Learn Programming with the Department of Fun Stuff

This three-day workshop is a gentle introduction to programming (sometimes referred to as the more mysterious sounding “coding”) for teachers with little or no prior experience. We’ll start from absolute basics, and gently introduce the idea of what programming is, what it looks like, and help you develop some basic skills in either the Scratch or Python programming languages. We’ll demystify the language of Computational Thinking, including ideas like “sequence”, “selection” and “iteration”, and explore what “debugging” looks like in a school context. The workshops will have breakout sessions for people who want to go at a faster or slower pace. And the main rule is that there are no silly questions – it’s a chance to explore in a safe environment. We’ll use examples that are relevant to our context in Aotearoa, and explore ideas that are relevant to the new and revised Digital Technologies curriculum content.

The course will be run by Tim Bell, who has been teaching programming for way longer than he’ll admit, but is particularly interested in first steps for beginners. He will be assisted by tutors from his CS Education Research group at Canterbury (also known as the department of fun stuff).

This course is free, but we don't cover travel and accommodation, and you will need to make your own arrangements for this if you're coming from out of town. This is a great chance for you to support the local tourist industry! We won't start properly until 10am on Tuesday, and will finish by 3pm on Thursday, to allow for those who want to fly on those days - but if you have time to enjoy Christchurch, do take an extra day or two to explore the cafes and laneways of our vibrant rebuilt city!

Health and Safety guidelines will be shared with attendees and hand sanitizer is available through out the building.

Tuesday 7 July, 2020

Wednesday 8 July, 2020

Thursday 9 July, 2020