December 20, 2016

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It’s sometimes a hard slog convincing people that games have a role to play in education. What do you think is the most telling piece of evidence that shows they do belong in the classroom?The feedback from Digital Schoolhouse workshops shows how engaged children are by the play-based learning model of using games in the classroom. Children instinctively learn through play, and by harnessing the enthusiasm that children have for fun and engaging activities for educational purposes, we’ve had real success in teaching the new computing curriculum. We know that 99% of children across the UK play games; we know they learn best when engaging with activities they enjoy. Bringing these two together creates the perfect learning model.

Nesta has reported that 53% of 8- to 18-year-olds make their own games already and 33% would like to be creating games. Digital Schoolhouse gives children the opportunity to create through learning. Games are naturally creative in themselves, and their very mechanics are all about learning, understanding. Making a game uses a unique fusion of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and maths) subjects in a way that few others do. Using this model to teach the computing curriculum will prepare children for the jobs of tomorrow, today. We’re lucky to see many great examples of games being used in education through the development of Digital Schoolhouse workshops. We’ve worked with a variety of fantastic games companies, from micro-studio Code Kingdoms all the way up to Disney. Playful game techniques don’t have to be purely digital either: we use jigsaws, board games, 3D-printer pens, dance, magic and music to create interactive experiences through which children learn basic computational skills.

The industry expertise that’s implemented into the workshops ensures that there’s real curriculum-based value in what the children are doing, even though to them it feels like they’re playing.Not every use of games in an educational context is a success. What advice would you give educators about using games?Educators need to be clear about the educational value of the games that they are introducing into the classroom. Be sure of what the game will add to the planned outcomes of the lesson, and ensure you reinforce what learning the game is providing the children. Make sure the children are aware of the skills they are learning through the play.

There are few pitfalls to using games in the classroom as long as objectives are clearly mapped out and the students are playing the game with the knowledge that they are learning transferable skills. The only real pitfall is other people thinking that the method is just about letting children play games without realising the true educational benefits behind the lesson plan.Which companies and educationalists would you highlight as doing the best work in education and games?Code Kingdoms is making massive leaps in teaching children coding, with its involvement both in Ukie’s Digital Schoolhouse project and also its own Code Club.We should also mention the London mayor, who has been extremely supportive of the Digital Schoolhouse project, and we wouldn’t be in a position to have reached over 5,500 primary-age pupils across London without the financial support of the GLA. Now the challenge is to extend this model across the country, and the globe! But we need partners and help to do that.

Finally, teaching kids to code is a really hot topic at the moment. What do you think of the current educational approaches to coding?The change to the new computing curriculum from the outdated ICT curriculum – through the Next Gen Skills campaign which Ukie ran and funded – has been received well. The rise of unplugged teaching methods, as used by the Digital Schoolhouse, have had a great response from pupils and teachers alike. We just need to ensure that approaches to teaching coding creatively remain fun, engaging and relevant to the educational needs of children in today’s quick-changing digital world.This is an independent article from the Alphr editorial team. This content was produced to the same impartial standards as the main content on our site, but paid for by Intel because they like people who like this topic. Thank you, Intel!

Information security might seem like a modern concern, but as long as there has been civilisation, there has been a need to stop sensitive information getting into the wrong hands. Cryptography has always played a crucial role here, as those with the information encrypt it to control who can read it, while those who want the information find new ways to break the code.Cryptography dates back to ancient times. As far back as 2,000BC the Egyptians were using complex and cryptic systems of hieroglyphics to decorate tombs, not so much in order to conceal the meaning as to make their dead nobles more enigmatic. There’s also evidence that the Mesopotamians encrypted cuneiform text to hide information, while the Hebrews of the 5th century BC used simple ciphers, substituting the last letter of the alphabet for the first, the penultimate for the second, and all the way down the line. The Spartans of the same era came up with an ingenuous system, writing messages on thin sheets of papyrus, wrapped around a baton or "scytale”. The sheet would be unwrapped, encrypting the message, and it could only be decrypted when wrapped once more around a scytale of the same diameter. This enabled the Spartans to send and receive secret military plans in confidence.

With time, methods grew more sophisticated. In the second century BC, the Greek scholar Polybius laid out the alphabet in a grid of five by five squares, then prescribed using torches or hand signals to relay encrypted messages, coordinate by coordinate. Julius Caesar had his own cipher, shifting each letter in a message two places further down the alphabet.Making codes was one thing, but breaking them was another. The great pioneer of cryptoanalaysis – the study and breaking of encryption – was the Arab polymath al-Kindi, who in the 9th century AD applied scientific methods, using the frequency with which letters are used in a language as a means of breaking down the cipher. His work informed that of Ibn al-Durayhim who, in the 13th century, gave detailed descriptions of new systems that involved more complex letter-for-letter substitutions – systems that would be much harder to break.

Italy in the 15th century was one of history’s great hotbeds of intrigue, as different Italian city states vied for power. The courts of Rome, Florence and Milan made extensive use of cryptography, while Venice had its own secretaries trained to encrypt and decrypt messages passing to and from the Doge. Across Europe, methods became more sophisticated. A Genoa-born Florentine, Leon Battista Alberti, developed a system of polyalphabetic substatiation using two copper discs, each one bearing the alphabet. In 1518, the German monk Trimethius introduced a complex cryptographic table, the Tabula Recta, which was expanded by an Italian cryptologist, Giovan Battista Bellaso, and subsequently a French diplomat, Balise de Vigenere. These tables defined cryptography for the next 400 years.

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