Supporting Computing around the country

exa.foundation is a not-for-profit initiative from Exa Education designed to inspire, support and promote the effective use of technology in education; extending to teachers, children, schools, families and business. We’re supporting a number of activities and UK events that impact upon learners at every level. Our activities include sharing inspiring and engaging resources, professional development opportunities for teachers and community events promoting the creative side of Computer Science and Digital Making.

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Founded to help Inspire, Support and Promote the teaching of Computing across the UK a little over a year ago, exa.foundation has helped hundreds of teachers and thousands of students develop their interest in Computing, running a wide variety of events aimed at school teachers, students and Computing hobby clubs. In this piece, we’re taking a look at some of the events we’ve run recently - and what’s coming up next!

Across the year, our events cover a whole lot of ground, so we’ve picked out a couple of the more popular courses we’ve run recently.

Recently, Alan O’Donohoe, specialist leader in education at exa.foundation, headed back to school to run a Computing lesson for the GCSE class at Bradford Academy. Using a pair programming method, students were tasked with creating a system to ask a user various questions, before repeating the information given, storing the data and restarting (full notes available here).

Students were split into pairs, with one (the navigator) planning an overall course for the task, while the other (the driver), writing out much of the code, with roles being swapped over at regular intervals. With the lesson designed to cover a number of GCSE requirements, pair programming allows teachers to get a better look at how individual students are performing in class.

Back in April, we ran a family hack jam, focusing on using the BBC micro:bit (distributed free to Year 7 students last year, now commercially available). Family groups worked together in an adapted pair programming method, with one member working as a spy, ‘stealing’ ideas from other groups. We’ve definitely found pair programming to be an effective (and fun!) way to approach Computing, giving learners the ability to learn from others, developing their own skills while helping others.

Along with the many events we run day-to-day, there’s one major show coming up for exa.foundation - our second annual #exabytes conference, taking place in Bradford’s Midland Hotel on the 7th of July. Put simply, #exabytes is all about giving teachers a fantastic environment in which to share and discover new approaches to technology in the classroom.

Across the day, we’ll be hosting over 30 sessions (including many hands-on presentations and absolutely no sales pitches), covering a huge selection of topics and issues on technology in the classroom.

With our parent company Exa Education subsidising the event, we’re able to cut the cost to just £58.80 (inc. VAT) per ticket - if your school’s using high-performance, low-cost Internet connectivity from Exa, that drops to just £10, while you’ll also be able to specifically book special foundation events for your school!

Visit exa.foundation or contact [email protected] / 0345 145 1234 for more information.