Learning computer skills doesn’t always have to involve a computer - as these fun videos, launched as part of our CAS Inspire programme of events, reveal.

These videos use camouflaged learning where young people will learn everyday skills including music, sport, cooking, and gardening, while at the same time develop their IT and computational thinking skills.

These short videos are aimed at parents, providing activities for children to do at home that teach computing skills to young people without the need for a computer.

Videos have been made by the CAS team, with the help of young people, and are also a useful resource for teachers and can be used in lessons to explain the relationship between everyday activities and computing.

Ben, 12, said;  “I had fun making the gardening video and I hope it helps other children to see how we can think like a computer even outside in daily lives”

Beth, 8, helped to make a football themed video;
“Football is my life and my favourite thing ever,” she said. “I like coding too so mixing them up together was really fun.”

Each video will be accompanied with a downloadable help-sheet that has instructions, guidance, learning outcomes and jump-off points for parents and teachers to take young people’s computing skills further.

Tim Wilson, CAS Community Outreach Manager, has coordinated the programme, including making a video bringing music together with computing.

“This series has allowed us to marry the things we are passionate about with the wonderful world of computing, as well as have some fun. In my case making music is a huge part of my life outside of CAS, so to be able to do some simple exercises around drumming and to connect it to computing, is the best of both worlds.” 

Here's our first set of videos and worksheets:

This will be followed by another set of videos featuring geotagging and recycling on Wednesday 15 June. We’d love to hear about your ideas on how computing skills can be learnt in other settings. If you would like to contribute to this series, please do get in touch.

Spread the word - #casinspire20 #casathome.