Digimakers: Technology outreach

Hiiii,

I'm getting through the photo backlog still - now in 2014! I've actually already processed some of the larger sets from last year because I used the images for my Master's degree, but there's some new stuff to get through as well.

This first set of photos is from a Digimakers event that took place in March 2014. Digimakers is a series of workshops that aims to get more people (particularly children) using technology to make exciting things. To find out a bit more, take a look at this video package I made about the workshops for a piece of coursework.

And now on to the photos! This picture is the one I used as the main image for my final master's project. I took a lot of close up shots at the two Digimakers events I attended, but this one shows a bit more of what is going on. These two boys are being taught to use Raspberry Pi computers. Raspis are small and cheap and you can use them to do all sorts of things, so they work well for computing outreach.




Students from the Bristol chapter of Robogals, an organisation that does STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) outreach mainly aimed at young women, also run workshops as part of Digimakers. They use LEGO Mindstorms robots.



The robots can be programmed in different ways. Robogals run robot dance-off workshops for more advanced participants. A more basic way to program the robots is to get them to follow a track, which is what the child in this photo has done.



You can see the full set of photos from this event on my Flickr page or find out more about computing outreach in Bristol at the online feature I created. The next Digimakers event is on 28 February, so go sign up and have a go at something new! You don't need to be accompanied by a child to take part.

Goodbye Master's, hello job!

Hello!

I've been oh so quiet because I now have a job and things and when I get home all I want to do is veg instead of write blog posts and I've had a lot of very busy weekends...but guess what, I'm ill again! Totally bored of watching TV and not in the mood to read, so that clearly means it's time to update this.

Robots & Raspberry Pi

Final Master's project is online

So a summer's worth of work is now done and handed in! My multimedia feature about the new Computing curriculum is complete, so please do take a look and let me know what you think.

I was really pleased to get an email interview with the amazing Maggie Philbin, formerly of Tomorrow's World and current leader of the UK Digital Skills Taskforce. It made writing the dreaded intro so much easier! Thanks to all my other contributors as well (in order of appearance): Nigel Smart, Collette Denley, Elena Hensinger, Matt Rawlings, Laura Sharp, Claire Davenport (CAS), Thomas Hancock (Robogals), Maria Felice (Bristol Girl Geek Dinners), Hazel Ho (She Codes Bath), Ben Marshall, Mark Wonnacott, James Kennaby (Knowle West Media Centre), George Rowe (Aardman Animations) and last but not least, Caroline Higgins at MVSE (thanks for all your support during my undergrad and the help with this project!). I couldn't have done it without your help!

Employment, job, real person

A deluge of applications and one job interview later, I found myself in the rather bizarre job of Website & Digital Coordinator at the University of Bristol Students' Union. Bizarre because it's half coding and tidying up the website and half commissioning/writing content for the website. I must be one of the few people in the world strange enough to have done a BSc in Computer Science followed by an MA in Journalism, so this post is basically perfect for me.

I'm working in a small marketing team and while wrangling with a website that has had such a fragmented past can be frustrating (anyone who has ever sat down at a programming project and bemoaned the lack of comments pointing out why Mr X from several years ago decided doing something in a strange roundabout way will understand), it's a nice place to work and everyone is friendly.

It is a little bit weird working at the union which formed a large part of my life as a student at UoB, but I think my insight into how things were done in the past is a great help - I know what not to do and what has worked well in the past, from a student's point of view!

It's also great to see the (ahem) outdated 60s carpark building transform into a modern space that less engaged students will actually want to make use of. The renovations are scheduled to be completed in early 2015, but there are brand new rooms already refurbished and open to students. COGS Bristol will be holding their first overnight LAN there today, and while I'm feeling wayyyy too grim to make it through the night, I am hoping to pop in to get some photos of the event.

Right, I think that's about it for now, so I'll go back to dying in bed for another couple of hours. That seems to be an ongoing theme with this blog. Hopefully I'll update again soon when I'm NOT ill!

What is Computer Science?

Hello everybody!

I've been hard at work on my project, which I am very close to making public - just waiting on the last couple of interviews to be done before I release the site for testing.

I really wanted to share some of what I've done with you all, so I've put a video up on Youtube. To give you a little bit more context, my final project is about the new Computing curriculum in English schools and the outreach that is being done to get kids interested in Computer Science.

I wanted to keep the feature quite general, so it would be the kind of piece that could slot in to the features section of a national news website, rather than being specifically tailored to a technical audience. In order to achieve this, I had to explain what CS is. Throughout my undergrad degree, I often had people asking me what I even learnt...so who better to explain than crytographer extraordinaire, Nigel Smart?

Nigel is a Professor at the University of Bristol, doing research into cryptography as a means of securing systems. Here's his take on CS:




One of the important things with a large multimedia feature is to have a variety of page elements - I didn't want it all to be text, but I also didn't want every section to have the same format. I thought I'd experiment and try making an audio slideshow - a great way of showcasing some photos and getting Nigel's point across without making people read swathes of text.

If you're interested in checking out some more audio slideshows, I would recommend the Guardian's poetic piece about Van Gogh. My tutor suggested looking at Ciara Leeming's work, which is simply beautiful, definitely worth viewing!