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Tag Archives: chrisbetcher

2013 Building Learning

Coding for Kids

Published by:

Presenter: Chris Betcher
Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Chris Betcher on G+

Presentation Title: Coding for Kids

Presentation Description: While not every student might want to write their own software, understanding the big ideas of coding is a skill that all students would benefit from, even the very young ones. Understanding the key ideas of computational thinking – identifying patterns, thinking algorithmically, manipulating data, solving real problems, etc – is an important step in helping our students build mastery over their world.
This presentation will take you on a guided tour through some of the resources available to your students to help them learn the principles of creating code. We’ll check out a range of desktop and iPad apps suitable for teaching very young students to program, through to tools and websites that can help your older students learn to hack code, and much more.

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WcGToN3fmgupMb69P7ZUQj97WNTQNvI-6gvzKAOeCCk/edit?usp=sharing

Additional Information:
Chris Betcher is an Australian technology educator with a passion for helping students master their digital world. He is the technology integrator at PLC Sydney, where he helps students and teachers use technology in meaningful and authentic ways. He has a curious mind, asks way too many questions, and likes to build cool stuff out of zeroes and ones. Connect with Chris at www.chrisbetcher.com.

2010-Kicking It Up a Notch

Teaching Kids To Think Using Scratch

Published by:

Presenter: Chris Betcher
Location: Sydney, Australia
Link to presenter’s K12Online Ning Profile page

Presentation Title: Teaching Kids To Think Using Scratch

Presentation Description: Scratch is a simple yet powerful programming language for children that is very easy to use yet contains many of the important programming constructs found in more “grown up” languages.
This presentation looks at some of the key ideas behind programming in Scratch, explores some possible tasks that students could be given to encourage problem solving and higher level thinking, and finishes with a snapshot of a student view into how Scratch is making a difference to learning.

DotSub Video Presentation Link

Blip m4v direct link (video file)
Blip mp3 direct link (audio file)

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
http://www.chrisbetcher.com/scratch

Additional Information:
Blog: www.chrisbetcher.com
Twitter: @betchaboy
Skype: betchaboy

2009 2009-Week in the Classroom

Ways of Working

Published by:

Presenter: Chris Betcher
Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Link to presenter’s K12Online Ning Profile page

Presentation Title: Ways of Working

Presentation Description: This presentation explores a range of ideas that teachers could use to make a real-world task richer and more meaningful for their students. Using a large public art event as the focus, it looks at a number of ideas for enriching student learning with technology… ideas that could be modified and applied to nearly any learning context.

DotSub Video Presentation Link

Blip m4v direct link (video file)
Blip mp3 direct link (audio file)

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
Ways of Working

Additional Information:
Further links and resources to support this presentation can be found at Chris’ wiki – Ways of Working

Subscribe to Chris’s blog at http://www.betchablog.com, or follow via Twitter on http://www.twitter.com/betchaboy

2008

Thank you to Live Events Committee

Published by:

There are many things that make the K12online Conference a unique event. One is that in many ways it’s not an event. The sessions are always available, it breaks down barriers of time.

However, one of the other things that make the K12 online conference unique is the desire people to get together synchronously. To make this happen in any situation is challenging, to make it happen world wide is amazing. This is what the Live Events Committee pulled off.

Laura Deisley led the committee of Chris Betcher, Robin Ellis, Christine Voigt and Naomi Williams. Laura demonstrated outstanding leadership and made things look so easy. She and her committee not only responded quickly to any issue but also developed the Cuppa Joe concept which will be really helpful for those wanting to re-purpose presentations at a local level. The essential questions can be a great way to start a discussion.

The work of these people and other volunteers make this conference what it is. Thank you Laura, Chris, Robin, Christine and Naomi.  Your work and efforts did not go unnoticed and added immensely to the quality of the conference.

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