Primary School Computing

I have had an interest in this for some time as my kids have been getting bigger. For a number of years the primary schools computing curriculum had a focus around ICT, learning Word and Excel and the like, and not programming. In next years curriculum the focus is moving to problem solving and creation of 'dynamic' content and away from just the usage of technology products. I think this will encourage much more involvement and understanding.

I do have some concerns that small schools will struggle to deliver the full breadth of the new curriculum. Teachers are very busy and rightly focus on the basics. Finding the time to develop the skills need to deliver this teaching and arrange the provision of the necessary resources will be a stretch for many.

The curriculum includes the safe use of computing resources, how to gather and organize  information as well as programming. It is not prescriptive in these areas - which could lead to a variety of approaches with different levels of effectiveness.  The codeclub approach to the programming elements looks very useful. For example for 9 year olds the resources cover the graphical Scratch programming tool, website creation and a simple text based programming language called Python (Python skills can later be used on the Raspberry Pi). 

After a two year pause while the new curriculum has been put together some schools will have neglected their hardware while others I know have made big investments in tablets and PCs. Some of the approaches to provisioning hardware have costs which are not always apparent at the start. Desktops need a lot of management and even the best 'Apps' will have limits and costs. The Chromebook approach might be the most cost effective route for many schools. The machines are less expensive to purchase, the management much easier and the resources free or inexpensive. The 'Cloud' as a development space is becoming more capable and simple. The current version of Scratch is best accessed in its web based version. Python & Ruby can be learnt easily in web hosted ways. 

I have not tried the Raspberry PI yet. While it is an inspirational device I think it has some drawbacks for teaching programming in an educational setting. The fact that a separate screen and keyboard and in some instances a protective case are required is a problem. This is a lot of clutter. Some schools may want to re-cycle old peripherals: it should be noted that there is no VGA connector on the PI so a separate converter would be required to use an old monitor. If very old keyboards are being used than a PS/2 to USB adapter may also be required.