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"The Foos: Code for an Hour is a super fun free iOS app that teaches beginning programming concepts to students.  It's very similar to Scratch where users connect blocks to form commands.  There are 24 levels that students can complete to unlock new characters and abilities.  Some of the concepts covered in Foos are: problem solving, sequencing, spatial visualization, and more."

"That said, the handy infographic below takes a look at 4 ways technology is changing how people learn. The things that I find striking - and important- about this particular graphic is how simple the concept is. These four general concepts can be applied across the board: to learners of all ages, in all subjects, in any area of the world or for any type of learner. Take a look and see what you think: are there any other very general principles of how technology is changing learning that can be widely applied? Weigh in by leaving a comment below, mentioning @Edudemic on Twitter or leaving your thoughts on our Facebook page."

"App smashing, the process of using more than one apps in conjunction with one another to create a final product, is a concept that allows students to create engaging educational projects and illustrate their creativity in multifaceted ways. One of the most gratifying and effective ways to use app smashing in the classroom is to create digital storytelling projects. The concept of digital storytelling is emerging as a form of personal and collective expression of knowledge, ideas, and perceptions. Its numerous and positive effects on students' communication skills are well documented. Digital storytelling is the perfect vehicle for the delivery of visual and audio stimuli that greatly enhance a storyline or a simple narrative."

"The concept of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) is a familiar concept these days. Yet, the nature of Personal Learning Networks is evolving as the range of tools available to support them increases, and our rapport with those tools becomes more sophisticated. The aim of this post is to outline the changes that appear to be taking shape, and to offer some practical strategies for teachers to supercharge their Personal Learning Networks."

"Physics 4 Kids is a great resource packed full of basic lessons covering different key concepts of physics. You can use this resource to expand students knowledge of physics and to also initiate them to those physics concepts you are planning to teach them in class. Physics 4 Kids provides students with  guided tours that they can use by themselves to learn about physics. To make things easier, the site embeds visual aids and video tutorials to enhance students understandings. Some of the core physics ideas the site covers include: motion and mechanics, electricity and magnetism, modern physics, light and optics and many more. "

"About two decades ago The MIT Media lab introduced the concept of block-based programming. The idea was to develop an interface that allowed computer programs to be built by simply dragging and dropping puzzle blocks to represent complex programming constructs and commands. With this new method for teaching and learning computer science, the hugely popular Scratch platform was born. This approach lowered the bar for experimenting with programmatic thinking, making it possible for students to create interactive animations and small games without writing a single line of code. This simple concept removed the need to learn the syntax of a formal programming language, and made teaching and learning the basics of computer science accessible to younger learners and to teachers with no formal coding background. Outside of the classroom though, coding has always been, and still remains, a process of typing letters, numbers and symbols. This text-based programming, used in programming language such as C, Javascript and Python, requires coders to obey and conform to formal syntax. Despite the pain of dealing with typos in names of variables and inevitable syntax errors, no other coding method designed to be more "user friendly" has really caught on. Tools have been offered for managers to define business logic through a graphical user interface without writing lines of codes. Or for web developers to add interactive behaviors to their websites without learning Javascript. But in reality, neither of those substitute the power and flexibility of text-based programming. And with neither winning significant adoption, the demand for the classic skill of text-based coding continues to grow and grow."

"Throughout my 13 years of teaching, I heard this common theme time and time again from parents: How can I help? The troubles they professed were varied and numerous (e.g., concern, frustration, bewilderment). They often included the following: I don't remember algebra. I don't like math. The way math is taught now differs from when I was in school. All of these are certainly legitimate. Although people use math every day, even when they don't realize it, they are not necessarily using all the same concepts they learned in school. And as the saying goes, if you don't use it, you lose it. I'm sure some parents don't know how to solve quadratic equations or remember what it means for a relation to be a function. And yes, math teaching today may differ from when parents were in school. But the idea behind new techniques is to encourage students to become better problem-solvers, not to confuse parents or change the concepts. So, believe it or not, despite your fears and feelings of uncertainty, you can still help. Here are a few tips to get you started. "

"Over the past decade, there has been much discussion of the term computational thinking. The term, popularized by computer scientist Jeannette Wing, is generally used to describe computer-science concepts and strategies that can be useful in understanding and solving problems in a wide range of disciplines and contexts. In a growing number of schools around the world, there are now efforts to help students develop as computational thinkers. In our Lifelong Kindergarten research group at the MIT Media Lab, we prefer to focus on the idea of computational fluency rather than computational thinking. Why? We want to highlight the importance of children developing as computational creators as well as computational thinkers. In our view, computational fluency involves not only an understanding of computational concepts and problem-solving strategies, but also the ability to create and express oneself with digital technologies."

There are some ideas which seem to translate nicely into fields of thought far from their point of origin. These are  ideas which shine a metaphorical light on concepts and allow us to develop a deeper understanding of that concept once we see it from a fresh perspective. Schrödinger's Cat is one such idea.

"In recent years, there has been a push to introduce coding and computational thinking in early childhood education, and robotics is an excellent tool to achieve this. However, the integration of these fundamental skills into formal and official curriculums is still a challenge and educators needs pedagogical perspectives to properly integrate robotics, coding and computational thinking concepts into their classrooms. Thus, this study evaluates a "coding as a playground" experience in keeping with the Positive Technological Development (PTD) framework with the KIBO robotics kit, specially designed for young children. The research was conducted with preschool children aged 3-5 years old (N = 172) from three Spanish early childhood centers with different socio-economic characteristics and teachers of 16 classes. Results confirm that it is possible to start teaching this new literacy very early (at 3 years old). Furthermore, the results show that the strategies used promoted communication, collaboration and creativity in the classroom settings. The teachers also exhibited autonomy and confidence to integrate coding and computational thinking into their formal curricular activities, connecting concepts with art, music and social studies. Through the evidence found in this study, this research contributes with examples of effective strategies to introduce robotics, coding and computational thinking into early childhood classrooms."

The Bebras cards are designed to enable pupils to develop their computational thinking skills, whilst at the same time providing an introduction to more advanced computing concepts. Computational Thinking Each card is aligned to one of the following computational thinking concepts, which are indicated in the top right-hand corner of each card.  Patterns  Algorithms  Logic  Abstraction Task Difficulty The difficulty of the task on each card is indicated by the icon in the bottom right-hand corner.  = Easy  = Medium  = Hard Answers and Other Materials Answers to tasks, ideas for teaching and national curriculum links can be found at: www.bebras.uk Tip: pupils will need an exercise book or a piece of paper in order to record their answers to each activity

"One of the most basic methods of piquing student interest in a STEM concept is to make the subject relatable to another topic they enjoy. Combine sports and STEM to engage more students when teaching these concepts."

"Technology is changing the way we teach and learn at a rapid speed. So, how can teachers make learning more interactive and more fun with technology? True, teachers can make up games to teach a concept that involves every student. But, when teachers need to help students in small groups or one-on-one, how can they make sure that other students are actively practicing subject-area skills? One of the great aspects of having tablets, laptops, and desktops in the classroom is the availability educational apps. With these apps, students can individually learn, practice, study, and have fun with different subjects and concepts. Luckily, there are many good, quality apps for students of all ages. It is important to note that this list is separated into categories, and the apps in each category are not in rank ordered. Here are 116 of the best teaching and learning apps for 2017."

"n the rush to cover standards and ensure students have learned the concepts they will need in the future, it's easy to lose sight of how fun math can be. These three TED-Ed videos offer fun, challenging riddles that can also be explicitly connected to mathematical concepts. The "Prisoner Box" problem is essentially a loop and could be a high-interest way to dive into this topic."

The Bebras cards are designed to enable pupils to develop their computational thinking skills, whilst at the same time providing an introduction to more advanced computing concepts. Computational Thinking Each card is aligned to one of the following computational thinking concepts, which are indicated in the top right-hand corner of each card.  Patterns  Algorithms  Logic  Abstraction Task Difficulty The difficulty of the task on each card is indicated by the icon in the bottom right-hand corner.  = Easy  = Medium  = Hard Answers and Other Materials Answers to tasks, ideas for teaching and national curriculum links can be found at: www.bebras.uk Tip: pupils will need an exercise book or a piece of paper in order to record their answers to each activity

"Peter Farrell spent more than a decade teaching math and computer science. Somewhere along the way, he began using Python to create programming challenges to pair with his lessons. But what started as a way to reinforce math concepts gradually developed into something else - a gateway to a more practical approach to math education. Peter saw how coding projects allowed students to shift from passively learning concepts to actively working, reasoning, and playing with them. In other words, code helped them to go from learning about math to actually doing math. As he says "Why should the science, art, and home-ec students have all the fun? It's about time we heard students saying Look what I made in math class!""

This page makes it easy to find information and resources that are relevant to particular concepts, approaches and strategies. Each Collection is curated to serve a particular need and shares a set of resources pooled from The Learner's Way. In time this set of Collection will grow. In addition to articles from The Learner's Way you will be able to find resources designed to help you get started with the key concepts presented. The aim is to produce a set of resources which are readily accessible and of immediate benefit to classroom teachers and school leaders.