Introducing Computing in your Classroom
Module 1
What is it, why teach it and what to focus on?
What is it, why teach it and what to focus on?
Learning Objectives for this Module:
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1.1 What is it?
One of the biggest areas of confusion for many outsiders when it comes to computing education is around terminology. And this confusion with terminology directly links to the issue of what we are or should be teaching our students.
The term computing is so broad and vague for many of us that we replace it quite randomly with other terms such as ICT, programming, coding, computer science, informatics, etc. |
1.2 Why teach it?
Computing as a topic or even subject is quite rarely embedded into what is taught at primary schools.
The videos provide you with a range of reasons why computing-related skills and knowledge are fundamentally important for the lives of our students and not just for the sake of understanding technology. The key about learning to programme is that it is a transferable skillthat can be used in many different areas of life. |
1.3 What to focus on? Cross-curricular skills
What exactly is it that we should be teaching when looking at computing in our classrooms? Clearly basic skills of coding and how to programme machines will be a part of this but these aspects actually play only a very small role.
You will notice that they purely focus on non-technical skills such as perserverence, collaboration, visualisation, analytical thinking, etc.and that you have probably already been teaching these skills to your students in some form. |
1.4 What to focus on? Computational thinking
The concept of computational thinking encapsulates some of the areas addressed by the teachers and academics in the previous section and packages this into a coherent framework.
Exploring Computational Thinking |
1.5 Module 1 Quiz
Test done
You have passed the test. |