[IAEP] Notes from GPA 7-21

[Tomeu Vizoso]

On Wed, Jul 22, 2009 at 03:59, Caroline Meeks<caroline at solutiongrove.com> wrote:
> 2nd Grade working with turtle art and a community map.
>
> The goal of the class was to add a photo from a field trip to their
> existing turtle art maps
>
> Demoed
> -entering the neighborhood
> -clicking on shared browse activity
> -opening  bookmark
> -choose an image
> - right clicking to download photo
> -going to turtle art
> - using show block to get the photos into a show block (this task they
> had done before)
>
> Kids then tried it: Here were the issues at each stage.
>
> Entering the neighborhood.
>
> Kids had trouble getting to the frame. I had not introduced the
> keyboard shortcuts.  We are thinking of getting stickers and putting
> them on the F keys in the computer lab.
>
> TODO Make and buy stickers
>
> Clicking on the shared browse activity
>
> Someone went to the home and clicked on browse rather then to
> neighborhood.  For someone this reopened a shared browse from last
> time. However, the url bookmarked in the old activity required login
> so it didn't work. Thus some kids opened the wrong browse and
> everything appeared the same but twhen they clicked on the bookmark
> thumbnail it didn't work. very confusing.
>
> TODO: Create a lesson that introduces the neighborhood and shared
> activities and the difference between resumed and new activities.
>
> -Choose an image
> We had too many choices. We should have narrowed it down to about 5 or
> 10 choices.  The kids did have a very good time looking at their
> photos and everyone did eventually pick one or more so maybe its ok.
> But I would recommend fewer next time.
>
> We also had them click to the big view to download. Given we want them
> small on the map we could have them download the thumbnail instead.
>
> Right click to download image
> This was very hard for the kids. They weren't aware of two buttons and
> didn't know their right from their left.
>
> The also have a hard time with the count down and the ok. They miss it.
>
> As mentioned in previous report we need a way to share files directly
> into student journals.
>
> Going to turtle art
> Hadn't gotten the concept of different activities yet. Hard time
> getting to the frame. hard time remembering they needed to click on
> the single dot.
>
> Buttons and a lesson that introduces the concept of activities will be helpful.
>
> Using the show block to get the image into turtle art
>
> The file name picasso downloaded is long and nonuseful. Having a
> better way to get the images into the journal would help with this.
> Sometimes they click on a turtle art icon rather then an image, this
> results in a picture of the turtle art activity being displayed. So it
> sort of works.  We need to teach more about what activities are and
> how the journal works.
>
> BUG: journal does not show a preview of the downloaded image.
>
> The kids are also still struggling with X and Y. Now that we have
> collaboration working we can give them a turtle art instance with an X
> and Y coordinate and practice explicitly with that skill.
>
> Our plans are:
> - Thursday we are working with a turtle art clock program
> - Tuesday we will create a turtle art with a coordinate system in it
> and share it with the class and work with that and printing out the X
> and Y.  Then we will do another pass of putting more pictures on the
> map.
>
> Overall its going well and the teachers are pleased. We are
> challenging the kids but they are staying engaged and learning. They
> are picking up on the culture of helping each other.  The novelty of
> the computers and turtle has worn off a bit but they are still very
> engaged in what they are trying to do and create.  Everyone stayed
> engaged and made progress.
>
> They really enjoyed seeing their pictures.  The joy we take for
> granted, getting to look at your pictures all on your own screen,
> switching between pictures whenever you are ready, completely under
> your control, I think that isn't something these 7 year olds get very
> often.
>
> I see evidence for the theory of action that using computers to create
> artifacts that are relevant to their life and that they are proud of
> will engage children and result in them continuing to try when they
> might otherwise give up and that continued effort and engagement, even
> when confronted with initial difficulties, will result in increased
> learning.

There's lots of very good feedback here. Apart from the bugs that
would be nice to have as tickets in trac, there are some existing
feature proposals that touch needs that you have mentioned above.
Would be good to check that this feedback is taken into account. And
of course, feel free to start new feature proposals even if nobody
will work on them for 0.86.

Regards,

Tomeu



> --
> Caroline Meeks
> Solution Grove
> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>
> 617-500-3488 - Office
> 505-213-3268 - Fax
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