Conversion rate optimization (CRO) has become a top priority for all marketers. CRO is a process that businesses use to increase their sales

and bottom line. It involves understanding customer behavior, analyzing data, and making changes to the website or product page to maximize conversion rates.

However, before you can implement a CRO, you must first understand what it is, its purpose, and how you can evaluate it. True CRO involves a lot of testing, so be prepared to put in the work.

Since today’s digital landscape is crowded, competition in the online retail world is fierce, and keeping your new visitor’s attention is becoming more important. Do not let this scare you. With the right steps, it can even be a fun experience. Your business will be more profitable and scalable if you dedicate yourself to CRO, so it’s worth the effort.

Below we share the top five benefits of CRO for online retailers.

Your Rankings on Search Results will Increase

SEO and CRO work together to give you the best results. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process that increases your website’s visibility and ranking in search engines so you can attract more visitors to your site, without having to pay for advertisements. CRO aims to convert that traffic into whatever you want most—sales, subscribers, customers, etc.

But you may wonder whether CRO helps your retail website rank better in Google SERPs. The answer is yes. The interface, UX, and responsiveness are all important ranking factors for SEO. 

By optimizing on-page elements such as content, layout, and design, you can increase your website’s conversion rate and generate more leads and sales. CRO helps to improve user experience by making it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for. With CRO onpage optimization, you can make sure that your website is optimized for the best possible user experience, which will lead to higher conversion rates.

Consequently, increasing your website’s conversion rates is a great way to improve your organic search engine ranking. Understanding the relationship between search engine ranking and conversion rate can help you design your website’s SEO approach to boost search rankings.

Increased Conversions

CRO is a key marketing tool that helps companies increase revenue and decrease acquisition costs. The conversion rates are typically around 2.35%, but if you want your business to achieve substantial success and boost sales, then you should aim for 10%.

Even the smallest of changes can boost your conversion rates and make the experience that you provide more impactful and meaningful. For instance, a landing page with high-quality images and persuasive copy can encourage visitors to take desired actions. Personalizing pages for different audiences and simplifying checkout procedures are also effective tactics.

Helps You Understand Your Customers

Understanding your customers is crucial for an online retailer. This will help you sell them the products they need or want. 

CRO is heavily based on research about your customers. Testing is an important part of ensuring your store is successful and helps you learn who your clients are and what their preferences are.

CRO specialists suggest that you begin with conversion research to better understand your visitors’ interactions with your online store, and the friction causing bottlenecks in your sales funnel. Conversion optimization helps you create buyer personas to help you better understand your target audience.

Reduced Acquisition Costs

This is one of the leading benefits of conversion optimization. Online retail businesses must constantly work to convert leads into customers, but it can be difficult to do this without investing a large sum of money in marketing and customer acquisition efforts. CRO is a powerful tool, offering a cost-effective way to lower customer acquisition costs. 

By testing and optimizing your business processes and website based on the feedback of customers, you can better target your ideal clients and increase conversion rates, which will ultimately lead to lower acquisition costs. The CRO strategy can save you a lot of money compared to other marketing methods, as it doesn’t require large budgets or expensive campaigns.

Leverages Your Current Website Traffic

One of the major advantages of CRO is that it works well with the existing traffic that you already get to your retail online shop. Once you have invested the time and money to optimize a webpage, it will start working.

You can then make the most of all the traffic that your website receives from SEO and other marketing methods such as email or social media. CRO isn’t about driving more traffic, it’s about converting those visitors into buying customers.  

Concluding Thoughts…

Online retail businesses can gain valuable insights through CRO but also reduce costs and improve the user experience. By making a website that gets and converts the right people, you can create a smooth sales process to help your retail business grow.

STEAM is both an acronym and an educational approach.  As an acronym, STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths.  As an educational approach, STEAM is about facilitating learning experiences across these five subject areas, which promote collaboration, enquiry-based learning and fun!

Since the late 1990s there has been an increasing global focus on the need to better prepare students for the 21st century workforce by equipping them with the skills and knowledge in STEAM subjects.  After all, the most in-demand jobs globally fall into one or more of these five subject areas.

According to the Rhode Island School of Design, which adds the arts to the original STEM framework, “The goal (of STEAM) is to foster the true innovation that comes with combining the mind of a scientist or technologist with that of an artist or designer.”  All technology begins and ends with some form of art.  In fact, the arts and sciences are a natural match when students have sufficient time for project development, reflection and revision.  For example, arts are used in website and user interface design, advertising and the design of literally any product imaginable.

Many schools around the world, my own included, have made inroads in teaching STEAM through various initiatives, including (but not limited to):

• using Computing & ICT to permeate across the whole school curriculum, thereby linking these five disciplines
• after-school makerspace clubs or programs
• holistic, thematic curricula such as the IPC or PYP, where projects using STEAM practices are embedded
• BYOD initiatives (bring your own device)
• staff training to encourage hands-on exploration within each of these disciplines
• robotics programs

The STEAM approach is intended to be holistic, bringing these five disciplines together.  The key to STEAM’s success though, is to ensure that an enquiry-based learning model is followed:

“Studies comparing learning outcomes for students taught via project-based learning versus traditional instruction show that when implemented well, problem-based learning (PBL) increases long-term retention of content, helps students perform as well or as better than traditional learners in high-stakes tests, improves problem-solving and collaboration skills, and improves students’ attitudes towards learning.” (Vega, 2012)

Introducing littleBits…

For this reason, I’ve been happy to get my hands on the littleBits STEAM set below:

littleBits are small, simple, intuitive blocks that make working with electronics a matter of snapping small magnets together with no experience required. The littleBits STEAM Student set is the easiest and fastest way to create imaginative electronic devices and solutions to everyday challenges.  Thanks to this colour coding system, no prior knowledge of electronics or circuitry is required, making the kit open to learners of all ages.

I had a go at creating an art machine using the STEAM Student Set, and I was pleased with the results:

Activities like this are a great example of what STEAM learning is all about.  It’s clear that children need to be engaged in learning, and learn in ways that can hold their attention, much the same way that social media, and internet sites like Youtube do.  Making learning fun and meaningful is the necessary challenge all educators must take on.

In order to further facilitate teaching and learning of STEAM, we are currently building a website, Classroom Flipped, to bring together an online suite of web apps, videos and sites, which have been mapped to our school curriculum. The name, Classroom Flipped, comes from the educational approach known as flipped learning, whereby students interact with educational content outside the classroom to better support their learning inside the classroom.  The website includes a section specifically for STEAM, with links to the best resources on the Web, including relevant high quality, age-appropriate educational videos, games, articles and interactive quizzes.

STEAM is not just about using digital technologies though; STEAM activities can be as simple as just using a piece of paper.  For example, below is one of the activities we gave our staff was to do when introducing what STEAM is all about:

STEAM Challenge

• Build the highest possible tower you can that holds a book at least 16 cm above the ground for a minimum of  3 seconds (the book must rest on top of the tower)
• The tower must  be free-standing, which means no taping or holding to the floor.

Time: 20 minutes (including testing)

Materials: 10 sheets of newspaper and
50 cm of tape,

Group Size: Maximum of 4 people

Success Criteria – The tallest tower wins as long as….

• Tower is free-standing
• Tower is able to hold the weight of a book for a minimum of 3 seconds
• Book must be resting a minimum of 16cm above the ground
• Tower is constructed solely of newspaper and masking tape

Concluding thoughts…

By engaging students around the subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM) through practical projects, we can spark an interest and lifelong love of the arts and sciences in children from an early age.  The littleBits STEAM set is a great place to start, but activities can just be as simple as using paper!  The important point is that it is only by teaching relevant, in-demand skills, that we will better prepare our students to become innovators in an changing world.

Programming is a big part of computer science, and computer science is at the core of our computing curriculum.  Since programming is itself at the core of computer science, it’s worth taking some time to really get to grips with both programming as a series of concepts and one of the main tools used in schools to teach these concepts, Scratch.

Programming simply refers to the art of writing instructions (algorithms) to tell a computer what to do.  Scratch is a visual programming language that provides an ideal learning environment for doing this.  Originally developed by America’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Scratch is a simple, visual programming language.  Colour coded blocks of code simply snap together in certain ways like a jigsaw, eliminating the typing errors that tend to occur when people use text-based programming languages.  Many media rich programs can be made using Scratch, including games, animations and interactive stories.  Scratch is almost certainly the most widely used software for teaching programming to Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 (learners from 8 to 14 years).

Scratch is a great tool for developing the programming skills of learners, since it allows all manner of different programs to be built.  In order to help develop the knowledge and understanding that go with these skills though, it’s important to be familiar with some key programming concepts that underpin the Scratch programming environment and are applicable to any Programming Language. Using screenshots from some of my own Scratch projects, I have written here the main programming concepts that can be learnt through the use of this application.

Sprites

Sequences

Iteration (looping)

Conditional statements

Variables

Lists (arrays)

Event Handling

 Threads

 Coordination & Synchronisation

Keyboard input

Boolean logic

User interface design

Concluding thoughts…

By incorporating these key programming concepts, Scratch makes computer science accessible to all learners. In doing so, it promotes problem solving skills, which are important in all areas of life, not just programming.  The advantage of using Scratch 2.0 to do this is that it moves the Scratch programming language to the web, making it easier than ever to learn about, share and remix programs.

Web 2.0 technology just refers to online tools that enable students and teachers to share and collaborate user-generated content with others. Using Web 2.0 technologies effectively in the classroom promotes learning through a social constructivist model.

I provide here a list of my top 10 Web 2.0 applications, which can facilitate teaching and learning across the curriculum:

Add Subtitles – Ssemble is an easy-to-use online video editor. And it has a AI-powered Subtitle Generating feature, giving users the advantage of auto-generating subtitles and customizing their style to best fit their content.

Animoto – this tool helps you to create professional looking slide shows.  All you need to do is attach some photos and add background music.

Bubbl.us – enables the user to create mind-maps that can then be embedded online.

Classtools – specifically one for teachers, this website provides you with templates, countdown timers and other tools that can be used in class.  The random name generator enables you to enter the names of your class, click the fruit machine and it will randomly scroll through and select a name from the list.

FlexClip – a simple but powerful web-based video maker that helps you create videos for any purpose.  There is no download, or registration required.  You can choose from a wide range of pre-made video templates, photos, and music.  I especially appreciate the clean storyboard that allows you to easily trim video, insert text  add music and record the screen with just a few clicks.

Motionbox – this is a free online video creation tool that allows people to easily create beautiful videos with a single click, Add Subtitles, Trim Audio, Crop Video, YouTube to MP3 and Resize Gifs.

News on Atlas – this has been one of my ongoing projects.  By providing multiple news feeds, which are embedded into an atlas template, the purpose of News on Atlas is to help build students’ news literacy skills and international awareness.

Padlet – this is like a giant noticeboard and allows learners to write a short message on the ‘wall’ for others to see.  These messages can then be moved around just like Post-it notes, and just like Google Docs, learners can collaborate on the same project together.

Prezi – this tool creates animated presentations and can help both the teacher and learner to focus on the key points.

Screencast-o-matic – I use this regularly to create online tutorials.  This tool lets you record anything on your screen.  It also lets you upload PowerPoints, so that you can provide audio narration.

TedEd – there are thousands of lessons that you can customise with your own questions and resources on TedEd.  You can use videos from YouTube and then use TedEd to add your own written material.  This is one way of doing a flipped classroom.

Wordle – allows users to enter huge chunks of text, which is then summarised by the most popular word.

Voki – this tool enables you to create talking avatars (characters).  Everything about the avatar that you create can then be edited.  You can attach spoken text for your avatar or record your own voice.  Either way, this is a great tool for helping with language development.

The list here is not exhaustive, as there are literally hundreds of fantastic Web 2.0 apps out there.  In order to meet statutory requirements though, and to allow students to develop their ICT skills more extensively, the Computing curriculum should be integrated throughout the school, not just discretely (in the ICT lab).  Making use of Web 2.0 apps can be an effective way of doing this because it means that we are teaching children more aspects of ICT, and this puts them in good stead to function well in our increasingly connected and digitalised world.

Assessment is any method used to appraise the knowledge, skills or understanding that a student possesses.  By providing constructive feedback to students on their work, assessment is fundamental to the teaching and learning process because it can show teachers (and their students) what areas of students’ performance needs to be improved.

Unfortunately, assessment of ICT, the predecessor to computing, has not been effective at achieving this end for most schools.  One of the main criticisms made by Ofsted about ICT in England for example, has been in the area of assessment.  In 2011 it was judged as no better than satisfactory in 61% of their sample.  In my view, there are three systemic challenges to the assessment of computing:

1. Until recently, the assessment framework itself has been based on ‘levels’, which have been fairly abstract and not always easy to interpret.
2. Many schools do not have an organised system of digital portfolios set up in which students’ work in ICT/computing can be consistently recorded and easily accessible.
3. Traditionally, schools have applied an assessment model based on the learners’ grasp of discrete bits of information rather than how they use that information in context to solve complex problems. This is particularly true of the former ICT curriculum, which focussed more on students acquiring a set of skills rather than on knowledge and understanding.

The shake up provided by the new computing curriculum offers an opportunity to put this right.  In the process of adapting to this new curriculum, I have been developing an integrated assessment, digital portfolio and digital badge model using Google Apps for Education to help address these systemic challenges.

1. The Assessment Framework

The expert panel, commissioned to review the national curriculum stated that all assessment should be linked directly to the content of the programmes of study.  This means that the computing programme of study should be broken down into a series of statements in which to inform the learning objectives of lessons.

The text below, which is derived directly from the 2014 national curriculum programme of study for computing, shows these statements.  Its organisation makes it easier to form judgements about students’ achievement of and progress towards the statutory attainment targets.  And it’s this assessment framework, which forms the basis of everything else that follows.

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This is a framework for assessing attainment in computing based on the work by senior computing lecturers, Miles Berry and Pete Kemp at the University of Roehampton.  Taking a pragmatic approach, they’ve grouped the statements into ‘bands’ from 1 to 8: this numbering could be used in place of the old levels, if schools are committed to using the old system of tracking progress.  I’ve also included in this framework relevant standards (in purple) provided by The International Society for Technology in Education.   

2. Digital Portfolios

The next step is to ensure that a system of digital portfolios is in place.  A portfolio is just a purposeful collection of student work, which can provide direct indicators of a student’s learning experiences.  Digital portfolios are particularly useful because they can serve as an administrative tool to manage and organise work created with different applications, which can then be shared on the web for the whole community to see.

As Woodward (2000) points out, the value of portfolios is thoroughly researched and their use in education is well documented.  By demonstrating the development of knowledge, skills and understanding over time, digital portfolios make valuable assessment and learning tools.  To ensure deep learning though, it’s not enough for students to simply showcase a series of digital artefacts they have created.  It’s also important that students reflect on the work they have produced, and this can be done by simply getting them to write about what they have learnt.  This helps to reinforce students’ knowledge and understanding, which complement the skills they demonstrate through the creation of digital artefacts.  In order to get students into the habit of developing decent digital portfolios, I’d recommend that the process is started early – the last couple of years of primary school is a good time to start.

Project work lends itself particularly well to this process of building up a digital portfolio.  A link to a game created in Scratch for example, with some commentary and reflection about the process of making the game, would provide evidence of a number of attainment targets.  Over the course of the key stage, a diverse portfolio of evidence of student learning should emerge, which meets all the curriculum requirements.  At any time, it also provides teachers with a snapshot of which attainment targets a student has met, and which still require more evidence. I therefore recommend that a list of links to students’ digital portfolios be placed on the same spreadsheet as that used for assessment of students’ attainment.

3. Assessment of knowledge, skills and understanding

In order to motivate students and at the same time provide assessment for learning opportunities, digital badges should be linked to the system of digital portfolios.  A digital badge (embedded into the digital portfolio) is just a mini-credential, providing students with a validated indicator of accomplishment in a particular area.

Students earn digital badges according to the areas of learning they demonstrate across the statutory attainment targets of the computing curriculum.  Below are the badge designs and descriptions, which I have adapted from the ones provided by makewav.es.  Different digital badges are awarded across the three themes of the computing curriculum: computer science, digital literacy and information technology.  Within each of the themes I have ordered the badges according to the level of achievement they represent.

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It’s important from the outset that this badge information is shared with students in a straightforward language that can be easily understood .  I would even say that the badge information itself should be embedded into the students’ digital portfolios, so that students can clearly identify what knowledge, skills and understanding they need to demonstrate in order to earn a particular badge.

Linking Assessment with Digital Portfolios & Badges

Assessment of students’ attainment feeds into the digital badge system quite easily, with badges for each of the attainment targets linked to relevant evidence on a student’s digital portfolio.  If a school already has Google Apps for Education, which is free, it makes sense to make full use of this google ecosystem to integrate the assessment of students’ attainment with digital badges and digital portfolios.  I have created this integrated assessment model in order to automatically issue digital badges to students upon having had their attainment graded by the teacher.  It means that students do not need another set of login information to access their digital badges and portfolios, and schools do not need to pay for premium services.

Below is an example of an assessment template that I would use to archive links to students’ digital portfolios, grade students’ work and issue students with digital badges. As the video explains underneath, this template is linked to a student badge assesment template, which is shared with students via Google Classroom for them to embed into their digital portfolios. When the assessment template is filled out, I use the Google Add-on, autoCrat, to merge the ‘Comments & Badge Display’ sheet of this assessment template with a “Badge code email template”. In this way, students automatically receive an email with the badge codes that they have been assigned. They then enter these badge codes onto their student badge templates, which automatically populate digital badge images onto their digital portfolios.

As well as addressing the systemic challenges of assessment, my intention with this has been to make the process of assessment easier for teachers to do and more effective in its outcomes for teaching and learning.  This assessment model is highly automated, freeing up time for teachers to focus on properly appraising students’ knowledge, skills and understanding across the curriculum.  For students, the digital portfolio and badge system allows them to reflect on and keep track of what they’ve learnt, informing targets for what comes next.  It gives parents a much more meaningful picture of what a child has learnt, and what they still need to study.  Finally, it allows school leadership and the inspectorate to more accurately track year on year progress of students.

Concluding thoughts…

First and foremost, assessment should be directly linked to the content of the curriculum. The statements that make up the assessment framework can then feed into digital badge information, which is best shared with students.  Students should then keep up a digital portfolio of evidence to showcase and reflect on their learning.  These digital portfolios need to be easily accessible by teachers, so that accurate assessments of students’ knowledge, skills and understanding is made possible.

References:

Woodward, H. (2000). Portfolios: Narratives for learning. Journal of In-Service Education Vol 26 No 2 p. 329 -347.

Of all the recent changes in the National Curriculum, ICT has undergone by far the biggest shake up.  For starters, it’s no longer even called ICT – as of September 2014, the name was officially replaced with ‘computing’.  The change of name reflects both a rebranding of the subject and a shift of focus towards computer science.  Prior to its disapplication, the former education minister, Michael Gove, described the old ICT curriculum as a ‘mess’.  In its place, the computing curriculum is intended to be more demanding, more relevant and more interesting.  And as an ICT (now computing) coordinator, I’ve been reflecting on the change with great interest.

The focus on computer science is really what sets computing apart from ICT.  This explains why much of the media attention given to the new curriculum has focussed on children ‘learning to code’.  It’s worth mentioning however, that whilst ‘coding’ is an important skill, which the new curriculum certainly helps to develop, computing is not just about computer science, and computer science is not just about coding.  Although computer science (CS) is at the ‘core’ of computing, the new curriculum also includes information technology (IT) and digital literacy (DL).

What all this means in practice is that unlike its predecessor, ICT, computing is a much more ambitious programme of study.  The opening sentence on the National Curriculum website says as much:

‘A high-quality computing education equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world’.

Creativity has long been an important aspect of ICT education in schools, particularly in terms of the opportunities given to students to take on projects and create their own digital content.  The notion of ‘computational thinking‘ however, is something new.  Computational thinking is about looking at problems as they would be processed by a computer and then using this sort of thinking to solve or understand them.  It involves a set of higher order thinking skills, which software developers and computer scientists draw on all the time.  As a form of critical thinking, computational thinking has applications both across and beyond the national curriculum.

Arguably, the best way to develop computational thinking is to learn to program.  Programming is just one of the skills that Nick Gibb, the minister for school reform was talking about when he described the new national curriculum as one that will make England’s education system the ‘envy of the world’.  Many countries teach programming in secondary schools, but England is the first country in the world to do so from the age of five up.  And why not?  Digital technology is a significant part of all our lives nowadays, so understanding how it works ought to be an entitlement for all.  In doing so, more children can go on to become creators of digital technology rather than just passive users.

Learning Resources

How does the greater emphasis on programming skills manifest itself in the new curriculum?  As with the old curriculum, the new curriculum avoids any specific reference to particular hardware or software that a school should use.  Technology, after all, is constantly changing, and as teachers we need to ensure that students get a thorough grounding in the knowledge, skills and understanding underpinning the use of digital technology itself.  Let’s take a look at the expectations outlined by the National Curriculum programme of study for computing.  I’m highlighting here the programming elements, as this represents one of the biggest changes.

At Key Stage 1, pupils should be taught to:

– understand what algorithms are; how they are implemented as programs on digital devices; and that programs execute by following precise and unambiguous instructions

– create and debug simple programs

– use logical reasoning to predict the behaviour of simple programs

– use technology purposefully to create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content

– recognise common uses of information technology beyond school

– use technology safely and respectfully, keeping personal information private; identify where to go for help and support when they have concerns about content or contact on the internet or other online technologies.

Looking at this, there’s nothing in the Key Stage 1 expectations that require pupils to use technology more advanced than programmable floor robots such as Bee-Bots – the ability for children to put themselves in the place of a programmable toy is the beginning of programming. In fact, certain concepts such as algorithms can be learned through “unplugged” activities in which no computers are needed at all.  There are also some very child-friendly programming apps for the iPad such as Light Bot and Scratch Jr, which provide a gentle introduction to screen-based programming.

At Key Stage 2 pupils should be taught to:

– design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems; solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts

– use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work with variables and various forms of input and output use logical reasoning to explain how some simple algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs

– understand computer networks including the internet; how they can provide multiple services, such as the world wide web; and the opportunities they offer for communication and collaboration 

– use search technologies effectively, appreciate how results are selected and ranked, and be discerning in evaluating digital content

– select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to design and create a range of programs, systems and content that accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly;

– recognise acceptable/unacceptable behaviour;

– identify a range of ways to report concerns about content and contact.

At Key Stage 2, Scratch provides an ideal programming environment. It’s very easy to use compared to text based programming languages, since programs can simply be built by moving around coloured blocks on the screen.  I have actually included Scratch as a software to be used from the end of Key Stage 1 onwards.  This is because in my experience, even children as young as Year 2 (Grade 1) can quickly get to grips with Scratch and it gives them a head start when they reach Key Stage 2.  Kodu is another example of a graphics based programming software and is a good option for giving children the experience of programming 3D games.  By the end of Key Stage 2, it’s worthwhile for children to have some experience of a text based programming language. Python is an excellent option to start with, and I’ve included several Python lesson plans in the resources section, which can be used with Year 6 (Grade 5) children.

As students move into Key Stage 3, they are expected to learn at least two programming languages, as well as the basics of concepts such as Boolean logic, binary and the fetch-execute cycle.  Productivity tools such as Google Apps for Education are still very relevant, as students need to be able to create presentations, make spreadsheets and word process documents.  These skills complement programming, particularly spreadsheet modelling, which draws on basic functional programming.  What makes such software truly great though, is that it’s free, online and facilitates collaboration.  The latter point, I think, is particularly important for facilitating the learning process.

Assessment

Finally, as with any subject, it’s important to remember assessment.  In the past, assessment has been one of the most neglected areas in the teaching of ICT.  In my opinion though, the new programme of study for computing makes it easier to judge how well students have grasped key concepts.  Since there are just three core aspects of the computing curriculum (computer science, digital literacy and information technology), and the old levelling criteria has been removed, a more straightforward assessment framework can be applied.  All that is needed is for teachers to link assessment directly to the programme of study, ideally involving students in the process where possible.  In this way, students are in a stronger position to ‘know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified’.

My concluding thoughts…

This is an exciting time to teach computing, but close attention needs to be given to its implementation.  The computing curriculum is without doubt an ambitious program of study, which gives teachers an opportunity to review the technology that they use in class, adapt their teaching approach and move forward with more effective assessment practices.  By developing our students’ knowledge, skills and understanding across the computing curriculum, we can prepare them well for the all-encompassing digital sphere of 21st century life.

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In the run up to Computer Science Education Week (8th to 14th December), I delivered a Scratch training session for  my teaching colleagues.   As they do not normally  teach computing, I wanted to give them an idea of what Computer Science is all about and explore some ways that programming concepts could be incorporated into lessons.  Scratch is a good application to start with, as it has an intuitive graphical interface and is one of the main tools that we use in computing lessons to teach children how to code.

I decided that the best way to demonstrate the benefits of a tool like Scratch for use in the classroom would be to demonstrate how a basic program such as a quiz game could easily be created, and then used in a lesson.  As the process to build a quiz game can be quite time-consuming though, I provided everyone with the final Scratch file in which to change the visual elements and edit the code.  We then went to work using the Scratch program as a template to customise and build our own purpose-built quiz games for use in the classroom.

For those who might be interested, I have also made this two-part video (below) to show how a quiz game can be built from start to finish in Scratch.  The quiz game itself covers the main programming techniques and knowledge required for the Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 Computing curriculum.  This includes creating a programming sequence (from design to code), selections (conditional if statements), repetition (repeat and forever loops), variables (strings and lists) and the inputs and outputs.

The final game can be played online here: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/37950462/#fullscreen