[IAEP] [Its.an.education.project] An example on statistical dynamics on XO

[Tony Forster]

Yoshiki Ohshima wrote

>  We probably talk about what and how to teach in a bit more concrete
> way.  I'll do a part by explaining an example in Etoys here.  ....
>  Any feedback and comments are welcome!  And I hope that the
> volunteers make such kind of examples (in any system they like) and
> accessible to kids and teachers.

Thanks Yoshiki  for that concrete example, I have taken on your challenge 
and ported it to Windows/GameMaker at 
http://rupert.id.au/schoolgamemaker/samples3/

Its interesting to compare the (constructionist) learning on a purpose built 
sugar/etoys platform vs. a windows/GameMaker platform repurposed for 
learning. I would like to leave the very valid arguments on open source and 
monopolies to one side and just concentrate on the learning.

Etoys allows inspection and modification of variables and code on the fly 
whereas with GameMaker you need to use debug mode or re-compile.

Sugar allows collaborative authoring and viewing (though I haven't had the 
opportunity to try it).

The implementation in GameMaker is much easier, its particularly good for 
kinematics.

Collaboration in Windows/GameMaker can work quite well (eg see 
http://rupert.id.au/schoolgamemaker/computerclub/index.html) but the teacher 
has to set up a sharing site and encourage the sharing of source rather than 
exe, Sugar facilitates sharing without teacher intervention

My feelings on Sugar and Etoys are similar. Though they have good purpose 
designed learning aspects, they need more work before they are as usable as 
windows/GameMaker . The measure of good constructionist learning 
environments is not so much all the good things students can do, its whether 
a learner, once setting themself a goal for self-directed discovery, is 
going to run into a road block.

An example of a road block in Etoys is that it is very hard to find how to 
do a keyboard triggered script. Its hidden on the world menu which is alt W 
or similar. Another is that there is limited support for collisions. An 
example of a road block in Sugar is its inbuilt browser. I cannot copy a 
link, I can't save a jpg, the Sugar OS changes the filename of a file which 
it does not recognise, the directory system is hidden, there is no 
predictive text when typing URL's or usernames, there's no tabbed browsing, 
there's no cookie, proxy or popup control. By comparison I used Firefox on 
the Asus eeePC and it was easy to do constructionist things like creating a 
blog which Sugar just wouldn't let me do.

None of this is intended to discredit the wonderful things that the Sugar 
and Etoys teams have done putting together really great learning stuff on a 
shoestring budget. The question is, where there are limited resources, is it 
best to aim high and produce stuff which is not quite classroom ready or to 
repurpose existing stuff, like the eeePC has done with Firefox and Open 
Office?

Tony