Technology has rapidly evolved over the last 10 years. They have changed in size and in speed so quickly that most of the computers from 10 years ago are now longer able to be used. Computers have evolved to become faster and to hold a lot more storage, therefore making it more accessible for the daily things we use computers for (Chro, 2017). Technology has changed our society to include computers and smart phones in our daily tasks.

Within this blog I will be detailing about a computer science element of the curriculum task that I carried out with a group of five year ones. During this blog I intend with literature to reflect upon the activity, reflect how the children responded to solving the problem in computing and the strategies used to support their learning.

The National Curriculum programme of study for Key Stage 1 details the requirements that should be met within computing “to understand what algorithms are and how they are implemented on digital devices; and that programs execute by following precise and unambiguous instructions” (DfE, 2013). The use of the terms algorithm and computational thinking are not new terms, and we should not be fooled by the words in regard to their difficulty in grasping the concept. The introduction of these concepts to young children can cause some anxieties however due to our every changing world we can link these terms and ideas to connects we already associate with (Bird et al., 2017). Being able to teach young children these skills with computing at an early age will allow them to learn to develop and adapt to our rapidly evolving world of computers and technologies.

The computing lesson

For the computing lesson, I had decided to use a computing game from an educational website called http://hourofcode.com/uk/learn. Due to the National curriculum detailing the requirement for children within Key Stage 1 to understand that programs are executed by following a set of instructions, I chose to focus on coding. The aim of the coding activity was to move the monster to the final destination following the instructions and ensuring that the monster is following a set of instructions that is in order to make it move. The task I used was age appropriate and a topic of interest therefore promoting their curiosity to all want to have a go. The original planning for the task was to allow the pupils to work in pairs on computers, however due to a lack of efficient computers the task was adapted to be performed by the group.

The children were able to positively work together in order to solve the intended problem with the correct coding. For the children to understand the concept of following instructions in the correct order we came away from the task and incorporated some real life examples of how we would need to follow instructions in order for the process to work correctly. Within this example the children were able to understand that in order for our monster to move we had to correctly code the monster to move in an order of instructions. This allowed the children to develop not only their skills within coding but showing how in real life we are using these skills. The theory behind teaching coding came from Rus (2015) who discussed that the use of algorithms help computers to function and solve problems, our problem was trying to get our monster to the pot of treasure. We discovered through trial and improvement that we had to have the correct algorithm for the monster to move and reach its final destination. The main strategy used to support the pupils learning was to implement it in to a real life situation for the children to understand, break down and then process in their own way. Within this task I also used the learning strategy of scaffolding, by scaffolding also known as guiding I was also giving the children a guided instruction to help them in the right direction due to this being a new concept to them (Fisher and Frey, 2010). The use of scaffolding initially allowed me to guide the children in the right direction while they first understood the concept and then use of trial and error allowed them to independently learn.

References:

Bird, J., Caldwell, H. and Mayne, P. (2017). Lessons in teaching computing in primary schools.

London: Learning Matters, an imprint of SAGE Publications Ltd.

Education, D. for (2014). National curriculum(on-line).

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum. Accessed 9 August 2019.

Fisher, D. and Frey, N. (2010). Guided Instruction: How to Develop Confident and Successful

Learners. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Hour of Code. http://hourofcode.com/uk/learn. Accessed 9 August 2019.

How did Technology Changed Society? (2017). https://www.chro.org/technology-changed-

society/. Accessed 9 August 2019.

Rus, T. (2015). Computer-based problem solving process. New Jersey: World Scientific.