[Yr11 Information Technology] Computational Thinking

[Roland Gesthuizen]

I'll just reshare some of the reflections below from NCSS Challenge champions Nicky and James. Apologies for any cross posts, just scroll down for a gander.

Note of the free accounts offered to teachers. I just used this at our college to get some teachers on board who might not have otherwise engaged with learning how to program. Why not submit a request and share an account with an Info Tech student teacher? Really worth checking out and there is still time to enrol your students. Hoping that my 40 enjoy the challenge :-)

—
Roland GESTHUIZEN
http://about.me/rgesthuizen

On 4 Aug 2014, at 8:38 pm, Nicky Ringland <nicky at ncss.edu.au> wrote:

> The NCSS Challenge started today, with thousands of students across Australia, New Zealand and the world participating in an online programming competition that teaches participants to code as they compete.
> 
> We'll be giving out a few free accounts over the coming few days for teachers who are excited to join in, have fun and develop professional skills. This might be of particular interest for those of you keen to engage early with the Digital Technologies curriculum (notably "processes and production skills", especially around 'Designing' and 'Implementing' - 4.5, 6.6, 6.7, 8.7, 8.8, 10.7, 10.8).
> 
> There is a range of streams: including our brand new 'newbie' visual programming course (based on Blocky), and three Python courses from Beginners to Advanced. All streams of the Challenge are supported by a veritable army of tutors who can give 1:1 feedback to you and your students.
> 
> We'd love to have you join us for PD or just for fun - send a quick email to info at groklearning.com and we'd be happy to send you a free teacher all-access subscription so you can check out our resources, and of course, participate in the NCSS Challenge. Additionally, there's still time for your students to participate as well - you can subscribe them anytime this week!
> 
> http://groklearning.com/challenge
> 
> ---
> NICKY RINGLAND 
> Outreach Officer | National Computer Science School | http://www.ncss.edu.au
> PhD student | School of Information Technologies | Faculty of Engineering and IT
> THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

On 1 Aug 2014, at 11:17 am, James Curran <james at ncss.edu.au> wrote:

> Can I just add that the first week of the NCSS Challenge is a friendly week (worth no points), so you can definitely still sign your students up next week – in fact, typically have a lot of new registrations in the first week.  Since we can invoice the school, you do not need to have the payment completed before you and your students start the competition.
> 
> If you've not seen it before, check out the new Newbies visual programming stream.  It uses Blockly (like code.org's Hour of Code activities), but we've modded it a fair bit, including the ability to see the Python code that your visual program is equivalent to. We hope it will be a great way for students in Year 5-6 (and perhaps Year 7 depending on previous experience) to learn to code.
> 
> We look forward to seeing your students in the Challenge!
> 
> thanks, James
> ---
> DR JAMES R. CURRAN | Associate Professor and ARC Australian Research Fellow
> School of Information Technologies | Faculty of Engineering and IT
> Director | National Computer Science School | http://www.ncss.edu.au
> LT Research Leader | Capital Markets CRC | http://www.cmcrc.com
> THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY





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