The BEO project - Connecting Rural Communities to their past.

I recently enjoyed the warm friendly atmosphere of an old style local rural community night in Coldwood National School near Craugwell county Galway.

There was lots of home-baked scones, cakes and teas served by volunteers as grandparents and parents of the present generation of pupils came back to the school of their childhood days to reminisce and tell stories of life long ago recorded on the night by children for a series of podcasts for the 150 year celebrations of this fine educational institution.

As part of Insight's BEO online local heritage project, I was there to help in the collection of photographs from times past brought in by the older attendees and the identification of those in these images.

To support this process I enlarged and colourised in advance a lot of old images associated with Coldwood as well as bringing along multiple familiar artifacts from Ireland in days gone by such as a wooden school desk complete with inkwell, blotting paper, erasure and 1960s/1970s school books; a milk churn; a transistor radio, a Sony Walkman cassette player, photo slides and vinyl record albums.

The effort was worth it as the photos on display helped reconnect families across the decades. Paddy Cahill(on the top left in photo montage), standing beside his son, points to his dad in a 1910 photo that he had never seen before, whilst Paddy Rooney (on the top right) points to himself in a 1950 photo.

By the end of the night, most of the people in the sample photographs on display were identified as great grandparents, grandparents, parents and themselves by the attendees present.

The interesting and often unique materials collected over the last few years under the BEO online digital local heritage project, supported throughout by the Galway County Heritage Office, will be unveiled at a big celebratory launch next March in the Galway Education Centre. 

Details to follow at the end of January.

"Cyber Girls’ Power” comes to Galway - Ireland’s premier Digital City

Mercy Secondary School students with Ina O'Murchu at 'Women in Technology' event at DERI NUIG

The hosting of  a major pioneering initiative taking place at NUI Galway on May 17^th-18^th aims to encourage increased learning of computer coding amongst the local female population. Entitled ‘Rails Girls Galway’, the May event is part of a worldwide movement that aims to bridge the gender divide in technology and teach women how to code. The free weekend workshop will let females of all ages in on the exciting world of building web applications and software services. It will be held on Friday and Saturday May 17th-18^th at the NUI Galway’s Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) located in the Dangan IDA/NUIG Business Park.

Coders Needed to Make the much vaunted Knowledge Society a reality 

“Ireland needs computer programmers of both sexes to help lay the foundations of the ‘Knowledge Economy’ and to create the jobs for a sustainable future,” says Myriam Leggieri, DERI researcher and one of the chief organisers. “But there is in particular a serious shortage of female IT developers in Ireland and across the world as well as in the professions of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) professions generally. Events such as 'Rails Girls' directly address this issue and empower girls to take the first step in learning these in-demand skills and acquiring the tools to conquer one of the last great frontiers of science, namely the World Wide Web.”

Alanna from 091Labs

The organisers comprise mainly young female IT researchers involved in local third level colleges, businesses, schools and volunteer digital makers’ clubs such as Coderdojo and 091Labs. Though primarily aimed towards local female students particularly in post primary schools and third level colleges, nevertheless there will be attendees arriving from across Ireland and Britain. The weekend event is free, is open to all enthusiastic girls and women, and is suitable for absolute beginners to computer coding. No prior knowledge of programming is required.

This event is part of a radical technology learning transformation of the city.

Huge Interest in Learning to Code amongst Galway's Youth
Every Saturday morning at NUI Galway and other locations in Athenry and Kinvara, hundreds of enthusiastic children and teenagers create their very own games, digital stories and web projects mentored by the young volunteer mentors of Coderdojo. 

Coderdojo Class in DERI on Saturday mornings

Youth-run clubs such as 091 Labs are also providing informal after-school digital maker’s environments. Thanks to the combined efforts of volunteer tutors from Hewlett Packard, Avaya, GMIT, Medtronic, SAP and DERI working under the guidance of the Galway Education Centre supported by the work of the Galway Science and Technology Forum and Junior Achievement, approximately two thousand pupils and students in over 50 primary and post-primary schools across counties Mayo and Galway are currently being educated in computer programming.  

Transition Year students Davitt College Castlebar learning to code with Brendan Smith DERI

 Recognition of the importance of these developments is shown by the recent inaugural ‘John Cunningham Memorial Coderdojo Awards’ granted to young coders for their outstanding contributions to computer programming; the Boston Scientific ‘Coding the Big Bang’ awards;  and ITAG’s  new ‘IT in the Community Award’ that was won by Coderdojo Galway city.

Birth of Ireland's First Generation of Coders

The end result is that finally, five decades after the tentative introduction of computing into Irish schools, we are experiencing the first generation of children that can code, that are truly ‘digital creators’ rather than just passive ‘digital users’.

Retro Gaming event Computer Museum, DERI

Galway: Ireland's primary Science City
These developments are part of an even bigger picture of progressive change where the city can truly claim to be Ireland's oldest Digital City and probably its premier City of Science having in the process the potential to become the Silicon Valley of Ireland. See my article on this subject by clicking here 

Location for leading International & National Science Research & Science Education centres.
Galway is now the location for the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland (based at DERI NUIG), the national Marine Institute, the National Aquarium (Galway Atlantaquaria), Ireland's longest (2 weeks) annual Science and Technology Festival and the world's largest semantic web research institute (DERI). It was to Galway rather than to Dublin or to Cork that CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, sent their renowned interactive exhibition last September. It was hugely sucessfull and was visited by 12,000 post-primary school students from across the island.
Interestingly the DERI-based  computer museum hosts an exhibit dedicated to women (hidden histories) that were pioneers in communications and computer technologies but are largely unknown by the general public.

Retro Gaming event Computer Museum, DERI

A Parent’s Time of Bittersweet

 

Photo shows Daíre with his teacher Máire Browne, his school bag & his bike(!) on his last day in Scoil San Phroinsias. Notice his whiteshirt that is covered with personal messages from his classmates, a lovely tradition now common in Irish schools.

As a parent I have experienced over the last few month’s extreme emotions, those of great sadness and those of great joy.
On June 26th, my youngest son Dáire left his primary school for the very last time, thus bringing to an end an unbroken family connection with Scoil san  Phroinsias in Galway city that went back to June 1996 when my oldest son Shane started his education there.
When I collected Daire on that June day I shed a few tears not just because I was a proud parent, but because  I realised that, for me, it was also the end of an era. 

I loved that school so much, the commitment of its teachers; the joy and enthusiasm of its pupils; the colour and variety of projects on display in the classrooms; the great array of concerts, fests, sports days and fund-raising that were held in and on behalf of the school. It is a fine institution with a strong learning, respect and discipline ethos. Scoil san  Phroinsias was and is the hub of the local neighbourhood; it is what binds us together as a community.

But on a personal level there is void inside me that will not be filled for a very long time. For I enjoyed so much being a father of a young child. I enjoyed walking up to school in the morning, holding my child’s hand, talking to him about his friends and his class, sharing a joke or two with other parents as I waved him goodbye from the school gate.  Now I know that I will never experience those feelings again, ever.

On a professional level, I work as a university Education Science, Technology and Heritage Outreach Officer. My main area of activity is in schools. So I would always bounce ideas and projects off my sons that I was working on, get their opinions, before I would roll them out into the classrooms. Over the years, I have learnt so much from my children. They (along with Cepta) were my mentors, my advisors, my confidantes. I am so lucky to have such great kids.
In June, Shane completed his last undergraduate examination at NUI Galway.
On Monday, Daíre  started his first day in post-primary school.
Life goes on and so must I. New challenges await.

Still, I always treasure happy memories of the boys’ childhood days.
On behalf of Cepta and myself, thank you so much Shane, Daire and Scoil San Phrioinsias.

Dáire's last school lunch pack

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.”