In this special episode, recorded from a live Twitter spaces event, we celebrate the 5 year anniversary of Hello World. We reflect on its success as a magazine and growth into a supportive community of computing educators sharing their experience and learning. Over the last 5 years the team have published 18 issues as well as our special issue, The Big Book of Computing Pedagogy, that's a whopping 1800 pages of content.
Full show notes:
https://helloworld.raspberrypi.org/articles/celebrating-5-years-of-hello-world
In this special episode, recorded from a live Twitter spaces event, we celebrate the 5 year anniversary of Hello World. We reflect on its success as a magazine and growth into a supportive community of computing educators sharing their experience and learning. Over the last 5 years the team have published 18 issues as well as our special issue, The Big Book of Computing Pedagogy, that's a whopping 1800 pages of content.
Full show notes:
https://helloworld.raspberrypi.org/articles/celebrating-5-years-of-hello-world
I'd like to welcome everyone properly and celebrate. Five years of Hello World.
Alan O'Donohue:Yay, 5 years!
James Robinson:Thank you, Alan for the fanfare. I'm really excited to be to be sharing and celebrating this with everyone. Let's get started. Okay, cool. So I'm James Robinson I work for the Raspberry Pi Foundation as a senior learning manager and work quite closely on the Hello World product and the work that we do supporting our community around the world. So I'm going to introduce some guests in a moment, but I'm just going to start off by for those that aren't familiar. Just introducing what Hello World is and why it's so important to us that the Raspberry Pi Foundation and our mission. So hello world for us is a community that provides support for computing, and digital making educators all over the world, and we want to help you find inspiration to share experiences and to learn from each other. So we want to connect other Educators but also connect with them ourselves who are working either inside or outside the classroom. And this work that we began started five years ago couple of months ago in this(school) term five years ago when we launched Hello World magazine and tell us a bit more about. Hello World magazine. I'm going to introduce my fantastic co-host Gemma who is also... In known fact, I'll let you introduce yourself Gemma rather than spoiling all of that. Off you go Gemma.
Gemma Coleman:Thank you, James, yeah no spoilers. So, yes hi everyone whos here this evening, I'm Gemma I'm the editor of Hello World magazine, and yeah, I'm thrilled to be celebrating Hello World's fifth birthday. Yes I only I started as the editor about a year ago, but I have been reading Hello World for a very long time. So when the Raspberry Pi Foundation launched Hello world the strap line "The magazine by Computing, Educators for computing, Educators" was chosen, and that is still very much the ethos of Hello World today. So yes, I'm sure all of you here know, the magazine comes out a few times a year and it's stuffed full of Articles and lesson plans, research pieces news stories about the teaching and learning of computer science. And it's all written by amazing educators like, like you guys like our listeners, so just a quick quick point so I don't forget later on the issues that we've got coming out this year. We've got a wonderful issue on cyber-security coming out next month, which will really excited to share with you because it's such a popular theme and we've got two more issues after that for 2022. So one's going to be themed around computing and sustainability. And the other one will be about all things networking. So do get in touch at helloworld.cc/writeforus if you'd like to get involved. Yes, Beyond the magazine Hello World has more importantly as James has said developed into a support system and a community of over 30,000 subscribers in 176 countries, which is a ridiculous statistic. And yes, we've grown up a lot over these last five years to include more, fantastic resources, which I'm going to let James introduce very briefly now before we open up to talking to our listeners.
James Robinson:Yeah, we've got some fantastic guests and bit, but I'll properly introduced Alan in just a moment and we've also got Catherine Elliott joining us today to talk a bit about their experience of writing for Hello World. But as Gemma was saying, we've moved beyond just a magazine which is still, you know, the core part of what we do through Hello World, but we've also expanded what we do. In terms of we have, we regularly kind of re-feature, lots of our content through the blog. We've, last year, launched a podcast which is proven really popular around the world. Similarly, to the, to the magazine. And most recently, you may have seen, if you haven't, where have you been our Big Book of Computing Pedagogy, which I'm holding up to my camera at my computer, but none of you can see that. So, I don't know what I'm doing, but it's never far from my side. This is a compilation of our kind of greatest hits, our thinking around pedagogy and practice for computing and computer science. So yeah, we're going to continue to expand that content and do more and before we kind of delve too much into the conversations with our guests, I just want to spend a really brief moment thanking a lot of people for all the the work that's brought us to where we are. And that really kind of is the contributors out there who are writing content such as Alan and Catherine and Neil who was already spoken this evening, but also, our people help us sponsor and pay for the magazine. We publish this magazine for free for educators, obviously that costs us money and we've been lucky to have lots of support from people like BT who a number of issues in the early days and more recently Oracle who have supported four issues in recent times and have been really fantastic advocates of the work that we're doing. And finally, really importantly, most importantly, are you our readers and subscribers to the magazine. We really want to thank you and praise you for your support and continuing interest in the work that we're doing. So, if you're just joining us, we've been talking. Now, for about five minutes. We're just introducing tonight. Session and now is a really an opportunity to throw their microphone over to you. And I'm really hoping that we've got people that are feeling brave enough and enthusiastic enough to tell us a little bit about their experience of Hello World. So I'm going to open the floor with a question, which is, I'm really interested in which parts of that hello World offer that we've talked about, have our listeners used. Have you read the magazine? Have you subscribed to the podcast? Do you have, do you have a copy of the big book of pedagogy?
Ben Garside:When I, before I started working for the World and I think the things that I really just kind of like grip me about the magazine was two things. I really enjoyed reading the just people testing things out in the classroom and seeing what kind of things they were doing and talking about what works for them. And that's kind of a nice to inspire me to have a go at doing it as well. But also the kind of like, the little articles about pedagogy and there's the same kind of principle of things, easy things. You can just pick up and use in the classroom, you know, even the next day and see how it works out for you, but those things to know that they're backed up by research, was always really comforting for me. So it was less of a stab in the dark to have a go at things. It was it was based on like research, so that's nice and obviously that feeds into the big book of pedagogy, which is full of that kind of thing. So, yeah, that was that's what first got me into the magazine.
James Robinson:Thanks Ben. That's really good to hear your people that maybe trying to kind of request microphone access.
Gemma Coleman:I was going to just pick up on what then The I think that's the thing that seems to resonate with readers so much is you know, hearing from other people's practice and what they've tried out in their, you know, tried and their classroom tried and tested. And that doesn't mean that something was necessarily a success. It's also really interesting to read articles about when, you know, something just went, you know, went wrong and what you learn from it, you know, and I think it's that aspect of community that's so wonderful about Hello World, you know, we all know that compared to more traditional, I'm sort of doing air quotation marks here, subjects like English and Maths, you know, finding resources and fellow Computing teachers can be so tricky. I spent time talking to teachers around the world where there was actually one case where one teacher, I spoke to was the only computer science teacher for for a particular exam board in their entire country, which is obviously quite extreme. But, you know, we know that Computing is a much smaller and less well resource subject from the whole. So, being able to read, Hello World and hear about what people are trying out is so valuable for a subject like Computing, particularly.
Alice Kupara:Hi everyone. I was just going to share, say, feature in my classroom. Where everything is becoming digital to have something that is printed and of good quality is good. How I use the magazine is just trying to keep up with what everyone else is doing and I quite like the example lessons. They just really like brief Snippets and just looking at them can give you some ideas of how to just re-jig your scheme of work and find interesting and new ways of teaching topics. That's my contribution for now.
James Robinson:That's that's really great to hear Alice. Thank you for for finding that button and sharing your reflection with us. I was going to build a little bit on what Gemma was saying, I think what? That's one of the experiences of computing teachers that can be can feel quite isolating sometimes and I don't know if that's something that other people that are joining us kind of perhaps experience or can relate to but maybe a little emoticon or a wave would kind of give us a sense of who else may be. I feel that sometimes in the classroom that you can feel quite separated from other Educators that are working in the same field. And so I think one of the things that Hello World does and we try to do well, is is provide sort of just contact, even if it's sort of like vicariously, you know, you're speaking to people directly, but the idea that there are other people out there doing the same thing, having the same challenges and and who are excited about the subject, as much as you are. Neil. I could see you kind of trying to speak, I think.
Neil Rickus:Yeah, I was trying really hard. Yeah, as someone said the accessibility I think on the research side to see something that is often quite complex put onto two sides of A4 often with a nice diagram or a graph means that you can understand it more easily. But also then implement it practically in the classroom. I remember one that still quite often refer to I remember Jane Waite, had a really nice graph and looked at the motivation of boys and girls based on different approaches to teaching programming and it very clearly, showed why you don't use certain approaches in the classroom. And actually, what's better and the inclusion of those kind of articles is really useful.
James Robinson:Thanks Neil. That's a really a really nice I think you're specifically referring to maybe some content there in the big book as well aren't you I think. That's where when we do the some of those summaries. I can see, lots of people are kind of joining us and dipping in and out. I think just to kind of recap where we're up to. I'm going to move over, and we're going to introduce our first guest in just a moment, but welcome, if you're just joining us. I can see a few people joining us from other parts of the world. I can see Amanda is joining us from the states. Yeah. So we've just been hearing a little bit about people's experiences. Thanks, Amanda of Hello World and how they use it in their classroom. And and now I'm going to move on. I'm going to introduce our first guest. Who I've known for a very long time, He was it was there at the start when we kicked off Hello World, And we launched it. You might remember being in the, the BETT Arena here in the UK Alan and we made a big fuss about Hello World and launched it all those years ago, and you've been writing for, Hello World for a long time. So, Alan, do you want to just spend a moment introducing yourself? And I've got a few questions that I really like to put to you and equally if anyone in the audience wants to ask Alan a question. Again. You can request the microphone and you can put a question to Alan. So, Alan, who are you? Tell us, tell our audience?
Alan O'Donohue:Well, I still class myself as a teacher, teacher, and then started teaching Computing in 2007. It was lonely, like you said. And the thing is, when you're doing it on your own it's like, am I doing the right thing? I really, really wish I'd had something like hello world back in the beginning. I am a huge fan of the magazine and I remember, I didn't know it was being launched in 2017. January. I just found out Miles said, "oh, by the way, we were launching this magazine today. Can you come along?" I was like"what?" And it's absolutely fantastic I really, really love the magazine. And I think what I'm trying to do is trying to imagine if back in 2007, I'd had a magazine, what would it have looked like? And Hello World is exactly what I think I could have done with back then then.
James Robinson:I was gonna say I'm glad that we were able to imagination of a magazine that. Yeah, I think that's really great and you've written for the magazine for, for a quite a quite some time now. What is the the column that you write? What's the motivation behind your column? Tell us, tell people who maybe haven't read the magazine a bit about the column that you write for us. Well, I used to say to people, it was a joke that I was the, I felt like I was the only Computing teacher in the village because there's a line from a comedy thing on TV at the time and it is, you know I'd have colleagues in school who were in the science department they'll be six or seven of them. They could all like bounce ideas off each other and here I was on my own. So the article the column or whatever you call it, appears in the magazine. It's like it, it's an insider's guide. It's a, you know, "have you ever struggled with a particular problem?" this article should help you. So it's things, it's not the things you would necessarily learn on the University course or as part of your teaching practice. So could be like, what are we gonna do for open night? Oh gosh, open night. Oh, no, we know that teachers are among the busiest people that there are and we want to do cool and inspired an amazing things. But when we've got a huge workload behind this and we've got all these things that we have to do. And then someone says "do something really cool". That's really hard. So, these articles I've been a bit cheeky. I've got ground and asked, I have lots of friends who are teachers, "what do you do for open night? And what do you do?" And I've basically, I've put them all together in each of these guides. So not just open nith, classroom displays love them or hate them, there's a hello world article, all about classroom displays. Setting, homework, little secret, I never did any homework as a child, honestly I never ever did. But as a teacher, I had to set homework, how can you set homework that's meaningful and interesting? Well, there's a guide on the.
Gemma Coleman:Yeah, but I was just going to say my because with your wonderful articles Alan and my favorite one that had the pleasure of attitude was, was the last one you did for around planning for Teacher absences, because I think is something that as you say, It's not something you necessarily learn about, you know, the best ways to handle something like that. Because it's a, you know, it's almost a worst-case scenario. And I think you always do a very, very good job of making your, your article is their as practical as possible, and like you say, you've drawn on so many case studies from, you know, fellow computing teachers. And I think that's what makes it so useful, because you're getting tips from the best of the best, aren't you? That's what I take away from your column anyway.
Alan O'Donohue:Well, thank you. I mean, that article it Sunday night. I got a phone call from the head teacher at school. Say, listen, Alan, terrible news. Your colleague has died and it all just came as a complete shock and like you're dealing with all of that. And then "what work are we going to set for his classes? Oh my gosh". And suddenly I'm trying to, you know, I would not wish that that kind of situation on anybody but having been there we know what worked. And here's some advice on that. Don't be under any illusions. there's a lot of research that's been taken, you know, a lot of people involved in, you know, sound, pedagogical research about what works and what doesn't work. These are more of the, somebody asks, you to do this job in school, like, put a classroom display and it does it says like well, it's actually no research that says classroom displays have any effect. So here go away to your colleague and show them this or if you just want to have some fun. Here's something, here's some solutions you can use as well.
James Robinson:And it's a really important aspect that I in like, you know, a lot of the sort of teacher training guidance or other sort of content around that is like once you've lived the job of being a teacher, there are so many little things like that that to have an impact on on your day that are beyond teaching and learning but but you can kind of bring your understanding of computing to or, and I think that's really important. Um Gemma mentioned one of her favorite pieces. So, my question Alan is, which is, what is your favorite piece that you've written? Is my penultimate question to you I think.
Alan O'Donohue:I'm sorry James, I absolutely refuse to I've got here you, people want to see? I'm holding up 17 issues of Hello World and each one has got 100 pages in. Now, I haven't weighed it, it must be about three or four kilos and I would say that's about 1,700 pages of content for computing teachers. And okay, one or two of those pages are adverts. There's also in each of these magazines, there are 30 contributors and I can pick up any one of these magazines at any point and I can go. Do you know, "I'd even forgotten that article was in their 'Clock work coding', who's written this. Oh, yeah, you know, it's so there's loads of people there's friends out there. You can get loads of advice you can get loads of ideas and it is like watching a film from years ago it's worth going back to those older issues and seeing what's there.
James Robinson:That's, that's the yeah. I mean, it's really, Those, and obviously many people can't see you, Alan, but I'm watching Alen kind of do his own little home workout lifting these magazines up and down and they are they are are substantially weighty.
Alan O'Donohue:And but there's something else that was the mute me if need be. I I love using technology when it's appropriate of course. But it's very, very nice to have a paper copy of the magazine. And I know it's not necessarily a very popular thing to do, you know, trees have to be cut down from forests and all of this. But when you go on your technology and you go and download a digital version of the magazine, you probably going to find lots of other things are competing on your screen for your attention at the same time, but to be able to pick a magazine up or even print an article out and sit somewhere with a coffee. It's a great way of accessing CPD from your shelf.
Gemma Coleman:Alan you're going to make our international
Alan O'Donohue:They can print copies out. It's all Creative Commons as well.
Gemma Coleman:Yeah, that's the wonderful thing is obviously is a great opportunity to say if you go to helloworld.cc/buy you might be able to get it shipped to your country. If you are really itching for a print copy. So just a little plug there.
James Robinson:I can see, I can see that Carrie Anne on is there's definitely a kind of a gesture going on there. So I think I'm going to see if Carrie Anne wants to kind of chip in there Carrie Anne.
Carrie Anne:Yeah. Hi James. Hi everybody. Hope you can hear me, give a holla if you can. I just had a question for Alan.
James Robinson:Yeah,
Carrie Anne:And my question is when you see your magazine, when the magazine for you, lands on your doorstep. Like how does that make you feel? And Yeah, like what are the emotions? How does it make? you feel to see yourself in print and in the magazine that you enjoy so much?
Alan O'Donohue:Absolutely really proud delighted and in the asked some other authors, what did they feel and it's elation. It is so nice to see, you know, and to be able to go to colleagues and say, look, you know, that thing I mentioned and I asked you for some advice here it is it, in print. So yeah, I would absolutely encourage anybody to consider. There's a lot of this sort of imposter syndrome isn't there where people think oh, well, nobody would want to read what I've got to say or I'm not doing anything special in my classroom and people just don't really understand the value of what they're doing and and and you know how much other people want to read that.
James Robinson:And I think going back to what we were saying teachers often feel like just you putting pen to paper and sharing your experience even if what you're sharing you don't think is particularly revolutionary or world-changing just hearing somebody else's experience can be really really valuable and those you know, if you've taken inspiration from another teacher you can you can do the same thing for somebody else in the community by writing something. I can see that your Yolanda is on the call as well and she's waving her hand. So Yolanda do you want to chip in, is a question, a comment, what you want to add?
Yolanda Payne:So a couple of comments, a couple of Yes, I am absolutely jealous that Hello World does not come to my doorstep. So, that's number one. Unless you guys send it to me. Number two, Alan you are so correct on the paper copies. Like everything you're saying I'm like yes. yes, yes, but I didn't want to interrupt because I was too busy nodding my head in agreement, but it is, Computing can be super isolating especially here in the states. Where we you know, we still have states that are just starting their programmes. And so, you know, I'm going to be a big advocate that in the next five years. We figure out how to get Hello World printed over here. So you guys hear that here first, but just wanted to make those quick comments.
James Robinson:We really value those comments. Thank you Yolanda. We absolutely would love to be doing a bit more in terms of print over there and be able to give you give you that copy and print and it's nice to hear from someone who isn't in the UK and is sort of getting Hello World in, maybe a different context if we've got any other International guests or listeners with us on the call, feel free to, you know, tell us what it's like receiving. Hello World, you know, digitally in another part of the world where, and and hearing from from educators that are, you know, in different sort of contexts. I'm going to maybe we might move on, and move at our next guest in just a moment, but I'm going to ask you one final question Alan before we kind of have a pause for some audiences, more your audience engagement. What's something that you would love to write about that? You haven't written about yet?
Alan O'Donohue:Okay, so I think I have a list, a big list point, but it's all the things that teachers asked all the time. Like, oh my gosh, options evening. It's next week. How does that just suddenly landed on us? So options evening? Oh, there's I get to visit lots of teachers in their classrooms, furniture arrangements. Have everybody facing the front, have everybody facing away from you so you can see their screens, you know, how do you arrange your classroom. Open source, software, why do we need to buy all of this expensive software when there's a lot of Open Source software that's out there that's pretty good. Lots of people suggested always, you do an article about book clubs, teachers sharing books, students, preparing for a teacher interview. You're going for a job and they asked you to teach a lesson. I've got more.
James Robinson:Yeah. Well, so, is that the one that was I think I counted. No. No, I think that's it's great. I think these are all really valuable ideas. And I think it's those kind of contributions. One of the things we get asked quite a bit in the UK, and some of our other work is about preparing for Ofsted. Now, those who are outside of a UK context Ofsted of the, the the inspectorate of body that come in and sort of evaluate the quality of education inyour school, and it can fill teachers with dread and I'm sure there's equivalents all over the world. But yeah, lots of teachers are a bit more minded to that thinking about what that looks like. Now that we kind of get back more to sort of face-to-face education. So yeah that would be an interesting one as well. I'm going to pause and I'm just going to kind of spend a moment to see if there's anyone else in our audience who would like to pose a question to Alan. Is there anything you'd like to ask him? Do you have any topics that you would like to, for him to write about? Would it be okay to just mention something as well? So there's in the next issue of Hello World, the article that I've contributed to this time, It's all about how to make the most of it. And while I was asking teachers, you know, what should the article contain? I was surprised by how many were saying? Oh, I don't receive Hello World anymore and I used to, I used to get it and I think some people forgot or missed the fact that back in was it May or April last year? There was a request for people to re-subscribe and it's possible that some of tonight's listeners might be going. Oh, God that's why I don't get it anymore because they need to re-subscribe. Again.
Gemma Coleman:That's a really good point. Gemma, do you people can do? If they haven't been receiving the magazine and why they need to re-subscribe. Yeah. So this is mainly for, well this is for educators are based in the UK and who get a print subscription. We basically just wanted to make sure that the magazines were sending out were still going to the correct addresses and you know that the people are still teaching and still wanting the magazine. So, we did a little unsubscribe and then a re-subscribe, which was asking you guys to re-subscribe to the print copy, if you wanted that. So, if you're not currently getting the print magazine in the UK and you, and you do want that, if you had to helloworld.cc/subscribe you can then create an account and you can manage your subscription options there, to make sure that you're not missing out. Carrie Anne you've got your hand up?
Carrie Anne:I just wanted to add that by creating an You can keep your details up to date. So if you get your print copy sent to your school and you change schools and, you can always log back in and update those details. Or if you move house and we would really recommend that you do that. What we, you know, we print this magazine for free for UK teachers. It's free to you the teacher the end user but obviously it costs the Raspberry Pi Foundation a certain amount of money. So when we get copies sent back to us, that makes us very sad. we get really sad about the numbers that come back to us. So really, it's about giving the users, you guys who want the subscription, the opportunity to update that subscription and make sure we get it sent to you. So it's as useful to you as possible and again for Yolanda and other people around the world, you know, we are sorry that we are only able to print it here in the UK, but I think Alan has given some great suggestions around printing your PDF copy and that's, that's such a great suggestion.
Gemma Coleman:And I would say is a very, you know, little you are, if you contribute to the magazine, we will send you a copy of that issue that you appear in to say, a big, thank you to you. So little incentive if you're abroad. Yeah write for us and you'll get a copy of that issue. Okay James, Do you think we're ready to introduce Catherine now?
James Robinson:Yes, Absolutely. I was going to say, do you want to pick up the conversation now and introduce our second guest Catherine?
Gemma Coleman:Yes so, well I can see Catherine nobody else little bit now from Catherine Elliot. So welcome. Catherine, would you like to introduce yourself? Introduce what you do? And a little bit about the column that you write?
Catherine Elliott:Yes, good evening everybody. Hopefully the sound's all right. I'm Catherine Elliott, I work in Sheffield supporting schools with the use technology so mainly around the computing curriculum. And anybody who knows me knows that my passion is absolutely about inclusion and supporting learners with special educational needs and disabilities, to access Computing because everyone should have you know, that that opportunity and so the column that I write is called the inclusive classroom and I mean it's it's mainly centered around how we can support teachers to create a more inclusive environment in the classroom, which will include and engage all of those kind of learners with specific learning difficulties or sensory difficulties or disabilities, but actually, it becomes then a more inclusive classroom for for every type of learner.
Gemma Coleman:Yeah. It's a wonderful column and I think, I so shouldn't give too many spoilers, but I think what particularly enjoyed about the last column of yours that I was editing was how you talk about really playing to the strengths of those learners. So it's not just about, you know, how you can adapt your sort of learning to really help help support those it's also really about playing to their strengths and making it, you know, just making it a more varied kind of learning experience for everyone. I think that's what I've really enjoyed about, your.
Catherine Elliott:Absolutely and I think that's a really you know, is that we have such diverse learners in our classrooms and regardless of the barriers, they face, they all bring something to that classroom and they all have their own individual, strengths and interests and personality. And to be truly inclusive, you know, we, we need to get everyone involved and engaged and feel like they have that sense of belonging in that classroom and learn from from all of those strengths that are there. So, yeah, I think it's very easy to sometimes, think about that the barriers and the difficulties but actually, you know, there's there's many qualities to be taken as well.
Gemma Coleman:Yeah, absolutely. So, yes, you've obviously been writing the hello world. I think your first column was issue twleve, is that right?
Catherine Elliott:Yes.
Gemma Coleman:So what, what motivates you to write for very busy person so what is it that keeps you coming back each issue?
Catherine Elliott:It's a very good question because every time again. Okay. I'll have to come up with something to write about. But there's always something to write about, and anyone who knows me. I mean, I guess I could talk all day on on this because you know, it's so interesting and I'm so passionate about it and it's so incredibly important. And what I love about Hello World is it gives me an audience for my ramblings and hopefully people, you know, read it and get something out of it. And it's so wonderful to have that opportunity to talk to educators, not just in this country, but, you know, all around the world and, and that's fantastic. So everybody, you know, everybody should be developing inclusivity in their classroom. So, yeah, thanks for letting me have a mouthpiece.
Gemma Coleman:Well, yes, and I definitely think, you know, column and taking away really practical advice. It's actually, you know, because we obviously have the, the podcast that goes with the magazine and the episode that was focusing on inclusion is one of the most popular episodes that we've that we've had, you know, one of those downloads. So if not the most definitely in the top t wo, you know, it's obviously something that people want to hear a lot more from. And and I think it's again that thing around, you know, being as Alan said, being the only computing teacher in the village, I guess. This is even you know, more of a kind of thing that could be quite isolating is not, perhaps not knowing you know, what you could do to make your computing classroom more accessible because it might be quite specialist in some, in some ways, in terms of technologies that you have to be using. Yes. I just want to say that I think, you know, inclusion is clearly a topic that is very, very important to our readers and listeners and perhaps yes some of those would like to chip in them and let us know their thoughts. So?
James Robinson:I did, but I was just going to chip in with to. It was a really good episode to record record, and as you say, it does really well, I think we would just reflect we've got we've got Cat and Amanda who around and have written for the magazine and might like to speak. I think that Alan suggested that Michelle, was it Alan, works in a kind of SEN, kind of provision school and might be able to might have some kind of perspective on, on the, on the work that Catherine produces through the magazine and would love to invite any of those people to speak.
Catherine Elliott:Every time, I speak to a lot of teachers in schools, and there's definitely there's a demand for content and resources and ideas because there's such a dearth of that and I think you know, it's a bit it's cliche. But every teacher is a teacher of SEND, you know, everywhere there are children with special needs and disabilities in every classroom and we should know how to teach these children, but sometimes that bit gets a bit lost along the way when we're training there's not enough time and certainly there doesn't seem to be as many resources out there as there could be so it's great to be able to put a bit more information out into the world.
Gemma Coleman:Yes, and for those listeners who might not What would you say is a if there's only one thing that they could take away this evening. What is a simple action that teachers could take into their classroom tomorrow to improve inclusion in their setting? That might be a very difficult question.
Catherine Elliott:It is an incredibly difficult question, but cheating slightly. So in my, in my first, in issue 12, I talked about inclusive design and there's a lovely quote from somebody called Susan Goltsman who talks about inclusive design doesn't mean you're designing one thing for all people, you're designing a diversity of ways to participate so that everyone has a sense of belonging and I love that quote because it's about saying, you know, we're not just going to have, you know, child in the corner doing a worksheet over here because they can't access this it's saying everyone needs to be involved, but we need to provide different ways for them to access it. And I write again in issue 18 and the other people have written about Universal Design for Learning, which is gaining traction, started out in the in the states, and that basically talks about multiple means of Engagement, Representation Action and Expression. So how we present the material, how children engage with it and things that they do, the more ways they can do that and the variety of that means that your classroom will become more accessible. So a child who struggles to write and express themselves in the written language can create an animation or they can record themselves and that becomes more accessible. So actually I think if teachers, think about that then within that there's so many other things around scaffolding and everything else. But yeah, they had so many different ideas and ways of doing it.
Gemma Coleman:Yeah. And well, I think that's a, you know, take away today and I believe there's a article on the Universal Design for Learning framework in our big book of computing pedagogy. So if listeners have got that or want to download it off the website and that's a really great introduction, very accessible piece. So I think we had some audience requests to speak.
Cat Lamin:Yeah. Sorry. It's been I can't believe it's published. Yeah. I've written a few articles and it's been quite a broad range and one thing I find interesting is, you never know what's going to make an interesting article.
Gemma Coleman:Yes.
Cat Lamin:So like one I wrote early on, you know, I lesson and that was interesting and that was what you'd expect to write. And then I wrote one about languages and EAL and learning Python and actually most recent one, I've written was about mental health. So it's sort of such a broad range of different topics that we talk about.
Gemma Coleman:And I think that thing is it, you know, different people. And, you know, we've got such a range of people reading the magazine, you know, brand new teachers, very experienced teachers, researchers. Those are teaching, you know, computing amongst other subjects. So I think that's the wonderful thing about Hello World having that variety and I loved your piece on building a global educator family in issue 17 that was a wonderful piece really focusing on, you know, making a that was all about, you know community, wasn't it very much in the ethos of Hello World and sharing that space not necessarily to even talk about teaching. But to just share in the stresses of the, the times of last year during the pandemic.
Cat Lamin:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I consider myself very communities. So, you know, when I did Pi cademy however many years ago it was and first met Carrie Anne on and everyone at Raspberry Pi it sort of introduced me to this idea of educator communities and and, you know, I have her to blame for everything that's happened since. Those who don't know me, I am a former primary school teacher. So I used to teach Primary School in the UK and now I support schools around the world with computing, and it's been sort of quite a journey that's come from this community that, I guess Hello World is a big part of.
Carrie Anne:And Cat blames me for a lot of things, but because of people like Cat. I think she's plays this down, but she is such an important voice and just brings so much to the community. So thank you Cat for for contributing and the range of articles that you have to Hello World and not just the articles. Also joining us on the podcast and joining us for this session. It is just so valuable hearing from so many people.
Cat Lamin:Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm going to have to dash off unfortunately I've sort of not stopped yet. So I need to decompress before bed.
James Robinson:No, well, thank you for thank you for carving you. Alan you, I think you want you've got your hand up and wanted to chip in.
Alan O'Donohue:I still think a lot of people have great how long will it take? And nobody will...." And I would really encourage people to consider a partnership with another educator professional or or two. Certainly. That's really, really helped me. When I've written the articles, you know, if I said, Catherine, Neena, Gemma, James, I'm gonna write this article. What would you put in the article? It really does help you quite a lot to do that. So if you're if you've wondered about contributing, but you're not quite brave enough, maybe have that conversation. Particularly, if you're in a school where there's a there's a high drive on professional development and you've set one or two performance management appraisal objectives. What you might do is you might partner up with somebody and write something just think how good you're going to feel when that comes through your letterbox in print or if you're some, you know, printing it home.
James Robinson:Catherine, do you want to add something
Catherine Elliott:Yeah. I was just going to agree. I think that it's, you know, it's really intimidating, writing articles I mean every deadline. I think, "oh, this is definitely not good enough. I can't do this because all these people reading it" but actually we all have something to say and something to contribute and and I know some of the richest ones I've written, probably are the ones where I brought in some experience of what I've done when I was teaching or when I've worked with young people or I've spoken to some teachers about things and getting that kind of just teacher voices of the, the diversity of all the people out there who are teaching, you know, Computing. And which is what I love about. Hello World is for me, you know, I know a lot about what's going on in England, but I don't know, great deal was going in Ireland, Scotland, and across the water. And, you know, and I think that's fabulous to hear all those different perspectives. So yeah, pick up, pick up a well not a pen, a keyboard, right and write something.
Gemma Coleman:Please, don't send drafts hand written drafts Yes, and I think that's um, you know, you say, get this kind of feeling towards deadline, Oh God want am I going to write! Or you know, why have I don't know if I've got something good enough to say? I think, you know, everyone has a different experience and other people want to hear about that. Other people want to hear about your ideas that you do everyday and your lessons and don't think anything off. It's going to be a big help to somebody out there. And I think the thing to remind, everyone is so many people contact me with article ideas and they say, oh, but you know, I'm not a writer, I'm a teacher, I'm not a writer, and, yes, you are, right. If you're if you're a teacher you're writing all the time, you're writing your writing end of term reports you're writing lesson plans. That's all you've got to be able to do to write a Hello World. You know, it's, we're not expecting War and Peace, definitely don't want something that length to edit down, you know, it's all it's all about sharing your experience and we're here to help with the, you know, awful stuff that you can you can ignore and I can deal with. So, you know, if you've got an idea please as Alan said, if you want to pair up with somebody, if that makes it a little bit less scary for your first first time writing. Yeah, I would really consider that and we've got wonderful insiders guide from Alan coming next month all about making the most of Hello World, you know, one of those things is writing for the magazine. But of course you can make the most out of Hello World in lots of other ways. I think one of the most interesting things I've seen is how they're sort of reading groups that seem to be popping up. I've seen quite a few in the CAS communities. Lots of people reading, particularly the Big Book of Computing pedagogy, you know, discussing discussing different sort sections of it. I absolutely love that idea, I don't know if any other if any listeners are part of those kind of groups, but I think that's a fantastic idea. It's a great way to be making the most of.
James Robinson:Gemma um I'm curious because we've talked a we've given anybody or not certainly in a little while. How do they contribute? Where do they go to kind of pitch an idea? How do they get an idea to you in the first place? And what does that entail? Yes, so we have a form that you fill in at helloworld.cc/writeforus. And that's also in the back of the magazine. if you haven't got pen of note that down at the moment and you basically just fill in the form with your idea. So you don't have to write anything and send off a draft to me. I'd actually prefer it if you just send me the idea that you've got and then I kind of get in contact and we just have a quick chat over email about your idea and I'm I'll give some ideas about how you can structure that so, you know always there for support and then yeah, you'll then send me your first draft and we'll have a little bit of back and forth with me doing some edits and some suggestions and then very shortly. You'll get a proof that you can have a look at a little sneak preview before it makes its way into the magazine. And, you know, the deadlines are there to sort of work around you. So if you have an idea in January, but you're not ready to, you know, to write something until November. That's, that's, absolutely fine, you know. We know that teachers are busy people. So also don't be put off by that. Just kind of get in touch with me. Yeah, helloworld.cc/writeforus for us if you're interested and we always want first time contributors. Yes Alan's, just put them a little message in a, you know, a group chat that we've got saying. If you want another five years of hello world, we need you. And that is so true. And you guys are the magazine it wouldn't work without you guys we need as many people from different teaching, communities, different places in the world to make, Hello World as exciting and varied as possible. So yes, do get writing for us. I was, as we started this chat Gemma. I was thinking are we going to be able to fill an hour and I've just looked at the clock and and it didn't, we've got like four minutes of what we have planned to say left. So I think..
Carrie Anne:We should do it again, sometime then
James Robinson:Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And it would be really nice to hear from our audience, people that have listened as to whether you valued this. Whether this is something you would like us to repeat whether this format and forum kind of works for you. So please again. Like if it's something you enjoyed let us know either now or follow up with a tweet or something else later on. And I think we wanted to end with just a little bit of a time for any further, kind of comments, questions. Just a time for you to ask us or tell us anything. I can see that we've added Amanda to our speaker roster. So I wasn't sure if Amanda wanted to have the floor for a moment and chip in with any comments, questions, reflections or words of wisdom. No pressure. Amanda.
Amanda Haughs:Sure. I don't know about words of wisdom but probably just going to echo other people and say I can't believe it's been 5 years already. It feels like just yesterday the first issue came out, I've really appreciated Hello World magazine because like other people have said already teaching computer science especially feels like in the states can be kind of isolating right now. There's there isn't a huge community, there aren't a lot of CS, teachers in districts. At my site, I'm the only one right now and the class just started this year. So, especially this year now, I find myself going back and downloading issues and referencing different articles and trying to make plans for this new class that we're putting together. And so it's been a really, really really great resource to have that magazine. So accessible and written by other educators who have done this and I love my all the articles are, you know, tried and true lessons and strategies and things that I can, you can implement right away.
James Robinson:Thank you, Amanda. And you've also written And, and er being in the States you've received a print copy as well, which is, which we mentioned earlier on as well. So, if those of you the States Yolanda, Amanda and others, if you, if you wrote an article for every issue you'd basically be getting a free subscription anyway, so I'm just gonna I'm just gonna flag that there. Yolanda, do you want to chip in there?
Yolanda Payne:So yes, I now know how to get a subscription. I'll write for every article so Gemma, that's going to be, you'll get some notes for me. But what I wanted to say really quickly and just an echo of everyone is that I think it is the authenticity and the practicality. And when you have those two elements teachers, and educators, they appreciate it. And so I think that has is the most is the most important aspect for me of being a part of the Hello World Community is, I know that it's authentic and there's going to be something practical that I can implement in my classroom, the next day, if I, so choose to.
James Robinson:Thank you.
Gemma Coleman:Very heart warming.
James Robinson:You stole the words there Gemma, yeah It's been an absolute pleasure this evening to hear from so many of our audience, our contributors. And so I think we're going to kind of start to wrap up now. And it's been just want to say a huge thank you to Gemma for helping me co-host for Alan and Catherine for joining us and taking time out of their evening to join us as guests this evening to all of you for listening. And especially those of you who have put your head above the parapet and shared and contributed towards tonight's conversation, and I'm also going to thank and invisible bit of support we've got here. So, Neena, who isn't sort of chipping into the... she's shaking her head because I'm putting her in the spotlight. She's our social media manager, who's done an excellent job kind of promoting and supporting this this Twitter spaces session. So yeah, thank you to everybody and if you want us to run, something like this again, please do get in touch and and like you just just keep giving us your feedback and we will keep writing the magazine with you. And for you.
Gemma Coleman:And this is now, where we all sing Happy
James Robinson:We didn't script that bit Gemma.
Gemma Coleman:Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much, everyone. It's been an absolute pleasure and seeing everybody pop throughout the night.
Alan O'Donohue:When might we see issue 18 appear for the...
Gemma Coleman:Issue 18 is published on the 14th of March. So not long to go now and yes it's all about cybersecurity. So there are so many fantastic articles coming up, which I'm really looking forward to sharing with you. So keep checking your emails. But yes, 14th March is when it's due to land.
James Robinson:I'm just going to plug the podcast was landed We had a great conversation with two fantastic contributors in India. Who did an amazing job printing masks and all sorts of PPE during the pandemic and sort of mobilised a whole Community. It's really fascinating, fantastic conversation. So if you haven't listened to that yet that's available on your podcast steam. I think that's a great place to end their Neena. So thank you so much. Once again, have a good evening, and that's goodbye from all of us.