This article was originally published in the newsletter on September 8th 2016.
On the evening of Tuesday 6th September, 45 children and their parents attended a hands-on “digi tech” workshop.
Last year, our workshops focused on coding. This year, we wanted to show parents how we incorporate tech into all aspects of the curriculum. All teachers use the Australian Curriculum to program for children’s learning. Digital tools (ICTs) are used in every curriculum area. The part of the curriculum we refer to for this is called the ICT general capability. Skills are general with things like using social and ethical protocols (copyright, cyber safety, etc.) and managing and operating ICT (saving and backing up, locating information).
If you would like to read more about the ICT general capability, here’s the link:
The aspect of the curriculum that drives our teaching in using digital tools and systems is the Technologies: Digital Technology area. This is more specific in the skills and concepts that children must understand around the use of ICT, ICT systems, using ICT to solve problems and so on.
Here’s more information about that area:
The workshops that teachers offered were:
Writers’ Workshop and Puppet Pals (digital tools to improve literacy), unplugged coding (developing computational thinking skills), Beebots, Spheros, Scratch and Lego Mindstorms (digital tools to learn coding) green screen movie making (digital tools for creating and communicating).
Parents asked for a list of apps and websites shared at the workshops:
Apps: Bookcreator, Puppet Pals Directors Cut, Scratch Junior
Louisa Guest
Assistant Principal