[IAEP] GPA Notes from visit on Wed July 8

[Greg Smith]

Hi Mel,

Thanks for the kind words and insightful comments.

I thought about how to ask these questions in the class today, but I
wasn't successful.

On the first one, they don't actually give out assignments and review
kids work. They just play and do what we describe in the reports. The
question of how to enable the work flow you describe is about to come
up in a big way in preparation for September so we will have a chance
to revisit that soon.

On idle thought #1: Give me a few icons to use as examples. Then I'll
try to find time to just point to it and ask the kids: "what do you
think that does". The truth is that I'm not sure how they figured out
that the computer can talk! I'm guessing its from the Speak icon but
that's really an assumption.

On idle thought #2: Caroline posted some of the Turtle art work. I
can't find it right now but maybe someone can scrape it off the list
and post links on the GPA wiki page.

Thanks,

Greg S




******************
Whoa. I am humbled. Greg, your notes give me a new standard to reach for.

> Send me your questions. What do you want to know about the SW and how
> its used by kids?

I'm intrigued by the process of how the kids learn how to save and
retrieve files, and what they think of that interaction flow. (This
may be biased by prior Windows experience, though.) I loved your
documentation of the workflows. I wonder if it might be worth doing
some paper prototyping with the kids at the end of the summer, walking
through some of the workflows you're noticing now, to see if they come
up with interesting design tweaks.

> This is our chance to test assumptions and get direct feedback with
> minimal cultural dissonance. I'll make observations and/or ask
> questions of the kids, if you can identify a UI element or task that
> you want input on.

My main question: How rapidly can a teacher with no Sugar experience
review the work of a student (by looking at his/her Journal)? What
tools do they use to record this feedback, if any (and how could we
make it easier for them, maybe with Moodle on the XS)? I'm curious
about the reactions of the classroom teachers, too.

Two idle thoughts of much less importance: You noted that some kids
saw the Speak icon and immediately said they could make the computer
talk (without even running the program) - I wonder whether other icons
pass the same test. What can they guess about the
meaning/functionality of each icon? (I'm betting, for instance, that
nobody will figure out the IRC Activity...)

Second idle thought: I'm not sure if this is already part of the game
plan with an XS coming in, but I would love to be able to see example
of the work the kids are doing (can they post them on Moodle in such a
way that we can see and comment on them? Perhaps with names removed?
would this cause privacy issues?)  - even some of the early TurtleArt
experiments on Tuesday produced nifty spirograph-looking things, and
it sounds like Paint and Memorize stuff was just as impressive (and
probably easier to comment on, in the case of Paint).

--Mel