Code Club, between terms

Well one term finished and a new one not too far off at Malvern Wells Primary school. Looking back it's amazing to think what the children have covered at Code Club since the beginning of the year and how well they picked everything up. Not all the children learn at the same speed, but with a few nudges in the right direction everyone gets there. The Autumn term was all Scratch, and what a fantastic place to start. We covered everything from a cat chasing a mouse to fish chomping and racing across a desert to a simple drawing package. The children took everything in their stride, like giant knowledge sponges.

For the spring term, we changed direction a bit, looking at HTML & CSS. Gone was the wonderful drag and drop interface, replaced with a keyboard and commands to type. Would this put the children off? Would it not be as fun any more? I needn't have worried, they picked everything up at the same break neck speed and were soon coding HTML tags and CSS styles without an issue.

First they created their own "Lost Cat" web page, that definitely weren't identical pages. Each child brought their own creative skills to the task, interpreting it in their own way. For some colours and styles were important, expanding on what they had learnt while others brought their own flare to the text, expanding on their story of the lost cat. A real moment of achievement came when they found out that the pages they had created would be uploaded to the Internet using TeePee.io for the world to see. For such a small task the ability to have a URL they could take home to show their parents what they had created was a real reward for the children.

After this we moved onto hiding Ninjas around a town using positional CSS. This time there was different units of measure to get to grips with and after a bit of trial and error the concepts were grasped. Some of the children repeatedly tweaked their Ninjas positions to make sure that the smallest piece of hand or foot couldn't be seen while others placed all theirs in the same place resulting in a squash of Shinobis behind a skip!

Finally they got to use their creative skills to build their own website on any subject they wanted. Some took a topic areas that they had already covered in class while others embedded YouTube videos that they wanted to share. It really showed what they had learnt in such a short time.

I'm now looking forward to the Summer term and teaching the children Python, but this required a bit more planning. For the first term the school already had Scratch installed and for the second term we used notepad and the Chrome browser, but Python was something different. Luckily the school has a technician on rota and I got my request in for Python to be installed early enough so that by the end of the Spring term we were ready to go. It'll be an exciting time getting the children to put together what they have learnt in the first two terms. From Scratch they will be able to take all the programming concepts, loops, conditions and logic flow and combine that with the art of typing syntax (and making sure its right) that they learnt with HTML & CSS. Maybe even for the final lesson I might let them have play with Python and Minecraft on my Raspberry Pi, but this will be a surprise, so keep it under your hat.

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Playing with Google Map Views

If you just want to get straight to the tour, follow the following link:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Great+Malvern/@52.110278,-2.330287,3a,90y,240.55h,90.68t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1s8VPHNkPUB-QAAAGuqllMng!2e0!3e11!4m2!3m1!1s0x4870f8ee8ec8d3fb:0xad5d1163a51c6fd


After reading about the launch of Google Map Views (http://maps.google.com/views) I thought that I would give it a go and add my own spherical panoramas to Google's Street View eco-system. There seemed to be plenty of people uploading single panoramas but I wanted to give their tour builder a try. Not wanting to start too big I chose Rose Bank Gardens in Malvern as a location to photograph. It's a small park in the centre of Malvern with a little network of paths and few entrance / exit points.

Now here is where I hit my first problem, Rose Bank Gardens wasn't mapped on Google Maps. Without this I would be dropping my panoramas into the middle of no-where. Luckily Google already had this covered with Map Maker (http://www.google.co.uk/mapmaker). It allows anyone to update Google's maps with new or corrected content. Unfortunately updates made to any of these systems aren't instantaneous and each application comes with its own learning curve. The major thing that slows down map updates is the fact that they are peer reviewed. Now in an area where there is lots of activity this might be quite a swift but here in the UK and more importantly the Malvern area it took a while. But after a few revisions I had completed the basic network of paths (I say basic because there are a few that at the time of writing I haven't yet created) and this then allowed me to move onto the next step, Google Map Views.

First I needed to shoot the panoramas. Luckily I had already shot a view by of Walenty Pytel's Buzzards sculpture so that was one down straight away. I picked a bright and sunny Sunday morning to visit Rose Bank Gardens, camera and tripod in hand. As I walked through the park I stopped at key points to shoot panoramas and by the end I had shot 23 new panoramic views. After a bit of processing at home I had 24 jpeg images ready to upload (I had to shrink my original images to meet Google's requirements). Now comes the convoluted bit, first I had to insert some metadata into my jpeg images to get Google to recognise them as panoramas. Luckily Google came to the rescue again providing a web application to do this (http://photo-sphere.appspot.com/).

Next I needed to upload my panoramas to somewhere. Now everything you do with Google is authorised through your Google account and this is no different. I had to upload my 24 panoramas to my Google Plus photo library from where I could finally add them to Google Map Views. Now all this might sound a bit long winded but some of it is being caused by the fact I shoot with my DSLR. Google's preferred route is to use an Android phone which would automatically do a lot of the steps for you.

With all 24 of my panoramas being shown on a map it was a process of placing each panorama in it's correct position, making sure north was pointing north and linking each panorama to each other. Now here is where the next delay came in, to make your panoramas visible to the public they have to be processed by Google. This time it's an automated system that looks at each panoramas to see if it is going to be accepted. Most of mine were accepted first time but a few were rejected due to my copyright notice being outside an acceptable area (not that I could find this area defined anywhere) and one which was rejected for an unknown reason that I had to take up with their support staff. Once they were all accepted the tour was visible for the world to see. To take a virtual wander around Rose Bank Gardens yourself you can follow the following link which will place you at the Belle Vue Terrace entrance:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Great+Malvern/@52.110278,-2.330287,3a,90y,240.55h,90.68t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1s8VPHNkPUB-QAAAGuqllMng!2e0!3e11!4m2!3m1!1s0x4870f8ee8ec8d3fb:0xad5d1163a51c6fd

So what have I learnt through this process? Well with everything being for free don't expect things to happen at the drop of a hat and expect to have to jump through other peoples hoops not ones created by yourself. As for my tour, it uses a method of navigation that people are becoming more and more familiar with all the time which hopefully means less people being stuck on the first view not knowing what to do next. The only warning I give is that if you navigate from one of my panoramic views to a Street View view then currently there's no way back! Outside my tour I've done my small bit to improve the mapping of Malvern by defining Rose Bank Gardens.

Finally what next? Well I want to complete the Rose Bank Gardens tour but I'm going to wait until a fallen stone wall has been fixed (you can see it from the Wells Road entrance). After that who knows, there are plenty of other places to create tours for in Malvern that the Street View Car can't get to, maybe Priory Park?

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10 years of panoramic imaging

Ten years of doing anything nowadays is an achievement and I can hardly believe it myself. I started created spherical panoramic images (that's the kind where you can look all the way round as well as up and down, just like Google Streetview) during the August bank holiday weekend 1999 but it wasn't until the beginning of 2004 that the World Wide Panorama project started. Up to this point there had been other panoramic photography events on the Internet but these were organised in a more ad-hoc style. This project brought a structure detailing 4 time periods each years (the solstices and equinoxes) and a clearly defined theme for each event.

During this time I have submitted 62 panoramas across a wide range of themes. From Bridges to Decade and Culture to Gardens. But the one thing I have tried to stick to is to stay local, to the extent that two thirds of my panoramas have been shot within 12 miles from home (and quite a few not too much over this either). Here in Malvern I am spoilt for choice for locations. There is everything from old and historic to new and modern and the Malvern hills form a fantastic divide between the more populated Worcestershire from rural Herefordshire.

Another thing that the event has provided me with is a fantastic snap shot of my last 10 years, with each panoramic image bringing back memories. Some I shot by myself, others with the family, but I remember them all. The winter solstice events always has a theme of best of the year which has allowed me to show views from further afield like the Eden Project at night, a small red phonebox being used as a gallery and the bomb bay of a Vulcan bomber.

The World Wide Panorama project is something I enjoy doing and I look forward to each theme being announced. Now I'm looking forward to the next event the Summer solstice on the theme of Work.

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Code Clubs 2nd Birthday Party

Just where have the 2 years gone. When the party was announced I knew I wanted to be there, but it was no simple hop across London for me. Trying to get there from Worcestershire means leaving early afternoon. Luckily I have relatives in Surrey so that gives me a place to stay overnight that isn't too far from London. So after a quick pit stop I was on a train London bound. An hour and a quarter later I was outside the Seven Dials Club, Earlham Street.

To chat with people I have met before and others I hadn't was great, such a wonderful melting pot of ideas. We all had experiences to share and some fantastic ideas were discussed. I know I chatted with loads of people but names have never been my strong point. It was also good to be reminded what Code Club had achieved in the last 12 months and see what they were planning for the next, it's definitely not going to be a year of standing still. With the new primary computing curriculum this autumn it's definitely going to be a very interesting time ahead.

But the evening wasn't all chat. There was some delicious large chocolate discs that contained popping candy sent over by Code Club Luxembourg, sandwiches, plenty of sweets, cupcakes and a free bar. Being projected on a screen there was a huge multi-ball game of pong written by a volunteer and controlled using a makey makey board and some playdough (I just love these boards, so many possibilities). Thanks go to Twilio who sponsored the event.

By the end of the evening I was darting back across London to get my train to Surrey, cupcake and sweets in hand, happy that I had been able to chat with so many people. A really enjoyable night.

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A Visit to Parliament!

All blogs have to start somewhere and mine starts here. Recently I was invited by Code Club to be part of a small group to visit Parliament, an honor in my eyes to be asked. On the 25th March I headed down to London and Portcullis house for a 2 hour drop in session where MPs could come along and find out more about Code Club and what the children are being taught in these after school clubs.

I arrived at my destination with plenty of time and was soon clear of the airport style security and armed police. The setting up of the room was frantic with laptops and flat panel TVs being unpacked and set-up. My job along with the other volunteers who were was to give the MPs a real hands on experience of the Scratch environment and the projects that we teach.

The whole event was being sponsored by Samsung and the shadow minister for employment, a Stephen Timms MP (someone who I wouldn't recognise, but more about that later). The order of things was that each MP would be greeted on arrival by representatives from Samsung and Code Code before being passed over to a volunteer. After we had finished being enthusiastic they would then be asked to nominate a local public venue where a Code Club could be run in their constituency. The reason for this was that Samsung were going to help set-up 5 clubs around the UK (from the suggestions provided) providing hardware and resources.

Well the 2 hours soon passed which during I spoke to at least 5 people at length. Each MP seemed interested in the subject and what we were trying to achieve and all providing me with a good level of questioning.

Out of these 2 MPs stuck in my mind. The first was a male MP who presented me with his business card on arrival. I gave him the full tour of Scratch and what we are doing and even challenged him to an game of desert race (of course I let him win) and he went away seeming happy with what he had learnt. Afterwards a Samsung representative asked me if I minded appearing press releases and I replied that I didn't (its good for my ego). It was only afterwards, when press releases appeared, that I realised that this was Stephen Timms MP!

The other MP was my local MP, Harriett Baldwin. All of the invited volunteers had their local MPs invited so that they could find out what was happening in their constituency. On top of this I had tweeted Harriett personally on the Sunday with a gentle reminder which she swiftly replied to confirming her attendance and the fact she was looking forward to finding out more.

On her arrival we recognised each other and I was soon showing her everything about Scratch, what we were teaching to the children and why what we were doing was so important for the children's futures. She could see the potential benefits and was interested in visiting my club and seeing the children at work herself. She hoped that her visit would help drum up some additional local interest too. After my time with her she moved on and nominated the Malvern Cube as a public venue that could run a Code Club in Malvern. It was real pleasure to meet Harriett.

So now I'm in discussion with Harrietts office arranging dates as to when she could visit. My school is on board too thinking it would be a great thing for the school. With Malvern containing such a hub of technology companies it would be great for more Malvern schools to have their own Code Clubs. This year holds some great possibilities for Malvern and Code Club.

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