Publications
This section lists book details, and free downloadable papers related to Computing in the National Curriculum in England.
Books and book chapters
Topic: Scratch
Introducing Computing: a guide for teachers, Routledge, Ed. Lawrence Williams (2014) This book outlines the pedagogy and practice of the Literacy from Scratch project. Review.
Topic: Using Web 2 technologies
Debates in Computing and ICT Education (Debates in Subject Teaching) Paperback – 19 Oct. 2017 by Sarah Younie (Editor), Pete Bradshaw (Contributor) Chapter 8, on using Web 2 technologies to enhance learning and teaching (Cych, Williams, Younie)
Topic: The Computing curriculum in England
Enhancing Learning and Teaching with Technology What the research says, Ed. Rosemary Luckin. Chapter on the Computing curriculum in England (Williams and Černochová). Miroslava Černochová teaches at Charles University, Prague.
Topic: Using ICT across the secondary school curriculum
Learning to Teach Using ICT in the secondary School Ed. Leask Chapter 14 Whole School Approaches: Integrating ICT Across the Curriculum (Williams, Mead (Lorian), Mead (Lloyd) and Leask) Chapter includes community projects
Topic: Scratch 3 and Sibelius music software
Sustainable ICT, Education and Learning IFIP WG 3.4 International Conference, SUZA 2019, Zanzibar, Tanzania, April 25–27, 2019, Revised Selected Papers
A Pilot Teaching Project, “Keeping Safe”, Exploring the Use of “Scratch 3” Computer Coding Files and Computer-Generated Music Files Created in “Sibelius”, to Support Young Adults with Language Learning Difficulties and Disabilities at Lambeth College, in South London , Lloyd Mead, Lawrence Williams, Beth Mead Pages 45-54 Abstract
Papers for free download
“Literacy from Python” Using Python for creative writing. Lawrence Williams1 and Beth Mead2
1 TPEA Specialist Leader in EdTech Education, UK
2 Safeguarded school student, London, UK
How to use Python as a creative tool for cross-curricular learning. Paper accepted for presentation at ICET 2020.
EDUsummIT, established in 2009, is a global community of researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners committed to supporting the effective integration of Information Technology (IT) in education by promoting active dissemination and the use of research. Held this year in Québec City, Canada, the co-chairs, Professors Margaret Cox, OBE, and Thérèse Laferrière wanted to effect a wider dissemination of information, and to this end they appointed a small team. This document, written by the team drawn both from the UK (Cox) and from Quebec, Canada (Laferrière) outlines what was achieved through using a variety of ICT tools.
Marie-France Boulay, Alexandra Espin, Audrey Raynault (Quebec), and Lawrence Williams Co-ordinator: Professor Margaret Cox, OBE
Using the “Literacy from Scratch” project to develop the Computing and presentation skills of students with learning difficulties and disabilities (LLDD students) aged 18 to 24 years.
This paper is a short introduction to STAR, a cross-curricular project using NASA space science data to develop creative writing. This introduction also outlines some of the constructionist pedagogy behind the project. Extensive teacher materials and examples of students’ work can be found here. STAR has uniquely been endorsed by NASA, ASE, ITTE, NATE, MirandaNet, Naace, WCCE, and The British Council.
Music for Global Friendships TES “Teacher” Magazine 5th July 2002
This paper is a survey of a number of international projects with the USA and Japan, using music to create friendship.
A Working Model for Teacher Training in Computing. Key Competencies for Educating ICT Professionals
Abstract
Starting in September 2014, classroom teachers in the United Kingdom are required to move away from teaching ICT, towards new Programmes of Study in Computing, including computer programming. This paper presents a developing international working model for teacher training, designed to support this major change in focus. Conceived at Brunel University, west London, ideas for the development of computer coding in the classroom were swiftly shared with colleagues at Charles University, Prague, the University of Torino, Italy, and De Montfort University, UK. Based on the MIT Scratch program, teacher trainers and classroom pupils are introduced to elementary block-coding, through a highly creative cross-curricular teaching and learning project called “Literacy for Scratch”. This centres on the cross-curricular production of animated narratives, together with the pupils’ own art work, for Sprites and Backgrounds. This, in turn, is supported by a set of three inter-connected web sites: Literacy from Scratch, for teaching materials; World Ecitizens, for pupils to publish their narrative work (some as bi-lingual stories); and MESH, for pedagogical papers which support the process. The project has successfully engaged pupils in computer coding from the ages of 5 through to 14.
Developing Computational Thinking Skills through the Literacy from Scratch project: An International Collaboration
Abstract
This paper builds on the growing international success of the Computing project, Literacy from Scratch, showing how computational thinking skills (mainly algorithmic thinking at this early stage) can be developed through this creative, cross-curricular project. The project is now established in several countries (in the UK, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Pakistan) and it has been presented in several more (in Poland, Germany, Sweden, Turkey, and Korea). However, while it provides an excellent starting point for the development of computational thinking in schools, there is now a clear need to show teachers how computational thinking can be incrementally developed through this project, and underpinned by research. Accordingly, this paper looks at the practicalities of the project itself, and suggests ways in which the Progression Pathways (an assessment framework with a set of incremental skills, concepts, and principles) set out in England by Computing at School (CAS), and researched and developed in the Czech Republic, can begin to be mapped.
A New ICT Learning Model
Abstract
The following paper gives an outline of a ground-breaking collaborative educational project, developed across three continents, and uniting students (aged 16) and teachers in practical scientific work. After a short summary of the Bristol event, written by Ruth Petersen at NASA Glenn LTP, there follows a list of the Space Science Team members from the UK, Japan and the USA. I then give an explanation of the New Learning Model, the aim of which is to integrate the use of a number of ICT tools (the web, email, JPEG files, spreadsheets, PowerPoint, digital cameras, video-conferencing equipment) into a coherent learning framework. This learning process and the use of ICT tools starts and ends with the web, forming a dynamic cycle of activity. The New Learning Model is actually content-free, (i.e. it is applicable to any curriculum subject) and I am therefore, as an English teacher, indebted to my colleagues at Bristol University, and at NASA, for jointly providing the scientific content of this project.
Abstract
This paper outlines a developing international project, currently being undertaken between The Holy Cross School, a secondary girls’ school (11 – 18 years) in south London, and Taichung First National High School (TFNHS), in Taiwan. It follows on from the success of a previous international collaboration, “Science Through Arts” a cross-curricular project, integrating video-conferencing, email, and the web to develop an understanding of space science. The aim of this new English language project is to explore ways of combining IWB technology with cheaper, web-based video-conferencing equipment, in order to enhance the language-learning experience of secondary school students of English, in Taiwan. This model, when properly developed, can then be used to support on-line English Language teaching with many other countries, on a business footing. English teaching thus becomes an economic resource. It has enormous potential. The first phase of the project uses the ClickToMeet video-conferencing web site, and the interactive tools, including IWB, sharing documents, and sharing applications, that it supports. The second phase will explore the use of Promethean IWB, with the use of two classroom cameras (at the front and back of the classroom) which capture the whole experience of student interaction. The creative aspects of the project are being driven from London, and the project is being supported in its research aspects by Professor Hao-Jan Chen, English Department, National Taichung Normal University (NTNU), as part of an MA submission by co-writer Teresa (Shu-fen) Chang in Computer-Mediated Communication. The results, from the student and teacher reviews and questionnaires at the end of each phase of the work, will be submitted to NTNU, posted on the TFNHS STAR web site, and published on MirandaNet (Resources), so that other teachers can benefit from the experience of on-line English language teaching developed though this project. Teresa Chang’s methodology forms the second part of this paper. Both the project and the evaluation are on-going work.
The use of information technology to unify the secondary curriculum – a new model for secondary education
Abstract
The paper is in four broad sections:
A Theoretical Framework
This first section looks briefly at what sort of curriculum we need, as we approach the new millennium - how we prepare students to become active participants in a highly technological world. The need for a cross-curricular model.
The Development of the Model
This section explains how the model came to be developed at Holy Cross School. It is included to show a possible route for other institutions to follow, beginning as a project embracing English and Dance, widening to include Music and Drama, and eventually covering every aspect of the school
curriculum, through the Caribbean Project.
Present Project Work
Here we outline the highly successful Science-based Project on Light. The Project created many links between different subjects on the curriculum:
For “Science” homework, the girls wrote the text for a Drama which they created for the Shadow Theatre which they made in their Science lessons. Circuits drawn in Science were made in Technology lessons. They sang songs about light, for which they had written the words in English lessons, created the Music in their Music lessons, and processed the Music in the Computer rooms. Photographs of Drama were imported into the computer and linked with religious education. Work
on colour in Science was developed in Art lessons.
Recommendations for Institutions wishing to follow this model
Some guide-lines for others to use, when creating similar projects.
Exploring the integration of, and interaction between, the new ICT Tools, to support learning
Abstract
We have seen the new Information and Communication Technologies - email, email attachments, websites and video-conferencing - being used to very good purpose in the support of learning across a wide range of secondary school curriculum subjects (See Poskole ’97, ’98, and ’99).
However, at the Holy Cross School we have so far been exploring the use of these ICT technologies largely as separate tools for learning. The next challenge for us, therefore, is to explore in what ways educational benefits can be gained by working with these tools in combination with each other, so that their different strengths can be harnessed together, to create even more exciting and successful learning outcomes for our students. The first section of this paper looks retrospectively at the cumulative advantages of the Holy Cross cross-curricular model, and the second section looks forward to our newer thinking about the combined deployment of the new ICT tools within this existing cross-curricular framework.
Until fairly recently, the use of video-conferencing equipment has been seen largely as the province of the Modern Foreign Languages Departments in schools, for example, for the fine-tuning of French or German accents. Generally, this work is carried out on a one to one basis and as such the equipment has proved to be a very useful learning tool. However, at Holy Cross Convent School we have been exploring the use of this new equipment across a much wider range of secondary
school subjects. What follows here is an outline of some of the projects we are developing using video-conferencing equipment, our vision and plans for the future, and finally, some general guidelines for using it creatively, based on our own practical experience.
Connecting schools and pupils: to what end? Philosophical issues relating to the use of ICT in school settings. An account of an international project (UK and Japan)