Day 5 - 1st April 2022.

Danas smo bili podijeljeni u dvije grupe. Svaka grupa je dobila zadatke u skladu s uzrastom učenika s kojima radimo. Jedna je grupa testirala aplikaciju Scratch Junior, dok je druga na laptopima radila na programiranju u Minecraft Education verziji te sam ja bio u ovoj drugoj grupi. Već imam nešto iskustva s radom u Minecraftu, ali nisam je nikad baš igrao, do sada. Kroz nekoliko tutorijala smo savladali osnove igre, a potom smo se prebacili na pravo programiranje rješavajući aktivnosti iz Sata kodiranja (Hour of Code). 

Jedna od vježbi je bila da je svaka grupa dobila po jedan tablet uređaj sa aplikacijom Scratch Junior te smo morali smisliti neki kod i priču pa uređaj proslijediti dalje i tako u krug dok nismo dobili jedan zanimljivi program koji smo potom svi pogledali i analizirali. 

Upoznali smo se i sa Scratch karticama za izazove koji se mogu dati učenicima kako bi što lakše naučili programirati u programskom jeziku Scratch. 

Predavačica mi je kroz razmjenu iskustava o programiranju i alatima za rad predložila da možemo koristiti i Scottie Go (programiranje s tekstualnim karticama što bi bilo posebno zanimljivo uzrastu od osam do deset godina kao uvod u programiranje). Upoznao sam se i sa Khan Academy koju je pokrenuo Microsoft, a koja sadrži resurse za rad u STEM predmetima, gotovi materijali koji su već spremni za korištenje. Stranica Teacher's pay teacher's također nudi gotove materijale za sve predmete, a naročito i za računalno razmišljanje putem koje za malo novaca možemo dobiti već gotove materijale koje su za svoje razrede već pripremili drugi učitelji. 

Zadnjih sat vremena tečaja sam se još malo poigrao s robotima koji su mi se najviše svidjeli te sam programirao da prikazuju temperaturu grada Zagreba preko Wifi modula. 

Za kraj slijedila je dodjela certifikata, kratki govori, zajedničko fotografiranje s omiljenim robotima koje smo upoznali te kratki govori prije odlaska. 

Kroz ovaj tečaj naučio sam kako koristiti nove komplete za programiranje s kojima do sada nisam imao prilike raditi, niti ih uopće vidjeti uživo te sam shvatio kako su svi ti kompleti bazirani na programskom jeziku Scratch koji je vrlo lak za usvajanje te se mogu kombinirati i s ostalim programskim jezicima kao i sa različitim kompletima robota kao što su nadogradnje i sl. Kroz razmjenu iskustava među sudionicima smo također shvatili kako nam škole ili naša Ministarstva moraju osigurati ovakve komplete za rad jer je do njih vrlo teško doći privatnim kanalima jer su dosta skupi. Ukoliko želimo djecu uvesti u svijet programiranja i robotike trebamo im osigurati uvjete za rad i opremu što nažalost u većini naših škola u Hrvatskoj nemamo. 

Today we were divided into two groups. Each group was given tasks according to the age of the students we work with. One group tested the Scratch Junior app, while the other on laptops worked on programming in the Minecraft Education version and I was in this other group. I already have some experience working in Minecraft, but I’ve never really played it, so far. Through a few tutorials, we mastered the basics of the game, and then we switched to real programming by solving activities from the Hour of Code.

One of the exercises was that each group was given a tablet device with the Scratch Junior application, so we had to come up with a code and a story and pass the device on and so on until we got an interesting program that we all looked at and analyzed.

We also got acquainted with Scratch cards for challenges that can be given to students to help them learn to program in the Scratch programming language.

Through an exchange of experiences about programming and work tools, the lecturer suggested that we could also use Scottie Go (programming with text cards, which would be especially interesting at the age of eight to ten as an introduction to programming). I also got acquainted with Khan Academy, launched by Microsoft, which contains resources for working in STEM cases, ready-made materials that are already ready for use. Teacher's pay teacher's site also offers ready-made materials for all subjects, and especially for computer thinking, through which for a little money we can get ready-made materials that have already been prepared for their classes by other teachers.

During the last hour of the course, I played with the robots I liked the most and programmed them to display the temperature of the city of Zagreb via the Wifi module.

The end was followed by the awarding of certificates, short speeches, joint photography with favorite robots we met and short speeches before leaving.

Through this course I learned how to use new programming kits that I have not had the opportunity to work with or see live at all, and I realized that all these kits are based on the Scratch programming language which is very easy to learn and can be combined with other programming languages ​​as well as with different sets of robots such as upgrades, etc. Through the exchange of experiences among the participants, we also realized that schools or our Ministries must provide us with such kits for work because they are very difficult to reach through private channels because they are quite expensive. If we want to introduce children to the world of programming and robotics, we need to provide them with working conditions and equipment, which unfortunately we do not have in most of our schools in Croatia.