Ashdale PS - Winthrop Australia Ongoing Professional Development

To start the school year, the Year 4 students learned to use their devices to create a set of 10 guidelines for online communication, sharing and collaboration by posting them to a Padlet wall. Students learned to firstly, identify their groups, contribute an appropriate guideline and give feedback to fellow groups in order to be able to choose 10 to propose as a draft for consideration by the school. The Padlet wall was created through the teacher's account and the guidelines will be provided as a QR code when they are needed. The students were excited yet sensible in creating their guidelines. Well done Year 4 classes!

Aiming the Sphero before programming. Sphero EDU app is on MacBooks too. Testing and observing Sphero's commands and movements in the Solar System. Measuring distances to scale between parts of the Solar System to put in the code for Sphero. The Year 4's continued their learning of coding by coding Sphero robots. In groups, students were provided with a Sphero SPRK from the 12 that are in the Sphero kit. They then used the Sphero EDU app on their devices to create a guide of the solar system with Sphero using sensor data charts generated by the app. This enabled the students to operate and familiarise themselves with the basic commands of Sphero on their devices in preparation for the Sphero Design Tech Challenge. The students collaborated well during the task, researched and shared a great deal of knowledge about the solar system, including the great debate about Pluto! Great to see so many budding young Science investigators Year 4!

The Year 4's recently learned how to create algorithms (sets of instructions) using the Scratch Jr app on their devices. A natural progression from their experiences developing computational thinking with BeeBots, the students worked well using block code programming language to solve set challenges. The students did very well at creating loops (or repetitions) and branching with their programmes and linked their coding in the app to their learning areas such as Geography by making a guide of the continents. Well done Year 4s!

The students recently had the opportunity to immerse their senses in Virtual Reality (VR) experiences with the VR Kit. The kit enables images, videos and Augmented Reality (AR) models to be experienced in virtual reality. The headsets were pre-loaded with experiences such as scuba diving underwater, human heart AR models and World War 1 trench life documentaries to provide engaging insights into HaSS, Science and Languages topics for a few minutes per experience (as per the manufacturers recommendations). The students were extremely motivated to pursue their experiences further.

The Aim was to Teach BeeBot to Write Numbers Correctly Writing Algorithms for Testing with BeeBot Some Groups Reached the 2 Digit Numbers Challenge! All Groups Provided Evidence of their Successful Codes The Year 4 students learned to code with robotics recently. In groups they learned to use the commands on a BeeBot robot to write algorithms that would teach the BeeBot to write numbers correctly. To do this they integrated their knowledge of measurement of distance, writing and place value with computational thinking to write their algorithms and then test them by coding the BeeBots. Many groups collaborated well to write, test and document their algorithms in a Book Creator eBook.

Grid Paper Background. Snap-to-Grid Setting Enables Students to Create Clear Graphs. The students in Year 4 learned to use their devices to collect, represent and analyse data with their devices. Firstly, they decided on the data they wanted to collect to inform a product idea. They then collected it by interviewing and tallying responses within their class. Thereafter all students learned to create a representation of their data using Book Creator app by setting page backgrounds relevant to creating graphs and using the pre-set shapes to represent data values that were accurate, labelled correctly and even coloured to enhance analyses by themselves or others. The students were then able to answer questions about the data to inform their imaginary product choice.

QR Code to Padlet Wall with Stop Motion Resources Story Boarding for Stop Motion Animations. 2D Drawing for Birds-Eye-View Shooting 3D Side Angle View with a MacBook 3D Side Angle and Positioning for Consistent Lighting Lighting from Behind the Lens Lighting and Background Designed for Generating Effect The Year 4's learned how to create their very own stop motion animations to enhance a creative writing piece they had been working on. Initially they learned the technical aspects of photography such as lighting, camera angles, the 6 lens shots and the rule of thirds. They were then guided through the aspects of stop motion animation photography such as story boarding for film, character development for film, lens stability, materials for character creation e.g. claymation, scene and frame transition effects and background design as outlined by the Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI). Students, then learned how to shoot and edit the hundreds of ...

This blog provides a window on the ongoing Professional Development programme with Winthrop Australia being conducted in 2018. The focus of this blog will be on digital products and processes developed that integrate Educational Technology with the curriculum of the learning areas at Ashdale PS. Please feel free to share any element of your journey or seek further ideas from others via the blog.