Enabling Digital Technology in Primary Schools

In 2024, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) in Ireland released a draft curriculum which intends to introduce Digital Technology (DT) into the Primary School Curriculum. While this is a positive step in terms of Computer Science education pipeline, the teachers who will be charged with delivering this are, for the most part, completely out-of-field and anecdotally are lacking in confidence in delivering DT in the classroom. We are proposing a project to enhance teachers competencies around DT concepts (skills, processes and dispositions). The project plans to develop targeted activities for teachers to deliver DT. These activities will incorporate real-world applications of DT, computational thinking, problem-solving, and creative skills all delivered through play-based pedagogies. To ensure that no teacher or school will be negatively impacted due to technological requirements, AWS In Communities are going to send every Primary School in Ireland a Digital Technology kit comprising of a plugged device and an unplugged computational thinking game.