identifying common elements across similar
problems and systems and develop an understanding of the relationship between
models and the real-world systems they represent.
 Have created solutions where they define problems clearly by identifying
appropriate data and requirements.
 When designing, they consider how users will interact with the solutions, and check
and validate their designs to increase the likelihood of creating working solutions.
 increase the sophistication of their algorithms by identifying repetition and
incorporate repeat instructions or structures when implementing their solutions
through visual programming, such as reading user input until an answer is guessed
correctly in a quiz

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Source: http://www.joyike.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/start_small_thinkbig-1024x576.jpg

11. Where do I start?
I don’t know anything about coding!
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 Start small!
 Don’t try to do it all
 You
 Don’t need a lot of things to start
 Don’t need to have a degree in coding
 Don’t have to be highly tech savvy
 Don’t need high tech equipment
 Be a life-long learner and learn with and from the
students
 Be a risk taker!

12. What resources are out there?
Low Tech options
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 Robot Turtles
2-4 players, Ages 4+
In Robot Turtles, players decide how their
Robot Turtle moves on a game board with
the goal to reach a jewel to win. There are
different variations that can be played
depending on players’ experience.
 The Code Master Programming
1 player, Ages 8+
In Code Master, your Avatar will travel to an
exotic world in search of power Crystals, but
only one specific sequence of actions will
lead to success.

13. What resources are out there?
Low Tech options
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 Bits and Bytes 2-4 Players Ages 4+
Bits & Bytes is a card game. The goal is for each
player to guide their character by giving them
directions. At the same time they have to avoid
obstacles like walls, bugs and the Seepeeu
(CPU).
 Robo Rally 2-8 Players, Ages 12+
Robo Rally is a board game where you control a
robot to meet goals in a race across a factory
floor. The factory is filled with obstacles like
pits, lasers conveyor belts and other robots to
slow you down or destruct you. The first robot to
claim all the goals in the correct order wins.

14. What resources are out there?
Low Tech options
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 Littlecodr cards set for direction
planning and coding for young
children.
 BeeBots- programmable robots.
Can buy kits and other resources to
use with it. Can also make your own.
Use the directing buttons to design its
code. Now come as rechargable
There is also a beebot app (FREE)

15. What resources are out there?
Hi Tech options
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Code.org
‘Anyone can learn’
Fantastic site for learning the ropes.
Tutorials, step by step videos.
Hour of code- students participate in a sequence of
coding tasks then receive a certificate for completing
the coding course.
Can set up a class and monitor progress of students.

16. What resources are out there?
Hi Tech options
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Great site showing the best apps and sites for coding
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/coding-
apps-and-websites
Some great free ones to start with
The Foos Daisy the
Dinosaur
Scratch Jr Scratch

17. How we started at our school
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① Hour of Code – teacher complete
② Hour of Code- 1 class completed
③ Installed scratch, scratch jr and daisy the dinosaur
on the ipad
④ Introduced robot turtles to the library
⑤ Started a lunch coding club
⑥ Whole school Hour of Code challenge
⑦ Introduced BeeBots in library
⑧ Using coding activities for classroom/library
learning

18. Specific Examples: curriculum linking activities
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 Scratch - video example
 Telling a story
 creative literacy response

19. Specific Examples: curriculum linking activities
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Scratch Jr

20. Specific Examples continued
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Robot Turtles

21. Specific Examples: curriculum linking activities
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Beebot- video example
 Geography -Mapping
 English- Talking and listening instructions, story sequencing
stimuelous for writing an explanation/ informative text
directional language
 Maths -position, counting, measurement

22. Specific Examples: curriculum linking activities
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Beebot
How do you think you could use these in your setting?
Share curriculum integration ideas in the comment box

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Image Source: http://www.lepetitjuriste.fr/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/questions.jpg

24. Three takeaways about coding
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Take a moment to think of 3 practical take
aways for you in your setting.
Soure: http://cdn.theglow.com.au/app/uploads/2014/10/takeaway-coffee-cups-3.jpg

25. relevant links/articles
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DK Books (2014) Coding for Kids 1: What is Computer Coding? Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THOEQ5soVpY
Cuthbertson, A. (2014) Coding in the Classroom: What is Coding and Why is it so Important? Retrieved from
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/coding-classroom-what-coding-why-it-so-important-1463157
Anya Kamenetz (2015) Engage Kids With Coding By Letting Them Design, Create, and Tell Stories retrieved from
http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/12/15/engage-kids-with-coding-by-letting-them-design-create-and-tell-stories/
Farber, M. (2015) No-Tech Board Games That Teach Coding Skills to Young Children retrieved
fromhttp://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/01/28/no-tech-board-games-that-teach-coding-skills-to-young-children/
Resnick, M. (2014) Let’s teach kids to code. Retrieved
fromhttp://www.ted.com/talks/mitch_resnick_let_s_teach_kids_to_code?language=en
From scholastic
Scholastic
bookclub issue 2
Sequenced lessons for yr3/4-
http://www.australiancurriculumlessons.com.au/2014/08/09/year-34-
coding-lesson-plans-teach-kids-code/

26. Additional information
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The PowerPoint presentation will be available at
http://www.slideshare.net/ASLAonline
Membership information is available at
http://www.asla.org.au/membership.aspx
Follow ASLA on Twitter
https://twitter.com/aslanational
Like us on Facebook
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