Appathon–Day 2 and My BETT Weekend

So day 2 came to the appathon! It was 1pm and everyone had to pitch their ideas to the competition. There were presentations from all of the educators around the world. There were some really good ideas from everyone. My personal favourite was from a set of twins from the Ukraine. There names were Oleksii and Oleksandr Tebenko. They had an idea for a brain training game which allowed people to use match sticks to train their brain. They had memory games to help students remember things as well as games where students could draw an image.

Another fun game which was good was from Adrian Nita from Romania. He made a really cute game which had maths games and monsters. The idea of the game was to get past monsters by answering math questions. It seemed like a really fun and I could see students really relating to the game. He had made all of the graphics himself and the monsters were a really engaging touch.

Bram Faems had a really good idea. Bram was from belgium. His idea was for children telling their parents about their day. It was called “Honey how was your day”. I really liked this idea. Bram did not manage to get his concept complete but his idea was very useful. Many students come home from school and parents don’t know what they’ve been up to. His idea would be that the child can take photo’s from their day and talk about what they’ve done. He talked about autistic children being able to show what they’ve done and being proud. Not all children are able to communicate effectively and it is essential that they have some means of communication. I really liked this idea.

After we had all presented our ideas, the winners were announced a dinner later on. Everyone’s applications were reviewed for their educational impact, concept and there was also a prize for our favourite we had voted for. The winners were:

• Evgen – Overall Winner
• Oleksii and Oleksandr – Peoples choice
• Tommy Maher – Best Concept

The overall winner received a Microsoft Surface and the peoples choice and best concept received a windows phone. It was so amazing to be around all of these people and I am more determined to use the TouchDevelop platform now.

Back to work I go! – Wednesday!

BETT SHOW – Presenting On Thursday

Thursday was a very important day for David Renton and I. We were up to present on the Live Learn Space (D). We were presenting about our use of the Kinect to engage students and the use of Kodu and Touch Develop. We were presenting as 2/5th of the K-Team. We had got together last year after our passion for the Kinect. We also have Stuart Ball to thank for bringing all of us together. I kicked off the presenting with some information about Kodu.

Kodu is a really engaging tool which enables children to start programming from a very early age. It is visual programming language which allows children to make video games in a 3D environment. I talked about it’s importance in education. It is useful for all subjects, not just computer science. For example, you can use Kodu to build trenches and you can relate this to history.

Moving on from this we talked about the launch of the Kodu Kup! The competition is open to all 7-14 year old students and teachers need to join and create a profile on the Partners In learning Network. Once the teacher is happy, they can make their chosen submission to the competition. Students will need to design the cover for their game and they will also need to work in a team. Find out more from the link above.

Now it came to the fun bit of the presentation. We had a few glitches with the Kinect picking up co-presenters behind us, however we managed to get all bugs sorted once we had set the stage up appropriately. We talked about how engaging the Kinect can be and I included results from my own classes to support the impact.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the presentation and we were truly honoured to have Anthony Salcito the Vice President for Microsoft Education Global watching the presentation.

We were able to show the relevance of gamification and also the engagement from students through both video and demo. David Renton showed us all his games he made for the Kinect to help improve students math skills and I was able to show my applications to enable students to use the Kinect with the whiteboard and Global Telescope.

David also showed the audience to a live demonstration of his X-Games. It is an amazing tool which allows students to use Xbox controllers to ask questions to students in the lesson. I have used this with my secondary school students and they love using it in lessons. It makes them work well in teams as well.

We had some really positive feedback to the presentation and have had some good followers and contacts since.

BETT SHOW – HACKATHON / TOUCH DEVELOP

So, finishing presenting Me and David had some unfinished business around the BETT show. I had to find out some information for computer science implementation and I also wanted to find out about extra tools which would benefit class rooms at Uppingham Community College. I must say, I was slightly disappointed by the lack of information on computer science. But then me and David stumbled across the Stone Computers stand and the Hackathon they were doing.

Each day members of the public were invited along to build an application for education. It could be wacky or fun or anything which would benefit education. Me and David Renton decided to build applications. We had some ideas which were used on previous platforms and decided to adapt them for the touch-develop platform. David Made a game based on his Kinect game Maths Mage and I decided to make a Math game based on a spelling game I had created before. We spent most of the day talking to people about the touch develop platform and it was nice to introduce something to new programmers and new teachers to computer science.

By 4:30 it came time to show our applications to people. David presented his Maths Mage and I presented my Honey Pot Math / French game.

The judges went away for deliberation and it was nice to have celebrity Johnny Ball there as one of the Judges. He was explaining the importance of applications being relevant to the subject and he thought that applications should aid the learning. He also said that applications need to be careful not to “gamify” everything. He said that some games can lose their relevance to the subject and then students end up concentrating on the game rather then the learning. I agree with him to some extent but at the same time students need to want to play the games.

The winners were announced and the winner was an amazing application by a group of lads. They had built an application to aid the memory. It had games which would test the order or completion and they would also test the memory of where things go or match. It was a good application. I was very surprised to be announced the runner up! My application was picked for 2nd place and I win a digital mini printer. I am very thankful to be a part of this experience.

Thank You’s

The first person I would like to thank for my epic week would be my wife. She has been without me for most of the week and has had to put up with the constant texts of excitement from the BETT show. Thank you for all of your support!

I would like to thank David Renton who is a great guy! It was nice to finally spend some time with him for a change. We are constantly talking across miles! Scotland Vs England…. or Scotland Vs UK… inside joke there! Thanks for a great time and we had a great presentation bud!

I would also like to thank the principle at Uppingham Community College, Jan Turner. I have only started my role as a Lead Practitioner for ICT at Uppingham and she is so supportive to allow me to go to these events. Thank you.

Following on from this, I would like to thank Stuart Ball and Lee Stott whom were both a huge part to this week being such as success. They are a big inspiration and have encouraged me to try different things with the partners in learning network.

Microsoft Appathon–Day 1

Today I was lucky enough to be invited to the Windows 8 Appathon. 21 educators from all over the world were invited to Microsoft in London. All of us educators were invited to three Virtual Universities in October, November and December. These were ran by Jonathan “Peli” de Halleux who is a Software Developer at Microsoft Research. He is working on Touch Develop. This was a real change in direction to what I was used to. Many of my applications In the past were Kinect or C# related. It was nice to sink my teeth into something new!

Early December, each of us submitted a mock up presentation for an application we would like to build. I decided to build a spelling application for children. It would allow them to work through their spellings on their mothers or fathers mobile phone. We all know how busy we can get so it’s nice to have something “on the go”. I titled my application “Spelling Bee” and then allocated a theme of honey around it. Students could catch honey pots once getting 5 of their spellings correct. It was time to go to the appathon and attempt my design in full!

The event kicked off with everyone arriving from their different countries and introducing themselves. Taryn Bennaroch and Kirsten Panton kicked off the event explaining the idea behind the Appathon. Getting actual teachers to build applications for devices. As Kirsten says, some may think it is a “Wacky Idea” but after a day with all of these educators I have many ideas for future applications.

Manuel Fahndrich was up next explaining some useful tips for use with the touch develop plat form. He was a fountain of knowledge with touch develop and the support for educators was second to none. There were educators from all different paths including P.E, Science and Maths. Not all of the teachers were from a technical background like I.T or Computer Science.

Our agenda for the day was to use the next 24 hours to build an application to help educate children in a number of different age groups. We were given the support and the demonstrations from the Microsoft Experts. These were very helpful and they were able to come around and help with any coding issues.

There was further support from a chap called Sam who was very in touch with his computer science. He was able to spot errors made through code and was also useful for pointing me in the right direction.

The 24 Hour app continued and we were able to work through our applications at a steady pace. Microsoft were very supportive and allowed us to use Slates and Mobile phones for testing. It is important to get the correct format and it is important to make sure that the applications ran across platforms.

It’s getting late so I’m going to head off to bed but not before letting you see what I’ve managed to come up with today. I have attached a video which shows you some of the functionality. I’m hoping to make some adjustments to the code tomorrow and I’m hoping to include “revealing” of the actual spelling. It is important for people to know why they’ve got the spelling wrong. I would also like to record the spellings so that people can understand the language a little better. Have a look at the attached video below.

I look forward to updating you tomorrow with some presentations on other educators. There have been some amazing ideas from the various teams include chemistry, maths and learning needs applications. I would like to thank Microsoft in advanced for inviting me to the Appathon and for giving me the opportunity to meet so many switched on educators. I would also like to thank Uppingham Community College for the support in building the application. I now look forward to showing some of my students how to build their own applications!

If any of you have any questions about the use of touchdevelop.com, please email me at chambers_r@ucc.rutland.sch.uk

Touch Develop Application–Windows 8–Spelling Bee

To find out more about touch develop, please visit www.touchdevelop.com . You can sign in using a Microsoft Live ID, Google or Facebook account. Once you have signed in, you can start building your own applications immediately. The great thing about it is that you can even look at other codes and libraries available so that you can build your own applications!

Windows 8 Appathon

As part of the Microsoft Innovative Educator Program a number of educators were invited to join Microsoft’s Partners in Learning Appathon Competition. I was lucky enough to be one of these educators. The competition is a pilot year which aims at getting educators to make innovation educational applications on the Windows Platform. You can find out more about the appathon by visiting the web site.

Each of the educators attended 3 virtual university sessions where we would learn how to develop mobile phone applications. Once these sessions had finished, each of us were encouraged to develop a mock up idea for a windows application. The great thing is, none of the educators would need programming knowledge before hand! They would only need an idea. The most innovative ideas would be put through to the competition and they would attend an “Appathon” in London.

My idea was to make a spelling game for children on the go. Parents do not always have the time to go through words with the children. I remember when I was at school, I would get a tin of words to learn. This application would check students knowledge of simple spellings. If they get it correct they would get a point. I would even use a bumble bee for it. I named the application “Spelling Bee”. When a student gets 5 points, they would have the opportunity to play a bonus game for extra points! Following these virtual universities, we submitted our ideas. I was lucky enough to be one of the educators picked! I’m so excited about the opportunity and I have even started teaching myself some extra bits of code here and there. You can see the work which has been done on the bonus part of my game.

If you’re interested to see the start of my idea! Check out the video below! I have explained “some” of the code for you. If you’re interested in using this, then please let me know and I will give you some quick tips. I’m hoping to develop some of my own tutorial videos very soon. This will allow you to develop mobile phone applications with KS3 and KS4.

The sample below is only one part of the game. The educational aspect such as the spelling is to come soon! I’m very excited about the opportunity and will keep you updated with what’s to come!

Spelling Bee–Bonus Game

From Logo > to Kodu > to Mobile Phone Applications

MSW Logo

So if like me, you have been teaching ICT for a number of years, then you’ll realise how quick things have changed over the years. I remember when I was at school in year 8… I’m now 26, our ICT teacher had us using MSW Logo and the turtle which crawled around the carpet. This was awesome, it helped our maths and there was a cute little turtle going around the floor. It also helped students understand basic programming skills such as repeat. Many of the students didn’t realise the steps which linked into programming. Years on and I start teaching ICT and some students are still using logo. It was like a blast from the past.

Kodu

Since starting my position at Uppingham Community College, I’ve started introducing something a little different to the students. I have introduced Kodu. Students are learning the basics of programming with comparisons such as greater than or less than. They’re learning simple computer science such as “When” something happens, the reaction is “Do”. My year 7 and year 8 students absolutely love it! We’ve started an extra curricular club at lunch times and some of the year 7’s are even helping out year 10 students. The students have really got to grips with this and are have made many different types of games. These are from shooting games to old arcade games such as Pac-Man. The only difficulty with Kodu is that you can’t create your own characters. Saying this, why would you need to with the range of different characters you have. My students write their stories behind their games as if the characters are evil beings from space. Give a student enough imagination and they’ll do anything!

In case many of you aren’t familiar with Kodu, you can see a clip of making a quiz in the video below. Students are able to make similar games.

Kodu Interactive Quiz

The Future

Now that my students have become masters at Kodu, I can’t help but think that the students should get their teeth into something else. This is where TouchDevelop comes in.

Touch develop is a great tool which allows anyone with a WindowsLiveID to build mobile phone / tablet applications. You can log in using a Facebook or Google account. The great thing about it is that you can build some really simple applications to begin with. For example, I’ve attached a video which shows you how to move a pen up and down and how to repeat. These are basic instructions which were included back in the day with MSWLOGO. The great thing about this is that our students have a much bigger imagination. Our students are able to build applications which we wouldn’t have thought off years ago. I’m currently starting to develop a scheme of work around the use of this. Check out an introductory video below to see the effectiveness off this.

Some of the functionality:

• Swipe screens
• Type in user input and react based on what is typed.
• Make games
• Link to other services

So this now leads me to believe that if students can grasp Kodu, then why not something like touch develop! I’m going to start trialling some KS3 lessons soon and I’ll let you know how they get on with it! I.T is changing for the better and there are more programming opportunities out their for students. As I.T specialists we need to grasp these opportunities and move our students away from some of the basic “PowerPoint” scenarios which are floating around. I am looking to develop a scheme of work around “TouchDevelop”. Once it is ready, I will uploading it for your own enjoyment.

Check out the short video tutorial below in order to see how you can get your first application running.

Quick introduction to Touch Develop.com

 

Appathon!

Following on from three Virtual Universities, I was expected to submit a Mock up design which would allow students to improve their education. My subject specialism is I.T, however I decided that it would be much more beneficial, if I designed an application for anyone to use. I design an application which allowed students to take spell tests. They would be able to try out difficult words and they would be able to play games based on the score they had. Upon gaining 5 points, they would be able to play a game and continue until they received a high score.

I received an email this week saying that I would be one of the 21 educators through to the event in London. The selection of educators was worldwide and I am honoured to be one of these.

I will keep you updated in time with my development ideas and I will let you know how I progress in the competition.

Computer Science GCSE

So, early last year… you may remember seeing Michael Gove in the news talking about the need for more computer science within schools. With all of these changes up in the air, I felt that it would be good to start preparing resources ahead of anything that may happen.

It is good for students to learn more about the workings of the computer and it’s even better to understand how to approach it. I have decided to make some simple videos to introduce both teachers and students into Python. These video tutorials will show you how to use the latest version of Python 3.3.

You will then be able to follow on from these video tutorials and you will be able to go and start expanding on what you’ve learnt. You can use the documentation which comes with the software. You will be able to find those resources here.

Now many of you have been moving towards computer science. AQA have been offering a healthy approach to the course which includes links to Microsoft Academy and it includes free resources. I have been delivering this course through a webinar. If you’re interested in finding out more information about training for computer science. Click here.

You can preview some of the video tutorials I have prepared below and you will have a rough idea of how to use Python. I hope this is useful to any teachers who are going to start progressing towards computer science.

Introduction to Python 3.3 Programming

Reading in text using python 3.3

Writing text to a file in python 3.3

Multidimensional Arrays–Python 3.3

Using Float, Int, String–Python 3.3

Else If Statement within Python 3.3

Kinect Maths–Early Stages / Source Code

You will remember a month or two back, that I started working on a Kinect Game. The idea of the game was to use more active gestures to answer questions in Mathematics lessons. To use the game, students will calibrate their custom movements for addition, subtractions, multiplication and division. Once they have answer the questions, It will give them a sound if correct. If they have got it incorrect then it will give the students an error noise.

I have decided to hide the operator so that the student must guess what symbol they should be using.

To use it, you must click on the drop down menu and then press the calibrate button. It will count down to 1 and then the student can start recording their movement. Each movement should be unique in it’s own way. For example, I wave my right hand for addition, left hand for subtraction, clap for multiplication and then move my arms up in the air for division. I have noticed that it doesn’t always give you the count down. If it stalls on 3 then start moving your arms and you will notice it start recording.

It has taken me a while to get most of it together but there are still a few bugs in it. I’m looking to add more features into the game such as scoring and timers in the corner. This is the early stages and it might help others who are trying to use custom (dynamic) gestures.

I have programmed it to store up to 4 gestures, however you can adjust it to include more.

You can download the source code from here

Press the play button below to preview the video of it being used.

Kinect Maths–First Release… adjustments to come

Kinect Quiz–Source Code

Hi Guys,

So I have had a few requests over the summer from a number of people asking me for the source code the quiz. I have been trying to modify it so that it runs smoother and I have slightly adjusted the head, hand movements. If you have any questions about the running of the code then you can email me at my new email address: chambers_r@ucc.rutland.sch.uk.

Now that school has started back I’m looking to get back into the coding on the Kinect and I’m looking at starting a number of projects within my new school with the Kinect. I thought that a good way to start the new school year would be to improve the code slightly. I have a few things up my sleeve but this should keep people new to the world of the Kinect on their toes.

I’m currently looking at re-developing this quiz to change it into a format you will all be familiar with (Who wants to be a millionaire)… watch this space.

Click here to access the source code