[Its.an.education.project] Another set of thoughts

[Kim Rose]

Hi, Greg -

Sorry for the non-response.  I am currently in Germany where we just  
concluded a technical conference (less Etoys, more next steps from  
Viewpoints Research) so I am a bit behind on my email.  I will  
respond more soon, when my mind (and body) are back to "home-base".

thanks for your participation and interest,
Kim

On May 15, 2008, at 9:27 AM, Greg Smith (gregmsmi) wrote:

> Hi Kim,
>
> Thanks for the link.
>
> Can you comment on your experience with this curriculum and eToys in
> general?
>
> How well did this work? What was a challenge and what clicked with the
> kids right away? Also, how much teacher engagement is needed? How
> successful have you been in distributing this or other curriculum  
> beyond
> your immediate involvement?
>
> In short, what do you suggest are the most important elements of
> successful computer based learning tools?
>
> A few comments on eToys from e-mail exchanges with XO sites:
>
> - Nepal uses eToys solely as an authoring environment. Its  
> available to
> kids so over time we will see how many pick it up on their own. They
> want to train teachers to use it too but haven't yet had time. See:
> http://blog.olenepal.org/?s=etoy and
> http://www.olenepal.org/activities_download.html
>
> - Uruguay wants to use eToys but its not in Spanish yet. I think that
> translation is underway but not sure of the details.
>
> - Waveplace (http://waveplace.org/) used eToys and had the kids create
> projects in the Virgin Islands. I think they plan to do the same in
> Haiti with a French version.
>
> That's FYI. You may already have all that input as I know these sites
> work closely with the eToys organization directly.
>
> A few comments from my experience:
>
> - I loaded eToys and poked around while reading the quick start. It  
> took
> me over an hour to figure out that I need to press the alt key in
> Windows to see the object viewer. After that I started a project  
> example
> and got a little further before getting sucked in to reading the e- 
> mail
> lists :-)
>
> - My 11 years old son found scratch more accessible than eToys.  
> That may
> be due to the online site of Scratch examples or because of the UI and
> focus on animation. However, after building and posting a few scratch
> animations he is back to Age of Mythology and Never Winter Nights like
> before. I just convinced him to play D&D with me so there's still hope
> :-)
>
> I'd like to learn as much as possible from your experience to help
> decide what is the best UI for learning overall. I want to find the
> right themes at the OS/shell level and the application/authoring
> environment level.
>
> I've read some comments from Alan about ~natural language vs.
> computerese languages for programming. In addition to GUI,  
> training, and
> capabilities, any comments re: programming language appreciated.
>
> Links to previous discussions or research also welcome. I've looked at
> the surface of eToy/squeaks site but haven't read VPRI's site. Any
> pointers to the most relevant info appreciated.
>
> I'm a skeptic. I love learning the theory but I only believe something
> after I see or hear it first hand. So any comments on real world
> experience is especially helpful for me.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Greg S
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kim Rose [mailto:kim.rose at vpri.org]
> Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 2:56 PM
> To: Greg Smith (gregmsmi)
> Cc: its.an.education.project at tema.lo-res.org
> Subject: Re: [Its.an.education.project] Another set of thoughts
>
> Hi, Greg -
>
> The book Alan refers to is "Powerful Ideas in the Classroom" by BJ  
> Conn
> and me  -- you can see more here:
> http://www.squeakland.org/sqmedia/books/kimbjbook.html
>
> The essay Alan "passed around" was originally the foreword for this
> book.
>
> cheers,
> Kim
>
>
> On May 2, 2008, at 11:51 AM, Greg Smith (gregmsmi) wrote:
>
>> Hi Alan et al,
>>
>> Great article, thanks. I'm struck by how similar it is to Marvin
>> Minsky's recent post on learning mathematics
>> (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Marvin_Minsky_essays
>>
>> Interestingly, both use the same topology (mapping) analogy for
>> learning.
>>
>> The end of your article refers to a book and projects in it. Can you
>> send a link to that?
>>
>> I really like your case that children have to try it out for
>> themselves to fully appreciate the meaning of length or size.
>>
>> Understanding what science means by "knowing" was brought home for me
>> when the Children's Museum in Boston took out the old T-Rex model  
>> (now
>> outside) and replaced it with a new very different one. Until I was
>> about 20 years old, everyone said the old one represented what T-Rex
>> really looked like. Then he changed!
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Greg S
>>
>>
>> Alan Kay <alan.nemo at yahoo.com>
>>
>>> At the risk of trying to talk about education, here is another  
>>> little
>
>>> essay with a few observations...
>>>
>>> http://www.vpri.org/pdf/human_condition.pdf
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>