Having Fun with Computer Programming and Games
Presentation Slides: Download the PowerPoint slides for this presentation here.
Lero – the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre, the Department of Computing IT Tallaght and CIO Ireland with the support of the Department of Education Transition Year Support Services are pleased to announce the availability of a set of materials “Having Fun with Computer Programming and Games” for transition year students. The unit consists of 10 modules and of approximately 45 hours of teaching materials. The materials are freely available and can be downloaded at http://www.lero.ie/educationoutreach/transitionunit/
Students learn programming skills, how to work in groups to build computer games, how to conduct research projects and how to present their work to their classmates. Students use Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu), a freely available software tool developed at the MIT Media Lab, to learn programming concepts. Scratch is an easy to use drag and drop interface. Students have working programs in minutes. These programs include games, animations and stories using a combination of graphics, photos, music and sound.
The materials are currently being piloted in a number of secondary schools and the plan is to roll out the materials nationally in September 2009.
Target Audience: Second-level ICT teachers, third-level outreach/retention programmes promoting Computer Science and Software Engineering.
Brendan O’Sullivan is a teacher of ICT at Castletroy College. He is ICT project manager at Castletroy College which has been using Moodle for two years. He is also an NCTE tutor for Web Design and is developing a Transitional Unit for Computational Thinking in association with Lero and the NCCA.
Eamonn McQuade, Professor Emeritus at the University of Limerick. Formerly Professor of Computer Engineering at UL. Has been actively involved in Computer Studies for over 30 years and operated a pilot curriculum in Limerick and other areas as a Leaving Certificate subject. Also trained all the teachers for the programme. Currently working part-time with LERO, the SFI funded Software Engineering project, supporting its outreach Scratch initiative, in the absence of Claire McInerney who is on maternity leave. The "Having Fun with Computer Programming and Games" based on Scratch for transition year students offers a very interesting and enjoyable way of learning about computing in general.