Course Introduction

 

Module 1: Why teach computing at primary and what to focus on?

 

Module 2: How to teach computing at primary level?

 

Module 3: What tools & resources can I use to teach computing - part 1

 

Module 4: What tools & resources can I use to teach computing - part 2

 

 

"Coding is like the new literacy!"

Neelie Kroes, Former Vice President of the European Commission.

Technology is everywhere, if we like it or not. And nearly all future jobs require us to understand it. To respond to this, governments are including computing in national curricula for students of all ages. In the UK already every primary school teacher has to teach computing concepts and in many other countries more and more of us will be required to teach computing or at least integrate computing concepts, ideas and processes into our teaching. So let's get ready for this.

If you are a primary school teacher who needs ideas, tools or resources on how to teach computing, this MOOC is here to help you. We will be exploring the ideas, concepts, processes and skills that are important in computing and then introduce you to the tools and resources that can help you teach these concepts and processes in the classroom.

The course is designed as an introductory course, for you to use as a starting point to explore some of the ideas and tools further. It is relevant to primary school teachers of all levels of experience. A basic amount of knowledge on operating computers and other technology devices is expected but you don't need prior knowledge of computing. The course lasts for 5 weeks and requires around 2 hours of work per week.

The course has been designed by teachers for teachers and will feature interviews, presentations, and activities from teachers, professors, students and computing professionals.

Enrol in the course and join the discussion on our social media channels via the Facebook group and Twitter using #CScourse.

This course is an adapted version of the How to Teach Computing: An Introduction to Concepts, Tools and Resources for Secondary Teachers course. If you have previously participated in this course you will be familiar with a number of sections of the course for primary teachers.

 

Welcome to this course on How to Teach Computing at Primary Level, and thank you for joining us!

To start with, please take a look at the introductory video below, which provides you with an overview of the key organisational features of the course.

 

 

If you have not done so yet, please complete the pre-course survey. You can also add your marker to the course map. You can see the course map and current results of the survey in the next section, allowing you to get to know who you are working with.

In the "Course Introduction Quiz" you will find a short list of questions to make sure you understand how the course is organized and how to successfully complete it. Please read carefully the information below and watch the above video which provide you with all you need to answer the course introduction quiz. Please note that you will not be able to proceed to the main modules of the course until you have passed this quiz! However, you have unlimited attempts so don't worry about this smiley.

Main points to remember

1- Modules & Activities

The course is made up of 4 modules, each one of which includes the following elements:

  • Introduction video: Each module includes a short introductory video explaining the learning objectives and structure of each module.
  • Video Talks, Interviews, Lesson Observations: Each module will feature a number of videos that include presentations, interviews and lesson observations highlighting a relevant topic of the module. 
  • Module discussions/tasks: Underneath each video there will be a place to provide a reaction to the video and discuss issues raised in the task for that section. Make sure to browse what other course participants have said and add your own voice to the discussion.
  • Module activity: This section describes the learning activity to be carried out during the week of the module and focuses on building your learning diary. In the final module you will be asked to draft a lesson plan, add this to your learning diary and then submit your learning diary for peer review. Make sure to check out the learning diary section for more information.
  • Quiz: This section contains a short quiz which you are required to complete at the end of each module, to determine what you have learned during the module. 

 

2- Discussions & Exchanges

As part of the activities, you are welcome to share and discuss materials, opinions or experiences related to this course underneath the videos or via social media channels. While it is not necessary, we encourage you to share your ideas and thoughts via Twitter using the hashtag #CScourse and via our Facebook group. Of course you can also use the course forum to communicate although we recommend to use the discussions below the videos and social media.

Please note that all content on this course and all content created by yourself as part of the course, unless specified otherwise, is licensed under a Creative Commons license Attribution Share Alike. This license allows the redistribution and adaptation of the material for all purposes, even commercially, as long as it is properly attributed and shared under the same license. For more information see here.

3- Duration & Work load

The course will last 5 weeks (each module will last 1 week plus 1 extra week for the final module), from 20th April 2015 to 24th May 2015.

Modules will open each week on Mondays, and will remain open for the duration of the course. You are flexible when you complete the quiz on each module but you need to have all quizzes completed, your learning diary submitted, and two peer reviews completed by the 24th May. In order to complete the peer reviews you need to submit your learning diary by 17th May [UPDATED 11/05/15: THE DEADLINE FOR THE SUBMISSION OF LEARNING DIARIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO THE 20TH MAY. ALL OTHER DEADLINES STAY THE SAME]. 

In terms of workload, we estimate it to be around 2-3 hours per week depending on your level of engagement. 

4- Assessment & Certificate

In this course we will use a mixture of assessment methods. The first assessment method consists of simple quizzes which check your understanding of the material covered. While quizzes can be helpful, we know that this type of closed assessment is limited and therefore to keep more in line with a 21st Century Skills approach, there is an additional learning activity which requires you to keep a learning diary, prepare a lesson plan and submit this for peer review. It is important to complete all learning activities and quizzes if you wish to receive the digital badges and the certificate at the end of the course.

Would you like to know who is behind this course?

This course has been created by European Schoolnet within the framework of the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs of the European Commission.

Any questions?

If you still have a question about the organization of this course, please check the FAQ section first.  If you experience a technical issue, please let us know via the dedicated category in the forum. We will do our best to answer you as soon as possible. If you do not receive an answer after a couple of days, please do send us an email.

Course Timeline & Webinars

Below you will find the course timeline including all the key dates of the course. 

There will be 2 live webinars during the course where teachers and experts who have been working on Computing topics in the primary classroom will present on a key topic linked to the course and answer your questions. More information about each webinar can be found by clicking on the relevant item in the timeline. Details on how to access the webinar is provided in the module that opens in the week of the webinar. All webinars will be recorded and made available as a Youtube video via the course. Make sure to reserve the dates and times in your diary.

The webinars are an optional activity for anyone who wishes to find out more about a topic and to ask questions directly to an expert on the topic.

 

Main Course Activity: Your Learning Diary

What is the Learning Diary?

The main activity across the whole course will be to create your own "Learning Diary" for the course. The learning diary should be a COLLECTION OF ALL ELEMENTS FROM THE COURSE RELEVANT FOR YOUR OWN CONTEXT. 

The diary should include two things:

  1. Your answers to the questions posed during the module (usually underneath the videos). These need to be in English!
  2. Comments, ideas, resources from the course materials and shared by other course participants that you have found interesting or relevant for your own situation. 

 

A good learning diary will display that you have reflected on the questions of the module and that you have engaged with the ideas of others on the course.

Why do I need to create a Learning Diary?

There is a lot of material on the course and there will be even more once everyone starts discussing and sharing ideas and resources. Not all of this will be relevant to your own situation so to counter getting lost, we ask you to create this learning diary. This should be a valuable resource for you should you want to revisit the topics of the course at a later stage and it is also required if you want to receive the course certificate.

In the final module of the course you will be asked to prepare a lesson plan and add this to your learning diary. You then need to submit your learning diary for peer review. The deadline for submitting your final learning diary is the 17th May. As a final step you then need to provide some feedback to two learning diaries of other course participants. The deadline for this peer review is the 24th May. Only once you have completed these steps (as well as the module quizzes) do you qualify for the course certificate.

How do I create my Learning Diary?

You can create your Learning Diary in any way you like but make sure that it can be easily shared and is easy to understand. It is essential that the answers to the module questions on your learning diary are in English. We would suggest that you use Padlet to create your Learning Diary and have provided you instructions for setting up your own Padlet below. As we will be using Padlet also in other parts of the course, it will be useful to get familiar with Padlet early on. However, you are very welcome to use alternative tools to create your learning diary such as Glogster, Dipity, Google Documents or Tackk or any other tool you think works well for this. The example of a Learning Diary you can see below was created by a course participant of another course using the Tackk tool.

Some rules to follow for your Learning Diary

  1. Your first entry should briefly introduce yourself. Tell us a bit about who you are.
  2. Your second entry should briefly introduce your teaching context. Tell us a bit about your school, classroom and what technologies you have access to.
  3. All following entries should clearly identify which Module and which question the entry is linked to. The easiest way is to include the Module number and the question in the title of the entry (see the example below). 
  4. Make sure to include links, photos, videos, documents, etc. in your entries. 
  5. Don't forget to add any interesting piece of content you come across on the course to your Learning Diary.

 

 

Who you will be working with

Below you will find some data on your fellow course participants. As of 17th April we are approaching 1000 participants! This means we are a group with lots of diversity in backgrounds and viewpoints which will be great for the discussions.

At the same time we need to be aware that school cultures are very different from one country to another. That means an idea which sounds like a great solution to us might be less relevant or suitable to you. It's important to keep this in mind as you go through the course and to think about how the ideas can be made relevant to your context. However, that should not stop us from sharing our ideas and experiences, because only by reflecting on how we teach and learn and by seeing how others teach and learn, can we truly develop our own practices.

It is great to see that we have a good mix of experience levels on the course so hopefully you will be able to help each other out with questions and ideas. While a majority of us are working at primary schools there are in fact a significant number of participants working at secondary schools. It is important that we get a variety of perspectives on the issues we discuss so please do not hesitate to contribute even if you are working in a different context to the majority of course participants.

If you haven't yet answered the survey, it takes only 5 minutes and you can access it here. You can of course also still add your marker to the course map by simply clicking the big + button on the map below (top right corner of the map).

 

Course Introduction Quiz

This is just a short quiz to confirm that you understand how the course is organized and what you have to do to complete the course successfully. You need to pass this quiz in order to continue on the course. However, you have unlimited attempts.

Test done

Your result in the test was: 71%

You have passed the test.

Your answers

What do I have to do to receive the course certificate?

What are the passing criteria for the quizzes?

What should you include in your Learning Diary?

If I have a question about the course, how can I most likely and most quickly find an answer?

Participating in the live webinars is required to receive the course certificate

If I have general or technical questions that are not yet answered in the FAQ section, where do I ask them?

What are the two deadlines on the course?