Okay folks - end of 2015 and now a six week break!
It has been a busy year all round with lots happening and I think everyone is looking forward to the break coming up.
Thanks for all the fun, laughter and support throughout the year. It has been awesome.
Farewell to the staff leaving us and wishing you all the best wherever you go.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.
Friday, 11 December 2015
Friday, 4 December 2015
Computer Coding and the Hour of Code
December 7th to 13th sees the 2015 Hour of Code run once again. Every student should have the opportunity to learn computer
science. It helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity.
By starting early, students will have a foundation for success in any
21st-century career path. See more stats on code.org.
This app is being offered free as an official app for the Hour of Code - see below.
"Box Island: One Hour Coding - The #1 mobile tutorial for an Hour of Code™. Officially featured by Code.org at https://code.org/learn.
This app is being offered free as an official app for the Hour of Code - see below.
"Box Island: One Hour Coding - The #1 mobile tutorial for an Hour of Code™. Officially featured by Code.org at https://code.org/learn.
Box Island purports to teach kids from 6+ about coding
via a game and it’s currently free on the App Store https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/box-island-one-hour-coding/id1048373739
Take a trip on Box Island and help Hiro collect all the
clocks scattered in the wilderness! In this fun mobile tutorial, students take
part in a journey on Box Island that has been specifically designed for the
Hour of Code™ campaign. Students are introduced to many of the basic fundamentals
of coding through engaging puzzles in the tropical wilderness of Box Island.
Students are introduced to fundamentals such as:
* algorithmic thinking
* sequencing
* pattern recognition
* loops
* conditionals
* debugging
The tutorial is student-led and suitable for age six and
up. The Hour of Code™ is a nationwide initiative by Computer Science
Education Week and Code.org [code.org] to introduce millions of
students to one hour of computer science and computer programming.
It could be handy for getting kids more involved in computers and computer science.
It could be handy for getting kids more involved in computers and computer science.
Thursday, 3 December 2015
Digital FootPrints
Have you ever vaguely thought how 'convenient' it is that the ads that show up on the sidebar of your computer seem to be the sort of stuff that you are interested in? Ever noticed that you don't ever really see anything other than your interests? No? Never thought about it? Well, maybe you should.
The weblink below takes you to a documentary about the web economy and privacy - or the lack of, mainly. It is apparently personalised so everyone watching will have a slightly different experience depending on the computer they are on - and it hopes to make people think about privacy on the web, both theirs and others. Everything is driven by the almighty dollar, and how to separate us from our dollars.
Most of us have no real idea how we can be tracked by our mobile phone or how an advertising network operates, nor do we even really know how much information is being collected about us through our activities on the web.
Check out the link below and see what you think.
https://donottrack-doc.com/en/intro/
And further to that, if anyone is interested, there is a book called 'The Filter Bubble' by Eli Pariser - which talks about how and when Google began customising results for it's users instead of giving a broadly popular result. This quote from the author probably explains it clearer than I can.
"We’re used to thinking of the Internet like an enormous library, with services like Google providing a universal map. But that’s no longer really the case. Sites from Google and Facebook to Yahoo News and the New York Times are now increasingly personalized – based on your web history, they filter information to show you the stuff they think you want to see. That can be very different from what everyone else sees – or from what we need to see.
Your filter bubble is this unique, personal universe of information created just for you by this array of personalizing filters. It’s invisible and it’s becoming more and more difficult to escape."
Hmmm, anyone else see the computers and the Internet taking over the world?? Or is that just me??
(Cue Twilight Zone music here)
The weblink below takes you to a documentary about the web economy and privacy - or the lack of, mainly. It is apparently personalised so everyone watching will have a slightly different experience depending on the computer they are on - and it hopes to make people think about privacy on the web, both theirs and others. Everything is driven by the almighty dollar, and how to separate us from our dollars.
Most of us have no real idea how we can be tracked by our mobile phone or how an advertising network operates, nor do we even really know how much information is being collected about us through our activities on the web.
Check out the link below and see what you think.
https://donottrack-doc.com/en/intro/
And further to that, if anyone is interested, there is a book called 'The Filter Bubble' by Eli Pariser - which talks about how and when Google began customising results for it's users instead of giving a broadly popular result. This quote from the author probably explains it clearer than I can.
"We’re used to thinking of the Internet like an enormous library, with services like Google providing a universal map. But that’s no longer really the case. Sites from Google and Facebook to Yahoo News and the New York Times are now increasingly personalized – based on your web history, they filter information to show you the stuff they think you want to see. That can be very different from what everyone else sees – or from what we need to see.
Your filter bubble is this unique, personal universe of information created just for you by this array of personalizing filters. It’s invisible and it’s becoming more and more difficult to escape."
Hmmm, anyone else see the computers and the Internet taking over the world?? Or is that just me??
(Cue Twilight Zone music here)
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