First, students working in pairs using Google SketchUp to design their own medallions based on their historical research.

Pharell

Lourdes and Maya

Raesiah and Ellis

Ben and Hamish

Kristina

Andrew and Sara

Dakari and Kristina

Grace and Alessandra

Lewis and Lydia

Oliver

Sam and Christian

T&A

Gabby and Issy

Next their designs were sent to our 3D printer – and gradually, over the next few days, were brought to life.

On their first visit class members learnt how to put together a computer through the use of Raspberry Pis, as well as using the Makey Makey to experiment with a very special kind of keyboard.

“I learned how to do a computer.   There are a lot wires that have to connect.”

They spent the second workshop learning all about the structure of computer networks and the internet.

Below are some of the pupils’ thoughts on their experiences during the workshop and on what they learnt during the day, as well as some examples of their work exploring the ways in which computers are connected.

“I learnt how to use an apple computer and I have learnt how to change some names to your name using a software.

We got to write our name and it went all over the world.

It can help me with my work if the teacher tells me to go on the computer I will know what to do.”

“I learnt about the internet and I learnt how to make a game controller.

I learnt that electricity travels over 10,000 miles in seconds to get the website you want.

Computer skills will help me research to find out new knowledge about more things.”

“I have learnt how to change my name on another websites names.

I have learnt if a websites is popular and you would like to know about the population numbers in the inter world.

I have learnt how to make some knowledge. ”

We would like to thank Julia Harrison for giving up her time to speak to the class, Rob Harrison (class teacher at Clapham Manor) for helping put this all together, all the pupils in 6H, and Ella for writing this report.

Over to Ella…

Video Call – Clapham Manor Primary School &  Julia Harrison (Morgan Stanley)

On Thursday 6^th February 2014 my class, from Clapham Manor Primary School, visited the CLC. Once we got there we sat down to have a video chat with a lady called Julia Harrison from the company Morgan Stanley. Some of us prepared a speech to say how the internet benefits us with schoolwork. We shared our speeches with Julia.

The internet supports our learning in many ways. We sometimes do our homework on word researching the internet we can email it to my teacher. In our English group we have recently been using a website called, “Edmodo” which is a site where we can write our homework on there. Also, using Edmodo, we can gain access to our work at school and at home. It was very easy for us to take the internet for granted but now, because we have learnt more, we won’t.

When we had our video chat with Julia Harrison she told us about all the ways she used the internet and how it benefited her. She said that the internet helps her because she is able to access the internet nearly wherever when she is on a mobile deceive example – phone, tablet, computer. We also use the internet when we are doing research on our ipads or our laptops. If we (Julia and our class) didn’t have the internet it would make our work a lot harder.

We had the video call because we were learning about how the internet works and how much effort it takes us to do many simple things and it is amazing! Julia taught us that everyone who works and Morgan Stanley uses the internet and makes their jobs easier too. In order to use the internet properly we need to understand how it works.

We learnt that they plant cables under the sea-bed and connect them to other countries. To do this they use a very advanced machine that drives along the sea-bed and digs two large cables underneath. They do this because they can’t connect with other countries above the sea because it might get cut by an unexpected reason. But if you plant it underneath the sea it is very unlikely to get disturbed.

Our teacher has organized with Julia Harrison to answer any questions that we forgot to ask on Thursday on our class blog. Julia has answered the majority of questions and will answer more in the future.

Thank you Julia and the CLC!

Ella, Class 6H

The Lambeth CLC is an outstanding ‘learning centre’ – through the latest Information and Communication Technologies the team offer invaluable opportunities for children (and adults) to learn new ‘e-literate’ ways to communicate their ideas and express their emotions. Workshops offer the chance for children to consolidate mathematical, scientific and artistic knowledge relating to the cross-curricular subjects and topics of the National Curriculum, but more than that the centre inspires the next generation of thinkers and innovators. All the staff contribute to a well-run, equitable and highly effective ‘public’ service that serves the community and offers crucial learning opportunities for children that otherwise wouldn’t get the chance to experience the incredible workshops on offer, or access the ICT facilities that are out of the financial reach of most schools. How sad it is then that so many City Learning Centres across the country have been shut down because of cuts to public funding

Freddy Vanson

Being on an Early Years PGCE course, I was particularly interested in how ICT could be used with young learners.  On my first day, I was lucky enough to participate in a Robot workshop with some year 1 children from a nearby primary school.  We used the BeeBot and Pippin robots, and experimented with simple programming to navigate mazes and move the robots in prescribed shapes.  Although, at face value, this was an exercise in programming, it brought so many areas of the curriculum together.  The children had to take turns, communicate their ideas to one another, use positional language and talk about shapes and measurements.  They also began to develop an   awareness of different angle measurements, and how to use this knowledge to make the robots move to where they wanted them to.   This first hand experience brought the children’s learning to  life, and gave them real experiences to draw on during the wide range of follow up work that could be done around these areas of learning.

Another workshop that I found particularly interesting was an e-safety workshop for year 6 children.  Having not had the internet at home until my later teens, this workshop made me realise how different the dangers faced by much younger children are from what I myself experienced.  The technologies available are much more advanced, and with the social media boom, children are exposed to different dangers now than they ever have been before.  The flip-side of this, of course, is the resources and learning tools that are available to children now are better and more varied as a result of the internet being so widely available.  The e-safety workshop gave both the children and adults present some extremely useful advice and precautions to make their internet use both safe and enjoyable.  The children got to put their learning into practise, and the discussions that this workshop generated were extremely interesting.

Along with the ICT workshops that I participated in, I also got to see how Lambeth CLC takes projects out into the wider community.  In a family learning day, I got to experience how schools use various projects to bring parents in and give them some tools and training in order to feel confident in helping their children with their learning at home.  The parents were all incredibly keen to help their children, but sometimes were unsure of some of the methods that schools were using to teach the children.  The course gave the parents some key strategies , and also offered them accreditation for having completed the course.  By using interactive technologies, such as iPads, digital cameras and interactive white boards, the parents could really engage with their learning and the experience was incredibly interactive.

Being at Lambeth CLC has given me lots of new ideas that I can’t wait to try out in the classroom.  I have seen how ICT can be used to enhance learning, and to make new experiences available to both adults and children.  The team here have really supported me in developing my own knowledge, and I’ve had a fantastic time!!

Katie Walton