A collaboration between the Digital Excellence Fund and the Donegal Education Centre has seen the running of teacher workshops on Microbits - these courses have spanned primary and secondary. Over 20 teachers took up the first round of courses and learned new skills on how to set up and use the Microbits, including an overview of their use at Leaving Cert Level. Teachers also were equipped with the skills to build several complete projects including reaction tests, window alarms and traffic light systems. Donegal Education Centre purchased several class sets of the Microbits that participating schools can load out for a period of 2 weeks. The project has been a great success so far and it has helped develop a mailing list for EdTech teachers which is hoped will be launched before the Summer 2019. AuthorPauric O'Donnell, Saint Eunan's College.
0 Comments
Microsoft, for the first time, brought their DreamSpace experience outside of their €134m campus at One Microsoft Place, Dublin. The destination for this unique pop-up event was Saint Eunan’s College, Letterkenny. Working along with the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) department in the school, four lucky primary schools were invited into the newly refurbished Computer Science suite in the Saint Eunans which was transformed into Microsoft’s DreamSpace for the day - complete with beanbags, Surface laptops, Micro:bits and of course the Microsoft tutors. Students from Killian National School (Inver), Cloughfin National School (Lifford), Scoil Mhuire gan Smál and Educate Together (Letterkenny) were chosen to participate and were assisted by Computer Science students from Saint Eunans throughout the day. The workshops focus on teamwork, engineering, coding and the skills of ‘making’. Students got an insight into what life was like in Microsoft’s new Irish headquarters in Dublin and how the building was constructed. The kids then got an opportunity to design and construct their own building using only paper and lollipops. These marvels of engineering were then tested against simulated earthquakes (shaking of tables!) before students got to design and code their own shake sensors using the Micro:bit computers. These skills of teamwork, engineering, design and debugging are high on the wishlist of many of today’s employers. The Minister for Education and Skills, Mr.Joe McHugh, dropped in to meet the students and was very generous with his time, chatting to each group about their project and their thinking behind the designs. Microsoft are intending to roll out more of these pop-up events nationwide following the success of the event in Saint Eunan’s. AuthorPauric O'Donnell, Saint Eunan's College. |