Use of ICT in Learning and Teaching

Exploring Hello Ruby - a new way to learn Technology, Coding & Computers Date: 19th June 2019/Wednesday 21st June 2019/Friday  This blog post will give you an insight into an interesting way of learning algorithms in creative and artistic ways. This may sound weird but its interesting and engaging like anything. Linda Liukas who is the founder for the HundrED Innovation project Hello Rubi [1],  a children's author and illustrator, who has written 3 books about technology, coding and computers which is based on learning through play, creativity and imagination. This blog post explores Hello Rubi in detail and why there is a dire need to adopt the same approach in schools in Pakistan. So just for a moment think of the traditional and usual way of teaching technology, coding and  computational thinking in schools and classrooms. We usually begin with explaining technology terms  and concepts to kids on the white board, share examples, watch a video, read s...

Why Kids need to learn Scratch - Part 2 Date: 02/10/2018/Tuesday This blogpost is simply inspired from the work kids are doing in Scratch at Ranaa Child Welfare Foundation. The blogpost will share some of the amazing programs kids have been able to make in Scratch through coding with an insight into why kids need to learn #Scratch. Why kids like Scratch? A number of reasons.  Firstly, It has a very user friendly and ease to use interface. Kids can drag in sprites easily from library, change background, add sound from library , even draw own sprites. They can increase and decrease the size of  sprites using the grow and shrink button. Secondly   it's color coded, kids know blue colored code is for motion, purple code represents sound, brown code represents events, green represents various operators and so on. They just have to drag and drop the code in the script area. Third they have learnt how to look for step wise tutorials, learn independently about ho...

Exploring Scratch - Whys and Hows? Date: 26/07/18 -Thursday This blog post is simply inspired from my recent dive into Scratch . I have never been fond of programming and have always found it extremely boring and complicated. It was my recent experience of working in Scratch that helped change the initial thoughts. This blog post explores the whys and hows of introducing Scratch in schools, in  academy's , at home or in any other formal/informal settings.  Scratch is a programming language , developed by the Life Long Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is designed for kids aged between 8 - 16 years but anyone can use it. A colorful and easy to use interface, easy accessibility, ease of sharing in an online community, trial and error opportunity, interactivity , availability of help tutorials and much more has made it a favorite of people of all ages. It is used in more than 150 countries and is available in 40 languages. My first program in Scratch was t...