Schlagwort: teachers

  • Ada Computer Science: A year in review

    Ada Computer Science: A year in review

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    With the new academic year fully under way in many parts of the world, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the growth and innovations we’ve achieved with the Ada Computer Science platform. Your feedback has helped us make improvements to better support teachers and students — here’s a look back at some of the key developments for Ada from the past 12 months.

    Teachers in discussion at a table.
    Teachers in discussion at a Raspberry Pi Foundation teacher training event.

    Supporting students through personalised learning, new resources, and new questions

    We made significant improvements throughout the year to support students with exam preparation and personalised learning. We introduced over 145 new self-marking questions and updated 50 existing ones, bringing the total to more than 1000. A new type of question was also launched to help students practise writing longer responses: they label parts of a sample answer and apply a mark scheme, simulating a peer review process. You can read more about this work in the AI section below.

    We updated the question finder tool with an intuitive new design. Instead of seeing ten questions at random, students can now see all the questions we have on any given topic, and can use the filters to refine their searches by qualification and difficulty level. This enables students to better personalise their revision and progress tracking

    “Ada Computer Science has been very effective for my revision. I like how it provides hints and pointers if you answer a question incorrectly.” 

    – Ada Computer Science student

    The ‘Representation of sound’ topic received a major update, with clearer explanations, new diagrams, and improved feedback to support students as they tackle common misconceptions in sound physics. We also refreshed the ‘Representation of numbers’ topic, adding new content and interactive quizzes to support teachers in assessing students’ understanding more effectively. 

    We introduced a new database scenario titled ‘Repair & Reform’, offering an entity relationship diagram, a data dictionary, and a new SQL editor and question set to help students prepare for project-based assessments. We’ve further expanded this scenario into a full project covering all stages of development, including requirements analysis and evaluation. 

    April was dedicated to gearing up for the exam season, with the introduction of revision flashcards and ready-made quizzes on key topics like bitmapped graphics and sorting algorithms. We also launched a student revision challenge, which ran from April to June and attracted over 600 participants.

    “Ada Computer Science is an excellent resource to help support teachers and students. The explanations are clear and relevant, and the questions help students test their knowledge and understanding in a structured way, providing links to help them reconcile any discrepancies or misunderstandings.” 

    – Patrick Kennedy, Computer Science teacher

    Supporting teachers  

    We expanded our efforts to support new computer science teachers with the launch of a teacher mentoring programme that offers free online drop-in sessions. We also hosted a teacher training event at the Raspberry Pi Foundation office in Cambridge (as seen in the picture below), where educators saw previews of upcoming content on AI and machine learning and contributed their own questions to the platform.

    Group photo featuring computer science teachers and colleagues from the Raspberry PI Foundation.

    AI content and AI features

    We continued our focus on AI and machine learning, releasing new learning resources that explore the ethical and social implications of AI alongside the practical applications of AI and machine learning models. 

    To expand the Ada platform’s features, we also made considerable progress in integrating a large language model (LLM) to mark free-text responses. Our research showed that, as of June, LLM marks matched real teachers’ marks 82% of the time. In July, we received ethics approval from the University of Cambridge to add LLM-marked questions to the Ada platform. 

    Computer science education in Scotland

    We made significant strides towards supporting Scottish teachers and students with resources tailored to the SQA Computing Science curriculum. From September to November last year, we piloted a new set of materials specifically designed for Scottish teachers, receiving valuable feedback that we’ve used in 2024 to develop new content. More than half of the theory content for the National 5 and Higher specifications is now available on the platform. 

    Teacher, in the middle of a computing lesson.

    Our ‘Reform & Repair’ database scenario and project align with both SQA Higher and A level standards, providing a comprehensive resource for students preparing for project-based assessments.

    Looking ahead: New resources for September and beyond

    We have big plans for Ada for the next 12 months. Our focus will remain on continuously improving our resources and supporting the needs of both educators and students. 

    After the positive response to our ‘Repair & Reform’ database project, our content experts are planning additional practical projects to support students and teachers. The next one will be a web project that covers HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP, supporting students taking SQA qualifications in Scotland or undertaking the non-examined assessment (NEA) at A level.

    We’ll be working on a number of teacher-focused improvements to the platform, which you’ll also see on Ada’s sibling site, Isaac Physics. These will include an overhaul of the markbook to make it more user-friendly, and updates to the ‘Assignments’ tool so assignments better meet the needs of teachers in schools.

    We’ll be welcoming the next cohort of computer science students to the STEM SMART programme in January 2025 where, in partnership with the University of Cambridge, we’ll offer free, complementary teaching and support to UK students at state schools. Applications are now open.

    Thank you to every teacher and student who has given their time in the last year to share feedback about Ada Computer Science — your insights are invaluable as we work to make high-quality computer science materials easily accessible. Here’s to another fantastic year of learning and growth!

    Website: LINK

  • Exploring the interface of ecology, mathematics, and digital making | Hello World #11

    Exploring the interface of ecology, mathematics, and digital making | Hello World #11

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    In Hello World issue 11, Pen Holland and Sarah Wyse discuss how educators and students can get closer to the natural world while honing maths and computing skills. Using a Raspberry Pi, you too can join this citizen science collaboration.

    Connectedness to nature as measured by the Nature Connection Index is currently the lowest in young people aged 16-24, with everyone aged 8-34 reporting lower connectedness, compared to the 35+ age groups.

    Although there is some positive correlation between individuals living in the same households, parents are now less likely to raise their children where they grew up themselves, and as such they may be less knowledgeable about local species. Connecting with nature does not have to mean a trip out into the wilds: urban ecology is increasingly popular in research, and even the most determined of city dwellers is likely to pass a municipal tree or two during their day.

    The positive association between connectedness to nature and wellbeing should encourage us all to appreciate and explore our local environments. However, being at one with the natural world doesn’t preclude an abundance of enjoyable science and technology. For example, the authors’ overriding memory of GCSE maths involves triangles – a lot of triangles – combined with frequent musings over how this could possibly ever be useful in the real world. Fast forward 20 years, and we’ve spent more time than we’d like to count surrounded by triangles, chanting ‘SOH CAH TOA’ in the name of ecology.

    Calculating the terminal velocity of winged seeds

    The Seed Eater project arose from research into how fast winged seeds (samaras) fall, in order to predict how far they might travel across a landscape, and hence understand how quickly populations of invasive trees might spread. In the past, ecologists have measured the terminal velocity of seeds using stopwatches and lasers, but stopwatches are inaccurate, and lasers are expensive.

    Timestamped images in which the seed appears tell us the time taken for it to fall through the field of view (A). The distance at which the seed lands from the wall (B) and the viewing angle of the camera (C) are used to calculate distance travelled by the seed while in view. Finally, the speed at which the seed is travelling can be calculated as distance/time.

    Enter stage left, Pieter the Seed Eater; a low-cost device fitted with a Raspberry Pi computer and camera that captures a sequence of images, assesses which timestamped images contain a falling seed, and then calculates how far the seed fell, and hence how fast it was travelling.

    Pieter the Seed Eater was introduced in issue 10 of Hello World, and if you missed that, you can download a free PDF copy of the magazine from the website.

    Pieter the Seed Eater was designed to measure the terminal velocity of pine (Pinus species) seeds from invasive trees in New Zealand, with a particular interest in the variation in falling speeds among seeds from the same cones, between different cones on the same tree, between trees in the same population, and between populations across the landscape. His diet is now expanding to take in a whole range of pine species, but there are many other species of tree around the world that also have winged seeds, in a variety of fascinating shapes.

    Introducing teaching resources

    To help emphasise the connections between nature and STEM, and because Pieter doesn’t have time to eat all the seeds, we are making cross-curricular resources available to support teaching activities. These range from tree identification and seed collection, through seed dispersal experiments and Seed Eater engineering, to terminal velocity measurements and understanding population spread.

    There are several ways to measure tree height, which can be a stimulating discussion and activity. Fire arrows attached to string over high branches, go exploring on Google street view, or use trigonometry, making measurements in a variety of simple or sophisticated ways. Are they all equally accurate? Would they all work on isolated trees and in a dense forest?

    These draw on links from elsewhere (for example, the tree identification keys provided by the Natural History Museum, and helicopter seed templates hosted by STEM Learning UK), as well as new material designed specifically for Pieter the Seed Eater, and more general cross-curricular activities related to ecology. In addition, participants can contribute their data to an online database and explore questions about their data using visualisation tools for dispersal equations and population spread.

    The teaching resources fall into four main categories:

    • Neighbourhood trees
    • Dispersal
    • Terminal velocity
    • Population spread

    Each section contains background information, suggested activities for groups and individuals, data recording sheets, and stretch activities for students to carry out in class or at home. The resources are provided as Google slides under a Creative Commons license so that you can edit and adapt them for your own educational needs, with links to the National Curriculum highlighted throughout (thanks to Mary Howell, professional development leader at STEM Learning UK) and interactive graphics hosted online to help understand some of the concepts and equations more easily. Python code for the Seed Eater can be downloaded or written from scratch (or in Scratch!), so that you can set up the device or let students engineer it from first principles. It will need some calibration, but that is all part of the learning experience, and the resources come with some troubleshooting ideas to get started.

    How can you join in?

    Relevant resources are available here. These are currently aimed at Key Stage 3 (age 11-14) and 4 (14-16), but will be developed and extended as time passes, feedback is incorporated, and new requests are made.

    Ultimately, we would like to reach Key Stage 1 to sixth form and beyond, and develop the project into a citizen science collaboration in which people around the world share information about their local trees and seeds with the global community.

    We welcome feedback and engagement with the project from anyone who is interested in taking part – get in touch via Twitter or email [email protected]

    Get your FREE copy of Hello World today

    Hello World is available now as a FREE PDF download. UK-based educators can also subscribe to receive Hello World directly to their door in all its shiny printed goodness. Visit the Hello World website for more information.

    Website: LINK

  • The National Centre for Computing Education: your questions answered

    The National Centre for Computing Education: your questions answered

    Reading Time: 6 minutes

    Last week was a very exciting week for us, with the announcement of the National Centre for Computing Education: funded programmes for computing teachers and students for the next four years, to really support the growth and profile of our subject. For me and many others involved in this field over the last decade, it’s an amazing opportunity to have this level of financial support for Computing — something we could previously only dream of. Everybody at Raspberry Pi is very excited about being involved in this important work!

    Some background

    A new Computing curriculum was introduced in England in September 2014, and it comprises three strands: computer science, information technology, and digital literacy. The latter two have been taught in schools for many years, but the computer science strand had not been taught in schools to the pre-16 age group since the 1980s.

    Two Royal Society reports have been widely influential. Firstly, the Shut Down or Restart report (2012) instigated the curriculum change. To support teachers implementing the new curriculum, the CAS Network of Excellence received a modest amount of funding from 2013–2018; the network has had a great impact on the field already, but clearly more government input was needed. The second report, After the Reboot (2017), evaluated current computing education in schools in the UK. It highlighted the challenges faced by teachers who felt unprepared to deliver the Computing curriculum, and recommended that significant government funding be provided to support teachers — and this has now happened! The new programme gives us the opportunity to reach all computing teachers, and to make massive improvements to computing education around the country.

    What is the National Centre?

    The National Centre, together with specific support for GCSE and A-Level Computer Science, is a government-funded programme of training and support for computing education. It will lead to a great education in the subject for every child from the beginning of primary school to the end of secondary school, enabling them to develop the valuable skills they need, whether or not they choose computing-related careers.

    Since last week’s announcement, I’ve received lots of questions from teachers and others about exactly what will be happening and who will be doing the work, and I’ve gathered together answers to many of these questions here. Read on to learn more about our plans.

    Key Stages 1–3 and non-GCSE Key Stage 4

    If you are a primary teacher or a secondary teacher at Key Stage 3 or non-GCSE KS4, delivering Computing, either as a classroom teacher or as a specialist, you will be able to access professional learning opportunities (CPD) and resources in your region. Initially these will be available via partners working with us, and from September 2019, you will be able to access them via 40 Computing Hubs.

    You will be able to register for a certificate and work towards it through a range of activities, working with colleagues and in your region. There will also be a range of online courses to support you at your own pace. Some of these are available now, and many more are to be launched over the next two years.

    GCSE Computer Science

    If you teach GCSE Computer Science, or you’d like to, there is a unique programme just for you. Bursaries will be available to enable you to take a series of face-to-face and online courses that best suit your needs: these will range from courses aimed at the completely new-to-GCSE teacher to advanced courses for more experienced teachers who are aiming to stretch and challenge students and to hone their subject knowledge.

    two young people coding at a computer

    The online courses will be free for everyone, forever. There will be a diagnostic test to help you plan your journey, and a final assessment to measure your success. You’ll be able to sign up for this programme from January.

    A Level Computer Science

    If you teach A Level Computer Science, or would like to, you will have access to comprehensive resources for students and teachers. There will also be a range of face-to-face events for both students and teachers. These will be starting shortly, so watch out for more news!

    It will take a few months for the Computing Hubs and CPD provision to be available at scale, but in the meantime, there is much within our existing networks that computing teachers can engage with right now: CAS hubs and other events, Code Clubs in schools, STEM Learning training, and our online courses are some examples.

    Building our team

    We also announced last week that we are looking for new team members to implement our part of the work.

    Developing resources, courses, and publications

    Our role involves developing a comprehensive set of resources, lesson plans, and schemes of work from Key Stages 1–4, drawing on the best of existing materials plus some new ones. We will also develop all the online courses. We need content writers to help us with both of these areas. We are working on producing newsletters, case studies, and other publications about evidence-based practice, and this will also be part of the new team’s work. At the Raspberry Pi Foundation, we will be leading on the A Level Computer Science programme content, so we have opportunities for people with the skills and experience to focus on this area.

    Many of these roles are available if you want to work remotely, but more senior jobs will involve regular days in Cambridge. We also have fixed-term, part-time work available. You can find all our current job openings on this page.

    Finally, as a team, we want to visit lots of schools to see what you need and listen to your thoughts, so that we can get our work right for you. If you’d like to support us in that, please get in touch by emailing [email protected].

    Hubs, face-to-face training, and certification

    STEM Learning, one of our two consortium partners, will be commissioning the 40 Hubs, and they will also be responsible for face-to-face training. The Hubs will become centres of excellence for computing, where teachers can find regional support. Existing CAS (Computing At School) communities will be linked to the 40 Hubs, and CAS Hubs will also play a really important part in the new structure. Our other partner, BCS, will be supporting certification, building on the work they have already done with the BCS Certificate in Computer Science Teaching.

    You will be able to access everything you need on the website of the National Centre for Computing Education, where you’ll soon be able to learn where to find your Computing Hub or local CAS communities and discover what is happening in your region.

    Across the consortium we have teams of people who are deeply committed to computing, to Computing At School (CAS), and to teaching; most of us have recent teaching experience ourselves. Our first priority is to work with teachers collegially to meet your needs and make life easier for you. So follow the National Centre on Twitter, talk to us, and give us your feedback!

    Outside England?

    This post has been all about teachers in England, but our free online resources will be available to anyone, anywhere in the world. If you want to talk to us about the needs in your country, do get in touch.

    Website: LINK

  • A world-class computing education

    A world-class computing education

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    I am delighted to share some big news today. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is part of a consortium that has secured over £78 million in government funding to make sure every child in every school in England has access to a world-leading computing education.

    National Centre for Computing Education

    Working with our partners, STEM Learning and the British Computer Society, we will establish a new National Centre for Computing Education, and deliver a comprehensive programme of support for computing teachers in primary and secondary schools. This will include resources, training, research, certification, and more.

    A teacher works at a computer, smiling delightedly. Another adult, standing in the background, observes. national centre for computing education

    All of the online resources and courses will be completely free for anyone to use. Face-to-face training will be available at no cost to teachers in priority schools, and at very low cost to teachers in other schools. We will also provide bursaries to ensure that schools can release teachers to take part in professional development.

    Several children, some smiling broadly and some concentrating intently, work with Raspberry PI computers and electronic components in a classroom

    An unprecedented level of investment

    This level of investment in computing education is unprecedented anywhere in the world. It is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the way we teach computing and computer science.

    The announcement follows the Royal Society’s report from last November, which drew attention to the scale of the challenge. The report was quickly followed by a commitment from the Chancellor in last year’s budget statement that the government would invest £100 million in computing education across the UK. Earlier this year, the Department for Education launched a procurement process focused on England, and today’s announcement is the outcome of that process.

    national centre for computing education

    The consortium has been tasked with delivering three pieces of work:

    • A National Centre for Computing Education, which will establish a network of Computing Hubs to provide continuing professional development (CPD) and resources for computing teachers in primary and secondary schools and colleges. The Centre will also facilitate strong links with industry.
    • A teacher training programme to upskill existing teachers to teach GCSE Computer Science.
    • A programme to support AS- and A-level Computer Science students and teachers with high-quality resources and CPD.

    national centre for computing education

    A powerful coalition

    One of the things I am most excited about is the amazing coalition of partners that has come together around the plans. The consortium brings together subject expertise and knowledge, significant experience of creating brilliant learning experiences and resources, and a track record of delivering high-quality professional development for educators. But we can’t do it on our own.

    For example, we’re working with the University of Cambridge team that created Isaac Physics to adapt and extend that platform and programme to support teachers and students of Computer Science A Level.

    Our friends at Google have provided practical support and a grant of £1 million to help us create free online courses that will help teachers develop the knowledge and skills to teach computing and computer science.

    national centre for computing education

    We’re working with the Behavioural Insights Team to make it as easy as possible for teachers to get involved with the programme, and with FutureLearn to provide high-quality online courses.

    We’ll also be working in partnership with industry, universities, and non-profits, pooling our expertise and resources to provide the support that educators and schools desperately want. That’s not just a vague promise. As part of the bid process, we secured specific commitments from over 60 organisations who pledged to work with us to make our vision a reality.

    A woman and a man sit at a desk, evidently collaborating on work on a laptop. The woman is smiling and the man is grinning and making an "A-OK" hand gesture.

    Get involved

    Over the coming weeks we’ll be sharing more about our plans. In the meantime, here’s how you can get involved:

    1. Check out the launch website for the National Centre for Computing Education and register your email for updates.
    2. Spread the word to teachers, school leaders, industry, non-profits, and anyone else you think might be interested. Send them a link to this blog, or share it on social media.
    3. Help us find amazing, talented people who can join the team to bring this all to life.

    national centre for computing education

    A message to readers outside England

    Improving computing education should be a priority for every education system and every government in the world. This announcement is focused on computing in schools in England because it’s about funding that has come from the government for that purpose.

    I am proud that the Raspberry Pi Foundation will be playing its part in transforming computing education in England. But our mission is global, and our commitment is that the resources and online courses we create will be freely available to anyone, anywhere in the world.

    If you are a policy maker outside of England and want to talk about how we could collaborate to advance computing education in your country, please get in touch. We’d love to help.

    Website: LINK

  • Celebrating our teachers

    Celebrating our teachers

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    The end of the academic year is here, and we are marking the occasion by celebrating teachers from all over the world.

    Raspberry Pi Teachers Computing highlight 2018

    For those about to teach, we salute you.

    Since last September, we’ve run a whole host of programmes that teachers have been involved in. From training with us at Picademy to building apocalyptic projects for Pioneers, from running Code Clubs, Dojos, and Raspberry Jams to learning tea-making algorithms on our free online training courses, these brilliant people do amazing things on a daily basis. And even more amazingly, they somehow also have the energy to take their knowledge into schools and share it with their learners to get them excited about computing too.

    Dr Sue Sentance, the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s new Chief Learning Officer, has trained teachers for many years and understands better than most the impact a good teacher can have:

    “When thinking about teaching Computing, we often get so caught up in the technology — what software, what kit, what environment, etc. — that we forget that it’s the teachers who actually facilitate students’ learning and inspire and motivate the students. A passionate and enthusiastic teacher is more important than which device or tool the students are using, because they understand what will help their students. “

    In celebration of our education community, we asked teachers around the world to answer one big question:

    “What has been your computing highlight of the year?”

    Caroline Keep

    Raspberry Pi Teachers Computing highlight 2018

    Caroline (top right) and her group of students at Spark Penketh

    Caroline Keep won the TES New Teacher of the Year award and runs Spark Penketh, a school makerspace in Warrington. She will also be training with us in August to become a Raspberry Pi Certified Educator. Her highlight of the year was achieving success at the forefront of the UK’s makerspace movement:

    “All the physical computing projects we’ve done since February when Raspberry Pi co-founder Pete Lomas opened our school makerspace (the first one in a UK state school) have been amazing! We’ve built and coded talking robots, and gesture-controlled ones on micro:bits with primary schools. We’ve built drones, coded Arduinos for European Maker Week, opened a RoboDojo, used Python and Node-RED on Raspberry Pi to control weather stations, Pi Camera Modules, and robots, and we’ve designed a Digital Creative pathway for Industry 4.0 skills for September. Next up are Google AIY Projects kits, Redfern Electronic’s Crumble, and Bare Conductive’s Touch Board. We can’t wait!”

    Heidi Baynes

    Raspberry Pi Teachers Computing highlight 2018

    Heidi (left) and two other amazing US-based educators pose under a very apt sign. It’s like they planned it.

    Heidi Baynes is an Education Coordinator for the County Office of Education in Riverside, California. Her highlight is a birthday party with a difference:

    “The Riverside Raspberry Jam was held on 3 March 2018 as part of Raspberry Pi’s Big Birthday celebration. Fellow Picademy graduate Ari Flewelling and I planned the event in conjunction with Vocademy, and we were thrilled by the overwhelming support from the local community. The event featured a project showcase, workshops, and an introduction to all things Raspberry Pi. We can’t wait to start planning the 2019 Riverside Raspberry Jam! I was also particularly proud of the students from Mountain Heights Academy who shared their Raspberry Pi and micro:bit projects at the Consortium’s #CSforAll event in Riverside. Our student Hailey was able to share her experiences as part of a student panel and even had the opportunity to meet the CEO of code.org, Hadi Partovi!”

    Amy Bloodworth

    Raspberry Pi Teachers Computing highlight 2018

    Amy Bloodworth and her Astro Pi–winning students

    Amy Bloodworth is a teacher at The American School In Switzerland (TASIS) in Lugano, Switzerland. Her highlight is literally out of this world:

    “It has been a busy year for us here in Switzerland. Highlights for me and my students include meeting a computer game designer, competing in the World Robot Olympiad, and participating in the Astro Pi Challenge. With Astro Pi, my students loved that they could send their coded message to the ISS astronauts in any of the languages of ESA. As we are an international school, so this helped the students feel more connected to the task. The Astro Pi Challenge hooked the students in and acted as a springboard for other activities, such as coding an ISS tracker that alerted them when the ISS was overhead, and other science experiments using the Sense HAT. Next year, I plan to start a new after-school club dedicated to competitive robotics.”

    Janice Paterson

    Raspberry Pi Teacher Computing highlight 2018

    Janice Paterson’s lovely class of brain-eating zombies

    Janice Paterson is the Principal Teacher at Wormit Primary in Fife, Scotland. Her highlight wouldn’t seem out of place in The Walking Dead:

    “We loved the amazing open-ended challenge of a zombie apocalypse, courtesy of Raspberry Pi’s Pioneers programme. It was truly cross-curricular and completely immersive for all the young learners. The books were devoured for information/ideas, and the makeup kits inspired our imaginations and creative side. We had Pi-powered, zombie-detecting robots coded to offer assorted challenges, and micro:bits set up as zombie teacher detectors (their thermometers were used because, of course, teachers have hot bodies!). We all learned loads! The best bit was sharing it all with the rest of our Code Club and the whole school.”

    Wojtek Zielinski

    Wojtek Zielinski works in Poland as a teacher. His highlight was a breakthrough he had when working with the translated versions of our resources with his students:

    “When children work with resources in English, they often end up following what’s in the pictures. They don’t understand why the game or the program they created works. Translated materials enable them to truly learn and understand programming concepts, and that empowers them to experiment and create more. Translations are therefore essential for learning.”

    Our thanks

    We are so grateful for everything our teachers do to help us make our programmes a success. Together we’ll be able to achieve our goal of making high-quality computing resources that are accessible to everyone!

    As a quick aside, you might also be interested to read a recent interview with Raspberry Pi creator and co-founder Eben Upton about the positive impact his teachers had on him.

    Whether you’re a teacher wanting to share your success, or you simply want to share your appreciation for the teachers who inspired you, tell us about it in the comments below.

    And from everyone at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, there’s only one thing left to say…

    Teachers, we salute you!

    Website: LINK

  • Could you write for Hello World magazine?

    Could you write for Hello World magazine?

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Thinking about New Year’s resolutions? Ditch the gym and tone up your author muscles instead, by writing an article for Hello World magazine. We’ll help you, you’ll expand your knowledge of a topic you care about, and you’ll be contributing something of real value to the computing education community.

    Join our pool of Hello World writers in 2018

    The computing and digital making magazine for educators

    Hello World is our free computing magazine for educators, published in partnership with Computing At School and kindly supported by BT. We launched at the Bett Show in January 2017, and over the past twelve months, we’ve grown to a readership of 15000 subscribers. You can get your own free copy here.

    Our work is sustained by wonderful educational content from around the world in every issue. We’re hugely grateful to our current pool of authors – keep it up, veterans of 2017! – and we want to provide opportunities for new voices in the community to join them. You might be a classroom teacher sharing your scheme of work, a volunteer reflecting on running an after-school club, an industry professional sharing your STEM expertise, or an academic providing insights into new research – we’d love contributions from all kinds of people in all sorts of roles.

    Your article doesn’t have to be finished and complete: if you send us an outline, we will work with you to develop it into a full piece.

    Like my desk, but tidier

    Five reasons to write for Hello World

    Here are five reasons why writing for Hello World is a great way to start 2018:

    1. You’ll learn something new

    Researching an article is one of the best ways to broaden your knowledge about something that interests you.

    2. You’ll think more clearly

    Notes in hand, you sit at your desk and wonder how to craft all this information into a coherent piece of writing. It’s a situation we’re all familiar with. Writing an article makes you examine and clarify what you really think about a subject.

    Share your expertise and make more interesting projects along the way

    3. You’ll make cool projects

    Testing a project for a Hello World resource is a perfect opportunity to build something amazing that’s hitherto been locked away inside your brain.

    4. You’ll be doing something that matters

    Sharing your knowledge and experience in Hello World helps others to teach and learn computing. It helps bring the power of digital making to more and more educators and learners.

    5. You’ll share with an open and supportive community

    The computing education community is full of people who lend their experience to help colleagues. Contributing to Hello World is a great way to take an active part in this supportive community, and you’ll be adding to a body of free, open source learning resources that are available for everyone to use, adapt, and share. It’s also a tremendous platform to broadcast your work: the digital version alone of Hello World has been downloaded over 50000 times.

    Yes! What do I do next?

    Feeling inspired? Email our editorial team with your idea.

    Issue 4 of Hello World is out this month! Subscribe for free today to have it delivered to your inbox or your home.

    Website: LINK