Clay Modelling, Computer Coding & Holistic Education in Galway

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 In my last Coderdojo computer coding class of 2013, I got all the participants (parents and children) to build Christmas-themed computer applications. 

But first they had to create all the digital characters ('Avatars' or 'Sprites') by hand using model clay or Mála in Irish! 

Once that was finished, the participants digitised the little clay figurines using a camera to upload to their computer and later onto their 'Scratch' computer language applications. The clay models then becoming animated characters within their very own computer festive game or digital story!

A Holistic Approach to Learning

I undertake this exercise, not only to make the computer coding lessons more exciting, but to ensure that the participants continue to develop hands-on artistic skills. For as educators, we must ensure our young people to develop a holistic approach to life, to use their hands to make things out of solid materials and not rely solely on using digital skills for a virtual world. With this ethos, I host my classes very early on Saturday morning so that the children can still attend outdoor team sporting activities such as hurling, camogie, soccer and rugby. Likewise, I also ensure that parents are active participants, leaning to code alongside their children, this encouraging bonding with their sons and daughters. I also recommend adults to implement a digital detox period in their homes. Maybe one night or even a few hours weekly where all computers and internet connected devices are switched off.

Ireland’s experiences a Digital Creative Revolution

There has been a huge growth of interest and activity in computer programming in Ireland over the last two years. We are last transforming our young people from being passive Digital Users into active Digital Creators.

This phenomena has resulted from the happy convergence of a number of factors:

The free online availability of Scratch

Developed by a team at MIT Media Lab in the USA, it has an easy-to-use structure based around snapping together visual blocks of computer code that control sound, music and images. Hence it is ideally suited to young people as it compliments their artistic interests with a new digital dimension in order to create computer games, animations and stories.

The establishment of Coderdojo

Started in Cork by James Whelton and Bill Liao, this volunteer-based computer club movement has taken Ireland and not the world by storm with a presence in 27 countries. In Ireland, there are Coderdojos in nearly every major city and town. Some clubs such as Athenry in county Galway have grown into high learning centres providing a broad range of online tools and projects.

Third Level Outreach Programmes

The active participation by highly motivated and visionary third level Outreach science and technology officers in promoting and organising computer programming courses for schools across Ireland. Lero in Limerick and DERI (now INSIGHT) in Galway have been particularly prominent in this regard. Since 2012, Lero has worked with the Irish government in producing a syllabus for a computer coding module that will be included in the revised national Junior Certificate that will be introduced in 2014/2015. Whilst Lero concentrated on teaching the teachers, DERI took their digital missionary zeal directly into the classroom with an awareness of the need to embrace schools located far from the urban technology corridors, in isolated rural areas or on remote islands.

Mentoring from Industry and Colleges

The high level of skilled mentoring that is now available from industry as well as from third level colleges in assisting schools with computer coding classes has seen a remarkable surge over the last two years. Most of the volunteers mentors involved are young enthusiastic engineers and researchers, characteristics that allow them to be viewed as positive role models by pupils and students of both primary and post primary schools. 

In Galway, the Galway Education Centre, NUI Galway, GMIT, Aviya and Hewlett Packard collaborated in rolling out coding courses to sixty one schools in Galway and Mayo during the school year 2012/2013.

Government Introduces Coding into Schools for the first time

Finally there has been a realization by the Irish government that computer programming needs to become a subject in the second-level educational curriculum in order to create a world class Knowledge Economy and Society. 

Without such digital skills being taught, there was/is a real danger that Ireland’s youth will be educationally deprived of the skills needed to survive in and to shape the 21^st century.  Too many of the jobs being created in the vibrant IT sector in Ireland are being filled by people imported from overseas.  Whilst at the same time, we are witnessing 1,500 young Irish people emigrate weekly. The result was that the country was/is developing a two tiered society, one in which the indigenous population could be concentrated in the lower  strata if nothing fundamental changed in the schools system.

Young Tech Savvy Government Ministers

Fortunately, the present state Department of Education has a number of ministers that are fully aware of this serious gap in the learning system and are doing something about it. Sean Sherlock is doing a great job as the country’s first designated Minister for Research and Innovation. Ciaran Cannon, Minister of State for Training and Skills, has become an avid champion of the Irish coding movement. In his home county of Galway, he is encouraging and working closely with partners in the educational and commercials sectors including the Galway Education Centre, leading edge corporations, COderdojos, GMIT and NUI Galway in developing Galway as a vibrant hub of digital creativity of international significance.

Galway Science and Technology Festival

Ireland’s largest festival of science and technology is held annually in Galway. The two week event ends with a fair in Galway university attended by circa 25,000 visitors that has become a showcase not only for locally based leading edge biomedical, marine, IT corporation and indigenous industries but also for schools and college projects. 

Galway city Coderdojo Club Promotes Father and Son Bonding

One of the unexpected side benefits of the recently established  and highly successful Galway city Coderdojo club, based at DERI and IT in NUI Galway, is the high level of fathers present that are obviously enjoying the quality learning time that they are spending with their children and most noticeably with their sons. There are of course many mothers with their daughters and sons in attendance. But I just can't help but be impressed with the amount of fathers that turn up every Saturday who are actively participating in their  sons' education and learning something new in the process, something that I have never noticed before on such a scale outside sporting activities.

Part of the rules of the club is that children younger than 12 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Furthermore, we recommend too that these adults should if possible not just sit around passively waiting for the classes to end but actively take part in the course.
The results of this policy have much better than we expected!

Galway City Coderdojo Goes From Strength to Strength
The club has 148 participants that come from as far away as Newport and Ballina in May, has a waiting list of c.30, and has already laid the foundations for two new clubs (Castlebar and Athenry).

Read previous article  New Coder Dojo Hackers Club Reflects Galway’s Digital Vibrancy

New Coder Dojo Hackers Club Reflects Galway’s Digital Vibrancy

Back to the Future!

Over the last few years, Galway has undergone a remarkable digital renaissance that has brought back memories of the city in the 1980s when Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), then the world’s largest minicomputer manufacturing corporation, was exporting computers all across Europe from its factory in Ballybrit; when the first satellite link between Ireland and North America was established at the state telephone company’s HQ in Mervue; when parents were buying their first ever microcomputers such as the Sinclair ZX81 and Commodore Vic 20 in computer retail outlets that were springing up across the city so that their children could learn the new art of coding; when a few visionary young mathematics, business and physics teachers were introducing computers into the schools; when DEC had linked the city’s second level colleges through a computer network system; 

Early 1980s: DEC Galway had computer links to 10 second-level schools

when recently qualified college graduates were establishing ‘software houses’ in little backwater offices; when small-to-medium companies en-masse were buying their first computers to run their accounts and send out letters; when the Ireland’s first Internet newsletter for  worldwide readership was being distributed by DEC’s Liam Ferrie; when electronic courses at the Regional Technical College were filled to capacity; when Apple’s Macintosh Destktop Publishing system let to the appearance of regular low cost community newsletters across the suburbs;  when new programming courses could not keep up with the demand from enthusiasts of all ages; and when students at Galway University (NUIG) were brought up before the authorities for accessing the college computer systems by circumventing its security system (what we now call ‘hacking’!).

12 yr old Harry Moran demonstrating his PizzaBot App to a spellbound audience during the

Galway Science & Technology Festival Exhibition

Once again a vibrant Digital ambiance is starting to permeate the schools, colleges, workplaces and streets of the city and county fueled by a volunteer army of largely young enthusiastic and selfless Internet activists the like of which exists nowhere else in Ireland.
However as with the recent establishment of the Ballinfoile Mór Cumann na bhFear/Men's Shed, it is about Irish people recapturing the ability to use their hands and intellect to make things again rather than just be the passive recipients of items imported from overseas.
We are beginning to move away from being a nation of digital users to a nation of digital creators.

The increasing roll-out of coding classes to schools provided by volunteers from the corporate sector, NUIG, GMIT and from concerned individuals; the annual hosting of a national children’s Lego Robotics competition; the IT summer camps at NUI Galway; the establishment of groups such as 091Labs, Camara and Coder Dojos; the high uptake by older peoples and other communities of Web Awareness courses; the massive crowds that attended events held during the Galway Science & Technology Festival (24,000+ at the Sunday Fair on NUIG campus); the existence at NUIG of world-renowned science research institutes such as DERI; the establishment of Ireland’s only Computer and Communications Museum (at DERI) and the presence of global technology leaders in the city such as Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, EA, Medtronic and IBM is radically changing the local landscape that in time could metamorphose into an innovative sustainable Knowledge economy and society providing a healthy future for Ireland that will benefit other countries across the planet.

As Community/Education Outreach Officer at the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) at NUI Galway, I am part of this process of change which involves some very exciting initiatives.

1. Launch of Galway City 'Coder Dojos' Club

Galway Coder Dojos first group of volunteers with founder Adrian Bannon on the extreme right

The city’s first Coder Dojo club will be launched next Saturday in DERI. The engine behind this initiative is young local lawyer Adrian Bannon supported by a merry band of enthusiasts including Padraic Hartley of 091Labs ‘hackerspace’ group and Michael Madden of IT NUI Galway.  The new club will meet weekly in DERI before transferring in early April to the College of Engineering & Informatics located on the main campus. It will provide an opportunity for students, pupils, teachers and technology enthusiasts to meet like-minded peers in an informal social and learning environment where they will be educated in new skills particularly in coding and generate interesting ideas and discussions amongst themselves. It is anticipated that, over time, this pioneering club will led to the setting up of Coder Dojo clubs in schools across Galway city and county.

  

2. Scratch Programming Courses in Galway Primary Schools

 Children displaying their Scratch project to their fellow classmates

Computer Science is unfortunately not a subject in the Irish schools system which is symptomatic of a systematic failure by successive governments who have failed to grasp the serious damage that its absence from the educational curricula is doing to the country’s future.

Since early 2011, I have campaigned and organised cross-sectoral groups to lobby ministers on this issue and will soon be part of a delegation  to meet  Seán Sherlock T.D., Minister of State with responsibility for Research and Innovation, on this issue.

Over the last year, I have enjoyed teaching Scratch programming in primary schools in Galway and Mayo, complementing the excellent work being spearheaded by LERO nationwide It has been personally very rewarding for me to see the practical effects of this initiative through the creation of an array of fascinating computer animation projects by the young participants.

DERI is now collaborating with Hewlett Packard, GMIT and the Galway Education Centre to ensure that even more schools can benefit from mentor-assisted classroom computer programming courses. The project will be known as HP Headstart. On behalf of DERI, I will be acting as project coordinator and over the next few weeks I will be teaching Scratch to the DERI, HP and GMIT mentors.  Tuition will be held in participating schools and consist of one-hour classes over a period of six weeks.

3. Galway city’s only After-School Computer Club

DERI's Michael Kerrin teaching Python at St. Mary's Computer Club

Last year, Laura Dragan and Pierre Ludwick from DERI provided an after-schools C++ programming course to students at St. Mary’s College. This after-school club, the only one of its kind in Galway, was very well received and it continues this year with DERI’s Michael Kerrin teaching Python.

4. ‘Bullding a Mobile App’ Workshop

DERI’s Caoilfhionn Lane will provide a workshop on ‘How to Build A Mobile App’ at 7pm on Tuesday February 28^th in DERI. Open to the general public, the aim of this workshop is to show beginner or non-programmers how to create a simple phone app using Eclipse and the Android SDK. They would learn how to install the Android SDK and the Android Phone Emulator and explore a sample game, ’Lunar Landing’.

5. Retro Games Night, March 2^nd, Computer Museum

SuperFrog on the Amiga (World's first multi-media computer)

A Retro Gaming Night will be held at 7pm on Friday March 2^nd in the DERI-based Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland.
The event will allow visitors to play classic games such as Sonic the Hegehog, Donkey King, Pacman, Asteroids, Space Invaders and Super Frog on an array of vintage microcomputers & consoles (late 1970s-mid1990s) that include Atari, Sega Mega Drive, Playstation 1, Nintendo Gameboy, Amiga & Commodore 64.

6. Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland 

Visitors interacting with the Museum's artifacts

The facility, established by and presently housed in DERI, is officially recognised as the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland and has become part of a Galway science trail.

It has a cross-sectoral Board that draws its membership from HP, GMIT, NUIG, Engineers Ireland, small businesses as well as DERI (Mike Turley, Lukasz and myself). 

Its primary aim is to introduce visitors to the rich communications technology heritage of Ireland and of the world and to inspire young people towards innovation, science and engineering.

For National Engineers Week (Feb 27 – March 2^nd), I am augmenting the present collection of artefacts with some exciting new additions including one of the finger controlled keysets that was invented and used by Douglas Engelbart in his legendary ‘Mother of all Demos’ (1968) that is on loan from Karl Flannery of Storm Technology, as well as a library of 1960s Science Fiction comics, films and toys that inspired children of that era to create so many of the technologies we use today.

7. Visits to Schools & Student Tours of DERI

Post-primary students visiting the DERI science institute at Galway University (NUIG)

Second-level schools will visit our institute during National Engineers Week (Feb 27 – March 2 and DERI personnel will travel out to at least one school during this period.

These tours and visits will give students the opportunity to meet with DERI researchers and find out about the work and the exciting leading edge products, processes and services being created at DERI.

They are also part of a larger network of tours that cover four other world-class science institute specialsing in research varying from climate change, to biomedical to optics.

Using Arcade Games To Inspire New Generation of Programmers & Innovators

What promises to be an exciting night of Retro Gaming will take place from 6pm until 8pm this Friday (Sept 23^rd) in the National Computer and Communications Museum located in the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) at NUI Galway.

This event is being held as part of ‘National Culture Night’ and visitors will be able to enjoy playing video Arcade classics including Pacman, Asteroids and Space Invaders on renowned vintage consoles and computers such as Atari, Amiga and Sinclair ZX81.

The sights and sounds on offer will try to capture the essence of the early days of computer gaming of the 1970s and 1980 which made a major contribution in the overall development of digital sound and graphics.

But attendees will also be introduced to the software coding that constitutes the games. They will be allowed to actually input these computer programmes line by line, to experiment with the code and to make their own creative enhancements. This should give participants a better understanding of how digital technology actually works. For a key aim of this event is be part of a process of introducing young people in particular to the software infrastructure behind popular devices such as smart phones, sensors and laptops thus hopefully inspiring them to consider careers in computer science and engineering which are essential prerequisites in creating a sustainable knowledge-based innovative society that will help secure a niche for Ireland in an ever-changing world.

It must be remembered that a previous young generation enthusiastically took on similar challenges during the early days of computing and created many of the technologies that we use today. They became innovators and entrepreneurs combining youthful imagination, artistic skills with a scientific understanding.

When microcomputers such as Sinclairs, BBCs and Apple 11s were first introduced into Irish schools during the early nineteen eighties, children often had to write their own programmes as there were few affordable applications available. Sadly this ability to be taught how to make things in IT classes has been replaced in the intervening decades by a policy of only teaching pupils to use applications such as word-processing and databases. Whilst this is a laudable exercise, nevertheless we must re-educate our young people in the lost art of computer coding which should be considered a life skill that forms part of the national educational curriculum. Otherwise we will remain, what in literary parlance could be referred to, as a nation of readers rather than of writers.

Over the last year, DERI mentors have provided computer programming courses to primary and post-primary schools in Connacht. In partnership with the Galway Education Centre and other stakeholders, we intend to roll out courses in programming to as many schools as possible over the next year. We will also be promoting the setting up of an inter-schools’ students Computer Club and encouraging participants to draw inspiration from visits to Ireland’s only museum which highlights the important but oftentimes hidden role of Irish people, women and young people in the history of world communications.

We Need to Teach Our Children How to Programme!

I have just completed teaching a pilot series of Scratch programming courses in primary schools in Galway and Mayo. I found this work, both on a professional and personal level, extremely fulfilling. For I believe that I am part of a process that is helping to provide skills to children that could help them and the nation secure a long-term future.

This teaching complimented the pioneering work that my university Institute colleagues Laura Dragan and Pierre Ludwick were doing on C++ programming with second-level students.

Parent Support

Note: Most schools that we worked with understandably did not have enough computers to allow the ideal ratio of one/two participants per computer for the Scratch sessions. So we asked schools to write to parents requesting that their child could each week have use of the family laptop (should they have one) in the classroom for the course days.

This initiative was in most cases surprisingly successful.

Scratch is a wonderful programming language developed by the MIT Media Lab in the United States that makes it easy for users to create their own interactive stories, animations, games, music, art and to share these creations on the web.

It has a simple structure that is based around snapping together visual blocks of computer code that control sound, music and images. Hence it is ideally suited for children as it compliments the artistic elements of the primary school curriculum allowing users to bring their artistic skills into a new digital dimension to create computer games, animations and stories.

The kids I taught were infatuated with Scratch and took to it like ducks to water, creating the most amazing animations and interactive games.

Computer Programming Should be a Life Skill for All Children

However it is unbelievable to realise that, when the basis of government economic policy is to create a Knowledge Society, computer coding is not part of the Irish primary or post-primary educational curriculum. Instead schools can only offer the official primitive low-level and out-of-date courses based around teaching students how to use office application software such as word processing and spreadsheets.

It would be funny if it was not so serious to the future of the nation. Of course progressive principals and teachers do offer coding modules. But a few far-sighted individuals in a few schools is not enough. Programming should be a life skill taught to all children. Not providing it in mainstream education is a fundamental flaw that will seriously undermine the chances of building a Smart Economy, which we need if we are to take on the challenges of the 21st century, when the shift of economic power in the Global Village is moving inexorably towards eastern Asia.

Of course, the schools will need extra staffing and resources to allow this to happen which means extra state investment. This may seem illogical to some in an era of financial constraints and when educational budgets are been cut.

But we have no choice if we are want to secure a future for our people.

The new Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn, seems to have a more open attitude towards educational reform than his predecessors. So I intend to organise a cross party delegation of experts to meet with him on this issue of programming in schools.

Like Finland and other visionary countries, we need to invest and to exploit in a sustainable way our own natural resources (human as well as physical) that will allow us to create world class skill-sets and markets. In the case of Ireland, it could be renewable energies (wave and wind), organic agriculture and eco/heritage tourism.

Then there are the bio-medical and information technologies.

Building the Foundations of a Knowledge Economy in Ireland

Throughout the history of mankind, technology has defined our progress. Today Science and Technology research is more important than ever to the national interest. It is needed to attract in outside investment resulting in a growing demand for engineering and computer science graduates as leading IT companies from online gaming to social networking establish major operations in Ireland.

Already we have a number of important advantages. For instance, Ireland is second only to California's Silicon Valley as a world centre of influential technology companies (e.g. 7 of the top 10 Information Communications corporations such as Facebook, Google, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Alcatel are located here). Many of these businesses have major R & D operations here.

Galway - An Irish Silicon Valley

I work in the state-funded Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) at Galway University (NUI Galway) which is one of the world's leading international Web Science research institutes, particularly in the area of the Semantic Web. DERI's vision is to lay the foundations for a Semantic Galway Bay, a world class technological powerhouse of businesses, built around the institute’s scientific expertise. It is aiding in the creation of critical new jobs, products and services needed for transforming Ireland into a competitive knowledge economy. It could therefore become the equivalent of a Stanford University providing the brainpower to an Irish version of Silicon Valley.

But there is a dire shortage of computer science graduates in the country. One reason is that until the demise of the Celtic Tiger, there was a tendency amongst young people to pursue careers within the ‘safe’ sectors (legal, accountancy, property, banking and administration) rather than go for the more demanding areas such as in science, engineering, crafts and agriculture.

As with the heavy labour jobs, we imported people to undertake these creative professions as we started to quickly lose the ability to make things.

In the short term, schools can call on mentors from the third level sector (such as DERI), from the private sector through companies such as Medtronic who operate ambitious corporate social responsibility charters and from educational bodies such as the Galway Education Centre who coordinate partnership science support programmes.

Below is an article of mine on this subject that appeared recently in the Galway City Tribune newspaper:

A science institute at NUI Galway is helping to lay a key foundation stone in constructing Ireland’s future Smart Economy by introducing computer programming classes into Irish primary and post-primary schools.

“Volunteer mentors at the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI), an internationally acclaimed centre of web science research, have just completed tutoring on a three month after-school pilot programming course at St. Mary’s College Galway city”, according to its Outreach Officer, Brendan Smith. “The institute is also providing similar courses to primary schools in counties Mayo and Galway. The young participants in our classes are enjoying the fact they are able for the first time to write their very own games and other programmes. They are becoming creators rather than just users of software. Whilst these activities are outside the Irish educational curriculum, nevertheless, we feel this type of learning is essential and must become mainstream if Ireland is to carve out for itself a sustainable technology niche that will hold onto existing internationally renowned software manufacturing enterprises, attract in even more global leaders in this sector as well as in fostering a self-perpetuating indigenous Irish corps of innovators, entrepreneurs, engineers and companies in such areas as ‘Cloud Technology’ and online ents gaming.

Our Young People Need to Learn how to Make Things

rather than just Use Things

“When microcomputers such as Sinclairs, BBCs and Apple 11s were first introduced into Irish schools during the nineteenth eighties, children had to write their own programmes as there were few affordable applications available. Sadly this ability to be taught how to make things in IT classes has

been replaced in the intervening decades by a policy of teaching pupils to use applications such as word-processing and databases. Whilst this is a laudable exercise, nevertheless we must re-educate our young people in the lost art of computer coding.

In literary parlance, we have become a nation of readers rather than of writers.

“We are very happy with the way that the primary and post primary students and teachers have responded to our introductory classes over the last few months. In partnership with the Galway Education Centre and other stakeholders, we intend to roll out courses in programming to twenty schools over the next year. We will also be promoting the setting up of an inter-schools’ Computer Students’ Club and encouraging participants to draw inspiration from visits to Ireland’s only Communications and Computer Museum that is based at DERI and co-organised with eGalway.”