Reprinted from the PEG page, a programming education project promoted by CANVAS.

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[On Wednesday, June 10, we held a training session for teachers at the Saitama Prefectural Comprehensive Education Center.]

The Saitama Prefectural Education Comprehensive Center conducts training sessions and classroom research activities for teachers in Saitama Prefecture.
For this training program, the same group of teachers will participate in a total of two sessions—one in June and one in October—to provide more ongoing support for developing lessons using tools such as Raspberry Pi and Scratch.Eight teachers participated in
this session, including those teaching information technology at junior and senior high schools, business studies, and information technology at special education schools.

We welcomed Mr. Abe as our instructor. The session began with assembling a Raspberry Pi and included hands-on activities such as creating a “Cat Escape” game in Scratch, controlling LEDs in sync with movements in Scratch and the “L-Chika” project, and making cardboard switches. We also held a lecture covering topics ranging from the history of computers to the current state of information education.In small groups,
the teachers shared the challenges and questions they typically face—using Post-it notes and other tools—and then discussed these issues as a whole group. Finally, agreeing that they should first try creating their own projects before teaching the students, the teachers concluded the session by filling out worksheets detailing what they personally wanted to try doing with the Raspberry Pi.

From now until the next training session in October, teachers will begin working on projects they’d like to create—such as a baseball game and a whack-a-mole game using LEDs, and decorating trees with LED lights controlled by a Raspberry Pi.
In addition, to support these activities, the Saitama Prefectural Education Comprehensive Center has launched an information-sharing website. This platform is designed to address the various questions and challenges that arise during the creation process and to establish a system for sharing and accumulating this knowledge as a collective resource.

We’ll also be keeping an eye on the future initiatives of the Saitama Prefecture Comprehensive Education Center!