[IAEP] Observations and feature requests based on watching a preK class use a computer lab

[Carol Farlow Lerche]

TuxPaint is very good and a good competitor to KidPix.  PLEASE make it work
well on the XO and on SOAS.  Anecdote:  When I spent a week in a
Kindergarten with my XOs, only one of the machines had TuxPaint.  (All the
rest had been upgraded to the build turning Rainbow on, and at the time I
didn't know how to disable this.)  The kids vied to use the machine with
TuxPaint.  They were completely uninterested in paint.

On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 12:57 PM, Caroline Meeks <caroline at solutiongrove.com
> wrote:

> Today I visited a computer lab at a school in Boston where 3-5 year olds
> (the PreK class) were using the computers in the computer lab.
>
> The teacher tried to get them to use Kidspirations to look at and stamp
> bugs but they rebelled. All they wanted to do was use KidPix.
>
> We need a paint program that is as cool as KidPix or we will suffer the
> same fate. They will turn off Sugar and go back to Windows to use KidPix!
>
> In Kidpix the students learned that they need to use the mouse and not the
> keyboard. By the time I left all students had managed to learn to use the
> mouse to make something on the screen.  I saw some kids make the connection
> that they had done something with the mouse and it had appeared on the
> screen.  Some were painting with colors, others were stamping with images.
> Some kids had learned how to erase the screen and start over.
>
> Clearly learning was going on.  I thought to myself, "what would take this
> lesson to the next level for these students".  I think, based on the
> interactions the teachers were having as they spent individual time with the
> students, that it would be valuable to these students to begin to tell
> stories about their pictures.  It would be cool if the kids could record a
> voice note when they saved a picture in the journal.  This could help the
> teachers move them towards telling stories about thier pictures. I think
> that would in turn motivate them to want to control what they did with the
> picture more.
>
> Our goal with the journal is to get kids to reflect on thier work.  For
> many of the students in the age range we serve typing that reflection is
> going to be a challenge and we might well get more thoughtful reflection if
> they could speak it.
>
> --
> Caroline Meeks
> Solution Grove
> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>
> 617-500-3488 - Office
> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>
> _______________________________________________
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
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>



-- 
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary
depends upon his not understanding it." -- Upton Sinclair
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