House on the Hill

Thursday, 25 July 2019

Coding html lesson 2

https://youtu.be/BOUqGW5QUl0

Wednesday, 24 July 2019

Staff Training Communicating with Groups

via https://youtu.be/FHBcedvUupQ

Tuesday, 23 July 2019

Counting Machine with Grade 5 to 7

Listen to this on Soundcloud.

This gives you some idea of what we have done in our lesson on the 23rd of July. This transcription is being read by Raveena, using Narro.

What do we do after logging into Purple Mash. What is the first thing to do? We go to the activities that have been set first.

The Counting Machine Activity

Today's activity has a repeating Activity; called the Counting Machine activity. You find this listed in the 2Do section of Purple Mash, the red clipboard button. You should know where that is -afterall you have been interacting with Purple Mash for some time.

In the Counting machine activity we produce a number sequence. We bring up different numbers, one after the other, as if counting.

First read the instructions that go with the activity. We read it: we are to make a counting machine. We use a button called the count button.

When you, click on the count button, something will happen. Clicking on the count button makes the number in the result increase by one. That means the resulting number will go up, by one, its called incrementing.

Knowledge at the Start of an Activity

A help video is shown, when you start a new challenge -this is a video that allows gives you some knowledge, at the start. This is very helpful as you start with some knowledge, if you choose to watch that video. It is useful to watch a video before you start an activity. By watching the video you get a better understanding and more knowledge that you can use, to do the activity.

The video will feed you information, providing you with a better understanding of the expectations involved in doing the activity.

The Help Video.

The help videos can be accessed whenever you are stuck; through the blue button, with a white question mark. You will find the video provides, a link through the hints, which is even more helpful. However, a warning does pop up; it will indicate that points are deducted, for using this help Video.

What the warning pop up means.

This pop up warning is only linked to videos in the hints section. The Purple Mash videos tell you a lot more about the activity you're doing; though these videos should only be a last resort if you really are stuck. We should attempt to try do the tasks all by ourselves, first.

Test your abilities -see if you have the ability to do the Purple Mash activity, with the least amount of help. But, If, you do get stuck; it is quite okay to go to get help. You are welcome look at these videos.

As you get better at coding, you will become more skillful; so you will be able to do more of the hard work -without relying on help of any sorts. We do not want any learner to become lazy and reliant on help, just because its easy. This has them not wanting to work, as the answer is there. This type of thinking is a problem; it that comes up, especially with having help readily available, at the press of a button. We lose the ability to try do it by ourselves. So its important to understand when and how we interact with the helpful videos.

The counting machine activity repeats; you do it for two more weeks. I am hopeful that you are going to get to the point where you don't need any help, as you'll know exactly what to do.

Making what we learn understandable.

This will help you to become more confident, and lead you on the road to becoming a more creative person and a better coder.

In the first challenge, we, click on the count button. The name of the button already gives us some idea about what the button does; that is the button counts. In my previous lessons I highlighted the important practice of naming things properly; your code should describe itself. What I am trying to say? We must make our code understandable. Otherwise it is difficult to read.

The code must say what it does. The bits and pieces, the blocks in your system of code must be descriptive. Descriptive means it is meaningful, understandable or readable.

We use a count button -which Triggers off some code, on the click event. Then a number is shown. The number displayed is the result of the Onclick event. We call this number the result -the number is what's going to be shown.

We call the code in count block, when we click on it. The number which we called is the result. The result goes up, by one, each time we click on the count block.

I would encourage you to go and experiment with the various options i.e., the set to, subtract and multiply options. These four methods are shown in orange. Each of these does something different to the number and result.

Be a computer scientist. You can experiment see the changes in the result, through the operation. We must experiment try out these different option -choosing multiplication or subtraction too.

Building Challenge after Challenge.

To move on to the next challenge, the results will be showing, a result that keeps on showing an addition of one. Every time one more than the last click, by clicking the count button.

We start off with the number 0, the default value of the score. On clicking on the count button, on the first click, we would add 1 to 0. That first click would give us a result of 1; then on the second click event, we would display 2 as the resulting score. Each click is adding 1 more; so we will be display a sequence, 3 on the 3rd click, 4 on the fourth , 5 on the fifth click and so forth and so on.

I hope that you enjoy the activity. I will post more of what was put across in the coming post.

Monday, 22 July 2019

Information technology and education

Meaning from the mystical

Consider the comparison and situation that exists within the current. Refer to the discussions with Andrea's Baron about this aspect of networking. here we considered the vague and obscure features of meaning. These are only features of a more

Seeing Networks

A further interest using Dimitry's network systems -linked to sociograms. Some of our thoughts have been captured on the whiteboard and placed onto the system computer.

Football Activity 23rd July 2019

Football Challenge: A lesson covered by Grade 6 and 7 classes on the 23rd of July 2019. Listen on Soundcloud

The Help Button.

To get help, when using Purple Mash, we use the blue button which provides us with relevant help videos. Remember: by going to the blue button and the hints shows us how to complete a challenge -with help. Our aim is to eventually get to do it all by ourselves. We use the videos as a help, for now; though later we carry out our work without help. Our experience will grow, being helped, will feed other areas of learning. Just do not make the mistake of relying on help. Remember that your goal is to be able to do it all by yourself. Come on code and try to understand what logic lies there. Computers have got a lot to teach you -as you interact and control how they work.

Logging in to Purple Mash

You need to do the activity posted in the 2Do section of Purple Mash. This is where you start. The activities that are posted are carefully chosen by your teachers. So you are going to need to log in with your username and password. Logging into the system allows us to link what you do -as the machine registers who you are.

Variables being Created.

We are covering the use of a function variable in the football activity with the Grade 4 to 7 learners, you now have gone through the way to do it. You can refer back to the videos that are posted inYoutube, linked this activity. The Football challenge is a more complicated activity; the lesson focused on variables -the type which function.

Repeating Activities

You may have noticed that the Football activity is being repeated on a weekly basis. Do not get confused, if you see this football activity coming up again and again. Repeating activities that are assigned on a weekly or two weekly basis. This repeating of an activity is to deal with a task that is more complicated; in this Football Activity you are creating variables, with relevant names, positioning and set the speed of the ball.

Repeating as Practice

The reason why the football challenge is repeating is to give an opportunity to practice, You will see and begin to feel more comfortable -especially when you understand how to do the challenges. That knowledge will help you get high marks, fed through the redoing of this in the future repeats of our Football challenge. You will use today’s experience to engage with to push up your abilities to work through the activity tomorrow (in the future).

Careful Analysis: Learning

Another pointer: the complications of this task makes me ask you to go over it carefully -don't rush through it. If you rush through the activity you finish quickly, though will not necessarily master and learn as much.

You learn more: by thinking and communicating with the machine, through the code -building your understanding. It is important to understand the logic -seeing how the pattern works; especially considering what happens when you put the pieces together in some sort of system or organization.

Seeing Systems

The components, our code blocks need to be organized i.e., positioned in the right place. By seeing the pattern taking form, getting to use it creatively; that is how you will understand coding -most coding languages have something in common. This means getting to know one way of communicating feeds a different way -based on what they have in common.

Time while doing Activities

There is the right way of thinking about computer programming -defined by the language. The ability to be creative only becomes easy when you invest enough time practicing -then it is not difficult. If you rush through the tasks, you are going to finish quickly. But real understanding has a different approach -it requires more time.

Rushing helps to finish -though its not a sacred rule to find what is best to learn -smart, creative people have worked through the activity thoroughly and thoughtfully. There are among us people that finish quickly, thinking or believing that is the most important way; yet understanding takes time. Its why people spend such a long period of their life at school learning.

Real learning involves thinking deeply about what you are studying; it gives you the means to take your level of understanding further into the depths of the subject. This understanding feeds into other areas of your life. That is how you become a real expert.

Skills and Knowledge

Your speciality or set of skills is based on what you can do; its what you take into the world -where it becomes valued like all the other objects. You will get to see these skill sets are bought in the economical world we live in. That skill set that you develop takes its place in the world of valued things. You could use what you know to create valuable things e.g., having a robot moves its arms to carry out an operation like open heart surgery. Doing open heart surgery is considered a highly valued skill. In that case it has code moving or directing the mechanical parts in established ways -through what it is taught.

Computer Science in the Modern Era

If you do not have any skills, you're competing in the unskilled work force. Usually the coders are well regarded: as people with a 21st century skill set; many think that they are super, mathematically inclined. Many see the complex pattern -linked into mathematics- which is established in the hierarchy of disciplines. In most cases they get a lot of money -especially as computers, automation &c., take dominating positions in the economical world we live in.

The field of computer science is becoming more established -it is reflecting the modern world we live in. All jobs have become taken up about computer coding, automation in some way or another.

Approach in IT Lessons: being adventurous

I want you to think deeply about what we are doing in our coding classes, experiment a lot more, change variables, move the code blocks and so forth. Get to see into the how the working organization of code blocks is affected by breaking its working system. In the Football activity we should be thinking carefully about the impact of friction; seeing how different numbers play on restricting the ball's movement.

They might not see that you will see computers as energy transforming forms -they alleviate the drudgery of hard work. You can already see through this huge transformations in the future. All right, unofficial intelligence tool; you can already see how technology is changing our world, your life. Computers are recordings and expressions of what we do.

Concentration

Concentration and learning are affected by person distracting another from the focus of attention. In our Football activity the user is calling a function; this function which resets the speed and position of the ball. The ball also engages in colliding with the goal post, as well as the wall. The collision event makes the goal count increase by one.