I designed this unit with the aim of introducing young students to the fundamentals of programming, in the hope of helping them to view programming as a discipline built on logic and sequential processing. Theory is kept to a minimum,  with students asked to learn …

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http://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_stewart_how_youtube…

Copyright is an area of immense interest for me: I cannot say exactly why, but I think it is to do with the interplay of creativity, reward and culture. I mostly think of copyright as being a battle between the content creators and content …

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I love comics, and am often amazed not only by how funny they can be, but also how much can be learned from them. Growing up I was a regular reader of Calvin & Hobbes, The Far Side and Mad Magazine. As I …

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http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/gever_tulley_on…

As a parent and a teacher, I am keenly aware of the need to provide children with a safe environment in which to grow up and learn. However, at a certain point, too much safety begins to deny children the opportunities to assess and …

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http://www.fastcompany.com/1614807/puma-and-yves…

Puma’s “Clever Little Bag” is an interesting approach to the issue of packaging and waste. Rather than having a complete box, which consumers will put into a (usually disposable) bag to carry home, the design combines a cardboard skeleton in a reusable bag made …

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http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/04/robotic-buggy-takes-stunning-photos-of-african-wildlife/

This ingenious project uses readily available hardware to allow photographers to get up close to dangerous, wild animals. It is a great idea to get students to think of different ways to attack a problem, and to ask them to foresee what might go …

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These stickers are used with a class of up to 30 students to simulate how a TCP/IP network (such as the Internet) functions. The key concepts here are IP addressing and packet switching. Students are arranged into intranets, each with a number of PCs, printers, …

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This collection of 10 interesting photos can be used to stimulate students in a variety of ways. For instance, in small groups they can be asked to produce a story based around any 5 of the pictures, in any order, which can then be presented …

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http://storybird.com/

Storybird is a site that allows you to create short, visual stories that you can share on the web. This is a great tool for encouraging creativity through digital storytelling.…

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http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/rives_tells_a_story_of_mixed_emoticons.html

This video is really interesting; and comes to the heart of how we use language as a social semiotic (i.e. a socially constructed set of common meanings and understandings). Language is changing. How can this be used in teaching? Get students to write a …

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