How much do you do in one year?

[Lisa Oldham]

I don't post much(!) but our code club has been going for 3 yrs from just after the launch.

We've been limited by the technology some years, using netbooks that are frustratingly slow on their own but when they all hit the network all at once its hell!   Was our reason for thinking we didnt get as far as we should.

This year however we've had the main computer suite so we expected to zip through the projects but we haven't.

I was wondering how far do other code clubs get in a year?  We always have 2 sets of kids in the group, a group of older codeclubbers and a group of new starters.
We have (due to my lack of organisational skills) always started after xmas so always a term "behind".   The older ones manage to do all the python projects and the new starters get through all the scratch and thats it!

We're having a volunteer meeting next week just to discuss if we need to change the format a bit so I'd like to know how others organise their clubs.  I'd really like to get them all on python for that last term and bring in the raspberry pis but I feel that until they've done a goodly amount of the cc projects they wont really understand what they are doing.

Towards the end of last term we tried HTML projects but it was a complete failure. Nothing worked smoothly enough to keep kids attention.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated! :)

[John Arnold]

I think this is very much par for the course Lisa. I've been running 2 clubs for 2 years now and I'm at peace with the idea that most kids will only ever do the Scratch stuff. I've not even managed to get either school to get Python installed on the computers. So Python hasn't been on the menu at all. We did try the HTML stuff but again limited access to the computers (ability to install stuff, download and create files etc) has made following the worksheets near impossible. Combine trying to mix creatively solving those problems with answering the endless stream of kids questions and it's hard feel like you're making any progress at all.

However, I think it's important to remember that this is an after school club, not a formal lesson. Objective number 1 is that the kids enjoy their time in the club. If all I achieve is giving the kids a sense of how programming works and a general enjoyment of it then I call that a win. Actual skills they can apply in future are a bonus. Also I've found that some kids are more drawn to the art or ideas side of software development. So for those kids I encourage them to throw themselves into that. I try to get them to write code too but there's more to development than just programming.

Also I especially love when our sessions turn from following the worksheets to everyone starting their own project. Last term I had one group making a movie-like story. Another making something like geometry dash, another making a top-down tank game and another working on a totally original game idea. These projects went on for many weeks and most kids got a long way with them. A big part of that was explaining to me what they had in mind. That helped them crystallise what the actual project would do. Or in other words - high level design!

Having said all that I do think there's a lot I could do better. I want to try and have a session in future code club lessons where I actually explain some aspect of programming to the kids. Something they can go and use for the rest of the session. Loops or conditionals, for example. This is made difficult by the lack of any big screen or even white board in the rooms where I hold my clubs. There's no one computer I can use that the kids can see. 

There's also the issue of how computers can connect Raspberry Pis to school monitors. This should be trivial but it's not.

And there's the issue of Scratch version 1 and version 2. All the worksheets are now Scratch 2.0 focussed but most of my kids still use version 1 because getting them to remember their website login and password is too hard. I'm going to try and setup logins for them next time so I've got a record of all their login details.

I have a tonne of thoughts on this stuff and would welcome more discussion with my fellow Code Club volunteers. I want to make these clubs even better.

John

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[Paul Grove]

I must say my experience is very much similar to John's we are stuck with 11" Windows netbooks which are lacking in performance and the screen resolution means Scratch 2 was totally unworkable. We had a new set of children every term although one term we had a mix of new students and returning which was quite a stretch to keep everyone working and answer all questions. With one advanced student I did attempt to start the HTML course but due to network/access issue it was very hard to get work done at any reasonable pace, much to the frustration me and the student. One positive I manager to get old surplus monitors from work which were all 19" and using these at least made it possible to try Scratch 2 with a global account I set up for the club if children did not have an account. The network performance at the school and performance of the netbooks made this painfully slow 50% of the time, it took 5-10 min each lesson to set up dual screen and resolution for monitors on netbooks and that was after the children had to get the monitors from the store room :-(. I started to look at setting up  (at my own cost) a Raspberry Pi network and storage have the PI's mounted on the monitors and all on a single trolley, but unfortunately the teacher could not commit to code club last term so it has stopped :-(

[John Arnold]

That sounds extremely frustrating Paul. Not all schools have those IT issues but it seems like there is a general level problem with poor connection speeds, poor computer hardware and locked down user accounts, all of which gets in the way of teaching. One is tempted to question what the point of having the computers is. 

Just regarding the Raspberry Pi thing: They need a monitor with an HDMI input, which no school has got. You can get DVI to HDMI adapters but most schools don't even have DVI monitors. You also need speakers and keyboards and mice and generally I've found that setting up PIs and finding all the extra gubbins is a non-starter in schools. What's needed is a more complete kit. There are two options I've found. First there's Kano (http://www.kano.me/) which comes with a keyboard with a trackpad and also a rather nice OS. Get the Pi2 though cause KanoOS is kinda clunky and slow on Pi1. Unfortunately Kano doesn't solve the big issue, though, the HDMI monitor. So the second option is a kit called HDMI Pi (http://shop.cyntech.co.uk/products/hdmipi-9-complete-computer-kit) which is a complete computer kit including a Pi2 and a High def monitor. You have to assemble it but it makes a tablet like computer with the Pi built into the monitor to make it into a kind of tablet computer. All the ports for the Pi are available, though getting SD cards in and out can be tricky. I've built 3 of these now and I'm impressed. They're going to make really nice computers for the kids at one of my Code Clubs to work on. The screen is only 9 inches but the kids usually have good eyes. :)

John

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[Lisa Oldham]

Thanks for all the replies.  Very helpful and has put me at ease that we're doing ok!

We've given up trying to get anything installed globally as we have to go through a paid 3rd party which has to be paid for by the school and they always seem to come up with a reason for not doing it, which generally boils down to too much work for little gain(!!). Having said that i havent approached new head about installing everything ourselves and bypassing the 3rd party. 
So we run scratch 2 online and have created codeclub accounts using our club email as the "parent" and then setting passwords for each of them. 
We run python from a shared directory.  It doesnt always work smoothly but as a result the kids are learning how to get round things, which tbh all grown up techies do too! :)

We do run it as a fun club but we also make it clear that they are there to learn so they can't do what they want whenever they want and we wont be a free childcare service!  I know this might make a few take a deep breathe but it must be working as we  have very few drop out(usually at the beginning) and keep 95% of each years intake passing through to the 2nd year. Ive just gone through this yrs list and we have all of last yrs staying with us ( 9 i think) and another 15 new joiners!  Sadly I think I will have to say no to some of them.

John, really interested to see what you develop and also interested in how the classes have developed their own ideas.  Our first year, with the initial scratch projects created AMAZING games.  However since the new projects, whcih are much longer,  we dont seem to get that time or creativity.  I may have a rethink and replace some of the new projects with the old ones.  The old projects seemed to give us a period of time after each lesson to expand and develop ideas. For most of the kids each project seemed to cover 1 lesson, with a few going over to 2.  The fact the fast ones could develop their own ideas at the end of each lesson whilst the slower ones finished meant we could keep them all at about the same level.  Current projects means some are 2 or 3 projects behind which at times is a real strain on our volunteers and doesnt help the slower kids confidence!

I'm also a bit more organised this year so starting in September rather than January!  This I hope will give me a whole summer term of additional not very code clubby projects such as Raspberry Pi work.  Any other resources for that last term would be appreciated. 

Cheers

On Thursday, 23 July 2015 10:57:22 UTC+1, Lisa Oldham wrote:

[linda macaulay]

So interesting to hear all the experiences above, it really helps to put my CC problems in to context. Regarding new ideas we had a series of club sessions on Sonic Pi, it's great fun learning to code through creating music. There are some great resources on the Computing At Schools website created by CAS Master teachers.
Linda

[John Arnold]

I wasn't sold on Sonic Pi. It doesn't do enough. I want polyphonics and more interesting sounds. There's just not enough beyond the introductory stuff. And don't get me started on the *insane* syntax. I regard Sonic Pi as promising but not nearly reaching its potential yet.

John

On Sun, 6 Sep 2015 at 23:07 linda macaulay <lindama...@btinternet.com> wrote:

So interesting to hear all the experiences above, it really helps to put my CC problems in to context. Regarding new ideas we had a series of club sessions on Sonic Pi, it's great fun learning to code through creating music. There are some great resources on the Computing At Schools website created by CAS Master teachers.
Linda

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[Liz Smart]

I tried a couple of different things to spice the projects up a bit so we didn't feel we were always working through a book. When we did the Brain Game I gave everyone a different class within the school to imagine they were designing it for so they had to think about how it looked/sounded and also restricting it so that it was easier/harder in terms of the questions it asked, time limit, speed etc. That way they had to really think about putting their stamp on it rather than just copying but also they had to understand what they were doing to change bits. Because they were doing the extra bits we just said it was a two week project from the start so we felt we had plenty of time rather than feeling we hadn't squeezed it in.

Another one was to give them lost in space finished so that they had an hour to make it their own by understanding the code that was there already and changing it plus using the existing sprites/code to add their own and mix it up a bit. That really highlighted everyones different skills from those who spent ages getting the design just right, to the completely creative, to those who want to do the craziest movements. Last year was different because of the timing everything was released but I was thinking this year we would do Rock Band then have a week playing with Scratch and using the Scratch cards to get familiar with things then for week 3 do this with lost in space again.

From RaspberryPi perspective, I like something Claire Garside does at JamPackedUK where she hacks the PyGames so everyone works in pairs trying to make the games as difficult as they can (controls going the wrong way, characters blending with the background etc) before passing it on. Also Sarah Zaman does some fun minecraft sessions where you use python to get mushroom trails to follow you and tent to blow up as you run. They're both things where there would be no add-ons to buy which is always a plus. I like Sonic Pi too (sorry John) maybe introducing them to the midi notes in scratch by getting them to create a tune there and then moving on to Sonic Pi so its a nice link through.

[Geoff Riley]

Sonic Pi can do polyphany, it's just not obvious.  You either use the 'chord' command or synchronise notes. It took me a while to work it out, but it does work - I expect the average 10 year old would pick it up far more quickly. :)

Geoff

[John Arnold]

Curses! You're probably right Geoff. It totally escaped me. Possible I was in a bad mood that day. I'll give it another bash.

And I LOVE those ideas Liz. Especially the one about making the Brain Game for a particular class. Neat ideas. Personalisation is always more engaging. I'm going to steal that idea!

John

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