Schlagwort: Hello World

  • Essential tips to integrate computer science into your lessons: Teacher tips from CSTA 2025

    Essential tips to integrate computer science into your lessons: Teacher tips from CSTA 2025

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    In our latest podcast miniseries, we spoke to educators live from the CSTA 2025 annual conference in Cleveland, Ohio, to hear their top tips for integrating computer science (CS) into other subjects.

    Behind the scenes of Meg Wang, editor of the Hello World magazine presenting the latest episodes of the Hello World podcast, from CSTA 2025.

    Hello World editor, Meg Wang and the team met teachers in the exhibit hall for real-time reflections and essential teacher tips on teaching cross-curricular CS. They spoke to some amazing educators from across the United States and had a great time interacting with everyone in attendance.

    “Meeting teachers and hearing first-hand about their experiences, challenges, and triumphs was invaluable. It was amazing to meet Hello World writers in person, and to also meet future writers. Like I said at the conference, Hello World is for educators, by educators, so that means you! Everyone has valuable experience or useful advice to share, and we’re here to help you amplify that.” – Meg Wang, editor of the Hello World magazine

    Who features in the episode, and what are their tips?

    Lisa Wenzel, CS teacher from Maryland, USA

    Lisa Wenzel, CS teacher in Maryland, USA, smiling and holding a physical copy of Hello World, issue 27.

    Lisa’s top tip for integrating computer science into your lessons is to start with topics that you’re passionate about. If you’re not a CS teacher yourself, Lisa suggests finding a colleague who teaches the subject. She advises having a chat with them to explore how you can include CS concepts into subjects you’re particularly interested in.

    “I guarantee you that they’re going to have something […] to teach [another subject], and it’s going to involve computer science.” 

    Through peer discussions and collaboration between educators, you’ll discover engaging ways that you can incorporate CS into your teaching. Give it a try the next time you’re chatting to a CS teacher.

    Tiffany N. Jones, CS and Cybersecurity teacher in Georgia, USA

    Tiffany N. Jones CS & Cybersecurity teacher in Georgia, USA smiling showcasing her article in Hello World Issue 27.

    Tiffany N. Jones, author of ‘Belonging in Tech’ (featured on page 82 of Hello World Issue 27), shares her top tip to seamlessly integrate computer science into other subjects. 

    Using the example of a class studying ocean health and pollution, Tiffany shares how you can introduce students to real-world applications of computer science by exploring how sensors and microcontrollers can be used to collect environmental data. 

    She then suggests exploring how databases and programming languages can be used to analyse and visualise the data that the sensors and microcontrollers have recorded. This not only deepens your learner’s scientific understanding but also demonstrates how computing concepts are used in real-world industry practices.

    Rick Ballew, CS and Engineering teacher in Minnesota, USA

    Rick Ballew CS & Engineering teacher in Minnesota, USA smiling holding a physical copy of Hello World issue 27

    Rick’s top tip for integrating CS is to first think about your favourite lesson and consider ways that you can introduce computational thinking.

    In the podcast, Rick says:

    “chances are, computational thinking is already a part of that lesson you’re doing. Call it out to the students, and that’s going to help them to start understanding how computer science is baked into everything we do.” 

    Rick also offers a great example from his experience as a band teacher. He shares how learning to read a new piece of music is very similar to the steps involved in computational thinking. s

    “[You’ve] got to break it down. There’s abstraction. You’ve got to figure out the sequencing, and you create the way that you’re going to learn it. And that is all part of computational thinking.” 

    This approach shows students that CS isn’t just coding; it’s a way of thinking that can be applied across disciplines.

    Listen now

    To hear more practical teacher tips and discover what else our guest teachers had to say, listen to or watch the full episode here. 

    We hope this episode inspires you and helps you to engage your students in computing. We’d love to hear your thoughts, your feedback, and any of your own tips on how to integrate CS into other subjects. Share your advice in the comments section below.

    We hope you enjoy the episode!

    More to listen to next week

    Next week, we’ll be sharing an interesting conversation between Ben Garside, Senior Learning Manager (AI Literacy) at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Leonida Soi, Learning Manager (Kenya) at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and two of our global Experience AI partners, Monika Katkutė-Gelžinė from Vedliai in Lithuania, and Aimy Lee from Penang Science Cluster in Malaysia.

    Selfie with the Hello World Podcast team

    They’ll be exploring what AI education looks like around the world and what teachers need to feel confident teaching it.

    You can watch or listen to each episode of our podcast on YouTube, or listen via your preferred audio streaming service, whether that’s Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon Music. 

    Subscribe to Hello World today to ensure you never miss a podcast episode or issue of the magazine.

    Website: LINK

  • Hello World 27 out now: Integrated computer science

    Hello World 27 out now: Integrated computer science

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    While in some countries, such as England, computing is taught as a standalone subject, in others, like the USA, computing concepts are integrated across the school curriculum. In our brand-new issue of Hello World, out today for free, educators share ways to integrate computer science into your classroom.

    Hello World Issue 27 front cover

    Integrating CS to broaden participation

    The argument for making computing and computer science (CS) standalone has often been about quality. We’ve heard educators say that teaching CS as part of other subjects can be hard, especially if you don’t have a CS background. On the other hand, integrating computer science into other subjects can offer a more accessible entry point for young people, broadening participation in CS education. And the critical thinking and problem-solving skills young people gain through computer science can enhance their learning of any subject. 

    As digital technology increasingly shapes our world, it may be that thoughtful cross-curricular CS education is the most effective way to empower all young people to become confident and critical technology users.

    Issue 27 of Hello World features a range of practical articles with ideas for integrating CS over a variety of subjects at the primary, elementary, and high-school levels.

    For example:

    • James Abela shares how to teach coding across the curriculum using OctoStudio and the concepts of sequence, selection, and repetition
    • Jesualdo Martínez Molina presents hands-on examples of weaving together cross-curricular and modern foreign languages in the primary classroom
    • Jane Waite introduces the Autonomy framework, which explores whether we can effectively teach two things at once

    Also in this issue:

    • Laurie Gale introduces PRIMMDebug, a new way to teach debugging
    • Teresa Harris Boag defines strategies for a whole-school approach to artificial intelligence (AI) to engage parents and school staff in developing an effective AI strategy
    • Tiffany Jones shares how she ensures that students can see themselves in tech

    And much, much more.

    Jake Baskin, Executive Director of the Computer Science Teachers Association, says in this issue of Hello World: “If you’re a teacher who is implementing CS principles in your classroom, you are a computer science teacher.”

    Whether CS is your specialist subject or not, Hello World is full of ideas from your fellow educators on how to inspire your students. 

    New podcast series

    The Hello World podcast is also back, with a miniseries in audio and video focused on integrated CS. If you’re subscribed via a podcast app, the three new episodes will show up in your feed on Tuesdays. Or you can already listen to the new episodes today via the exclusive links inside issue 27.

    Hello World Editor: Meg Wang, presenting an episode of the Hello World Podcast

    Share your thoughts & subscribe to Hello World

    We hope you enjoy this issue of Hello World. Please get in touch with your article ideas or what you would like to see in the magazine.

    • Subscribe to Hello World for free to never miss a magazine issue
    • Subscribe to the Hello World podcast using your podcast app of choice
    • Share your thoughts and ideas about the new Hello World issue and episodes with us via the Raspberry Pi Foundation social media channels
    • Find out how you can write for the magazine

    Website: LINK

  • Beyond phone bans: Empowering students to critically navigate and reimagine technology

    Beyond phone bans: Empowering students to critically navigate and reimagine technology

    Reading Time: 6 minutes

    Amidst heated discussion of smartphones and their impacts on young people’s lives, it’s become a frequent recommendation to ban phones in schools. Below I summarise the research evidence on smartphone bans (it’s mixed) and share tips for computing educators on how to constructively address the topic with their learners and empower them to think critically about technology design.

    Photo of a young person showing their mobile phone to a peer.

    A turning tide

    2024 was the year the tide turned against smartphones. Across the world, parents, teachers, and governments highlighted the risks of excessive phone use among young people. In the UK, the ‘Smartphone Free Childhood’ movement emerged, quickly growing to 100,000 members who advocate for keeping smartphones away from children due to concerns about addiction, harmful content, and mental health. Jonathan Haidt’s global bestseller The Anxious Generation has further fuelled the movement, linking smartphone use to adolescent mental health issues and recommending phonefree schools. Meanwhile, countries including England, France, and Finland have urged schools to adopt strict phone bans, hoping to reduce classroom distractions and enhance student safety.

    Photo of a young person in a classroom showing their phone screen to their friends.

    Despite widespread support, academic research on phone bans remains limited and inconclusive. Given this situation, computing educators are uniquely positioned to offer an alternative approach.

    Evaluating evidence on phone bans 

    The rapid spread of school smartphone bans is a straightforward response to complex issues around personal technology use in education. Teachers and parents frequently view phones as inherently disruptive, a perspective supported by studies that show phones can impair students’ focus and engagement in lessons. Concerns about cyberbullying and addiction contribute to this view, with many educators seeing bans as a practical solution to mitigate risks. Surveys in England reveal that nearly half of all secondary schools now enforce all-day bans. This trend was supported by teachers participating in my master’s degree research, who see these policies as necessary to reduce distractions and maintain control in the classroom. 

    “Calls for outright bans may oversimplify the conversation.”

    Yet calls for outright bans may oversimplify the conversation, limiting opportunities to examine both the benefits and the risks of smartphone use in schools. Evidence on the impact of phone restrictions is mixed: while some studies suggest restrictions may benefit learning, especially for students who struggle the most, others indicate no significant impact on academic outcomes. Additionally, recent findings show that cyberbullying is not directly linked to time spent online, with traditional bullying still more prevalent in schools. Even the narrative around smartphone addiction is contested, with some researchers suggesting that concerns about addiction may be overstated. And some schools do not have access to digital devices for learners and then smartphones may play a crucial role in teaching and learning digital literacy skills.

    Photo of four young people sitting at their desks, on their mobile phones.

    As the debate over smartphone bans continues, educators have an opportunity to move beyond restrictions and engage students in understanding the technology that shapes their lives. This is where computing educators can really make a difference. How can they guide students to understand why technology is designed to capture attention and what lies behind these design choices?

    Understanding and questioning the design of technology 

    School smartphone bans can feel like a hopeless act that suggests phones and social media are inherently incompatible with learning and student well-being. This approach assumes the only solution is to remove them, rather than considering how these technologies might be better managed or reimagined to support young people. What if, instead of banning phones, educators worked with students to explore why they are so captivating and how they could be designed differently? Computing educators can lead this exploration. With digital literacy as part of their curriculum, computing teachers can help students question the motives behind their devices, fostering a critical understanding of the forces shaping their digital world.

    “With digital literacy as part of their curriculum, computing teachers can help students question the motives behind their devices, fostering a critical understanding of the forces shaping their digital world.”

    At the heart of how social media platforms are designed is their business models. Tech companies rely on features such as notifications, autoplay, and infinite scrolling to maximise user engagement and revenue. This is part of what the writer Shoshana Zuboff calls “surveillance capitalism”, where companies gather vast amounts of behavioural data by keeping users engaged on their platforms for as long as possible.

    In the classroom, educators can open discussions with students on the motives behind technology design, exploring questions such as why platforms want users to stay engaged, and what data they are collecting. Activities might include analysing popular apps to identify which features encourage prolonged use, or debating how social media could be designed to prioritise user wellbeing. By critically examining these design choices, students can better understand the forces driving their digital interactions and consider ways in which technology could be reimagined to serve them, rather than just profiting from them. 

    Collaborative policymaking 

    Once young people understand why phones and social media are designed the way they are, educators can work with students to create phone policies that reflect shared values and goals. This collaborative approach encourages students to take ownership of their technology use, and computing teachers, drawing on their knowledge of technology design and digital literacy, are ideally positioned to facilitate these discussions.

    Photo of three school pupils together looking at a mobile phone.

    Research suggests that policies developed with student input are more effective, as they foster responsibility and engagement. By involving students in policymaking, educators can encourage them to consider how phones could support rather than hinder learning. For example, students might agree that phones should stay off during certain times, or in certain spaces, but that they might be useful in other scenarios where access benefits learning. This kind of flexibility ensures that phones are used thoughtfully, allowing for both practical boundaries and opportunities for educational use.

    Critical skills for navigating the digital world

    As debate around smartphone use in schools continues, academic research remains inconclusive on the effectiveness of phone bans. This uncertainty presents computing educators with an opportunity to move beyond restrictive policies and foster deeper understanding. By guiding students to explore why phones and social media are designed to capture attention, we can help to equip them with the critical skills needed to navigate their digital world thoughtfully. Involving students in crafting flexible, meaningful phone policies reinforces this understanding, giving them a sense of agency in shaping technology’s role in their lives.

    Close up photo of a desk with school books, various coloured pens and a mobile phone in shot.

    Computing educators are uniquely positioned to empower students, not just as users, but as active challengers of technology design norms. Embracing a collaborative approach allows computing educators to inspire students to envision a future where technology genuinely serves their growth and their learning, rather than commercial interests.

    More on digital literacy for young people

    A version of this article appears in the newest issue of Hello World magazine, which is all about teaching digital literacy. Explore issue 26 and download your free PDF copy today.

    You can also listen to our recent Hello World podcast episode discussing the myth of the ‘digital native’ and whether today’s young people are tech-savvy or tech-dependent.

    Website: LINK

  • Teaching digital literacy without devices

    Teaching digital literacy without devices

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Lack of access to devices presents teachers with challenges in any setting. In schools, money is often limited and digital technology may not be the priority when buildings need maintenance or libraries need replenishing. This issue is particularly important when the very subject you teach relies on and relates to devices that you may have limited or no access to.

    An educator helps students with a coding task in a classroom.

    It must be frustrating for teachers in this situation to see marketing campaigns from companies showing how their curriculum offering will use the very latest in robotics, AI, or media production, when the teachers’ reality is that they don’t have anything like the means or resources to deliver this. 

    Fortunately there are approaches that can help. Below I outline some of the ways we are working with teachers to make the teaching of computing and digital literacy less resource-heavy and more accessible and equitable. 

    Schools in Kenya: A case study 

    Our work with Kenyan teachers has brought the access issue into sharp focus for us. We are currently developing free resources to deliver the Kenyan curriculum to schools in Mombasa and the Frontier Counties. There are big contrasts both between and within these two areas of the country. Some schools are well equipped with digital technology, while others have very little access to any computing devices; in these schools, smartphones play a crucial role.

    Students code in Scratch on a computer.

    With that in mind, the curriculum resources we develop suggest class activities that make the most of limited devices, such as the use of projected demonstrations. We also provide a step-by-step guide to computing tasks, with screenshots, to guide learners through the tasks conceptually. This ensures learners understand the process and can apply their new knowledge once they gain access to the necessary devices. 

    We make these resources available online and in downloadable documents. This means the resources can be taken offline and taught in places without stable internet connection. We are also careful to limit file sizes, to make downloads more accessible. Wherever possible, our resources are device-agnostic, so that they can be accessed on a wide range of devices, including personal devices such as mobile phones.

    A close-up shot shows a person's hand holding a small red LED light, which is illuminated.

    As well as tailoring curriculum resources, we have also adapted our teacher training to make it more accessible for people with less experience of using computing devices. For example, during a recent project coaching community trainers in Mombasa, we emphasised activities that improve digital skills on various devices. This meant that when passing the training on to other teachers, the community trainers had a broader set of skills across a wider range of devices.

    An educator delivers a lesson to students in a classroom.
    You’ll be able to read more about the impact of our work with Kenyan schools in an upcoming blog post.

    Unplugged activities

    Even computing-specific concepts such as a programming construct can, to a degree, be taught with very limited access to devices. Unplugged activities, where no digital technology is required, can be used to introduce fundamental concepts such as sequencing and repetition.

    A group of men holding a string.

    For example, you can ask learners to recognise patterns in repeating sequences of colours and identify how to describe the sequences without repeating the colours many times. While it is good practice to link the learning from an unplugged activity back to a plugged activity, students will still benefit when that is not possible. 

    Emulators 

    There are also a significant number of devices which offer online emulator apps that mirror the functions of the physical device. Consider Bee-Bot floor robots, which can be relatively expensive to purchase and may get damaged in a classroom. If you don’t have the physical device, its emulator app provides a similar experience.

    Three young learners present their coding project.

    Similarly, the micro:bit, a versatile microcontroller for young people, can be emulated in the MakeCode programming environment, including all its buttons and sensors. There are also numerous emulators which enable you to make and test your own circuits using a variety of hardware platforms. 

    What do you actually need? 

    Sometimes it can be helpful to look up what devices you actually need — they might not be as expensive as you think. General-purpose, single-board computers such as Raspberry Pi can be bought new for less than £25, and more powerful models still under £50.

    A young learner is building his project at a Coolest Projects event.

    Similarly, microcontrollers such as Raspberry Pi Pico, micro:bit, or Crumble, range from about £5 to £20 per device. Accessories such as LEDs, jumper leads, motors, and buzzers are also reasonably priced. They can be a relatively low-cost entry into physical computing and robotics, especially if you pair them with craft materials or share devices between students.

    Make the most of it 

    However limited your access to devices is, I encourage you to:

    • Look out for partners or solution providers that prioritise inclusivity and accessibility in their resources
    • Consider whether you can make activities accessible on a wider range of devices and use what students may already have (check out the OctoStudio app for smartphones for example)
    • Use unplugged activities, and relate them back to plugged devices when possible
    • Look up devices which might be more affordable than you realised

    If you have your own tips to share with fellow teachers, please comment below.

    More on digital literacy

    You can discover our free teacher training and classroom resources, and read about how we’ve integrated digital literacy in The Computing Curriculum.

    A version of this article appears in the newest issue of Hello World magazine, which is all about digital literacy. Explore issue 26 and download your free PDF copy today.
    You can also listen to our recent Hello World podcast episode exploring three teachers’ digital literacy tips for the classroom.

    Website: LINK

  • How to bring digital literacy into your classroom: practical tips from the Hello World podcast

    How to bring digital literacy into your classroom: practical tips from the Hello World podcast

    Reading Time: 4 minutes
    Teacher tips: Digital literacy thumbnail. The background of the image comprises of a still taken from the episode, featuring Hello World podcast host James Robinson on the right of the image. The episode title 'Teacher tips: Digital literacy' is overlayed on the left of the screen. The Hello World logo has been superimposed on the top right hand corner of the image.

    Are you looking to strengthen digital literacy in your classroom? In the latest episode of the Hello World podcast, three experienced teachers from the USA and the UK share practical tips they’ve used in their classrooms to help their students build digital literacy. Whether you’re just getting started with digital literacy or looking for new ideas, the episode is full of real-world advice you can apply straight away.

    Behind the scenes image of the team recording an episode of the Hello World podcast.
    Behind the scenes whilst recording the Teacher Tips: Digital literacy episode of the Hello World podcast.

    The episode also marks the launch of a new mini-series on the Hello World podcast focusing on digital literacy. Throughout the series, which totals three episodes, we’ll continue conversations that feature in the latest issue of the Hello World magazine, sharing expert insights and real-world examples from educators who are integrating digital literacy into their classrooms.

    So tune in this week, then stay tuned!

    Who features in this episode, and what will I learn?

    We’ve got tips from three teachers whose articles feature in Hello World’s newest magazine issue.

    Katie Dahlman from Bloomington, MN, USA

    Get ready for some top tips from Katie Dahlman, a preschool teacher and Digital Learning Specialist in Bloomington Public Schools in Minnesota, USA. With over 16 years of experience as an early childhood educator, Katie has dedicated her time to developing engaging computer science (CS) lessons for young learners.

    Headshot of Katie Dahlamn, a guest teacher who featured on the 'Teacher tips: Digital literacy' episode of the Hello World podcast.

    Katie believes that digital literacy starts with building foundational skills to prepare students for their roles as digital citizens. One of the tips Katie shares in the episode emphasises the importance of integrating computational thinking into the classroom: 

    “My second tip for enhancing digital literacy in your classroom is to integrate computational thinking skills and vocabulary into your existing curriculum.”

    Read Katie’s article ‘Tech tinkering and teamwork’ on pages 52–53 of Hello World, issue 26.

    Curt Hitchens from Rock Spring, GA, USA

    We also hear from Curt Hitchens, a computer science teacher at Saddle Ridge Elementary and Middle School in Rock Spring, Georgia, USA. Since 2018, Curt has been teaching computer science and now serves as a Virtual CS Specialist for the Georgia Department of Education.

    Headshot of Curt Hitchens, a guest teacher who featured on the 'Teacher tips: Digital literacy' episode of the Hello World podcast.

    Curt explains in the podcast that digital literacy is about equipping students with the necessary skills to use technology effectively in everyday situations and the workplace. He also shares an important tip for teachers, encouraging them to give students regular chances to engage in hands-on learning:

     “Make sure that you’re providing consistent opportunities for creation and exploration within your classes.”

    Read Curt’s article ‘Computer science opportunities in rural schools’ on pages 46–47 of Issue 26.

    Halima Bhayat, London, UK

    The episode also features Halima Bhayat, the Head of Computing and Digital T Levels at Ursuline High School in London, UK. Halima is an Asian Women of Achievement 2021 Finalist, a digit<all> ambassador, an Amazon teacher, and the Computing at School Merton lead for all schools.

    Headshot of Halima Bhayat, a guest teacher who featured on the 'Teacher tips: Digital literacy' episode of the Hello World podcast.

    With a wealth of experience, she emphasises that digital literacy is more than about using technology — it’s about understanding how the digital world functions, how technology shapes our daily lives, and how it impacts individuals and communities.

    One of Halima’s top tips for enhancing digital literacy in the classroom is to focus on touch typing. She believes that students should be equipped with fast and efficient typing skills, as so many tasks today are online.

    “My first tip would be to get [your students] touch typing, get them to start becoming faster with their fingers on those keyboards, because lots of things have become online.”

    Read Halima’s article ‘From switches to success’ on pages 76–77 of Issue 26.

    Listen now

    To hear more practical tips and discover what else our guest teachers have to say, listen to or watch the full episode here. 

    We hope this episode inspires you and helps you to engage your students in computing. We’d love to hear your thoughts, your feedback, and any of your own tips on the topic of digital literacy in the comments section below.

    We hope you enjoy the episode!

    More to listen to next week

    Next week, the podcast brings you an insightful conversation featuring Rachel Arthur, Chief Learning Officer at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Dr Jessica Hamer from King’s College London, and Becky Patel from Tech She Can.

    Photo of Dr. Jessica Hamer, Becky Patel and Rachel Arthur, on set of the Hello World podcast.

    They’ll discuss the current state of girls’ engagement in computing and explore ways to empower young women in computing at school, at university, and onwards into their careers.

    You can watch, or listen, to each episode of our podcast on YouTube, or listen via your preferred audio streaming service, whether that’s Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon Music. 

    Subscribe to Hello World today to ensure you never miss a podcast episode or issue of the magazine.

    Website: LINK

  • Hello World #26 out now: Digital Literacy

    Hello World #26 out now: Digital Literacy

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    We often believe we understand the meaning of ‘digital literacy’, but it can be a misleading term. Do we mean digital skills? Online safety? Where does AI fit in? As computer science education evolves to meet the needs of our increasingly digital world, we believe that true digital literacy empowers young people to engage with technology thoughtfully, critically, and confidently.

    In this issue of Hello World, out today for free, we discuss what digital literacy means, how it is taught in different countries around the world, and how educators are rethinking digital literacy for their students and themselves.

    Digital image of Hello World, issue 26 'digital literacy' displayed at an angle.

    Digital literacy

    As the use of digital technology grows, a broader view of digital literacy is necessary. Digital literacy is more than knowing how to use software. It’s the ability to use digital technologies effectively, safely, and responsibly.

    In Issue 26 of Hello World, we explore this topic in detail and hear insights from educators across the world, including:

    • Becci Peters shares how Computing at School (CAS) in the UK is supporting digital literacy skills for students and educators
    • Sourav Pattanayak discusses how digital literacy is defined in India, and the formal and informal ways educators are teaching digital literacy
    • Sandra Hartman explores strategies for enhancing digital literacy in the US
    • Gavin Davenport asks what would happen if we considered digital literacy in the same way as we consider traditional literacy
    Photo of young people sitting at a desk, working on small computers.

    This issue also includes inspiring articles from the world of computer science education:

    • Leah Dungay tells us about a programme combining physics, video games, and the Large Hadron Collider to engage young people in particle physics 
    • Gina Fugate shares how digital accessibility enhances digital experiences for all
    • Halima Bhayat shares her inspiring journey in computer science

    And there is lots more for you to discover in issue 26.

    New podcast series in audio and video

    We’re also pleased to announce that the Hello World podcast has returned alongside the magazine with a miniseries also focused on digital literacy.

    We asked for your thoughts on the podcast in our previous annual survey, and you kindly sent us lots of helpful feedback. Based on that, we’re trialling new episode formats, welcoming additional hosts, and bringing in more expert voices from around the world.

    On Tuesday 15 April we’ll be releasing our first teacher tips episode, a shorter podcast with 3 teachers sharing practical, actionable tips for improving digital literacy in the classroom. 

    Image featuring Dr. Jessica Hamer, Becky Patel and Rachel Arthur after recording an episode of the Hello World podcast.

    The week after, Tuesday 22 April, you’ll be able to hear a brilliant conversation between the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s Chief Learning Officer, Rachel Arthur, and two special guests: Dr Jessica Hamer from King’s College London’s School of Education and Becky Patel from Tech She Can. They’ll be discussing the current state of girls’ engagement in computing — a wide-reaching and important conversation exploring how we can empower more girls in computing through school, university and their careers.

    Then on Tuesday 29 April the final episode in the miniseries will be a panel debate about “digital natives” where we’ll be asking, ‘Are young people who grew up with technology around them truly tech-savvy, or are they dependent on digital tools without understanding how they work?’ James Robinson — Senior Learning Manager here at the Raspberry Pi Foundation and regular host of the podcast — will lead this discussion as global educators debate the myth of the “digital native,” uncover how it could overlook complex issues of access, skills, and education, and consider what it really takes to be tech-smart in the modern world.

    More information and links to listen can be found inside the magazine.

    Share your thoughts & subscribe to Hello World

    We hope you enjoy this issue of Hello World, and please get in touch with your article ideas or what you would like to see in the magazine.

    • Share your thoughts and ideas about Hello World and the new issue with us via the Raspberry PI Foundation social media channels
    • Find out how you can write for the magazine

    Subscribe to Hello World for free to never miss an issue.

    Website: LINK

  • Three ways to help students learn about the impact of technology

    Three ways to help students learn about the impact of technology

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    As adults, it’s easy for us to see the impact technology has had on society and on our lives. Yet when I tell pupils that, within my lifetime, it wasn’t always illegal to hold your mobile phone to your ear and have a call while driving, they are horrified. They are living in the now and don’t yet have the perspective to allow them to see the change that has happened. 

    With the greater understanding we now have of technology and its impact, we can better learn from previous mistakes, make decisions around ethical behaviour (such as whether to use a phone while driving), and critically engage in real-world issues. 

    As teachers, allocating some time to this topic throughout the year can seem challenging, but by implementing a few small changes, the benefits might be more than you imagine. Here are three ways you can help your students explore the impact of technology.

    1. Change the format of your lessons by stepping away from devices 

    As teachers know, some computing lessons work best when students don’t use devices, whether it’s a matter of students designing programs before starting to code them, drawing  maps of their school network, or discussing the implications of bias in AI training models. It’s important that learners recognise that computers are tools — sometimes they allow us to do and achieve great things, but sometimes there are other approaches that are more suitable. 

    A group of young people investigate computer hardware together.

    Spending time discussing the impact of technology can help learners decide for themselves when technology is an asset, and when it is a burden. Another advantage of changing the format of your computing lessons away from device usage is that they may appeal to a wider range of students. While some students may not be interested in using technology, they may enjoy debating ethics, discussing world events, or finding solutions to real-world problems — all of which can take centre stage in a more discussion-focused computing lesson.     

    This approach can also demonstrate to your class that lots of different skill sets are needed in the computing industry, and inspire your learners to consider career paths they might have otherwise dismissed. In addition, open, discussion-based lessons can give your learners food for thought, encouraging them to approach tasks in subsequent lessons with a greater appreciation of broader issues — whether they’re designing a program, deciding what features to build into a website, or how to structure a database. 

    2. Connect your lessons to real-world events

    Young people exist in an interesting space when it comes to world events. Even if they’re not engaged in current affairs, they’ll probably still encounter a lot of content about what’s happening in the world. They may see snippets of news footage on television, hear adults talking about a big event, or — with so much of their lives now happening online — stumble across trending stories and associated opinions while using social media, apps, and websites.  

    Close up of two young people working at a computer.

    Young people will often try to make sense of all these bits of information, filling in the blanks. The problem is that if we don’t talk to young people about what they’re hearing, they may fill in the blanks incorrectly. Before you know it, they might be anxious that artificial intelligence will take over the world, or that adults hate TikTok for no reason. 

    It’s important to equip young people with the skills to think about real-world events — and developments related to technology — critically and calmly. 

    Headlines such as “Why the USA is banning TikTok” or self-help articles with titles like “Why muting people on social media will change your life” could make brilliant focus points for a lesson or activity about the impact of technology. Discussing these kinds of headlines and articles can help your learners consider their own opinions, apply what they know about how technology works, and gain a sense of grounding in our often turbulent world. 

    By encouraging your learners to articulate what they know and apply it to real-world situations, you’ll enrich their computing education while also nurturing responsible digital citizens.  

    3. Encourage students to have difficult conversations

    The role of a computing teacher is often broad. Beyond curriculum and teaching responsibilities, it will usually involve providing tech support (changing ink in printers, for instance) and dealing with safeguarding incidents that have happened between pupils at the weekend. 

    Safeguarding is a key part of teaching. Effective safeguarding should include teaching your learners about what to do in difficult scenarios, like when a WhatsApp group goes awry, when an image is shared on social media when it shouldn’t have been, or when a game becomes popular that your learners aren’t old enough to play. 

    Computing teachers often have to be prepared with a lesson to deal with safeguarding incidents, such as a WhatsApp group gone awry.
    Computing teachers often have to be prepared with a lesson to deal with safeguarding incidents, such as a WhatsApp group gone awry.

    Each of these scenarios is an example of technology’s impact on our lives. It’s important that your learners know how to deal with these scenarios and can have different opinions while talking and listening to each other. Also, if your learners can do these things, it will make things easier in the future if you need to talk to a particular learner about something inappropriate they’ve done.  

    By encouraging your learners to have difficult conversations, you’ll practise how to navigate the tension between legality, rules from home, and best-practice advice from external sources. You’ll also have lessons that you can refer back to: “Remember when we were discussing the TikTok ban? How might some of those conversations relate to this situation? What about when we discussed when to block people on games or on social media? Would that be appropriate here?” 

    Raising awareness that the impact of technology can enrich lessons

    Technology is going to continue to impact the lives of the pupils we work with, whether they can recognise that or not. Increasing their awareness of the impact technology is having, in both positive and negative ways, will enrich your lessons, show that content is relevant to your learners, and help protect them when they have to make their own critical decisions. 

    There are suggestions in this article to use with learners of all ages, but if you want more support on how to teach the topic with older learners, we have an online course for educators (helloworld.cc/impactoftech) and a unit of work for 14-year-olds (helloworld.cc/ks4impact).

    A version of this article also appears in Hello World issue 24.

    Website: LINK

  • Ocean Prompting Process: How to get the results you want from an LLM

    Ocean Prompting Process: How to get the results you want from an LLM

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Have you heard of ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude, but haven’t tried any of them yourself? Navigating the world of large language models (LLMs) might feel a bit daunting. However, with the right approach, these tools can really enhance your teaching and make classroom admin and planning easier and quicker. 

    That’s where the OCEAN prompting process comes in: it’s a straightforward framework designed to work with any LLM, helping you reliably get the results you want. 

    The great thing about the OCEAN process is that it takes the guesswork out of using LLMs. It helps you move past that ‘blank page syndrome’ — that moment when you can ask the model anything but aren’t sure where to start. By focusing on clear objectives and guiding the model with the right context, you can generate content that is spot on for your needs, every single time.

    5 ways to make LLMs work for you using the OCEAN prompting process

    OCEAN’s name is an acronym: objective, context, examples, assess, negotiate — so let’s begin at the top.

    1. Define your objective

    Think of this as setting a clear goal for your interaction with the LLM. A well-defined objective ensures that the responses you get are focused and relevant.

    Maybe you need to:

    • Draft an email to parents about an upcoming school event
    • Create a beginner’s guide for a new Scratch project
    • Come up with engaging quiz questions for your next science lesson

    By knowing exactly what you want, you can give the LLM clear directions to follow, turning a broad idea into a focused task.

    2. Provide some context 

    This is where you give the LLM the background information it needs to deliver the right kind of response. Think of it as setting the scene and providing some of the important information about why, and for whom, you are making the document.

    You might include:

    • The length of the document you need
    • Who your audience is — their age, profession, or interests
    • The tone and style you’re after, whether that’s formal, informal, or somewhere in between

    All of this helps the LLM include the bigger picture in its analysis and tailor its responses to suit your needs.

    3. Include examples

    By showing the LLM what you’re aiming for, you make it easier for the model to deliver the kind of output you want. This is called one-shot, few-shot, or many-shot prompting, depending on how many examples you provide.

    You can:

    • Include URL links 
    • Upload documents and images (some LLMs don’t have this feature)
    • Copy and paste other text examples into your prompt

    Without any examples at all (zero-shot prompting), you’ll still get a response, but it might not be exactly what you had in mind. Providing examples is like giving a recipe to follow that includes pictures of the desired result, rather than just vague instructions — it helps to ensure the final product comes out the way you want it.

    4. Assess the LLM’s response

    This is where you check whether what you’ve got aligns with your original goal and meets your standards.

    Keep an eye out for:

    • Hallucinations: incorrect information that’s presented as fact
    • Misunderstandings: did the LLM interpret your request correctly?
    • Bias: make sure the output is fair and aligned with diversity and inclusion principles

    A good assessment ensures that the LLM’s response is accurate and useful. Remember, LLMs don’t make decisions — they just follow instructions, so it’s up to you to guide them. This brings us neatly to the next step: negotiate the results.

    5. Negotiate the results

    If the first response isn’t quite right, don’t worry — that’s where negotiation comes in. You should give the LLM frank and clear feedback and tweak the output until it’s just right. (Don’t worry, it doesn’t have any feelings to be hurt!) 

    When you negotiate, tell the LLM if it made any mistakes, and what you did and didn’t like in the output. Tell it to ‘Add a bit at the end about …’ or ‘Stop using the word “delve” all the time!’ 

    How to get the tone of the document just right

    Another excellent tip is to use descriptors for the desired tone of the document in your negotiations with the LLM, such as, ‘Make that output slightly more casual.’

    In this way, you can guide the LLM to be:

    • Approachable: the language will be warm and friendly, making the content welcoming and easy to understand
    • Casual: expect laid-back, informal language that feels more like a chat than a formal document
    • Concise: the response will be brief and straight to the point, cutting out any fluff and focusing on the essentials
    • Conversational: the tone will be natural and relaxed, as if you’re having a friendly conversation
    • Educational: the language will be clear and instructive, with step-by-step explanations and helpful details
    • Formal: the response will be polished and professional, using structured language and avoiding slang
    • Professional: the tone will be business-like and precise, with industry-specific terms and a focus on clarity

    Remember: LLMs have no idea what their output says or means; they are literally just very powerful autocomplete tools, just like those in text messaging apps. It’s up to you, the human, to make sure they are on the right track. 

    Don’t forget the human edit 

    Even after you’ve refined the LLM’s response, it’s important to do a final human edit. This is your chance to make sure everything’s perfect, checking for accuracy, clarity, and anything the LLM might have missed. LLMs are great tools, but they don’t catch everything, so your final touch ensures the content is just right.

    At a certain point it’s also simpler and less time-consuming for you to alter individual words in the output, or use your unique expertise to massage the language for just the right tone and clarity, than going back to the LLM for a further iteration. 

    Ready to dive in? 

    Now it’s time to put the OCEAN process into action! Log in to your preferred LLM platform, take a simple prompt you’ve used before, and see how the process improves the output. Then share your findings with your colleagues. This hands-on approach will help you see the difference the OCEAN method can make!

    Sign up for a free account at one of these platforms:

    • ChatGPT (chat.openai.com)
    • Gemini (gemini.google.com)

    By embracing the OCEAN prompting process, you can quickly and easily make LLMs a valuable part of your teaching toolkit. The process helps you get the most out of these powerful tools, while keeping things ethical, fair, and effective.

    If you’re excited about using AI in your classroom preparation, and want to build more confidence in integrating it responsibly, we’ve got great news for you. You can sign up for our totally free online course on edX called ‘Teach Teens Computing: Understanding AI for Educators’ (helloworld.cc/ai-for-educators). In this course, you’ll learn all about the OCEAN process and how to better integrate generative AI into your teaching practice. It’s a fantastic way to ensure you’re using these technologies responsibly and ethically while making the most of what they have to offer. Join us and take your AI skills to the next level!

    A version of this article also appears in Hello World issue 25.

    Website: LINK

  • Hello World #25 out now: Generative AI

    Hello World #25 out now: Generative AI

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Since they became publicly available at the end of 2022, generative AI tools have been hotly discussed by educators: what role should these tools for generating human-seeming text, images, and other media play in teaching and learning?

    Two years later, the one thing most people agree on is that, like it or not, generative AI is here to stay. And as a computing educator, you probably have your learners and colleagues looking to you for guidance about this technology. We’re sharing how educators like you are approaching generative AI in issue 25 of Hello World, out today for free.

    Digital image of a copy of Hello World magazine, issue 25.

    Generative AI and teaching

    Since our ‘Teaching and AI’ issue a year ago, educators have been making strides grappling with generative AI’s place in their classroom, and with the potential risks to young people. In this issue, you’ll hear from a wide range of educators who are approaching this technology in different ways. 

    For example:

    • Laura Ventura from Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) in Georgia, USA shares how the GCPS team has integrated AI throughout their K–12 curriculum
    • Mark Calleja from our team guides you through using the OCEAN prompt process to reliably get the results you want from an LLM 
    • Kip Glazer, principal at Mountain View High School in California, USA shares a framework for AI implementation aimed at school leaders
    • Stefan Seegerer, a researcher and educator in Germany, discusses why unplugged activities help us focus on what’s really important in teaching about AI

    This issue also includes practical solutions to problems that are unique to computer science educators:

    • Graham Hastings in the UK shares his solution to tricky crocodile clips when working with micro:bits
    • Riyad Dhuny shares his case study of home-hosting a learning management system with his students in Mauritius

    And there is lots more for you to discover in issue 25.

    Whether or not you use generative AI as part of your teaching practice, it’s important for you to be aware of AI technologies and how your young people may be interacting with it. In his article “A problem-first approach to the development of AI systems”, Ben Garside from our team affirms that:

    “A big part of our job as educators is to help young people navigate the changing world and prepare them for their futures, and education has an essential role to play in helping people understand AI technologies so that they can avoid the dangers.

    Our approach at the Raspberry Pi Foundation is not to focus purely on the threats and dangers, but to teach young people to be critical users of technologies and not passive consumers. […]

    Our call to action to educators, carers, and parents is to have conversations with your young people about generative AI. Get to know their opinions on it and how they view its role in their lives, and help them to become critical thinkers when interacting with technology.”

    Share your thoughts & subscribe to Hello World

    Computing teachers are being asked again to teach something that they didn’t study. With generative AI as with all things computing, we want to support your teaching and share your successes. We hope you enjoy this issue of Hello World, and please get in touch with your article ideas or what you would like to see in the magazine.

    We’d like to thank Oracle for supporting this issue.

    Website: LINK

  • Hello World #24 out now: Impact of tech

    Hello World #24 out now: Impact of tech

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Do you remember a time before social media? Mobile phones? Email? We are surrounded by digital technology, and new applications impact our lives whether we engage with them or not. Issue 24 of Hello World, out today for free, gives you ideas for how to help your learners think openly and critically about technology.

    Teaching about the impact of technology 

    For learners to become informed, empowered citizens, they need to understand the impact technology has on them as individuals, and on society as a whole. In our brand-new issue of Hello World, educators share insights from their work in and around classrooms that will help you engage your learners in learning about and discussing the impact of tech.

    For example:

    • Jasmeen Kanwal and the team at Data Education in Schools share their resources for how young people can start to learn the skills they need to change the world with data
    • Julie York writes about how incorporating AI education into any classroom can help students prepare for future careers
    • Ben Hall discusses whether technology is divisive or inclusive, and how you can encourage students to think critically about it
    Two learners in a computing classroom.

    This issue also includes stories on how educators use technology to create a positive impact for learners:

    • Yolanda Payne tells you how she’s using teaching experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic to bring better remote learning to communities in Georgia, USA, and in the US Virgin Islands
    • Mitchel Resnik and Natalie Rusk from Lifelong Kindergarten group at MIT Media Lab introduce their new free mobile app, OctoStudio, and how it helps learners and educators in underresourced areas get creative with code

    And there is lots more for you to discover in issue 24.

    The issue also covers how you can make time to teach about the impact of technology in an already packed curriculum. Sway Grantham, Senior Learning Manager at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, says in her article:

    “As adults, it is easy for us to see the impact technology has had on society and on our lives. Yet when I tell pupils that, within my lifetime, it wasn’t always illegal to hold your mobile phone to your ear and have a call while driving, they are horrified. They are living in the now and don’t yet have the perspective to allow them to see the change that has happened. However, knowing the impact of technology allows us to learn from previous mistakes, to make decisions around ethical behaviour (such as using a phone while driving), and to critically engage in real-world issues.

    As teachers, allocating some time to this topic throughout the year can seem challenging, but with a few small changes, the impact might be more than you can imagine.”

    Share your thoughts & subscribe to Hello World

    With so many aspects of life impacted by technology, computing educators play a crucial role in supporting young people to become informed, empowered citizens. We hope you enjoy this issue of Hello World and find it useful in your teaching.

    Website: LINK

  • Season 6 of the Hello World podcast is here

    Season 6 of the Hello World podcast is here

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Through the Hello World podcast, we help to connect computing educators around the world and share their experiences. In each episode, we expand on a topic from a recent Hello World magazine issue. After 5 seasons, and a break last year, we are back with season 6 today.

    Hello World logo.

    Episode 1: Do kids still need to learn how to code?

    In the recent ‘Teaching & AI’ issue of Hello World, our CEO Philip Colligan discussed what AI means for computing education, including for learning to program. And our first new podcast episode is all about this question, which every computing educator has probably thought about at least once in recent months: Do kids still need to learn how to code?

    Joining my co-host Veronica and me are two computing educators: Pete Dring, Head of Computing at Fulford School in York, and Chris Coetzee, a computer science teacher for 24 years and currently a PhD student in Computer Science Education at Abertay Dundee. Given the recent developments in AI-based code generators, we talk about whether such tools will remove our learners’ need to learn to code or simply change what coding, and learning to code, looks like*.

    What’s coming up in future episodes?

    New episode of season 6 will come out every 2 weeks. In each episode we explore computing, coding, and digital making education by delving into an exciting topic together with our guests: experts, practitioners, and other members of the Hello World community.

    Also in season 6, we’ll explore:

    The role of computing communities

    We discuss the value and importance of being connected to other computing educators through the many different teaching communities that exist around the world. What makes effective communities, and how do we build and sustain them?

    A group of students and a teacher at the Coding Academy in Telangana.

    Why is understanding cybersecurity so important?

    From classroom lessons to challenges and competitions, there are lots of opportunities for learners to discover cybersecurity. There are also many pitfalls where learners’ online activities put them at risk of breaking the law. We discuss some of these pitfalls along with the many career opportunities in cybersecurity.

    How to develop as a computing educator?

    What is involved in becoming an effective computing educator? What knowledge, skills, and behaviours are needed, and how do we go about developing them? We sit down with teacher trainers and trainees to explore this topic.

    Two learners and a teacher in a physical computing lesson.

    What is the state of computing education and where is it heading?

    Computing education has come a long way in the last decade in terms of practice and policy, as well as research. Together with our guests we discuss where computing education is today around the world, and we consider the lessons we can learn and the challenges ahead

    What is the role of AI in your classroom?

    AI continues to be a disruptive technology in many spaces, and the classroom is no exception. We hear examples of practices and approaches being explored by teachers in the classroom.

    If you’ve not listened to the Hello World podcast yet, there are 5 whole seasons for you to discover. We talk about everything from ecology and quantum computing to philosophy, ethics, and inclusion, and our conversations always focus on the practicalities of teaching in the classroom.

    Many of our podcast guests are Hello World authors, so if you’re an educator who wants to share your insights into how to teach young people about digital technology, please let us know. Your words could end up in the pages as well as on the airwaves of Hello World.

    You’ll find the upcoming Hello World season and past episodes on your favourite podcast platform, including YouTube now, where you can also subscribe to never miss an episode. Alternatively, you can listen here via your browser.

    * If you want to dive into the newest research on programming education with and without AI, check out our current seminar series.

    Website: LINK

  • Hello World #23 out now: Global exchange of computing education ideas

    Hello World #23 out now: Global exchange of computing education ideas

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    How is computing taught around the globe? Our brand-new, free issue of Hello World, out today, paints a picture for you. It features stories from over 20 countries, where educators, researchers, and volunteers share their work and their personal challenges and joys in bringing computing education to their part of the world.

    The Hello World Global Exchange magazine cover on a plain background.

    Global exchange in a worldwide community

    In Hello World issue 23, you’ll hear about countries where computing is an official school subject and how it was set up that way, and you’ll hear about countries that are newer to computing education and working to fast-track their students’ learning.

    • Ethel Tshukudu’s article on her research using the CAPE framework is a fascinating comparison of computer science education in four African countries
    • Iliana Ramirez describes how volunteers are at the heart of Ciberistas, a technology training programme for young people in Mexico
    • Matthew Griffin’s article highlights how computing education works in Canada, a large country with two official languages
    • Dana Rensi’s article about a solar-powered Raspberry Pi computing lab in the middle of the Peruvian rainforest will surprise and delight you
    • Randal Rousseau, a librarian in Cape Town, South Africa, shares how he teaches children to code through unplugged activities

    And there is lots more for you to discover in issue 23.

    Sue Sentance, director of the Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, says in her article:

    “Our own experience of implementing computing education in England since 2014 has shown the importance of teachers supporting each other, and how various networks … are instrumental in bringing computing teachers together to share knowledge and experiences. With so many countries introducing computing education, and teachers around the globe facing similar challenges, maybe we need to extend this to a global teacher network, where teachers and policymakers can share good practice and learn from each other. “

    We aim for Hello World magazine to be one of the places where this sharing, exchange, and learning can take place. Subscribe for free to never miss an issue, and find out how you can write for the magazine.

    Download Hello World issue 23 for free

    Research highlights the importance of computing education to young people’s futures, whether or not they pursue a degree or career in the area. From teaching computing in schools where the electricity cuts out, to incorporating artificial intelligence into curricula in different countries, and to teaming up with local governments when there isn’t a national computing curriculum, educators are doing wonderful things around the globe to make sure the young people they support have the opportunity to learn. Read their stories today.

    Also in issue 23:

    • Research on culturally adapted resources 
    • How community building enhances computing education
    • Tips for hosting a STEM event in school

    And much, much more.

    Send us a message or tag us on social media to let us know which articles have made you think, and most importantly, which will help you with your teaching. And to hear monthly news about Hello World and the whole Raspberry Pi Foundation, sign up to the Hello World newsletter.

    Website: LINK

  • Teaching about AI explainability

    Teaching about AI explainability

    Reading Time: 6 minutes

    In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, students are increasingly interacting with AI-powered applications when listening to music, writing assignments, and shopping online. As educators, it’s our responsibility to equip them with the skills to critically evaluate these technologies.

    A woman teacher helps a young person with a coding project.

    A key aspect of this is understanding ‘explainability’ in AI and machine learning (ML) systems. The explainability of a model is how easy it is to ‘explain’ how a particular output was generated. Imagine having a job application rejected by an AI model, or facial recognition technology failing to recognise you — you would want to know why.

    Two teenage girls do coding activities at their laptops in a classroom.

    Establishing standards for explainability is crucial. Otherwise we risk creating a world where decisions impacting our lives are made by opaque systems we don’t understand. Learning about explainability is key for students to develop digital literacy, enabling them to navigate the digital world with informed awareness and critical thinking.

    Why AI explainability is important

    AI models can have a significant impact on people’s lives in various ways. For instance, if a model determines a child’s exam results, parents and teachers would want to understand the reasoning behind it.

    Two learners sharing a laptop in a coding session.

    Artists might want to know if their creative works have been used to train a model and could be at risk of plagiarism. Likewise, coders will want to know if their code is being generated and used by others without their knowledge or consent. If you came across an AI-generated artwork that features a face resembling yours, it’s natural to want to understand how a photo of you was incorporated into the training data. 

    Explainability is about accountability, transparency, and fairness, which are vital lessons for children as they grow up in an increasingly digital world.

    There will also be instances where a model seems to be working for some people but is inaccurate for a certain demographic of users. This happened with Twitter’s (now X’s) face detection model in photos; the model didn’t work as well for people with darker skin tones, who found that it could not detect their faces as effectively as their lighter-skinned friends and family. Explainability allows us not only to understand but also to challenge the outputs of a model if they are found to be unfair.

    In essence, explainability is about accountability, transparency, and fairness, which are vital lessons for children as they grow up in an increasingly digital world.

    Routes to AI explainability

    Some models, like decision trees, regression curves, and clustering, have an in-built level of explainability. There is a visual way to represent these models, so we can pretty accurately follow the logic implemented by the model to arrive at a particular output.

    By teaching students about AI explainability, we are not only educating them about the workings of these technologies, but also teaching them to expect transparency as they grow to be future consumers or even developers of AI technology.

    A decision tree works like a flowchart, and you can follow the conditions used to arrive at a prediction. Regression curves can be shown on a graph to understand why a particular piece of data was treated the way it was, although this wouldn’t give us insight into exactly why the curve was placed at that point. Clustering is a way of collecting similar pieces of data together to create groups (or clusters) with which we can interrogate the model to determine which characteristics were used to create the groupings.

    A decision tree that classifies animals based on their characteristics; you can follow these models like a flowchart

    However, the more powerful the model, the less explainable it tends to be. Neural networks, for instance, are notoriously hard to understand — even for their developers. The networks used to generate images or text can contain millions of nodes spread across thousands of layers. Trying to work out what any individual node or layer is doing to the data is extremely difficult.

    Learners in a computing classroom.

    Regardless of the complexity, it is still vital that developers find a way of providing essential information to anyone looking to use their models in an application or to a consumer who might be negatively impacted by the use of their model.

    Model cards for AI models

    One suggested strategy to add transparency to these models is using model cards. When you buy an item of food in a supermarket, you can look at the packaging and find all sorts of nutritional information, such as the ingredients, macronutrients, allergens they may contain, and recommended serving sizes. This information is there to help inform consumers about the choices they are making.

    Model cards attempt to do the same thing for ML models, providing essential information to developers and users of a model so they can make informed choices about whether or not they want to use it.

    Model cards include details such as the developer of the model, the training data used, the accuracy across diverse groups of people, and any limitations the developers uncovered in testing.

    Model cards should be accessible to as many people as possible.

    A real-world example of a model card is Google’s Face Detection model card. This details the model’s purpose, architecture, performance across various demographics, and any known limitations of their model. This information helps developers who might want to use the model to assess whether it is fit for their purpose.

    Transparency and accountability in AI

    As the world settles into the new reality of having the amazing power of AI models at our disposal for almost any task, we must teach young people about the importance of transparency and responsibility. 

    An educator points to an image on a student's computer screen.

    As a society, we need to have hard discussions about where and when we are comfortable implementing models and the consequences they might have for different groups of people. By teaching students about explainability, we are not only educating them about the workings of these technologies, but also teaching them to expect transparency as they grow to be future consumers or even developers of AI technology.

    Most importantly, model cards should be accessible to as many people as possible — taking this information and presenting it in a clear and understandable way. Model cards are a great way for you to show your students what information is important for people to know about an AI model and why they might want to know it. Model cards can help students understand the importance of transparency and accountability in AI.  

    This article also appears in issue 22 of Hello World, which is all about teaching and AI. Download your free PDF copy now.

    If you’re an educator, you can use our free Experience AI Lessons to teach your learners the basics of how AI works, whatever your subject area.

    Website: LINK

  • AI isn’t just robots: How to talk to young children about AI

    AI isn’t just robots: How to talk to young children about AI

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Young children have a unique perspective on the world they live in. They often seem oblivious to what’s going on around them, but then they will ask a question that makes you realise they did get some insight from a news story or a conversation they overheard. This happened to me with a class of ten-year-olds when one boy asked, with complete sincerity and curiosity, “And is that when the zombie apocalypse happened?” He had unknowingly conflated the Great Plague with television depictions of zombies taking over the world.

    How to talk to young people about AI

    Absorbing media and assimilating it into your existing knowledge is a challenge, and this is a concern when the media is full of big, scary headlines about artificial intelligence (AI) taking over the world, stealing jobs, and being sentient. As teachers and parents, you don’t need to know all the details about AI to answer young people’s questions, but you can avoid accidentally introducing alternate conceptions. This article offers some top tips to help you point those inquisitive minds in the right direction.

    AI is not a person

    Technology companies like to anthropomorphise their products and give them friendly names. Why? Because it makes their products seem more endearing and less scary, and makes you more likely to include them in your lives. However, when you think of AI as a human with a name who needs you to say ‘please’ or is ‘there to help you’, you start to make presumptions about how it works, what it ‘knows’, and its morality. This changes what we ask, how much we trust an AI device’s responses, and how we behave when using the device. The device, though, does not ‘see’ or ‘know’ anything; instead, it uses lots of data to make predictions. Think of word association: if I say “bread”, I predict that a lot of people in the UK will think “butter”. Here, I’ve used the data I’ve collected from years of living in this country to predict a reasonable answer. This is all AI devices are doing. 

    [AI] does not ‘see’ or ‘know’ anything; instead, it uses lots of data to make predictions.

    When talking to young children about AI, try to avoid using pronouns such as ‘she’ or ‘he’. Where possible, avoid giving devices human names, and instead call them “computer”, to reinforce the idea that humans and computers are very different. Let’s imagine that a child in your class says, “Alexa told me a joke at the weekend — she’s funny!” You could respond, “I love using computers to find new jokes! What was it?” This is just a micro-conversation, but with it, you are helping to surreptitiously challenge the child’s perception of Alexa and the role of AI in it.

    Where possible, avoid giving devices human names, and instead call them ‘computer’, to reinforce the idea that humans and computers are very different.

    Another good approach is to remember to keep your emotions separate from computers, so as not to give them human-like characteristics: don’t say that the computer ‘hates’ you, or is ‘deliberately ignoring’ you, and remember that it’s only ‘helpful’ because it was told to be. Language is important, and we need to continually practise avoiding anthropomorphism.

    AI isn’t just robots (actually, it rarely is)

    The media plays a huge role in what we imagine when we talk about AI. For the media, the challenge is how to make lines of code and data inside a computer look exciting and recognisable to their audiences. The answer? Robots! When learners hear about AI taking over the world, it’s easy for them to imagine robots like those you’d find in a Marvel movie. Yet the majority of AI exists within systems they’re already aware of and are using — you might just need to help draw their attention to it.

    Even better than just calling out uses of AI: try to have conversations about when things go wrong and AI systems suggest silly options.

    For example, when using a word processor, you can highlight to learners that the software sometimes predicts what word you want to type next, and that this is an example of the computer using AI. When learners are using streaming services for music or TV and the service predicts something that they might want to watch or listen to next, point out that this is using AI technology. When they see their parents planning a route using a satnav, explain that the satnav system uses data and AI to plan the best route.

    Even better than just calling out uses of AI: try to have conversations about when things go wrong and AI systems suggest silly options. This is a great way to build young people’s critical thinking around the use of computers. AI systems don’t always know best, because they’re just making predictions, and predictions can always be wrong.

    AI complements humans

    There’s a delicate balance between acknowledging the limitations of AI and portraying it as a problematic tool that we shouldn’t use. AI offers us great opportunities to improve the way we work, to get us started on a creative project, or to complete mundane tasks. However, it is just a tool, and tools complement the range of skills that humans already have. For example, if you gave an AI chatbot app the prompt, ‘Write a setting description using these four phrases: dark, scary, forest, fairy tale’, the first output from the app probably wouldn’t make much sense. As a human, though, you’d probably have to do far less work to edit the output than if you had had to write the setting description from scratch. Now, say you had the perfect example of a setting description, but you wanted 29 more examples, a different version for each learner in your class. This is where AI can help: completing a repetitive task and saving time for humans. 

    To help children understand how AI and humans complement each other, ask them the question, ‘What can’t a computer do?’ Answers that I have received before include, ‘Give me a hug’, ‘Make me laugh’, and ‘Paint a picture’, and these are all true. Can Alexa tell you a joke that makes you laugh? Yes — but a human created that joke. The computer is just the way in which it is being shared. Even with AI ‘creating’ new artwork, it is really only using data from something that someone else created. Humans are required. 

    Overall, we must remember that young children are part of a world that uses AI, and that it is likely to be ever more present in the future. We need to ensure that they know how to use AI responsibly, by minimising their alternate conceptions. With our youngest learners, this means taking care with the language you choose and the examples you use, and explaining AI’s role as a tool.

    To help children understand how AI and humans complement each other, ask them the question, ‘What can’t a computer do?’

    These simple approaches are the first steps to empowering children to go on to harness this technology. They also pave the way for you to simply introduce the core concepts of AI in later computing lessons without first having to untangle a web of alternate conceptions.

    This article also appears in issue 22 of Hello World, which is all about teaching and AI. Download your free PDF copy now.

    If you’re an educator, you can use our free Experience AI Lessons to teach your learners the basics of how AI works, whatever your subject area.

    Website: LINK

  • Hello World #22 out now: Teaching and AI

    Hello World #22 out now: Teaching and AI

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Recent developments in artificial intelligence are changing how the world sees computing and challenging computing educators to rethink their approach to teaching. In the brand-new issue of Hello World, out today for free, we tackle some big questions about AI and computing education. We also get practical with resources for your classroom.

    Cover of Hello World issue 22.

    Teaching and AI

    In their articles for issue 22, educators explore a range of topics related to teaching and AI, including what is AI literacy and how do we teach it; gender bias in AI and what we can do about it; how to speak to young children about AI; and why anthropomorphism hinders learners’ understanding of AI.

    Our feature articles also include a research digest on AI ethics for children, and of course hands-on examples of AI lessons for your learners.

    A snapshot of AI education

    Hello World issue 22 is a comprehensive snapshot of the current landscape of AI education. Ben Garside, Learning Manager for our Experience AI programme and guest editor of this issue, says:

    “When I was teaching in the classroom, I used to enjoy getting to grips with new technological advances and finding ways in which I could bring them into school and excite the students I taught. Occasionally, during the busiest of times, I’d also look longingly at other subjects and be jealous that their curriculum appeared to be more static than ours (probably a huge misconception on my behalf).”

    It’s inspiring for me to see how the education community is reacting to the opportunities that AI can provide.

    Ben Garside

    “It’s inspiring for me to see how the education community is reacting to the opportunities that AI can provide. Of course, there are elements of AI where we need to tread carefully and be very cautious in our approach, but what you’ll see in this magazine is educators who are thinking creatively in this space.”

    Download Hello World issue 22 for free

    AI is a topic we’ve addressed before in Hello World, and we’ll keep covering this rapidly evolving area in future. We hope this issue gives you plenty of ideas to take away and build upon.

    Also in issue 22:

    • Vocational training for young people
    • Making the most of online educator training
    • News about BBC micro:bit
    • An insight into the WiPSCE 2023 conference for teachers and educators
    • And much, much more

    You can download your free PDF issue now, or purchase a print copy from our store. UK-based subscribers for a free print edition can expect their copies to arrive in the mail this week.

    Send us a message or tag us on social media to let us know which articles have made you think and, most importantly, which will help you with your teaching.

    Website: LINK

  • Introducing the Hello World newsletter

    Introducing the Hello World newsletter

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Launched six years ago, Hello World magazine is the education magazine about computing and digital making. It’s made for educators by educators, and a community of teachers around the world reads and contributes to every issue. We’re now starting a monthly Hello World newsletter to bring you more great content for computing educators while you await each new magazine issue.

    Cover of Hello World issue 21.
    Cover of The Big Book of Computing Content.
    Cover of The Big Book of Computing Pedagogy.

    A monthly newsletter for Hello World readers

    The Hello World community is an amazing group of people, and we love hearing your ideas about what could make Hello World even better at supporting your classroom practice. That’s why we host a fun and informative Hello World podcast to chat with educators around the globe about all things computing and digital making, and why we regularly share some of our favourite past magazine articles online to keep the conversation on important topics going.

    Now we’re starting a monthly newsletter to offer you another way to get regular computing education ideas and insights you can use in your teaching. Every month, we’ll be curating a couple of interesting Hello World articles, plus news about the free education resources, research, community stories, and events from the Foundation. You can expect bite-size summaries of all items, plus links for you to explore more in your own time.

    Sign up today

    Keep up with all of the education news from the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Hello World by signing up for the Hello World newsletter today.

    If you’re already signed up to the Raspberry Pi LEARN newsletter, then you don’t need to do anything: this newsletter replaces LEARN and you will be automatically subscribed.

    We hope you’ll enjoy the first Hello World newsletter, which we will send out this Wednesday. As always, let us know what you think of it on Twitter or Facebook, or here in the comments.

    PS Remember that if you work or volunteer as an educator in the UK, you can subscribe to receive free Hello World print copies to your home or workplace.

    Website: LINK

  • Hello World #21 out now: Focus on primary computing education

    Hello World #21 out now: Focus on primary computing education

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    How do we best prepare young children for a world filled with digital technology? This is the question the writers in our newest issue of Hello World respond to with inspiration and ideas for computing education in primary school.

    Cover of Hello World issue 21.

    It is vital that young children gain good digital literacy skills and understanding of computing concepts, which they can then build on as they grow up. Digital technology is here to stay, and as Sethi De Clercq points out in his article, we need to prepare our youngest learners for circumstances and jobs that don’t yet exist.

    In a computing classroom, a boy looks down at a keyboard.
    A group of young people work together at a computer.

    Primary computing education: Inspiration and ideas

    Issue 21 of Hello World covers a big range of topics in the theme of primary computing education, including:

    • Cross-curricular project ideas to keep young learners engaged
    • Perfecting typing skills in the primary school classroom
    • Using picture books to introduce programming concepts to children
    • Toolkits for new and experienced computing primary teachers, by Neil Rickus and Catherine Archer
    • Explorations of different approaches to improving diversity in computing and instilling a sense of belonging from the very start of a child’s educational journey, by Chris Lovell and Peter Marshman

    The issue also has useful news and updates about our work: we share insights from our primary-specialist learning managers, tell you a bit about the research presented at our ongoing primary education seminar series, and include some relevant lesson plans from The Computing Curriculum.

    A child at a laptop in a classroom in rural Kenya.

    As always, you’ll find many other articles to support and inspire you in your computing teaching in this new issue. Topics include programming with dyslexia, exploring filter bubbles with your learners to teach them about data science, and using metaphors, similes, and analogies to help your learners understand abstract concepts.

    What do you think?

    This issue of Hello World focusses on primary computing education because readers like you told us in the annual readers’ survey that they’d like more articles for primary teachers.

    We love to hear your ideas about what we can do to continue making Hello World interesting and relevant for you. So please get in touch on Twitter with your thoughts and suggestions.

    Website: LINK

  • Preparing young children for a digital world | Hello World #21

    Preparing young children for a digital world | Hello World #21

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    How do we teach our youngest learners digital and computing skills? Hello World‘s issue 21 will focus on this question and all things primary school computing education. We’re excited to share this new issue with you on Tuesday 30 May. Today we’re giving you a taste by sharing an article from it, written by our own Sway Grantham.

    Cover of Hello World issue 21.

    How are you preparing young children for a world filled with digital technology? Technology use of our youngest learners is a hotly debated topic. From governments to parents and from learning outcomes to screen-time rules, everyone has an opinion on the ‘right’ approach. Meanwhile, many young children encounter digital technology as a part of their world at home. For example in the UK, 87 percent of 3- to 4-year-olds and 93 percent of 5- to 7-year-olds went online at home in 2023. Schools should be no different.

    A girl doing digital making on a tablet

    As educators, we have a responsibility to prepare learners for life in a digital world. We want them to understand its uses, to be aware of its risks, and to have access to the wide range of experiences unavailable without it. And we especially need to consider the children who do not encounter technology at home. Education should be a great equaliser, so we need to ensure all our youngest learners have access to the skills they need to realise their full potential.

    Exploring technology and the world

    A major aspect of early-years or kindergarten education is about learners sharing their world with each other and discovering that everyone has different experiences and does things in their own way. Using digital technology is no different.

    Allowing learners to share their experiences of using digital technology both accepts the central role of technology in our lives today and also introduces them to its broader uses in helping people to learn, talk to others, have fun, and do work. At home, many young learners may use technology to do just one of these things. Expanding their use of technology can encourage them to explore a wider range of skills and to see technology differently.

    A girl shows off a robot she has built.

    In their classroom environment, these explorations can first take place as part of the roleplay area of a classroom, where learners can use toys to show how they have seen people use technology. It may seem counterintuitive that play-based use of non-digital toys can contribute to reducing the digital divide, but if you don’t know what technology can do, how can you go about learning to use it? There is also a range of digital roleplay apps (such as the Toca Boca apps) that allow learners to recreate their experiences of real-world situations, such as visiting the hospital, a hair salon, or an office. Such apps are great tools for extending roleplay areas beyond the resources you already have.

    Another aspect of a child’s learning that technology can facilitate is their understanding of the world beyond their local community. Technology allows learners to explore the wider world and follow their interests in ways that are otherwise largely inaccessible. For example:

    • Using virtual reality apps, such as Expeditions Pro, which lets learners explore Antarctica or even the bottom of the ocean
    • Using augmented reality apps, such as Octagon Studio’s 4D+ cards, which make sea creatures and other animals pop out of learners’ screens
    • Doing a joint project with a class of children in another country, where learners blog or share ‘email’ with each other

    Each of these opportunities gives children a richer understanding of the world while they use technology in meaningful ways.

    Technology as a learning tool

    Beyond helping children to better understand our world, technology offers opportunities to be expressive and imaginative. For example, alongside your classroom art activities, how about using an app like Draw & Tell, which helps learners draw pictures and then record themselves explaining what they are drawing? Or what about using filters on photographs to create artistic portraits of themselves or their favourite toys? Digital technology should be part of the range of tools learners can access for creative play and expression, particularly where it offers opportunities that analogue tools don’t.

    Young learners at computers in a classroom.

    Using technology is also invaluable for learners who struggle with communication and language skills. When speaking is something you find challenging, it can often be intimidating to talk to others who speak much more confidently. But speaking to a tablet? A tablet only speaks as well as you do. Apps to record sounds and listen back to them are a helpful way for young children to learn about how clear their speech is and practise speech exercises. ChatterPix Kids is a great tool for this. It lets learners take a photo of an object, e.g. their favourite soft toy, and record themselves talking about it. When they play back the recording, the app makes it look like the toy is saying their words. This is a very engaging way for young learners to practise communicating.

    Technology is part of young people’s world

    No matter how we feel about the role of technology in the lives of young people, it is a part of their world. We need to ensure we are giving all learners opportunities to develop digital skills and understand the role of technology, including how people can use it for social good.

    A woman and child follow instructions to build a digital making project at South London Raspberry Jam.

    This is not just about preparing them for their computing education (although that’s definitely a bonus!) or about online safety (although this is vital — see my articles in Hello World issue 15 and issue 19 for more about the topic). It’s about their right to be active citizens in the digital world.

    So I ask again: how are you preparing young children for a digital world?

    Subscribe to the Hello World digital edition for free

    The first experiences children have with learning about computing and digital technologies are formative. That’s why primary computing education should be of interest to all educators, no matter what the age of your learners is. This issue covers for example:

    And there’s much more besides. So don’t miss out on this upcoming issue of Hello World — subscribe for free today to receive every PDF edition in your inbox on the day of publication.

    Website: LINK

  • Computing curriculum fundamentals | Hello World #20

    Computing curriculum fundamentals | Hello World #20

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Why are computing systems at the heart of our computing curriculum design? Senior Learning Manager Sway Grantham from the Foundation team explains in her article from the brand-new issue of Hello World, our free magazine for computing educators, out today.

    Cover of Hello World issue 20.

    Whether you plan lessons on a Computing topic, develop curriculum content, or even write curriculum policy, you have to make choices. What are you going to include and what is less of a priority? You have to consider time constraints and access to resources, prior learning and maybe even pupil interests. You probably also have to consider the wider curriculum context. Well, here is my first principle to help you: computing systems should be the foundation of your Computing curriculum.

    A computing systems epiphany

    As a primary teacher, when I first began writing Computing lesson plans for children aged 9 to 10, I started with programming. This was a very visual entry into Computing, and children were excited to create projects that were familiar to them, such as games and animations. However, as my understanding of Computing grew, I realised that something was missing.

    Two learners do physical computing in the primary school classroom.

    My learners could explain what an algorithm is, as well as explaining that a program is ‘a set of instructions that runs on a computer to tell it what to do’. Both of these met the curriculum needs, but I wasn’t convinced that they could link these two concepts together. Could they connect what they were doing on a floor robot to the computing systems around them? Did they understand what a computer was? Well… I asked them to see what they’d say!

    According to my class, a computer was:

    • A piece of technology
    • A keyboard and a screen
    • A search engine
    • A machine used for work
    • A metal brain
    • A machine with a keyboard
    • An information device
    • Electric

    This very simple question highlighted a wealth of alternate conceptions about programming and computing systems. The other commonality of my learners’ definitions was that they described the computer’s function, as if, in order to define what a computer is, we just need to know what it does. This view of a definition greatly limits learners’ ability to understand what potential computers have beyond personal use.

    My learners had two discrete chunks of knowledge: how to program a floor robot, and that laptops were computers. However, without a bridge to connect them, this learning was disjointed. Learners needed to have a concrete, conceptual understanding of ‘what a computer is’ before they could start to comprehend the more abstract role of a program in that system.

    Knowledge of computing systems empowers people to take control of technology and not just consume it.

    Beyond the experiences of my young learners, we see examples of a lack of understanding about computing systems all the time in society. Many competent users of software are able to regularly complete the tasks that they need, but if one day something doesn’t work, they do not know how to find a solution. Equally, many people enjoy exploring digital making projects, yet if they want to personalise the project, they don’t know what they can or can’t change to do this. Knowledge of computing systems empowers people to take control of technology and not just consume it.

    Planning computing content today

    Both of these examples highlight the importance of introducing computing systems as both life skills and as support for developing other areas of computing. More recently, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has been creating 100 hours of curriculum content in partnership with non-profit organisation Amala Education. Through this content we aim to give refugee learners who may never have used technology enough understanding to build a website that encourages social change.

    Whilst we know that the material needs to include some foundational knowledge of computing systems, we must first consider the core content that learners must understand to achieve the end goal, such as:

    • Webpage creation 
    • HTML/CSS/JavaScript
    • Project management 
    • Project development

    These areas of learning are a great place to start as, undeniably, learners aren’t going to be able to build a website without knowing the process of creating a website, the languages used to create web pages, or the project management skills to see a project from start to finish.

    This could be the entirety of the content, but instead, I encourage you to think back to those children who could program but didn’t know on what devices programs could run. We need to connect the core content to that foundational content: how is building a website related to computing systems?

    Prior knowledge

    All learning is built on prior knowledge, even if that prior knowledge has been gained through life experience and not formal education. To build a website, we need to know how to type and use a mouse. We need to know what a website is, why people use websites, and what sort of media is found on them. Beyond that, we need to know how the files that we are creating are being shared with other people. We need to understand that a computer can communicate with another computer and what the process is to make that happen. None of this learning is the core content of building a website, but if you tried to build a website without understanding these things, it would be difficult to do.

    All learning is built on prior knowledge, even if that prior knowledge has been gained through life experience and not formal education.

    As the learners we support together with Amala Education might have no prior experience of using technology, we needed to ensure that enough foundational computing systems content was built into the learning sequence — things such as:

    • Recognising digital devices
    • Decomposing computing systems
    • Digital painting (mouse skills)
    • Combining text and images (desktop publishing)
    • Networks and the internet
    • Internet searching

    By incorporating this content into the learning sequence, we ensure that learners do not just learn a process for creating a website. They understand the impact of the choices they make when building a website, they have the skills to implement their ideas, and they can connect their understanding to solve any unexpected challenges they find along the way. This more holistic approach should support learners’ knowledge transfer and offer them a much broader range of opportunities. 

    This more holistic approach should support learners’ knowledge transfer and offer them a much broader range of opportunities.

    Whatever your curriculum requires, you will have the core content you need to teach. This could be the requirements of your standardised curriculum, it could be the specific project you’re trying to build, or it could be the aspirations that you have for your students. However, rather than stopping at that part of your learning sequence, take a step back and consider the prior knowledge you’re connecting to. I expect you will find that computing systems is what you need to ensure learners’ new knowledge has a solid foundation.

    Read the new Hello World issue today

    Computing systems and networks is one of those computer science topics in which misconceptions abound. Hello World issue 20 focuses on how you can support your learners to grasp even the tricky ideas within this topic, giving you practical ideas, activities, and insights from practicing educators. Download your free PDF copy now, and subscribe to never miss an issue.

    Website: LINK

  • Reflecting on what we teach in computing education and how we teach it

    Reflecting on what we teach in computing education and how we teach it

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Reflecting is important within any line of work, and computing education is no different. Reflective practice is always valuable, whether you support learners in a non-formal setting, such as a Code Club or CoderDojo, or in a more formal environment, such as a school or college. When you reflect, you might for example evaluate a session or lesson and make changes for next time, or consider whether to reorder activities and learning across a longer time period, or even think broadly about what you teach and how you teach it.

    Two special editions of Hello World: The big book of computing content, and the big book of computing pedagogy.

    This is where our two special editions of Hello World come in: The Big Book of Computing Content and The Big Book of Computing Pedagogy. Both available as free downloads, they help you reflect on what you teach within Computing and how you teach it.

    A computing teacher and a learner do physical computing in the primary school classroom.
    A teacher explains something to a learner in a computer science class.

    What you teach: The Big Book of Computing Content

    Computing is a broad and interdisciplinary subject, and different curricula and courses around the world focus on different aspects of it. For all of us, therefore, computing is framed by the curricula with which we are working and the terms which we’re using to talk about the subject. Over the past years at the Foundation, we have been developing a Computing taxonomy to help describe the different aspects of the subject. The Big Book of Computing Content is based on this taxonomy. The aim of this special edition of Hello World is to illustrate the breadth of Computing, and to model language that describes the different concepts, knowledge, and skills that comprise it.

    Cover of The Big Book of Computing Content.
    The Big Book of Computing Content explores what we mean by Computing and aims to provide a common language to describe the subject. This book complements our Hello World special edition on pedagogy, introducing research alongside practical articles from teachers.

    We have organised this Big Book according to our taxonomy’s 11 content strands and also included progressive learning outcomes for each strand at different stages of learning. These outcomes are not prescriptive; instead they illustrate the wide applications of the subject by highlighting the kinds of knowledge and understanding that learners could develop in each area of Computing.

    Computing classroom with woman teacher and young students at laptops doing Scratch coding.
    Male teacher and male students at a computer

    We hope that The Big Book of Computing Content encourages educators to reflect on all aspects of Computing and how they interconnect, as well as on the language we use to describe Computing. Whether the Big Book helps you to discover new aspects to Computing, to think about the subject differently, or simply to see the differences in how we as educators talk about our subject, the time you spend reflecting is important and valuable.

    How you teach: The Big Book of Computing Pedagogy

    One part of our work as educators is understanding the breadth of Computing and the specific ideas within it. The other part is reflecting on how we teach the subject: the specific methods, strategies, and practices we can use with our learners. The Big Book of Computing Pedagogy describes a range of teaching approaches framed around our 12 pedagogical principles for teaching Computing. Each research-informed principle either reflects how general-purpose pedagogy applies within Computing or explores pedagogies specific to Computing itself. This Big Book consists of research summaries as well as practical articles from educators which illustrate how you can apply the different pedagogies.

    Cover of The Big Book of Computing Pedagogy.
    Hello World’s special edition on pedagogy lays out approaches to teaching computing in the classroom. It bridges the gap between research and practice, giving you accessible chunks of research, followed by stories from educators.

    Rather than prescribing a set of principles that educators must follow, the aim of The Big Book of Computing Pedagogy is to help you develop your understanding of a range of pedagogical approaches which you can select, apply, and adapt to suit your context.

    Reflect to develop your knowledge and agency

    Ultimately we want to support all Computing and Computer Science educators to build their understanding of subject matter (that is, content) and pedagogy, or what is called pedagogical content knowledge (PCK, a term popularised by Lee Shulman). Combining your PCK with your grasp of the context of your learners, curricula, and setting will enable you to choose suitable practices for your content and context.

    Three computer science educators discuss something at a screen.

    We hope that you find the two Big Books to be valuable reference tools to help you and your peers reflect on what it is you mean when you talk about Computing, and on how you teach the concepts, knowledge, and skills within it. Both books are available as free PDF downloads.

    We would love to hear examples of how you have used The Big Book of Computing Pedagogy or The Big Book of Computing Content to inform your own teaching practice or to discuss practice with colleagues. Tell us in the comments.

    Website: LINK

  • Out now: Hello World’s special edition on Computing content

    Out now: Hello World’s special edition on Computing content

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Hello World, our free magazine for computing and digital making educators, has just published its second special edition: The Big Book of Computing Content.

    Cover of The Big Book of Computing Content.

    A special edition on the content we teach in the Computing classroom

    While Hello World‘s first special edition, The Big Book of Computing Pedagogy, focused on how we can teach Computing, this new book is about what we mean by Computing. It aims to demonstrate the breadth of knowledge and skills contained within this constantly evolving subject.

    A tweet about Hello World's special edition The Big Book of Computing Content.
    A tweet about Hello World's special edition The Big Book of Computing Content.

    We have structured the new special edition around our taxonomy for formal Computing education, to which we map all our formal education resources. Originally we developed the taxonomy when we started work in the consortium setting up and delivering England’s National Centre for Computing Education, and specifically when we designed the 500 hours of classroom materials in the Teach Computing Curriculum.

    The Raspberry Pi Foundation's computing content taxonomy, made of 11 strands: effective use of tools, safety and security, design and development, impact of technology, computing systems, networks, creating media, algorithms and data structures, programming, data and information, artificial intelligence.
    The 11 strands of Computing content in our taxonomy.

    Our Computing taxonomy comprises eleven strands and aims to categorise Computing conceptual knowledge and skills to both demonstrate the breadth of Computing as a discipline, and to provide a common language to describe the different areas of study and competencies.

    A tweet about Hello World's special edition The Big Book of Computing Content.
    A tweet about Hello World's special edition The Big Book of Computing Content.

    The Big Book of Computing Content complements our first Hello World special edition and follows the same principle of introducing readers to up-to-date research, followed by our favourite stories from past Hello World issues by educators who put that content into practice. For each of the eleven strands in our taxonomy, we also present a table of learning outcomes, which provides examples of knowledge and skills that learners from ages 5 to 19 could develop at each stage of their formal computing education.

    Your thoughts on The Big Book of Computing Content

    Hello World’s first special edition was very popular around the world, with educators setting up Big Book of Computing Pedagogy reading groups, leaders using the book to support pre-service teachers, and even of an upcoming translation into Thai.

    We’ve already started to hear similar stories about The Big Book of Computing Content from Hello World readers, including CSEdResearch dedicating their Computer Science Education Discussion Group to all things Big Book of Computing Content in its first week of publication.

    A tweet about Hello World's special edition The Big Book of Computing Content.

    We’d love to hear from more educators about how you are using this new special edition, and how it complements your reading of the first Big Book.

    You can also subscribe now to get each new Hello World — whether regular issue or special edition — straight to your digital inbox, for free! And if you’re based in the UK and do paid or voluntary work in education, you can subscribe for free print issues.

    PS Have you listened to our Hello World podcast yet? Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

    Website: LINK

  • A taxonomy of Computing content for education

    A taxonomy of Computing content for education

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Supporting educators to provide high-quality computing education has always been integral to our mission. In 2018, we began creating more learning resources for formal education settings. The UK government had recently announced future investment in supporting computing educators. Schools in England were offering the national Computing curriculum established in 2014. (In the USA, a more common term for prescribed education content is ‘standards’.)

    In a computing classroom, a girl looks at a computer screen.
    a teenage boy does coding during a computer science lesson.

    England’s Computing curriculum requires that all learners be taught the subject between ages 5 and 16, and it consists of only 25 statements outlining expectations for learners. To accompany this curriculum, we started developing a framework to help us describe the subject of Computing, and in particular the common threads running through it.

    Young learners at computers in a classroom.
    school-aged girls and a teacher using a computer together.

    A 2012 report by the Royal Society presented the breadth of computing by dividing it into three areas: information technology, computer science, and digital literacy. Although this goes some way to describe computing as a discipline, in our view this model creates artificial divides between aspects of the subject according to whether they are seen as more or less technical. Our more holistic view of computing recognises that concepts and skills within the subject are far more interconnected.

    Principles for our taxonomy

    When we set out to develop our framework, the goal was to provide a way to look at and describe the subject of Computing as a set of interconnected topics; the framework doesn’t define standards or curricula. There are, of course, many ways of organising the subject matter, implemented through exam specifications, textbooks, schemes of learning, and various progression guides. For our framework, we reviewed examples of each of these, from England and beyond, and decided on some organisational principles:

    • Our framework should describe the whole of Computing, incorporating computer science, information technology, and digital literacy
    • The framework should be applicable across primary and secondary education, meaning it should be useful for categorising the knowledge encountered by all learners, from five-year-olds to our oldest secondary school students
    • While inspired by England’s national curriculum, the framework should be independent of any particular exam specification and capable of adaptation to new curricula
    • The framework should represent Computing as a discipline that combines a broad mixture of concepts and skills 

    Developing the taxonomy

    Following these principles, we identified ten content themes, or strands, that thread through a learner’s journey in Computing education. We call this framework representing the knowledge and skills that make up the subject our Computing taxonomy. As the Foundation is part of the consortium that established the National Centre for Computing Education in England, our taxonomy became a cornerstone of the work of the Centre, providing a common language to describe Computing in English schools.

    The Raspberry Pi Foundation's computing content taxonomy, made of 11 strands: effective use of tools, safety and security, design and development, impact of technology, computing systems, networks, creating media, algorithms and data structures, programming, data and information, artificial intelligence.
    The 11 content strands we’ve identified for the subject of Computing.

    Computing is, of course, a constantly evolving field and as such, our taxonomy evolves with it. Since 2018 we’ve iterated our taxonomy to incorporate new things we’ve learned, for example relating to the rapid developments of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in recent years. AI now is a significant area of study and represented as its own strand in our current taxonomy, bringing the number of strands up to eleven:

    • Effective use of tools
    • Safety and security
    • Design and development
    • Impact of technology
    • Computing systems
    • Networks
    • Creating media
    • Algorithms and data structures
    • Programming
    • Data and information
    • Artificial intelligence

    Given the interconnected nature of Computing, we embrace a best-fit approach to content categorisation, choosing the most appropriate strand(s) for each idea. In developing our Computing taxonomy, we determined that four of the strands (the horizontal strands in the diagram) were best taught interwoven with the others, in context rather than as discrete topics. A good example of this is the strand ‘Safety and security’, which focuses on supporting learners to realise the benefits of digital technology without putting themselves and others at risk. While it would be possible to teach this strand as one discrete set of lessons, revisiting it throughout a learner’s journey provides regular reinforcement as well as grounding in the context of other strands.

    A computing teacher and a learner do physical computing in the primary school classroom.
    Two female learners code at a computer together.

    Within the strands, we have also identified progressive learning outcomes for each stage of learning. These learning outcomes are illustrative of the kinds of knowledge and understanding that learners could develop in each area of Computing. They are not prescriptive and instead aim to illustrate the wide applications of the discipline.

    Coming soon: The Big Book of Computing Content

    On 24 October, we will publish The Big Book of Computing Content. Framed by our taxonomy, The Big Book of Computing Content presents our work so far in describing the diverse range of concepts and skills that comprise Computing. It also includes the illustrative learning outcomes we’ve identified.

    Cover of The Big Book of Computing Content.

    This will be the second special edition of Hello World, our free magazine for computing educators. The new Big Book complements our first special edition, The Big Book of Computing Pedagogy, in which we lay out 12 key principles for teaching the subject.

    The Big Book of Computing Content will be available in print and as a free PDF download; if you subscribe now, you’ll receive the PDF in your inbox on publication day.

    Share your thoughts on our taxonomy

    We hope our taxonomy and the new Big Book enable you to reflect on the breadth of Computing and resonate with your teaching. Please share your reflections, in the comments below or by tagging us on social media, if you’d like to help us develop the taxonomy further.

    Website: LINK