Thursday 18 January 2018

Apple Summer Coding School - Day 2

Apple: Presentation by Jessica Grauds, apple accessibility - iOS and diversity


This presentation focused primarily on accessibility and all the features available on
an Apple ipad.


Designing for the margins = completely accessible and ready to use. Switch control - allows access to device with a single switch. Uses 3rd party bluetooth switches. Allows accessibility for disabled people. Online accessibility is empowering for all as personal voice is equal to all. When accessibility option is available for those who need it, it benefits all.
Stella Young - champion for accessibility for disability. Believed in a societal model of
disability. Stairs or ramps?


A11Y - A community-driven effort to make web accessibility easier.


Supporting all learners - lesson design - Michelle Heath and Mel Isaacs
LBA - life before apple
Huge diversity of learners in every class.
Makes comparison between 2 diff types of learners.
Student A: very talkative, bright but performs poorly academically
Student B: very bright, high achiever, lacks friends
iBooks - Learn to code 1 & 2 - loops lesson
Identify areas in the literacy space that will be challenging for students


Challenges (how to help students)
Literacy - heading of text up or a pic for visuals, students brainstorm possible words,
teacher reads text, students tick off what they hear. SwP: kids can look out for certain
words and focus on what it means e.g. function or loop. Voice function that reads text
for students, speech mode, speak selection.
Numeracy - learning about angles etc, x tables link to for loops
Computational thinking - masking tape on floor to replicate SwP world, physically
move around maze/floor grid. Use lego to physically create maze. Remind students that
Bytes world can be spun around.


App Prototyping - Mel Isaacs
Students can start to build own world after learn to code book 2
Apps are developed for a particular purpose.
Audience - apps are developed for specific audiences. Who is my audience? Characteristics? For young students - need to think about peers and teacher as audience
A well designed UI (User interface) makes for a good UX (User experience)
Student task: developing a watch face
60 sec prototyping: WWDC17
Prototypes can be tested to try out ideas, saves time and money, ensures that you are
building the right thing. Get new ideas, diagrams to show to people then learn from the
feedback. Can use Keynote to develop app. Test it. Feedback. How can we make it better. Opens up lots of interesting design questions. Whats working? Whats not?




Hackathons and Game James in the Classroom - Sarah Geek Girl
Warm up activity: Pair up, 1, 2, 3 game. Then click finger in place of number one
Later replace number two with a feet stomp
This activity can be used in class to encourage participation
SheHacks event.
Friendship is the core way to build things together.
Hacking is Creative Problem Solving. Everyone pitches an idea. Best ideas are picked and groups are formed to work on the idea selected. Teams consist of a hipster (designer), hacker (developer), hustler (marketer)
Idea: that the thing you are learning is the chance to work and collaborate as part of a
team to design and create something.
Clear communication is important.


Day two of the workshop covered a lot of topics. I found the app prototyping presentation quite useful as I will try it out with my class as a class project. I am also interested in hosting and running a 'Hackathon' at our school. Later in the evening we all went to the Apple Headquarters in Sydney. We met with a panel of amazing female experts from Apple and from UTS who talked about their experiences. It was a privilege to listen to them and gain an insight into their jobs, experiences and the fact that there are so few women in the STEM and IT industry.


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