How can you learn some Computing without being cooped up in front of a screen? William Lau has the answer.
IN 2016 I came up with several outlandish things to try in Computing lessons. One of them was to conduct the lesson outdoors, specifically in a local park. I’d worked out how, if it was feasible, I could teach a lot of the Computing curriculum without setting foot in a classroom, or even switching on a device.
Of course, conducting a lesson in the park once a week is highly impractical. There are logistical issues, like how do you get the kids there and back in no time at all at the start and ends of lessons, health and safety issues, the hassle of getting parental permission and the English weather.
However, most of those issues have magically disappeared thanks to the closure of schools occasioned by the pandemic. Enter William Lau, with this handy booklet for learning about computing outdoors, thereby ticking several boxes:
Getting the kids away from a screen. I actually think there is a child health and safety issue when it comes to the expectation, by some people, that they should have five hours of live lessons every day. Really?
Getting them into the fresh air.
Giving them a chance to get some exercise.
On that last point I do think Lau stretches things a bit when he suggests running to the nearest 5G mast to see how long it takes. But I’m probably judging by my own standards: I prefer to glide along in a stately fashion rather than run, but still.
What I like about the “missions” are the following:
There’s a good mix of ideas that take into account the local environment — to an extent (see below) — and even include looking at the night sky and making cake. What’s not to like about that cake one?
It’s well-illustrated.
The text stretches the pupil. The assignments look deceptively simple to start with, but then the explanation takes them to a more sophisticated level.
Back to the local environment point. When I’ve been invited to teach courses on assessing Computing, one of the things I like to include is a question that has cropped up in the assignments and tests that teachers set for their students. It involves working out the programming of the traffic light sequence of a local crossroads. Sounds reasonable enough: you and at a crossroads where there are at least four sets of traffic lights, try not to breathe (or take an oxygen tank with you), note down what’s going on (ie how come the green light doesn’t come on in all directions at once?) and then go home and work out the pseudocode for it.
All very fine and dandy, except that if you live in a village with one main street and no traffic lights, you can’t do the exercise very easily unless you can find a video showing you the sequence. In other words, that sort of test is unfair unless you make such a video available.
In fairness, Lau addresses this sort of point by including plenty of images. However, I think perhaps a few more might have been included, and that they were a bit bigger.
I also think it would be great if there could be a follow-up in the form of 7 more missions at some point. This is, of course, rather demanding of me, considering that the PDF version on which this review is based is completely free to download from Lau’s freebie website. You can also buy a paperback version on Amazon, but I am not in a position to recommend that as I haven’t seen it, and therefore cannot vouch for the quality of the printing. Obviously, the content is the same though.
In conclusion, I think this is a great resource, not only because of the content but also its timeliness. It’s very generous of Lau to make it available free of charge, so while you’re on the freebie website do take time to look at the other products there, and perhaps purchase one or two in order to support Lau in his work. Please note that I am not receiving commission!
Terry Freedman qualified as a teacher in 1975, has written for educational publications since 1989, and has published this website since 1995. He tweets as @terryfreedman.
