Chapter 22: Teaching Coding, Technology & Computers using Hello Ruby - Part 2 D

Chapter 22: Teaching Coding, Technology & Computers using Hello Ruby - Part 2

Date/Time: Friday 26th July 2024 2:45 am & Saturday 27th July 2024 3:33 pm 

This is yet another interesting blog post about an interesting online training session about “Teaching Coding, Technology and Computers using Hello Ruby”. The post will focus on the first training session on Hello Ruby. As shared earlier the ideas are inspired by the Hello Ruby books and website.This is also a continuation of the  previous blog post. I am sure after reading the two posts more participants would want to join the online sessions and have a great learning experience. 

The next task in the session was discussing loops. This is also a very difficult and tricky concept to explain to students in Computer Studies. Since I have taught Computer Studies to students for a long time, I know how challenging it is to teach technical concepts. This begins with a thorough understanding of  the term “algorithms”. In the previous task in this session the participants tried building clarity about algorithms by writing some interesting algorithms about daily life routine tasks for example how to fry an egg or how to boil an egg. I thought it was easy to build understanding of loops using the examples used in the previous task.

So I asked the participants what if they had to fry 10 or 20 eggs? Or what if they had to boil 10 or 20 eggs? Would they repeat the same process 10 or 20 times? Would they be accurate every time? Would they make mistakes? Would they get tired of the same routine? And most importantly how would a computer do these tasks? This actually led to a very interesting discussion. They had to obviously follow the same steps since any change of order will affect the recipe of frying or boiling and egg. Next it made them ponder as humans they can err and make mistakes also repetition can be boring or tedious at times. But as far as computers are concerned they can be programmed to repeat the same process 100 times and stop till a certain condition is met. This led to the understanding of the concept of a loop.

Now this is actually a very difficult concept to explain but using a simple example could do wonders. The participants then wrote the procedure of frying/boiling an egg inside a repeat until loop. The number in the repeat until loop was the condition for the loop to stop. I got the idea to explain this way by skimming through the Hello Ruby activity about a dance routine. My participants were basically early and primary school teachers/coordinators so I thought this explanation was sufficient for them. For teachers teaching upper primary and middle school they could practice writing the code with a loop in Scratch. The teacher could further explore “if then else condition” and “while loop”. This code can be practiced in code.org too which is also a wonderful coding resource online.

The next task was about “pattern recognition”. Now people who know Computational Thinking know this is a very important part of the whole process of Computational Thinking. CT begins with decomposition (breaking a problem into smaller chunks), pattern recognition (to look for similarities and differences), abstraction (to remove unnecessary information) and algorithms (a stepwise procedure to solve a problem). Though,  a look into our everyday life reflects a lot CT still at times we even as teachers tend to ignore these important processes happening in the surroundings. I shared a simple worksheet to recognise patterns, this was taken from the Hello Ruby website. It was interesting to see the participants guessing the patterns correctly. 

I was able to create a similar pattern recognition worksheet for the participants in Google Drawing in which they were supposed to identify the pattern and fill in the missing shapes. Almost all participants could fill correctly. They could think of how this activity could be done in their class. A discussion with the early years head led to different creative ideas of teaching patterns to younger kids, these included making necklace or bracelets from coloured beads, or building objects using blocks or lego kits. The teacher could also ask the students to identify patterns they see in the environment, in their homes, on the way to home etc. I am sure the students would come up with amazing examples from everyday life.

The task was easy, the only difficulty was for participants to drag and drop on their mobile devices. I think it might be difficult to switch different screens while attending the session online on a mobile device. I need to find a way to solve this problem. I was happy to see the participants completing the whole session without any technical complaints Alhamdullilah. 

The next task was about exploring the Hello Ruby resources and finding a resource for students. I gave a link to teachers to explore online so they could skim through the Hello Ruby activities. All teachers came up with different activities to try out with their students. One of the participants shared about doing the “Robot making” activity in class. This is a very interesting activity. Students are supposed to design a robot and draw a picture of the robot. After this the students are supposed to train the robot to identify the letter “A” among different letters. 

This also includes teaching your robot how to greet someone. So the students could add greeting data and train the robot to greet in the same language. This activity could be modified to teach different parts of speech in grammar. For example students can create a robot to identify nouns or verbs or adverbs or pronouns or adjectives. Every student could come up with a list of different nouns or verbs or pronouns or adjectives or adverbs. These were some great ideas shared by the participants. This will help them understand the concept of machine learning and training data. 

Another activity that the participants could explore for early and pre school could be about sensors. In this activity the students explore their different senses. They identify the different jobs the senses do in our lives. For example using eyes to see, ears to hear, mouth to taste, nose to smell etc. Students study senses in preschool in early years. This could be an interesting activity for them. They will develop an understanding that the robot uses sensors in the environment to detect the presence of something. This could be a temperature sensor, a heat sensor, light , motion or pressure sensor. Students could be asked to design a robot with these sensors and identify the situations where these sensors would be helpful. You could also discuss the various appliances we have in our homes like the vacuum cleaners, washing machines, microwave ovens etc and ask students what sensors these machines use. You may introduce students to vacuum cleaners or robots that use artificial intelligence to clean a space and build the discussion further. 

Every participant chose an activity and explained how they would try applying their classroom with their students. The task was interesting and it opened a whole new world for the participants to learn and explore. I was happy to see the participants intrigued. In the last task the participants were asked to share key ideas they learned from the session, an idea they would like to try out with their students and an idea that was difficult for them to understand. Interestingly participants share similar thoughts, initially after seeing the objectives of the session, they thought concepts were difficult. Once the session was completed the concepts seemed easy for them. I was so happy to actually hear this feedback. The whole session focused on making difficult concepts simpler to understand using everyday objects and routines, which meant that I was successful.

The session ended with participants filling in the feedback form. The e-certificates were emailed to participants the same day. And it got me thinking to create another session on teaching coding, technology and computers using Hello Ruby with more advanced content. I look forward to participants joining the second session InnshaaAllah.

Enjoy reading till the next post soon InnShaaAllah.

Regards and prayers

Sheeba Ajmal