27.03.23
British Data Awards
We have reached the final of the ‘Educational Initiative’ and ‘Data for Good’ categories of the 2023 British Data Awards for our work creating British Sign Language gestures for Cyber Security, Computing Science and Data Science. The UK-wide team brought together eight deaf people who are also tech experts with…
27.03.23
Drawing with AI at Cramond Primary
Drawing with AI at Cramond Primary By Valentina Andries This month we ran a workshop with a primary 5 class (ages 9-10) in a state-funded school in Edinburgh. We worked with the class teacher and Informatics students from the University of Edinburgh (Gareth Dawson, Jatin Soni, Leo Kravtchin and Scott…
15.03.23
Speedy STEM
Over the past few months Kate Farrell and Jasmeen Kanwal from the Data Education in Schools team, as well as some of the 4th year Informatics students on a University of Edinburgh ‘Computing in the Classroom’ course, have been heading to Fife to help out with some ‘Speedy STEM’ events….
30.01.23
Children’s understanding of smart speakers
‘A really smart guy plugged himself into Alexa and now she’s smart too’ – children’s understanding of smart speakers. By Valentina Andries and Judy Robertson. Smart speakers – such as Alexa, Siri and Google Home – have entered our lives and are now comfortably installed on kitchen tables across the…
26.01.23
Micro:bits on the move
Funding from The Scottish Informatics & Computer Science Alliance (SICSA) has enabled the Data Education in Schools team to help students from the University of Edinburgh (School of Informatics) visit schools across Scotland for the purpose of running Micro:bit workshops with learners. 60 schools registered interest in ‘Micro:bits on the…
24.01.23
New resource: Plug in the numbers
Digital Skills Education have released a new video walk through of ‘Plug in the Numbers’ to support teachers with limited experience of the Live Lesson format. Plug in the Numbers is an interactive activity that uses data science skills to estimate the amount of electricity that could be generated by…
16.11.22
4 Day Data Science Course (Secondary)
Moray House School of Education and Sport is offering a free course on data science in the Secondary classroom. Data science is the ability to ask questions, collect, analyse, interpret, communicate about data. As technology makes it easier to collect vast amounts of data, the skills to use data to…
11.10.22
Put Your Data Skills to Work
Digital Skills Education have developed a poster showcasing a range of careers utilising data skills. From engineering to entertainment there are opportunities to use data within many workplaces. The poster is free to download and display. We hope the poster will help inspire learners to think about the possibilities for working…
03.10.22
Data skills live lessons reach over 20,000 leaners
We’re thrilled that our data skills live lessons have now reached over 20,000 learners. Our engagement counters tipped over 20,000 as a result of the 2022 Maths Week Scotland ‘Data Selfie’ event held on 27th September 2022. To date, we have developed three live lesson activities in partnership with Skills…
20.09.22
Welcome Dr Jasmeen Kanwal!
Data Education in Schools welcomes Dr Jasmeen Kanwal to the team as our new Project Officer. Over the next two years, I will be working with Kate Farrell (Director of Curriculum Development and Professional Learning) to develop and promote teaching resources and professional learning opportunities for teachers, as well as…
05.09.22
Book Review: The Alignment Problem
Through an impressive mastery of cutting-edge papers in AI, a deep understanding of the history of cognitive science, and four hundred interviews with leading scientists, Brian Christian presents an in-depth account of AI and how we can engineer it to align with human values. I studied AI at university, and…
01.09.22
The class that kept falling asleep
Or… How data skills can keep you awake! Jo Spiller, Judy Robertson and Tommy Lawson presented on the themes of teaching data skills, data ethics and artificial intelligence as part of the University of Edinburgh Learning and Teaching Conference 2022 held in June. Their presentation is now available via the…