Author: Sinead

Eugene McDonough, Geraldine Exton and Mags Amond gave a really interesting talk aboutCoderDojo.

 

A CoderDojo is basically group of young people who want to learn about coding that gets together regularly with mentors and the children learn about how to make programmes, make presentations on their work in front of the other children and problem solving skills. They learn why a computer does what it does and it’s a practical way of thinking. In this group kids are allowed to be the experts and are allowed to show that they are smart.

There are specialised Dojos.  For example, there is one for autistic children and there is also a female-only group called the ‘Dojo Divas’ here in Ireland.   In the United States there are also some girl-dojos.  Facebook have donated laptops to the dojo groups that  Eugene, Geraldine and Mags talked about today. They then showed us a slide of what the children thought of CoderDojo. Most of the children liked it as they made new friends and they could make their own games and programmes and it was up to you to make it.

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Sínead & Kate

 

 

Chris Hickson is a primary school teacher. Today was his very first time visiting the conference. He came because he wanted to hear others views on the different uses of technology. He said that he is enjoying the conference, and rightly so.

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Steph

Pam O Brien helped organise this conference and helped find many of the 32 speakers. She is a lecturer in maths here at LIT Tipperary, Thurles Campus and says that this conference will give first, second and third level educators a chance to share their ideas.

A conference well organised  !

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Steph

Nicola O Connor is a ScreenWay iPad and computer tech expert , she gave us a great demo and explained how technology is used both in work and ordinary life. A good chat!

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Steph

Ann Marie gave a talk about internet awareness, anti-bullying and the negative impact of certain apps.  She was saying that you should learn how to use technology with your kids.  She said that you shouldn’t block websites as then the children will want it more.  She showed us ‘Aftermaths’ which is a website that you go on and solve maths problems before your granted access to social networking sites.  The more you solve the more time you can have on your chosen website.   She mentioned the three Cs; keep checking, keep communicating and keep current.  She mentioned that even though ‘Snapchat ‘ is great if you have children that live away from you, there are also negative.  People can use it as a way of ‘sexting’ and bullying.

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Kate and Sinéad

While sitting and listening to Mary Jo Bell’s ( @7mjb) talk I realised something , this woman knew her stuff big time. Sure she was a little late starting and showed some stuff she probably didn’t need to. But her talk was very informative and her use of technology in the classroom was superb. A great talk!

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Steph.

Grainne Conole was talking at the conference in L.I.T Thurles about ”learning journeys and learner voices through new technologies.” She spoke about the nature of learning and how it is changing rapidly into technology. She was saying that ”Complexity is the new reality and we are taking small steps to understand it all”. She pointed out that the Internet emerged in 1993 and how it has developed immensely over 20 years. So she questioned what it will be like in 10 years time. Results from a survey showed that children cannot live without technology and that we feel below par if we do not have technology. She said that ”Our teachers don’t necessarily have the computer literacy to teach it” so we need to teach the teachers about technology as this generation of children have grown up in technology. To help this process ‘Metis’ is a learning design for teachers.

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Kate and Sinéad