With coding week nearly upon us again I decided to invest in some new coding hardware for our school. I had heard good reports about Sphero SPRK+ and so invested in a number of them for our school. Sphero SPRK+ is a small but rugged spherical robot capable of rolling around, changing colours, running programmes […]
I have been following the recent debate that has emerged concerning the replacement of textbooks at 2nd level with digital devices. This is a growing trend with many 2nd level schools, particularly for the Junior Cycle. Parents at a Co Meath secondary school recently raised their concerns regarding replacing their children’s textbooks with an iPad.
Rethinking the Tablet for Books Argument Read More »
The Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh this week announced a further €50million investment in ICT infrastructure for all primary and post-primary schools. Grant funding for the purchase of ICT infrastructure will issue shortly to all eligible primary and post primary schools in the country to enable them to embed the use of digital
Additional ICT Funding Announced For All Schools Read More »
After spending months in Beta version, Scratch 3.0 has been finally released as of January 2nd 2019. It brings major changes such as support for tablets and implementation of an HTML, CSS, and JavaScript-based extension system instead of the previously used Flash. In his blog post announcing Scratch 3.0 Mitch Resnik, leader of the MIT Media Lab wrote:
Scratch 3.0 has arrived! Read More »
I recently took some primary school pupils to Microsoft’s headquarters in Leopardstown Dublin to take part in its futuristic new Dreamspace learning initiative. DreamSpace is an educational activity space developed in Dublin at a cost of €5m and it opened earlier this year. Microsoft runs a three-hour programme in DreamSpace for primary and Transition Year
Microsoft’s Futuristic Classroom Read More »
Floor robots can be programmed to move and change direction across the floor or a flat surface and are an excellent way of introducing young children to the principles of coding and computational thinking. Although the physical appearance of floor robots may be different, they function in a very similar way and the principles of
Programmable Floor Robots For Primary Schools Read More »
To date we have used Scratch in our school to develop children’s coding skills. However, while this is a fantastic application, it is more suited to the older primary school pupil. We recently looked at a range of free, web based applications that can help to develop coding and programming skills throughout the primary school
Coding Applications for Younger Pupils Read More »
A few years back I did a piece on Kahoot which is a brilliant free website for creating quizzes to use in class. Typically the teacher using Kahoot displays the questions on the interactive whiteboard and the students answer the questions on any internet-enabled device. It works really well as an assessment for learning technique to
Kahoot Homework Challenge Read More »
Those of you who are old enough might remember that in the 1980’s the BBC Micro Computer running Logo was considered cutting edge in terms of IT in schools. Many children who grew up with the micro went on to forge successful careers in the IT industry. More than 30 years on, the BBC has
Google has recently launched an educational program designed to teach children about phishing, internet harassment, passwords, and other internet safety issues. The programme is called “Be Internet Awesome,” and it aims to teach children the fundamentals of digital citizenship and provides parents and educators with resources to help children and young people navigate the web
Be Internet Awesome Read More »
