Digital Technology

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WONDERful WORKSHOP

Wonder Workshop is WONDERFUL – see what I did there?

 

Inspiring the up and coming generation in using digital technologies can be a challenge at times, especially with maintaining attention.  But Wonder Works provides colourful and engaging resources which develop students confidence and competency in using and manuvering their skills with digital technology.

Subject

Digital Technologies

Year Level

Foundation to Year Two

Strand

Knowledge and Understanding

Sub Strand

Recognise and explore digital systems (hardware and software components) for a purpose

Resource Link

https://www.makewonder.com/play/ideas/

Price

Free resource information – price varies on suggest apps for lesson plan templates

 

Cross Curricular Capabilities

The resources suggest that these apps can assist in most learning areas as it is used to consolidate content specific learning which fosters play based learning.

For Example – Using Go App

 

English: – Literacy (Foundation – Year 2)

Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
  • Interpret and analyse learning area texts
  • Navigate, read and view learning area texts
Composing texts through speaking, writing and creating
  • Compose spoken, written, visual and multimodal learning area texts
Word Knowledge
  • Understand learning area vocabulary

For example – Using Blockly

 

Math: Chance ( Year one and two)

Year One – Identify outcomes of familiar events involving chance and describe them using everyday language such as ‘will happen’, ‘won’t happen’ or ‘might happen’

  • justifying that some events are certain or impossible

Year Two – identify practical activities and everyday events that involve chance. Describe outcomes as ‘likely’ or ‘unlikely’ and identify some events as ‘certain’ or ‘impossible’

  • classifying a list of everyday events according to how likely they are to happen, using the language of chance, and explaining reasoning

 

Easy Lesson Plans

Example –  Heads or Tails

 

 

Code Monkey Island: Go Bananas for Programming!
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Code Monkey Island: Go Bananas for Programming!

About Code Monkey Island

Code Monkey Island is a fun and interactive board game that introduces students (Year 3+) to real life programming concepts. This game engages children in computational thinking and teaches them about concepts such as;

  • conditional statements
  • basic loops
  • boolean logic
  • strategic thinking, 

By the end of the game, players will have obtained a sound understanding of these programming concepts intended, in a fun and exciting way.  It’s literally child’s play! 

This game would make a great addition to year 3-6 classrooms when introducing the above programming concepts to students. It could also be followed by assessments to reinforce the learning and to check for understanding of key concepts.

Playing the game

Code Monkey Island is easy to play and can be played with 2-4 players. Players use cards with statements such as, “For each monkey NOT on a rock, move 3 spaces,” or “if one of your monkeys in in the banana grove, move 10 spaces”, to get all of their monkeys successfully around the island and into the banana grove to win.Players need to think strategically and solve plenty of computational problems along the way.

Here is a short clip on how to play Code Monkey Island:

Subject: Technologies
Strand: Digital Technologies
Substrand: Processes and production skills

Content descriptors

3-4: Use simple visual programming environments that include a sequence of steps (algorithm) involving decisions made by the user (branching) (ACTDIP011)

5-6: Design, modify, follow and represent both diagrammatically, and in written text, simple algorithms (sequence of steps) involving branching (decisions) and iteration(repetition) (ACTDIP019)

  • Numeracy
  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability
  • Critical and Creative Thinking

Links to other learning areas

  • English
  • Mathematics

Code Monkey Island Link

http://codemonkeyplanet.com/ 

Code-a-pillar Newest Think and Learn Toy
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Code-a-pillar Newest Think and Learn Toy

 

Subject: Digital Technologies

Year level: F-2

Strand:Digital Technologies processes and production skills

 

Australian Curriculum Content Descriptor:

  • Follow, describe and represent a sequence of steps and decisions (algorithms) needed to solve simple problems (ACTDIP004)

Western Australian Curriculum Content Descriptors: 

  • Data can have patterns and can be represented as pictures, symbols and diagrams (ACTDIK002)
  • Use data to solve a simple task/problem (ACTDIP003)

What is it?

The Code-a-pillar is a toy by Fisher and Price released in 2016 as part of thier new Think & Learn range. The toy has a motorised head and comes with segments that represent different movements. Each segment tells the caterpillar what to do. Children are able to rearrange the segments to have the caterpillar do things in a different order.

The following video provides a more indepth look at how the code-a-pillar works and promotes coding with young children.

 

Class room activity

Depending on the students age a variety of lessons can be done utalising this resource. The Code-a-pillar as seen in the video comes with two disks. A starting disk and a target. For a more challenging activity students might have to program their caterpillar so that is able to finish on the disk.  This will link in well with the general capabilities of Critical and Creative Thinkers. The possibilities are completely endless with this toy and its accompanying App! Both the App and the Robot can be integrated into the Numeracy Curriculum.

 

Word from the Author

I personally bought this STEM promoting toy for my 3.5 year old for Christmas. He hasn’t even entered Kindergarten and is already programming his Code-a-pillar to go around dining room chairs. The fantastic thing is if the antenna on this robotic toy senses if it touches something lightly and the Code-e-pillar stops its sequences and pauses. At this point a child can take it back to the starting point and reprogram it or move it to a different position and press the power button again, thus starting where the Cod-e-pillar left off.

 

 

 

 

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Seesaw- The Learning Journey

 

seesaw

Subject

Digital Technologies

Year Level: 2/3/4

Strand: Digital Technologies: Process and Production Skills

Sub Strand: Digital Implementation

Curriculum Links:

Year 2: Share and publish information in a safe online environment, with known people (ACTDIP006)

Year 3: Work with others to create and communicate ideas and information safely (ACTDIP013)

Year 4: Work with others to create and communicate ideas and information safely, using agreed protocols (netiquette) (ACTDIP013)

Link to resource: http://web.seesaw.me/

Links to other learning areas:

Seesaw can be used for any learning area in the curriculum:

  • English
  • Mathematics
  • HASS
  • Science
  • The arts
  • Health and Physical Education

General Capabilities:

  • Literacy
  • Numeracy
  • Information and communication technology (ICT) capability
  • Critical and creative thinking
  • Intercultural understanding

How to use this resource:

I was able to observe and implement this technology resource during my third year practicum. Seesaw is an app that can be used on tablets, ipads or computers. It is a student-driven digital portfolio resource, empowering students of all ages to independently document and share what they are learning at school. Students are able to take images, screenshots or videos of any learning area activity. This document can then be uploaded and published to the class blog, which enables all students to view and comment on the work. Once the work has been submitted/published teachers can always access students’ documents, this can be a great summative assessment tool.

The best part about this resource that I found when implementing it within the classroom is how effective and clear seesaw is for parents/guardians. Students become engaged within the working document and they can then go home and show their learning, allowing time to comment or provide feedback, if necessary.

 picture 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Storybird – Visual Storytelling For Everyone!

Storybird

Curriculum Strand: Digital Technology (process and production skills)

Curriculum Sub Strand: Generating and Designing

Curriculum Link: Work with others to create and organise ideas and information using information systems, and share these with known people in safe online environments (ACTDIP006)

Year Level: F-6

Link to Resource: http://storybird.com

Description: Storybird is a free, online tool that allows students to create and publish an imaginative text. Students are provided with the opportunity to create a text by using a range of quality images that are provided by children’s illustrators. The text creations can be shared for enjoyment or evaluated by teachers. Storybird also includes a variety of online books that cater to a range of reading levels.

Instructions:

  • Click on the ‘create’ tab

Step 1

  • Select the type of text you want to create (i.e. picture book, longform book or poetry)

Step2

  • Choose an image from the options provided
  • If you choose to create a picture book you will see the following

Step 3

  • Storybird allows you to add texts, pictures and sounds to create an imaginative story. You are also able to design an original cover page for the text using a variety of features.
  • Once complete you can save, publish, download or print the text.

Cross Curriculum Priorities and General Capabilities: Storybird can be incorporated across all three cross curricular priorities and support all seven general capabilities.

Cross Curricular Priorities

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
  • Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia
  • Sustainability.

General Capabilities

  • Literacy
  • Numeracy
  • Information and communication technology (ICT) capability
  • Critical and creative thinking
  •  Personal and social capability
  •  Ethical understanding
  •  Intercultural understanding

Links to other learning areas:

Storybird is primarily a resource that supports the English learning area. Students are able to create and write texts that can be used as a diagnostic, formative or summative assessment. Students are also able to develop their reading skills by exploring a variety of online texts. However, this resource provides illustrations that could be incorporated across other learning areas such as geography, history, the arts and health and physical education.

A classroom activity using this resource:

An English requirement within the junior primary years is for students to identify how illustrations can support the meaning of written texts. Storybird can be a useful resource that can allow teachers to engage students in a discussion about text conventions and model the creative process. Once the students have the understanding they can then create a text themselves.

Reference

Storybird. (n.d.). Write, Read, Discover, Share. Retrieved from http://storybird.com

Australian  Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2016). Technology. Retrieved from http://v7-5.australiancurriculum.edu.au/technologies/digital-technologies/curriculum/f-10?layout=1

Computational thinking: A four step process

Subject: Digital TechnologiesScreenshot (145)

Year: 3/4

Strand: Digital Technologies processes and production skills

Substrand: Investigating and defining

Define simple problems, and describe and follow a sequence of steps and decisions (algorithms) needed to solve them.

Link to the resource: http://games.thinkingmyself.com/

Thinking Myself is a straight-forward game consisting of a series of lessons teaching the key ideas of computational thinking. Kiki guides students through the game as they discover how to decompose, find patterns, abstract and create algorithms to solve difficult problems.

In playing this game myself, I found the language to be very straight-forward and simple to understand. There doesn’t seem to be any sound narration, therefore, I would most likely use this game on the IWB with the whole class as a lesson starter. It would provide a good basis for a whole class discussion to gauge students understandings and possible misconceptions regarding the terminology.

Each lesson begins with a definition of the term (see image below). This is a great point at which to discuss known examples of decomposition with the students and relate them to how computers decompose problems. The lesson example involves breaking down a multiplication sum into a repeated addition equation. This is a very obvious decomposition but a good place to start.

Screenshot (146)      Screenshot (147)      Screenshot (148)

Advantages: What I like about this game is that it very clearly links the ideas of computational thinking not only to machines but to common experiences such as following a recipe. This enables students to relate the use of computational thinking to solving problems they encounter in their everyday lives, therefore cementing their understanding of the key concepts.

Disadvantages: This game requires a flash player, therefore will not work on IOS tablet devices. Additionally, the lack of sound narration is a barrier for students who are less abled in reading or for whom English is an additional language.

 

 

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Isle of Tune

Subject: Digital Technologies

Year Level: 5

Strand: Digital implementation

Sub strand: Implement and use simple programming environments that include branching (decisions) and iteration (repetition) (ACTDIP020).

Link to the resource:

http://isleoftune.com

Cross curriculum priorities and general capabilities:

Literacy
Numeracy
Information and Communication Technology Capability
Critical and Creative Thinking.

Links to other learning areas:

The Arts (Music)

A classroom activity using this resource:

This is a fun way for students to practice programming that includes repetitions.
This activity can be used to promote creative thinking, literacy and numeracy.
Isle of Tune is available as a web based tool or an app for mobile technology. It allows pupils to compose or recreate well know tunes in a fun way.

 

How to use Isle of Tunes:

Briefly…

Laying road

1. Lay down some road

Trees lamps

2. Add houses, plants or lamp posts along the road (or a combination)

3. Place a car on the road

Drum pattern

4. Press Go.  As the car drives past each element on the road it will make a rhythmic or melodic sound. At the end of the road, it turns around and plays your creation in retrograde 🙂

 

 

Caitlynb Digital Technology – Little Story Maker
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Caitlynb Digital Technology – Little Story Maker

 

lsm
Image courtesy of the Apple App Store

Resource Name:

  • Little Story Creator

Link to resource:

Year Level:

  • Foundation – Year 2

Strand: Digital Technologies

Sub-strands:

  •  Knowledge and understanding
  • Processes and Production skills

 

Content Descriptor:

Skills:

  • Collect, explore and sortdata, and use digital systems to present the data creatively (ACTDIP003)
  • Work with others to create and organise ideas and information using information, and share these with known people in safe online environments(ACTDIP006)

Links to other learning areas:

English
Foundation:

Content description

  • Retell familiar literary texts through performance, use of illustrations and images(ACELT1580)

Elaborations

  • drawing, labelling and role playing representations of characters or events
  • reciting rhymes with actions
  • using digital technologies to retell events and recreate characters from favourite print and film texts

General capabilities

  • Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking
  • ICT competence

Content Description

  • Construct texts using software including word processing programs (ACELY1654)

Elaborations

  • using simple functions of keyboard and mouse including typing letters, scrolling, selecting icons and drop-down menu

General Capabilities:

  • Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking
  • ICT competence

Year 1

Content descriptions

  • Understand concepts about print and screen, including how different types of texts are organised using page numbering, tables of content, headings and titles, navigation buttons, bars and links(ACELA1450)

Elaborations

  • learning about how books and digital texts are organised including page numbers, table of contents, headings, images with captions and the use of scrolling to access digital texts

General capabilities

  • Literacy
  • Numeracy
  • ICT competence

Content descriptions

  • Construct texts that incorporate supporting images using software including word processing programs(ACELY1664)

Elaborations

  • creating digital images and composing a story or information sequence on screen using images and captions
  • adding images to digital written communications such as emails with pictures of self, classmates or location

General capabilities

  • Literacy
  • ICT competence

Year 2

Content descriptions

Create events and characters using different media that develop key events and characters from literary texts (ACELT1593)

Elaborations

  • creating imaginative reconstructions of stories and poetry using a range of print and digital media
  • telling known stories from a different point of view
  • orally, in writing or using digital media, constructing a sequel to a known story

General capabilities

  • Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking
  • ICT competence

Content descriptions

Identify, reproduce and experiment with rhythmic, sound and word patterns in poems, chants, rhymes and songs (ACELT1592)

Elaborations

  • exploring poems, chants, rhymes or songs from different cultures which class members may bring from home
  • learning to recite, sing or create interpretations of poems, chants, rhymes or songs from students’ own and other different cultures

General capabilities

  • Literacy
  • Intercultural understanding
  • Critical and creative thinking

Content Description

  • Construct texts featuring print, visual and audio elements using software, including word processing programs

 

Elaborations

  • experimenting with and combining elements of software programs to create texts

General capabilities

  • Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking
  • ICT competence

History

 History skills F-2

  • Sequence familiar objects and events(ACHHS015)
  • Use a range of communication forms (oral, graphic, written, role play) and digital technologies(ACHHS022)

Historical knowledge and understanding

  • Foundation: How the stories of families and the past can be communicated, for example through photographs,artefacts, books, oral histories, digital media, and museums (ACHHK004)

Activity  

  • Students can create their own stories with their own photos, text, audio and videos which they can either upload existing photos, text, audio and videos or create and record it as they go.
  • Students can add their own backgrounds, stickers, colour and personalise their story however they’d like.
  • Students can save their stories and also email and share their stories to class blogs or other safe online sharing sites or just keep their stories on their account on the IPad.
  • Students can save, share or print their stories.

How to use this resource:

Written by CaitlynB

Digital Technology – Memory Game Maker
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Digital Technology – Memory Game Maker

Memory Game Maker

question mark
Image courtesy of Google Images

Link: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/games/memory/index.htm

Year Level: 3 – 6

Description:

Memory Game Maker allows students and teachers to create and interactive memory games using text, images, symbols or audio related to the subject or topic they’re learning about to share with others. Students can customise their games visual features as well so that it is unique. Students can upload their creation online or store in a folder or share with other students/ teachers. This program allows students to create a game that can be adapted for all students learning needs and abilities. This program can be used in mathematics, English, music, LOTE and science as a tool of learning, assessing and revising content in these learning areas in a fun. Interactive and engaging way.  This program can be downloaded onto any IOS products such as Ipads also android and windows so it can be accessed and downloaded on any device that the school has.

 

Strand: Digital Technology

Sub Strands: Knowledge and Understanding & Process and Production Skills

 

Year: 3-4

Content Descriptor:
Explore and use a range of digital systems with peripheral devices for different purposes, and transmit different types of data (ACTDIK007)
Recognise different types of data and explore how the same data can be represented in different ways (ACTDIK008)

Skills:
Collect, access and present different types of data using simple software to create information and solve problems (ACTDIP009)
Define simple problems, and describe and follow a sequence of steps and decisions (algorithms) needed to solve them (ACTDIP010)
Implement simple digital solutions as visual programs with algorithms involving branching (decisions) and user input (ACTDIP011)
Explain how developed solutions and existing information systems meet common personal, school or community needs, and envisage new ways of using them (ACTDIP012)
Work with others to plan the creation and communication of ideas and information safely, applying agreed ethical and social protocols(ACTDIP013)

General Capabilities:
Literacy
Numeracy
Technology Capability
Critical and Creative Thinking
Year 5-6:

Content Descriptor:
Knowledge and Understanding
Investigate the main components of common digital systems, their basic functions and interactions, and how such digital systems may connect together to form networks to transmit data (ACTDIK014)

Skills:
Design a user interface for a digital system, generating and considering alternative designs (ACTDIP018)
Design, modify and follow simple algorithms represented diagrammatically and in English involving sequences of steps, branching, and iteration(repetition) (ACTDIP019)
Implement digital solutions as simple visual programs involving branching, iteration (repetition), and user input (ACTDIP020)
Explain how developed solutions and existing information systems are sustainable and meet local community needs, considering opportunities and consequences for future applications (ACTDIP021)
Manage the creation and communication of ideas and information including online collaborative projects, applying agreed ethical, social and technical protocols (ACTDIP022)

General Capabilities:
Literacy
Numeracy
Technology Capability
Critical and Creative Thinking
Personal and Social Capability
Ethical Understanding

Links to Other Learning Areas:
English
Maths
History
LOTE
Music
Year 5; 6

Learning Area: English – Language

Content descriptions

Explain sequences of images in print texts and compare these to the ways hyperlinked digital texts are organised, explaining their effect on viewers’ interpretations (ACELA1511)

Elaborations

Interpreting narrative texts told as wordless picture books
Identifying and comparing sequences of images revealed through different hyperlink choices

General capabilities
Literacy
Critical and creative thinking
ICT competence

 

Learning Area: English – Literacy

Content descriptions

Use a range of software including word processing programs with fluency to construct, edit and publish written text, and select, edit and place visual, print and audio elements (ACELY1707)

Elaborations
Writing letters in print and by email, composing with increasing fluency, accuracy and legibility and demonstrating understanding of what the audience may want to hear

General capabilities
Literacy
ICT competence

 

Learning Area: English – Literacy

Content descriptions

Use a range of software, including word processing programs, learning new functions as required to create texts (ACELY1717)

Elaborations
Selecting and combining software functions as needed to create texts

General capabilities
ICT competence

 

Skills from LOTE
Revise a wide variety of linguistic and cultural concepts.
Actively using the language in an educational way.