Introduction

Following on from Session 5, where you learned about children and technology, in this session you will learn what computing is, and about computing as a school subject. You will learn why computing is important and look at some ways of teaching computing in primary schools.

In this session you will be introduced to some vocabulary and ideas that might be unfamiliar to you, such as ‘algorithms’, ‘coding’ and ‘unplugged computing’. In some activities, you will be asked to think about your own responses to what you read and see. This might feel a bit challenging at times, but stick with it and you should feel a lot more confident about this topic.

By the end of this session, you should be able to:

• appreciate computing and its role in the primary curriculum
• understand some ways to support children’s learning of computing
• develop your own skills for computing.