During the 21st century there has been an increasing interest in the field of computational thinking as a consequence of the ever faster technical development. However, educating future generations inprogramming and computational thinking is not trivial. Many different platforms and teaching approaches can be used for this purpose. Inspired by the UK initiative with BBC micro:bit, this paper strives to identify what may be important to consider when designing teaching materials with the micro:bit for training Swedish primary school pupils’ computational thinking skills relating to mathematical and technical school subjects. This has been investigated in an iterative process, by conducting 21 workshops with the goal to support primary school teachers in developing micro:bit teaching materials. The contribution of this paper is the Scope of autonomy model, which is based on the relation between pupils learning potential, their risk of feeling overwhelmed and the amount of choices provided in exercises. The model aim to support teachers in developing material for teaching programming and computational thinking in accordance with the new curriculum.
During the 21st century, there has been an increased interest in the field of computational thinking as a consequence of the ever faster technical development. However, educating future generations in programming and computational thinking is not trivial. Many different platforms and teaching approaches can be used for this purpose. Inspired by the UK initiative with BBC micro:bit, this paper strives to identify what may be important to consider when designing teaching materials with the BBC micro:bit for training Swedish primary school learners’ computational thinking skills relating to mathematical and technical school subjects. This has been investigated in an iterative process, by conducting 21 workshops with the goal to support primary school teachers in developing BBC micro:bit teaching materials. The contribution of this paper is the Scope of autonomy model, which is based on the relation between learning potential, the risk of feeling overwhelmed, and the amount of choices provided in exercises. The model aim to support teachers in developing and appropriating material for teaching programming and computational thinking with individual progression in accordance with the new curriculum.
Digital fabrication and making has received a growing interest in formal and informal learning environments. However, many of these initiatives often start from a grassroots perspective, with little coordination on a national level. This paper illustrates and discusses a study from an ongoing large-scale national testbed in Sweden named Makerspace in schools (Makerskola). The project embodies a series of considerations that arise when a maker approach is applied to a geographically widespread national education context. The results of this study are based on an analysis of the extensive project documentation and first-hand experiences from initiating and running a large-scale national testbed in Sweden, involving more than 30 formal actors and more than one thousand active partners in a national educational setting. The main contribution of this paper is the identification and discussion of five different considerations that have emerged during the project, and include Procurement practices, The teacher and leader perspective, Informing national policy making, Creating equal opportunities, and Progression in digital fabrication.
This report presents the manual, guidelines, training mateials, findings and outcomes of the Nato STO SAS-191 Nordic Pine 2024 Tabletop Exercise (TTX), designed to simulate hybrid threats to energy security, with a focus on renewable energy infrastructure in the Nordic-Baltic region. The exercise evaluated the capacity of key stakeholders to respond to complex crises involving cyber threats, disinformation campaigns, and supply chain vulnerabilities. Insights gained will support the enhancement of strategic resilience and preparedness in the face of evolving security challenges.
As many countries are about to make changes in the primary school curriculum by introducing computational thinking, new methods and support for teachers is needed in order help them develop and adapt teaching materials. In this paper, technical pitfalls and other considerations for designing teaching materials with the microcontroller BBC micro:bit are presented. The results are based on a series of 21 workshops in different parts of Sweden aiming to investigate what is important to consider when designing teaching materials with the BBC micro:bit for training Swedish primary schools students computational thinking skills. The contribution of the paper are a number of identified considerations that can be helpful for teachers when designing exercises and planning for teaching computational thinking with the BBC micro:bit.Considerations and Technical Pitfalls for Teaching Computational Thinking with BBC micro:bit | Request PDF. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326026189_Considerations_and_Technical_Pitfalls_for_Teaching_Computational_Thinking_with_BBC_microbit [accessed Aug 21 2018].