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Ex-Student views on Computing April 30, 2008

Posted by Mark Tennant in : Computing, Dunbar Grammar, Uncategorized, future of computing , 2comments

I got an interesting email from a former student of Dunbar Grammar who went on to study Computer Science. He had seen some of the press coverage about the future of computing and decided to let me know his thoughts. He’s kindly allowed me to reproduce the contents of his email here.

Hi Mark,

I saw your letter in The Herald last week and thought I would write a short note of encouragement/support.

I left Dunbar Grammar School in 2001 to study Computer Science at Edinburgh University. My formal Computing education up to that point consisted of studying at Standard Grade for about two weeks, before deciding it was far too dull and defecting to Technological Studies. (A friend of mine from the same year also went on to study CS at Edinburgh. He didn’t even bother trying Standard Grade.)

So I am very familiar with every point you made about the computing curriculum and how badly it represents computer science. I don’t know about the current curriculum but when I took the subject there was no programming and no mathematics in the subject. In maths I had to know how to derive the quadratic formula from first principles; in physics it was velocity, acceleration, current and voltage; and technological studies added the properties of materials, stresses and strain. But in computing? As ever, word processing, databases, and more databases. It was treated as an “easy pass” subject at the time, totally at odds with its higher-education cousin.

I’m glad that you and others are making noise about this. I flirted with the idea of teaching maths when I left university but didn’t even consider teaching computing. How much has the curriculum changed since my day?

If there’s anything you think that a recent graduate with an interest in promoting their chosen subject can do, please let me know! I was fairly keen on the computing aspect of things at school (I designed and administered the school’s first website back then, as well as running a Silver Surfers club in S6) and I’d be happy to get back into the advocacy role! :-)

On a lighter note, I found your blog and noticed you posted about getting an Eee PC. I got one last week and they’re awesome…

Cheers,

D

Thanks D, the encouragement and support is much appreciated.

Subject Promotion posters January 24, 2008

Posted by Mark Tennant in : Computing, Dunbar Grammar, East Lothian Council, Subject Support, Uncategorized, future of computing , 2comments

Now that course choices are starting to get nearer I have decided to make up some flyers/posters this year to promote the subject. I’ve posted the PDFs below if anyone wants to use them - I can send the MS publisher files on request if you wish to adapt them.

Happy selling :-)

Web2 in Computing - CPD session 1 March 9, 2007

Posted by Mark Tennant in : Computing, Dunbar Grammar, Subject Support , 1 comment so far

East Lothian Computing teachers had their first session with Ewan McIntosh of LTS today; part of a three afternoon programme of CPD activities looking at Web2 technologies and how they can be used to enhance learning and teaching in Computing.

The session consisted of a demonstration of the best technologies Ewan has discovered during his time at LTS, covering sites such as flickr (and splashr), google docs, phixr, and jumpcut.  We also had time to discuss ideas about using these in classrooms and practical problems such as bandwidth issues.

One big theme emerging was the idea of having to teach pupils how to use all these technologies safely and responsibly.  I’ve been one of a number of people to raise concerns about this in the past, and it was good to hear Ewan talk about these issues and the importance of tackling this through education.  I couldn’t agree more with his sentiments that we as computing teachers are best placed to do this in the curriculum, and it is surely a duty of our subject to make sure all pupils can keep themselves safe online and not abuse the technology.

Over the next couple of months (the next session is on 11th May) computing teachers have been invited to try one idea in their classrooms that uses a web2 technology. I’ll shortly be setting up a google doc, so that we can document what we are all trying out in one place!

Watch this space!

Tweed Valley MRT Mountain Challenge June 15, 2006

Posted by Mark Tennant in : Dunbar Grammar, Mountain Rescue , add a comment

 

I meant to blog this the day after it all happened, but as per the last post, just been too busy!

Every year,
Tweed Valley MRT (
our nice neighbours) hold a 24 hour Mountain Challenge, and boy is it challenging: 40 miles, 10,000ft ascent. Ouch. Anyway, I’ve completed it for the last two years (21 hours 2005, 18 hours 2006 … 2007?). What really impressed me however were theat no less than five former pupils of DGS took part this year: Andrew Maddox, Steven Low, Ben Mincher, Ian Thompson and David Bower.

The five pupils have no doubt raised hundreds of pounds for a very good cause, and are a credit to Dunbar Grammar - well done lads. Only two managed to finish the challenge, but all five done very well, in fact they all got further than even I honestly expected.

My personal highlight of the challenge was meeting up with a nice fellow from Duns, who would become part of the challenge folklore. Half way round, he lost his ankles. they just disolved, vanished, disappeared in a large pool of blood. No joke, they were the worst I’d ever seen since I managed to hospitalise myself breaking in a new pair of boots by trekking across two munros! (note to self - bad idea). I had to patch them up on the hill - only half way round remember - using the only first aid kit I had - two wound dressings and a flask of 12 year old Glenfiddich. Amazingly, he finished the walk! Certainly a braver man than me!

 

 

Anyway, I’ll leave you with a couple of photos from the walk: The ankle-less man, and four of our former pupils at the finish line, proping themselves up against the first thing to hand!!

Busy Time! June 15, 2006

Posted by Mark Tennant in : Dunbar Grammar, personal , add a comment

Well, what a shock I got today: I was aware the weblog was slipping as the end of term starts to get hectic, but I just had a quick look and seen that it was actually April when I last posted! So much for ‘at least once a week’ that I had aimed for when I started this. Oh well…

Of course, one of the main reasons things are getting busy, is that I am off to Yosemite in just over a weeks time - along with 3 great colleagues (name checks for Gillian Williams, Alice Clubb, and Ciaran Earle) and 21 students. It’s an experience I am certainly looking forward to, as I know the pupils are. Now that we are all in the process of packing it has just started to dawn on me how close it actually is! It’s quite inspiring to talk to people like Gillian who were on the trip two years ago and see how many good memories they have of Yosemite, Martinez and San Fran. Speaking to
Don Ledingham too, it was so obvious how much he enjoyed Yosemite Valley in particular. Don’t worry Don - I’ll have my camera and be up at the crack of dawn too :-)

Anyway, you can follow our progress at the weblog Alice has set up for the trip. I’m sure it will be a fantastic experience for both staff and pupils’ a real trip of a lifetime for many of them.

Wicked WIKI! April 26, 2006

Posted by Mark Tennant in : Computing, Dunbar Grammar , add a comment

 

dgscomp.wikispaces.com

I have been working with my S3 class just now on revision, how quickly the exams come around! Normally I would encourage pupils to create and share revision notes and questions to try and brighten up what can sometimes be a dull time in class, with endless past paper work, revisiting old topics, writing lots of notes, and so on. However, I have decided to try something different this year: a Wiki!

For those of you new to the idea of Wikis, it’s quite simple: essentially it’s just a group of web pages that anyone can edit and add content to. Exc-el already has a Wiki site
here . My hope is that this will encourage the pupils to research topics both in class and at home, then add to the Wiki. Initial results seem quite promising, as you can see if you visit
our Wiki.

Revision Games March 22, 2006

Posted by Mark Tennant in : Computing, Dunbar Grammar , 1 comment so far

With the S3 exams starting to creep up I have been spending some time with my class talking about revision techniques this week. I have found this a good opportunity to try out some of the interactive games I have been developing, particuarly the excellent
Content Generator software, along with old stalwarts like
Hot Tatties . :-)

I’ve also found a good (English) site that demonstrates the possibilities with this technology

 

- Although designed for the English GCSE, KS2/3 and
DIDA courses, some of the content is very relevant to the Scottish curriculum too. I’ll be encouraging my S3 to try the site out.

I’m also attempting to try out some online collaboration and course handling software called
moodle . Although a steep learning curve, it seems to offer lots of potential, as well as customisability. The real bonus is that it’s also available at my favourite price - free! I’ll keep you posted on how the experiment develops.

Anyway, this bottle of wine ain’t gonna finish itself (I’m avoiding pubs ’till Sunday to show my support for the smoking ban - I must be one of very many people in the country that will have their health harmed by this ban; I’ll spend more time in the pub!!!) I’ll leave you with two little games I made up for my S3s.

Tioraidh!

Shared Network Drives March 16, 2006

Posted by Mark Tennant in : Computing, Dunbar Grammar, East Lothian Council, Subject Support , add a comment

Got some great news today courtesy of Rod (Adam?) at the IT department - he posted a response to my weblog entry regarding the shared network drives for each subject. Many thanks for taking this forward and updating us Rod. I am certain that the ability to easily share resources between schools will be a great asset to all subjects. I’ve quoted Rod’s entry below, in case you missed it first time around.

“A file server for this purpose has been in place for some time. An initial attempt at coming up with a structure and permissions for the server got caught up in committee hell. I have been trying to revive this with Rob Lewis who wants to use the server to share info with admin staff in schools. I’m hoping that I will get the go ahead to let staff start using the Subject area in the next week or two, an email will be sent to all school staff when this is ready.”

Busy Sunday & reflections on homework. March 12, 2006

Posted by Mark Tennant in : Computing, Dunbar Grammar , add a comment

Well folks, I’ve certainly been busy today! Managed to get woken this morning at 6:30am by the #@!&#$ beeper, only for the callout to be cancelled 15 minutes later (as I’m bundling myself, half dressed, a rucksack, boots and jacket into a car. That reminds me: really need to tidy it out. Anyway…)

Having got out of bed I decided I may as well do something productive. First task was to continue writing some new homework materials for the higher computing course. For the past two years I have been making do with various booklets and exercises in the public domain, as well as some past paper questions from the old higher computing course. I don’t feel this is doing the pupils justice and without doubt they have not had any settled homework routine in the subject this year.

I have always placed a great deal of emphasis on homework as a teacher. I firmly believe it can make a difference to the majority of pupils in what they attain. It gives them autonomy over their learning, develops a positive work ethos and teaches them to be self-disciplined learners. From the teachers’ point of view, it makes sure pupils are at least doing some level of revision each week and perhaps also taking topics further than would be possible in class.

Many teachers, I have no doubt though, believe they are simply swimming against a tide of apathy when they issue homework, with many pupils well aware we cannot legally punish them for not doing it. However consider this: In the past two years only one pupil in my two standard grade classes has failed to submit homework; in my current S3 class homework has been late from a maximum of two pupils per week, and on over half the occasions all homework was handed in on time. So how have I achieved this? It would be difficult to go into huge levels of detail in a blog, but here are some of the things I consider to have helped towards this.

Of course, that is just a snapshot of what I’m doing to promote homework in my classes and the department. If you want to discuss these ideas further then please
get in touch .

Hot Potatoes CPD February 28, 2006

Posted by Mark Tennant in : Computing, Dunbar Grammar, Subject Support , add a comment

Rather disappointingly I had to postpone today’s CPD session on creating an online learning resource after some of the participants had to pull out. Guess it’s just the time of year when we are all under a lot of pressure. Thankfully I had (just!) managed to finish the course booklet and collect together some other resources, but the postponement will at least give me more time to develop some more materials. If you can’t wait another two weeks though, you can download the tutorial
here .

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