FW: Norfolk CAS meeting last night
Neil Collins
Hi all,
Sorry – please comment on the attached (slightly updated) version of Rudy’s document.
Also if you want to see what he’s got in mind, take a look at http://www.uea.ac.uk/~rjal/sprogs.wmv.
In the meantime, I’m off to see how you can scroll a background in Scratch J.
Neil
From: Lapeer Rudy Dr (CMP) [mailto:R.La...@uea.ac.uk]
Sent: 07 November 2011 16:39
To: Gasse, Sebastian; Neil Collins
Subject: RE: Norfolk CAS meeting last night
Seb,
I’ve also sent the accompanying document last Friday – attached again in case
you didn’t get it.
Rudy
From: Gasse, Sebastian [mailto:sebasti...@norfolk.gov.uk]
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 4:35 PM
To: Neil Collins
Cc: Lapeer Rudy Dr (CMP)
Subject: RE: Norfolk CAS meeting last night
Neil,
I can give this out at the network and send it out to the mailing list. Do you want me to include any other promotional text?
Seb
Sebastian Gasse
Senior Adviser (Secondary)
Education Strategy and Partnership Development Team
Norfolk County Council
Professional Development Centre
Woodside Road
Norwich NR7 9QL
O: 01603 307714
M: 07876 137936
T: @sebgasse
also on GTalk, Skype etc
From: Lapeer Rudy Dr (CMP) [mailto:R.La...@uea.ac.uk]
Sent: 07 November 2011 13:31
To: Neil Collins
Cc: Gasse, Sebastian
Subject: RE: Norfolk CAS meeting last night
Here’s the link with the video: http://www.uea.ac.uk/~rjal/sprogs.wmv
Rudy
From: Neil Collins [mailto:Neil.C...@metaswitch.com]
Sent: Friday, November 04, 2011 4:52 PM
To: Lapeer Rudy Dr (CMP)
Cc: Gasse, Sebastian
Subject: FW: Norfolk CAS meeting last night
Hi Rudy,
Have you made progress with the Scratch competition definition? We set today as a deadline for this to give us enough time ahead of Sebastian promoting it on the 14th.
Cheers
Neil
From: Neil Collins
Sent: 13 October 2011 19:39
To: Neil Collins
Cc: norfolk...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Norfolk CAS meeting last night
Hi all,
Excellent Norfolk CAS meeting last night I thought – sorry it ran over. The highlight for me was definitely seeing what Jim’s year 8 pupil had done with Scratch. There really aren’t many subjects where a pupil would take something learned in class and spend hours and hours working on it at home – not because they have to, but because they want to. If we do nothing else but inspire a few more like that I don’t think we’ll be going too far wrong!
Anyway here are my notes, including actions, so please shout if I’ve got anything wrong or missed anything.
Google Group
If you’ve not done so already, can I also give you a gentle nudge to sign up to the Norfolk CAS Google Group (http://groups.google.com/group/norfolk-cas-hub). It’s probably the easiest way to get emails to people and now we’ve got some real projects off the ground – keeping in touch is really important. To remind you, once you’ve joined you can send email to norfolk...@googlegroups.com and that’ll get to everyone registered.
Also, don’t be bashful – please tell your friends!
Summary
Summarising a very interesting discussion we really identified two key areas we could work on in the near future:
1. We want to promote the use of Scratch in Key Stage 3 and to help with this we’re going to have a competition across Norfolk (with £1000 prize fund so far – thank you UEA and MetaSwitch!).
2. For Key Stage 4, we think that an important thing to do is build up teacher confidence in teaching programming for Computing GCSE so we’re going to launch a free “Learn Visual Basic” night class/self help group.
Details and actions as follows:
Scratch Competition
Outline idea is
· teams of up to 4 people from key stage 3
· called something catchy like “Scratch Off” (thank you Stephen!!)
· writing a game (or some such) – possibly to be played by 8 or 9 year olds
· max 6 teams per school
· we’ve got £1000 prize fund to get 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes plus a trophy for the winning school
· announce by 14th Nov (Seb’s subject leader day)
· get expressions of interest by 1st Dec
· run through Spring term with judging to be done at big event (ideally at UEA) on the afternoon of either 27th or 28th March
Goals:
· Light the spark of interest in some kids.
· The more schools that take part the merrier but we’re aiming for at least 10.
Actions as follows:
· Neil – finalise prizes (gadgets or Lego Mindstorms or something) by 4th Nov and venue (probably UEA).
· Rudy – get outline idea for competition together by 4th Nov and finalise by 1st Dec
· Robin/Seb – promote the completion to high schools across Norfolk
Learn Visual Basic Night Class/Self Help Group
Outline idea is
· get teachers confident enough to teach VB as language for coding examples in GCSE computing
· run a night class (say 7pm-9pm one day per week during Spring term)
· Neil to lead but lots of self-help too
· host somewhere in Norwich (Thorpe St Andrew if Claire can swing it)
· try to make it free for attendees (so long as they’re teachers and could use it to promote computing at their school)
· use VB as it’s free, widely used and fits well with use of Excel/Access in ICT.
Goals:
· Get, say, 6 to 12 teachers involved.
Actions as follows:
· Jim – get spec for what level teachers need to teach to (and co-ordinate with Mike Quantrill from Neatherd – copied on this email)
· Claire – try to organise hosting (ideally for free)
· Neil – lead classes
· Claire – promote the course to other teachers in Norfolk (using Seb as conduit).
Next meeting is at the UEA again (thanks Vic, Pam, John and Rudy) on 7th Dec at 4:30pm (I’ll schedule in Event Brite). As I mentioned at the last meeting, schools please try to bring another school along to this meeting if you can.
Thanks all.
Neil
Norfolk CAS
Google Group : http://groups.google.com/group/norfolk-cas-hub
Email : norfolk...@googlegroups.com
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