CPD – Alan Harrison

I Love Computing 2023

Updated with slide PDFs!

Last Saturday, 25th February I spoke at “I Love Computing 2023” a FREE Festival of Computing CPD in London, details at bit.ly/lovecomp23.

I was honoured to be among some of the biggest names in Computing education today, including Jane Waite, Sue Sentance, Miles Berry, Paul Curzon, Phil Bagge and Elli Narewska.

My two talks were on the following (after the ad break…) NOW WITH PDF LINKS TO THE CONTENT.

The Computing Ofsted Research Review and preparing for a Deep Dive

Understand what OFSTED are looking for. What are declarative and procedural knowledge anyway? How do I deliver the National Curriculum at KS4 if they don’t all take the subject? Alan served on the working group that created the Ofsted Research Review and has interviewed successful OFSTED Deep Dive recipients. Attend this talk to help prepare for OFSTED and be relaxed about their next visit. UPDATE – PDF available to download below.

ofsted-rr-ilovecomputing2023-ajh-httcs.online-for-web Download

Beyond Mnemonics – teaching for mastery through PCK – a GCSE Computer Science booster

Do you feel you are teaching for “surface learning”? Are you using tricks and schemes such as mnemonics to get them through the exams, and would rather teach for mastery but don’t know how? Alan’s book “How to Teach Computer Science” is all about the hinterland, the background knowledge that illuminates the subject and helps you teach it with confidence, and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) – the “how to teach” knowledge that helps you succeed. Alan will explain why this “hinterland” is important and what PCK is and how to acquire it, and how to use both for mastery learning. UPDATE: PDF available to download below:

beyond-mnemonics-ilovecomputing2023-ajh-httcs.online Download

Offers and freebies

All attendees go into the prize draw for a copy of my book, and there are other, far more desirable prizes available too! At the event I will also reveal a discount code for 30% off either of my books, generously donated by the publisher John Catt Educational (part of Hachette). Update – read my PDFs for the code, available for one more week!

Video recordings of my talks from last year’s online conference are saved here, where I spoke on the “hinterland” and on demystifying computer networks, and if you enjoy those, I hope to see you in Tottenham this Saturday.

If you are grateful for my blog, please buy me a coffee at ko-fi.com/mraharrisoncs, thanks!

Never mind the PowerPoint

Have you asked a question like this on teacher social media?

Has anyone got a PowerPoint for binary addition? They just aren’t getting it.

I need a decent lesson for client server versus peer to peer.

Any resources for boolean logic? I can’t seem to get them to understand it.

When I see these questions I do try to help, but I believe those asking would be better off working on their explanation of the concept. Once you have a strong grasp of the topic, you can explain it well, answer questions, and check for understanding meaningfully.

Teaching is simple, really, if we remember we are just trying to transfer knowledge from our heads to theirs. Looking for lesson resources that shortcut this process is a distracting, often futile enterprise. The time spent looking for that “magic lesson” could be better spent growing your own understanding so you can develop theirs.

Fortunately we now have the NCCE curriculum backed by the Oak Academy recorded lessons, so we can teach ourselves before teaching our students. I also recommend Craig’n’Dave videos and the Isaac Computer Science website, and the great textbooks by Heathcote & Heathcote. Better still, partake of the NCCE training offers.

Once you know it yourself, and feel confident you know it, you can explain the material in ways others understand.

Rather than asking for slides and worksheets, I recommend teaching yourself the content. Then study others explaining it well.

My forthcoming book might help with greater understanding of the GCSE Computer Science content. Comments welcome here on WordPress, on Twitter or on LinkedIn.