I started my adventure recently in to a new world, a chance to help educate others, to embrace a new world, not the final frontier but computing (or computer science if you prefer). After many months of promising I would set up a computer club, I got off my so called arse and got it up and running.
Not many people came, but the ones that have are a delight, they have the enthusiasm and passion for the subject. The feedback is positive from the students, they want to get the chance to learn, its just a shame they are in their last year at school. There levels have been so good we are even contemplating getting them through a GCSE!
I try injecting for the subject, I am trying to help them become more rounded students that leave with a multitude of knowledge and skills that may help them develop. Having control over the funding for the kit we want to use is helping me source equipment and look at equipment in an educational manner, rather than being a consumer like everyone else. Its been a great trip so far, though I appreciate it's not teaching as such, and I agree, it's more tutoring. I know what I am and what I am not, i only have a small group and don't have the demands or problems facing today's teachers (thank god).
My methods have gone down well so far, I'm trying to use a variety of mediums, from videos, to creating my website, to jokes, lying, role playing and amazingly enough NO PowerPoint's so far too. I'm a firm believer in the touch and the audio visual learning, because I'm like this myself. So I've took a computer apart and gone through the internals, quizzed students on what things are by providing clues even though they had no prior knowledge. Even those that already are quite gifted are learning, like all teenagers they know so much, but in reality have no experience so don't really know, they just read it somewhere.
I have lied and set their homework to discover what this was, I've explained specifics like cache memory using the allied forces during world war 2 as an analogy. After showing them a geek joke one day, there next session we acted out how both T.C.P. and U.D.P. work by using nothing more than a few sheets of paper as a letter and envelope. After 4 weeks I can already see the levels of the students, their interests and more importantly their characters, learning to adapt around these will keep me tested, that's for sure, the hardest thing will be keeping ahead of them. Listening to feedback from the students and through word of mouth I'm so delighted in the impact, just one mention of a great web resource to learn coding (codeacademy.com) and suddenly all of them are competing with each other. Some are especially gifted and already used Raspberry Pi's and even adapted them to create something useful and made real money! Because of my ethical code, I have explained that they should consider contributing to the authors of programs and the creators of the hardware they are selling, because they are either charities or volunteers working for free. Although I try to have a positive approach, I am also a realist, I remind them of what skills they will need and why (current state of the job market etc).
With computing hitting primary school level curriculum, there are lots of scared teachers, suddenly finding this new topic thrust upon them. It is a big step to expect these educators to learn something before they can help teach our children. It's a very exciting prospect for the children, they will get the chance to learn to code and hopefully change the current social epidemic, to something more aspiring, to become creators. Do I take this change as a positive step that may change the economics of the future? It's a bold statement, but if we can get kids learning like this it could help them develop their learning capacity, the web and computing allows unimaginable prospects for business, wealth, welfare, ideas and careers. Never before has it been easier to set up a business, schools are full of helpful people, kids have meaningful ideas that are usually for the greater good.
I for one write this in the hope I can look back in 10 years (this leaves ample time for anyone currently at primary to go through the school cycle) and see I helped predict a good future for all of us. God knows we all need it more than ever, the financial inequities of the past haunt my generation, we are forced with compromises in our future pensions; in our current pay; in our employment terms. Computing could be what engineering was in the past, Great Britain, proud of what our country once was, a land of hope, a land of respect, a prosperous nation. Viva la revolution.
