 Ac yna'r gwybod, yn ymdweud yn cyd-ig o'r maen nhw'n garffod, ac mae'r ddechrau'n gwybod yw'r ddweud i ddweud fo'i gweithio'n gwybod y pethau, mae'n dweud o'r drafod, mae'r drafod ar ddweud o'r drafod, neu mae'n gweithio'n ddweud. Mae'n ddweud o'r drafod o'r drafod. Yn cyfaint, ddod. Felly, dwi ddweud o'r drafod yn ddweud o'r drafod ar ddweud o'r drafod ar ddweud, i gael ein bod ymlaen â'r ysgolion, ac mae'n gweithio'r cyfrwng yn ymdweithio a'r ysgolion yma yn 10 min. Yn y swydd yma, mae'n gweithio'r cyfrwng, jaeth gyda'r cyfrwng, ddim yn fawr. Ie, rydw i'r gwbl wedi'u, Steo. Mae'r gwbl yn gweithio'r gwbl yn gweithio, wedi'u gwbl yn gweithio, ac mae'n gweithio'n gweithio'r gweithio'r gwbl pan mae'r gweld ei bod yn amlwg o'r pwynt gydag. The official title is much longer than just knitting, it's about how can knitting develop programme skills in schools, programming skills in schools, and I work with many schools and many children, many teachers and some of them are fantastic programmers, they've had an experience in programming, some people have not really started at all and in some ways thinking about doing programming scares them a little bit. So, what's it like in schools at the moment? Well, there's a changing world of technology, new technologies come along all the time, the children are using new technology at home and they're using more and more different types of iPads and other tablets, but in schools we're struggling to keep up quite often with the technology changing. I'll give this as an example, in my car I still have a cassette deck and my son who is four, I had to explain to him how he couldn't just like go to another track easily, how he couldn't sort of flip for one thing to the other and he said well which way to put it round and so I've had to explain to him a whole new technology and some of you will know explaining records to other people quite often when you do that. So, the technology is changing rapidly, but then when we talk to the kids about what they know about computing, this is when I niped into Smiths and you can see in Smiths under the title computing is things like how to use your Mac, how to use your Blackberry, things like this. Okay, so iPad and iPhone, so let's think about this as to do with computing and PC leisure as well, so if you like some PC leisure. From MIT in America, this is a quote here that you want children to get used to digital technology, you want them to start a relationship early. And again you've seen children, again my own using iPads and things like this, where they have no fear they'll just click away and in they go. And you want them to also be able to use that technology to express themselves. So this is again how we're thinking about the title of Mitch's title there is Director of Lifelong Kindergarten Group. So we're trying to think of how can we develop this idea of this computational thinking and learning how to programme and things like this from an early age all the way through up to university or into their jobs as a goal. And recently we've had the Raspberry Pi which has caused a ripple of interest with different people. Quite often it's people who remember the BBC Micro when they were younger and think oh this will be great we can do programming with the kids. But again within schools there's some experts and some people are very keen on this and then there's other teachers who have got no experience at all of this. So again we're trying to think how can we develop this continuum of learning while programming all the way through. The next generation report from Nesta talks about how we need to develop our young children to become the next generation of video game developers and visual design artists and things like that. And how we need to start young, how we need to get them early and get them hooked. In school at the minute things like the B-butter use that's a floor robot which goes long using things like logo type programming so forward one, forward two, turn right 90, things like that are used in schools. And that also links to things like apps where again the children can play games. There's things like where they use programming software so this is an example of where they are programming a drinks machine. And things like logic involvement. So it's introducing this idea of things like logic that needs to be stepped first and next and it develops on like the last example in schools. But not many. Things like an example here of code clubs where people are trying to encourage schools to start up clubs to introduce the idea of programming. And they're using programs like Scratch. So again Scratch has come from MIT in America and is quite popular in primary schools but also into lower secondary schools. And it involves things like bits of jigsaw that you can put together in a basic type of logo program. So it involves things like loops, things like where you can put in a pause or a wait. The idea of key presses and this then means that kids can start to make their own games. You can use this to program games. And a lot of games we see are the type of retro games that practice up the space invaders and the Pac-Man life sort of thing. Okay. So using that there's a Scratch curriculum being put together. So things like it's not just introducing how to program but thinking about debugging. How do you fix the problems in there? So in there for example here is when you press a key it says turn right 94 times what's the problem with my game and getting the kids to solve those. You can also link the Scratch to connect the camera. Now the Xbox connect camera so you can have for example the children standing in front of the camera and moving around and then actually creating their own actions that come from that. So again it's sort of stepping into using technology in a very flexible way. And the last example we'll give you is apps for goods where the children enter a type of dragons den in secondary school and in secondary school they propose app they'd like to develop. They develop the app and then they present it back to local companies and businesses. So there's opportunities and pockets of stuff going on through schools. And finally the computing at school group, CAS, they've put together curriculum framework where it's trying to talk about why should we start in early years? Going all the way through to higher education. So there's people proposing things that how we can do that. So you say this what's this to do with knitting? Well this is my uncle Norman. Now my uncle Norman is a very interesting chap. He lived up in Aberdeen and he started working for the Inland Revenue and he went around all of the islands and he learned how to speak Gaelic. He learned all the different songs, he learned how to weave, he learned how to knit. And he's still now comes back and he sort of does shows and he does singing his good makes with Billy Connolly. But he talked to me about his jumper and his jumper had different patterns in there. And he says oh this was this pattern and this means this. This is the marriage one because it goes up and down, up and down all the time. And all these different examples in there. And it's linked back to Fisherman's Gansies. So again a bit like a football strip different fishing villages had a different pattern. So then the story goes that if for example a fisherman had gone overboard and they found the body they could work out where he'd come from. So now knitting's become more popular. So with the Olympics you can knit your own characters. So different characters from through the Olympic history. David Wilkie right up to Usain Bolt. And you see that book's available. It's called Knit Olympics. It even has knit your own ticket which could have solved a lot of problems during the early stages of the Olympic Games. But it's becoming more popular. There are some things for children first knitting. This magazine made me laugh in the shops. I took a photograph of it of so hip. But there's lots of magazines. So it is gaining popularity in terms of knitting in the public eye. Now in the northeast we've got a group which is a group of people who come together. They knit different things. They're trying to involve schools but at the moment it's still more adults knitting together. And again there's a number of groups you can join. You can join Stitch and Bitch if you like. Where there's groups there coming together. Even the crews unfortunately you've missed this year's crews to go and join together. And this is because the knitting inside is very social. People coming together talking while knitting. And I thought well that's really good for the kids if they could develop these types of social skills too. It's also appearing in popular culture. Things like different adverts. Where it's using knitting as an example. So we're seeing more and more examples in everyday life again. So in some ways it was an old skill which was starting to seem to be dwindling. But actually it's coming more back into popularity. And finally yarn bombing. It's a form of graffiti knitting. It happens overnight. People turn up and knit things and put them on things. So for example there's a telephone box in London which got hit one night not so long ago. So I tried to learn to knit. And I got pictures and I started trying out. I had the knitting needles and I started going looking at the pictures. And I couldn't really do it. Because I couldn't understand the pictures. They were just too hard for me and I thought well how's that work there? And I was a typical boy who was really sort of trying to do it. And I found it difficult. So I thought about what else I was doing in school. At the time and I still am doing lots of work with games in schools. And the children play the games and they're very resilient. They're trying, they're trying, they're trying, they're trying again. I thought well that's the resilience you need for knitting. It's not an easy thing to do where you might see a lot of craft things where you glue stuff together and it's made. Knitting takes time to learn, it takes perseverance and practice. So this is an example of a young lad who is 11-year-old in a special school. Well, I've got these blackboards and they boom up kind of. So what I'm going to do for my first shot is I'm going to try and aim for the duck so I can try and get a golden egg. But I'm just going to go for these pigs really. Okay, so he's explained his strategy. This is what he's going to try and do. His first bird. Now the second shot I'm going to try and go over here so I can get that and so it bums up. So he's explained his strategy, but actually in the execution of it it didn't work as he wanted it to. So he's nearly cleared it and if you don't know on your birds there's still a green pig at the bottom he has to explode. So what he does is he goes back and this video goes on for aiders because he tries and he tries and he tries again. And he doesn't get bored. He keeps going. He keeps trying and trying. It's not easy. It may not even be enjoyable, but he keeps doing it because he wants to succeed. And this sort of idea is the idea of flowing video games where it's challenging, but it's achievable. It's not too unobtainable. Whereas if it's far too difficult you get bored and you give up or if it's too easy you get bored too because it's not going to find it too easy. So getting that flow right. A lot of video games have the idea of how it is just challenging enough each time and you move on. And I thought well this is just like knitting. So I looked where can I get help and I thought well where do all the kids look on YouTube. So look on YouTube and actually there's hundreds and hundreds of videos about how to learn to knit on YouTube. Different companies which I guess helps them sell yarn as well is. They actually have individual videos on how to knit. So the right needle into the bottom of the loop on the left needle put the working yarn over from back to front. Lift the left loop over the right. Be sure. And the beauty is I can watch that. I can watch it again and again and again and not be annoying to somebody else. I can watch it in my own pace. I can watch it whenever I want. So that watching a video is useful. But I also thought well if the kids can be making their own videos to remind themselves how to do it then this is another good technological skill which they'll be developing. There's different apps they could use too there. And also what I came across which was a big breakthrough for me was the craft club. Now across the country the craft council is trying to set up people who can knit and do other skills into schools and schools who are looking for help to get help as well. And they're basically trying to encourage knitting in schools. So I thought well if I link up with them they'll help me meet other people who are knitting. They'll help me get to schools who are knitting. And we can try and see if there's a link between this and programming. So this is the audience participation time. Okay. Hopefully you got a piece of wool and we're going to follow this video of finger knitting. Okay so see how it is. As you're doing it thinking about is this where you're assessing as you're going along? Are you reflecting on it? Are you asking the person next to you? How did you do that? So we're going to have a go at this. You need one piece of wool each and away we go. You might be feeling either frustrated you might be feeling quite pleased with how it's going. At the minute you might just be thinking well I can't actually make out if I've done it right yet. And that's one of the things I've found with it as well. Actually when you're trying to knit when you've done quite a bit it starts to then form a shape you recognise but initially it just looks like a mess of loops and things in there. Okay. And that's the same. I thought well that's for like a programme. When I've tried a programme sometimes it used to be in the right mess but actually as time's gone on and it's developed I think well actually now it makes more sense. And I was talking just before with Ross from Google and he was talking about doing his bow tie and two different videos, two different angles to see how to do it. This is just one example there. So we shall move on because we're short of time. So talking with the children about knitting here's an example of a young girl I was working with and she was knitting and she got stuck and I said well I'll try and help you out here. So I tried to help her out and the lady who was working in school she was taught by her grandmother how to knit. She was the best way of knitting actually is to sit down and then my grandmother used to sort of sit behind me like this and knit like that. And I could see that from the first person's perspective. But I said I'm not going to go into schools and say can I borrow some children please and I'm going to sit behind them and knit you see. So I thought I wouldn't be allowed in again. But that's basically trying to think about from the person's perspective. And again that made me think more about programming too. So the hypothesis that came up with or the hypothesis that came up with was that firstly the social side of the thing the chatting that went on around it was pretty good. The turn taking things like that. The technology could be where we're actually capturing skills. My uncle Norman is quite old now. He's going to go the stories he's told me the things that are going to go. If we could capture those it would be a useful tool. The technology could help us to learn to knit. So watching the YouTube videos that type of videos which are professionally made ones the kids have made could be useful. And then about similarities between knitting and programming there's some in there and then also we could capture them young then that would help us as we went on. So trying to make the analogy really is things like the user experience. Michael Fish and his jumper. You think about it you don't knit for no purpose. You don't think I'm going to knit now just any shape for the sake of it. You knit with somebody in mind. People knit with a new baby. They knit because there's something or a person in mind. So you're thinking about the user. What's a user experience? So for Michael Fish it was to have a weather jumper. You're following a series of instructions. So for example like in programming you can see there's the instructions in a row. When you make a mistake you need to go back and solve it you need to debug it. What are the syntax? What words and special terms do we use within knitting and programming? Well in knitting there's things like knit, purl. You know I've ever mentioned knitting. People always knit one purl one. They know that as a language. So common syntax in there. Different variables are in there. So how many times do you need to do it? So for example you're going to cast on for 17 stitches. So depending on what size of piece or jump you want depends on how many times you cast on those different variables. You can do with those variables. So for example here in a pattern there is think for example knit increase one, knit to last two stitches increase knit seven stitches. So it's things to do with the different variables. Think about arrays. Well I suppose you could think about different patterns. This is actually a knitting pattern and can you see how the different squeals and things in there. So as Jonathan mentioned start different knitting patterns you can think of them as arrays in there storing that information. In terms of stitches you're getting an output I guess of the actual garment or whatever at the end. And things like libraries. What libraries do you use in there? Well you know how to do for example a knit stitch. You know how to do a purl. You know how to do a stocking stitch. You're putting them together. These sort of libraries of information which are used. And subroutines in there as well. So the idea of that there's a subroutine for like a heel of a part of clothing or whatever. And basically loops in general. You keep knitting until you get to the desired end and you start again and repeat it. So looking on crowdfine yesterday we have a comment here from Susanna. Unfortunately Susanna couldn't be here in a session but I'm going to meet up with her at lunchtime. She said the group might be interested in knit ML. And so I looked at knit ML and this is a language which is the idea it's like a programming language linking to patterns. So if you look at the sort of information there you can see there's cast on 24. You can see row knit to end, row purl to end. And it sort of makes sense. I'm knitting and the programming to me anyway. So next to infinity and beyond. Excuse the puns as ever. What next? Well what we're thinking about is the idea of this whole thing of computational thinking. How can you get a problem, break it down and solve it? And on the Google website there's some very good resources about computational thinking which have been useful to introduce it to the children. Back to our hypotheses. I've got to have these hypotheses. I think there's something in it. The more people I chat to they can say I can sort of see the links between it. The problem I have at the minute is actually finding people who are interested in knitting and people who are interested in programming. Because at the minute it seems to be quite disparate groups. But I think there is a link there and I think there's, as I work with the groups, with the craft club and also with the groups in the north-east of England, as we see the children trying to do the knitting we're going to try and see if we can make those links between the two more explicit, see if they can turn. I see the links and where it's going forwards. So thank you very much.