Teaching IT - Ideas?

Tommo3434343

Hi guys,

I'm teaching IT for the first time and I was wondering if any of you have any good resources or ideas that the kids might enjoy (15-17 year olds) for a 1 hour class. Thanks in advance.

doc_17

Tommo3434343 wrote: »

Hi guys,

I'm teaching IT for the first time and I was wondering if any of you have any good resources or ideas that the kids might enjoy (15-17 year olds) for a 1 hour class. Thanks in advance.

The Blockly Maze game is nice wee thing to try. That'll get you a few hours of fun and an introduction to programming

BailMeOut

check out Coderdojo resources

https://coderdojo.com/resources/

Tommo3434343

Good stuff guys. All other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Darwin

If by IT you mean coding/software development, here are some general ideas that might be of interest:

1) A short Javascript course for absolute beginners

http://opentechschool.github.io/js-beginners-4h-workshop-1/page1.html

2) A more general introduction to programming using a visual tools (drag/drop as opposed to typing code)

http://studio.code.org/s/1

3) As mentioned above, Blockly games (by google) - solving game-related problems using visual tools

https://blockly-games.appspot.com/

4) If the students are up for bit more of a challenge, Python is a great starting language to learn:

http://www.codesdope.com/python-introduction

mick kk

Codeacademy - create a teacher account...kids can join up without an email address. It is fantastic and kids help eachother out and follow the on screen promps.

Alcoheda

I really wish someone had exposed me to python at an early age.

judeboy101

Teach them how to attach files to emails, use cloud drives, excel, PowerPoint, word and prezi. When they a proficient at the basics then teach coding. "Its more important to be able to drive a car, than to be able to build a car".

moc moc a moc

Alcoheda wrote: »

I really wish someone had exposed me to python at an early age.

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Notorious

The company behind Scrath (a very basic method of learning programming), have games made for the annual Hour of Code. Specifically there's an Angry Birds version and a Minecraft version that most of my students took a liking to.

theLuggage

A few sessions on binary code might be interesting for them

stanley1980

Would appreciate any suggestions folks might have here. I've a 6th Yr LCA group for computers 3 times a week. I also had them last year and to be fair got a fair bit done with them e.g. CV, reports, presentations etc. This year I've found my creative juices have run out though! I know there's a LCA 'curriculum' but let's face it, much of this is obsolete and you could complete all the assignments in a week! I like giving them little projects to do but as mentioned am really running out of things to do. I made a list of assignments for them in september thinking they'd take all year but they're nearly finished already!

BailMeOut

stanley1980 wrote: »

Would appreciate any suggestions folks might have here. I've a 6th Yr LCA group for computers 3 times a week. I also had them last year and to be fair got a fair bit done with them e.g. CV, reports, presentations etc. This year I've found my creative juices have run out though! I know there's a LCA 'curriculum' but let's face it, much of this is obsolete and you could complete all the assignments in a week! I like giving them little projects to do but as mentioned am really running out of things to do. I made a list of assignments for them in september thinking they'd take all year but they're nearly finished already!

One skill that is very important but lacking in a lot of candidates and employees is basic CMS. Being able to create and edit online content with images in a way that it looks good on all platforms and then be written in a way where you maximize search (or SEO). These are very useful skills for anyone to have and very easy and fun to learn. You can use platforms like Wordpress.com or Blogger.com to do all this one.

Mardy Bum

BailMeOut wrote: »

stanley1980 wrote: »

Would appreciate any suggestions folks might have here. I've a 6th Yr LCA group for computers 3 times a week. I also had them last year and to be fair got a fair bit done with them e.g. CV, reports, presentations etc. This year I've found my creative juices have run out though! I know there's a LCA 'curriculum' but let's face it, much of this is obsolete and you could complete all the assignments in a week! I like giving them little projects to do but as mentioned am really running out of things to do. I made a list of assignments for them in september thinking they'd take all year but they're nearly finished already!

One skill that is very important but lacking in a lot of candidates and employees is basic CMS. Being able to create and edit online content with images in a way that it looks good on all platforms and then be written in a way where you maximize search (or SEO). These are very useful skills for anyone to have and very easy and fun to learn. You can use platforms like Wordpress.com or Blogger.com to do all this one.

LCAs are able for office and that is about it. Show them how to use excel and publisher properly. Teaching LCAs coding is a waste of time.

mick kk

code.org.....click on "hour of code"....then select "frozen" or "mine craft"
No teaching involved but lots of learning. Students should be allowed work in pairs when doing this.
Great fun. If they get stuck on a level they can skip it by clicking the next "dot" along the top line.

evolving_doors

Maybe dealing with data/stats in excel for charts trends!

dory

Mardy Bum wrote: »

LCAs are able for office and that is about it. Show them how to use excel and publisher properly. Teaching LCAs coding is a waste of time.

You don't have to code to be able to set up a Wordpress or Blogger site and make it pretty. I think making posters, ads for campaigns and stuff would be handy for them. I had a TY computers a few years ago and I used give them a movie poster and a tutorial of how they could make that poster. Just googled online tutorial and they'd have the poster and instructions. It made them understand how most things people learn with regards computers is self taught using online tutorials.

If you have the equipment you could also get them into video and audio editing. Even instagram would work for that. They could get the idea of putting a video together using the new thing they have where you can record, pause and record something else and it all ties together. Then move from that to iMovie or whatever.

stanley1980

dory wrote: »

You don't have to code to be able to set up a Wordpress or Blogger site and make it pretty. I think making posters, ads for campaigns and stuff would be handy for them. I had a TY computers a few years ago and I used give them a movie poster and a tutorial of how they could make that poster. Just googled online tutorial and they'd have the poster and instructions. It made them understand how most things people learn with regards computers is self taught using online tutorials.

If you have the equipment you could also get them into video and audio editing. Even instagram would work for that. They could get the idea of putting a video together using the new thing they have where you can record, pause and record something else and it all ties together. Then move from that to iMovie or whatever.

Blogging?That sounds interesting- I'll take a look. I like your movie poster idea but tbh I don't have the necessary skills or knowledge myself!(I have no background/qualifications in IT). Last year I got them to design a basic website for an imaginary company on wix.com which worked quite well. Do blogging sites use similar templates and you just fill in the content?

BailMeOut

Mardy Bum wrote: »

LCAs are able for office and that is about it. Show them how to use excel and publisher properly. Teaching LCAs coding is a waste of time.

no coding needed for basic CMS work. It is just blogging and content management and a great skill for anyone to have.

Simply use Blogger or Wordpress.com and get the students to post and edit online content for events and news at the school. They will need to learn how resize and crop images as well as understand what they can use publically without creating any copyright issues. Learn how to get Google to crawl their blog and see who can get their post listed highest on search after a few weeks.