The third workshop
The theme of the third GLAT workshop was “Games and tools for programming”. The workshop was held at the University of Rijeka, Department of Informatics on 9th and 10th of January 2019 and was attended by the focus group of junior grade teachers from primary schools in Rijeka.
The workshop “Games and tools for programming” was the last of three workshops for the professional development of junior grade primary school teachers organized within the GLAT project and in cooperation with Croatian Education and Teacher Training Agency.
Workshop 3 schedule
During the third workshop, participants attended lectures, demonstrations, and practical work and were introduced to the concept of Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) and possibilities for learning basic programming concepts using games. Through individual and group activities, they analysed and designed examples of games for different school subjects. They were also introduced to games and tools for learning programming like Run Marco!, Code.org, Blockly Games, and Scratch – a block-based visual programming language by which students can program their interactive stories, games, and animations. Participants have also learned how to apply the micro:bit for encouraging algorithmic thinking.
Teachers have already started designing their own learning scenarios which will include games and tools for learning programming for selected school subjects. They will continue to develop the scenarios after the completion of the workshop, with the help of experts from the project team. Mentoring of the scenario development will take place in the MoD LMS. Teachers will also design a graphical form of their scenarios using the LePlanner tool and then implement them in the classroom with their students. Outstanding scenarios will be translated into English and available to interested parties in partner countries and beyond.
More information about the workshop can be found in the third issue of GLAT Newsletter:
GLAT Newsletter 3