Date/Time
Date(s) - 02/09/2017
All Day
Location
University of Glasgow
What to EXPECT
The conference brings together a diverse group of educators interested in Computing education from Nursery teachers through to College and University lecturers and people supporting extra curricular activites. If you’ve not joined us before, the conference is a great way to get a hands on with new resources, equipment and environments, meet other educators you can colloborate with in future and gain inspiration for the year ahead.
The broad themes for this years conference are improving diversity through creative computing activities, implementing cyber security, practical support for the new CS BGE Experience’s and Outcomes and Benchmarks, formative assessment for Computing and a chance to influence the agenda for future professional learning and school based research in Scottish schools.
This year we have over twenty different sessions (around half of which are hands on workshops) to choose from with a selection of highlights that include
An opening keynote by the founder of Computing At School in the UK, Microsoft Researcher and giant in the field of Computer Science, Simon Peyton Jones
especially for Nursery and Primary specialists at BGE early, 1st and 2nd levels
- Hands on with Barefoot unplugged activities with one of the creators of the resources and expert Barefoot instructor- Jane Waite
- Working with the CS E’s and O’s and benchmarks- Judy Robertson and Kate Farrell
especially for Primary and Secondary teachers at BGE 3rd and 4th levels
- Diving deep into primary programming- design for quality and independence- Jane Waite
- Hands on workshop of new unplugged activities for teaching the basics of parallel processing- Jeremy Singer and Louise Black
- Developing Computational Thinking with 3D Animations & Games in Alice- Quintin Cutts and Fionnuala Johnson
especially for Secondary teachers for the Senior Phase and FE
- Teaching the level 6 Cyber Security NPA and learners experience of it- George Mullin
- Planning and advice for introducing the level 4/5 Cyber Security NPA’s in your school- Peter Liddle and Gareth Rae
Everyone
Sessions linked to a powerful and free platform for formative assessment of Computing
- Project Quantum- tests worth teaching to?- Miles Berry
- Creating good formative assessment questions for Computing- Project Quantum leader- Miles Berry
Sessions linked to current schools based research
- Hot off the press: latest research in computer science education in schools (2015-17)- Sue Sentance
- “Educators would like to know? Generating questions for future schools based research”- Judy Robertson
and a chance to discuss and help shape 3 early stage projects for new forms of professional learning in Computing for teachers and learners.
We realise that the SQA will be holding development days in the coming month so we’ve made sure that most of the sessions at this years conference complement, rather than just repeat them.
This year we’ve also listened to your feedback and increased the length of sessions, created breaks in between, put on a much nicer lunch, created optional industry keynotes and have seating in the Wolfson Medical Building attrium you can use to catch up with colleagues both old and new.
If you’ve never been to a previous conference before then there’s never been a better time to go!
Format of THE DAY
This year the conference is organised into
- a short welcome and a prize draw and vote of thanks at the end
- two keynotes with a general Computing Education talk and a talk from Industry demonstrating the wider impact and influence of Computing in Scotland.
A mix of different seminar, workshop and discussion based sessions including
- hands on practical workshops available throughout the day featuring Microbits, Barefoot Computing activities, New unplugged activities for teaching key parrallel computing concepts and many more!
- Broad General Education sessions on teaching Computing to Primary and lower Secondary pupils.
- Senior phase sessions useful for anyone teaching National 4 to Advanced Higher Computing Science and equivalent NPA’s.
- Vocational, HE and Industry sessions focused around the connection between Computing education in HE and FE and work within the ICT industry.
There will also be an exhibition space and drop in area where you can chat to others and find out about various Computing resources and equipment.
Conference TIMES
Registration and breakfast will be from 8.30am till 9.30am and the event will close at 4.30pm.
- 8.30am – 9.25am Registration and breakfast
- 9.30am – 9.50am Welcome and opening
- 10.00am-10.45am Session 1
- 10.50am-11.35am Session 2
- 11.40am-12.25pm Session 3
- 12.30pm- 1.15pm Lunch
- 1.20pm – 2.05pm Session 4
- 2.10pm – 2.55pm Session 5
- 3.00pm – 3.45pm Session 6
- 3.50pm – 4.30pm Close, Thanks and Prize Draw
Based on previous years feedback, attendees will be able to choose their own extended refreshment break in the exhibition and seating area during session 1 or 2 in the morning or during session 5 or 6 in the afternoon. All computer and hardware based practical workshops will take place over 2 sessions and are 1 hour and 30 minutes in length and all other sessions will last 45 minutes.
What DOES IT COST?
Tickets for students including those on probation cost £15, computing educators at all levels and people in industry with an interest in education cost £35 and exhibitors £200 which includes a light breakfast, refreshments with tray bakes during the day, a lovely buffet lunch and a wealth of hands-on-workshops, discussions and seminars.
