[IAEP] [Grassroots-l] OLPC in Kindergarten

[Edward Cherlin]

On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 5:55 PM, Sameer Verma<sverma at sfsu.edu> wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 2:36 PM, Christoph Derndorfer
> <e0425826 at student.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:
>> Hola Alejandro,
>>
>> I'm currently not aware of any other OLPC or Sugar projects working with
>> children at that age. Most pilots and deployments currently seem to be
>> focused on primary-school children (age 6 to 10).

We know that pre-schoolers love the camera, and can use Paint and some
other non-verbal Activities. I am working on a version of Turtle Art
that will use icons rather than text labels on the tiles, and I want
to test how much of it the preliterate can grasp, and what we can
teach using that capability. We can demonstrate many topics in Turtle
Art, even if the children can't yet program such demos unaided.

Most math ideas have a visual version using no numbers, symbols, or
other such apparatus. The two fundamental ideas of calculus are the
direction of a curve, defined by the tangent line at a point, and the
area under a curve. No calculation needed. We can do much of this
directly with physical objects. Most of algebra can be shown as
intersections of lines and curves. Most of arithmetic and a good deal
more is easily demonstrated in Cuisenaire rods.

I want to have a project to gather together all of the math ideas that
children have particular difficulty with, and to create visualizations
for all of them, preferably at a pre-school level.

> We have a local Montessori that has two XOs and is considering using
> them with the 4 to 5 year olds. They haven't started yet, but it would
> be interesting to see what their experience is like once they begin in
> the summer.

Can you put me into contact with them? I think that Maria Montessori
would have jumped up and down like the kids in our logo

o
X

at the thought of what children can discover with an XO, and at the
prospect of finding out at what age they are most ready for each part
of it.

> Sameer
> --
> Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Information Systems
> San Francisco State University
> San Francisco CA 94132 USA
> http://verma.sfsu.edu/
> http://opensource.sfsu.edu/
>
>> What kind of educational activities did you have in mind?
>>
>> One really great activity is the TypingTurtle
>> (http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4026), the Memory
>> activity also seems to be really popular with the the first-graders in
>> our small Austrian OLPC / Sugar pilot.
>>
>> By the way, I'm also copying the "It's an education project"
>> mailing-list (http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep), people there
>> might have some good pointers for you.
>>
>> Hope that helps,
>> Christoph
>>
>> Alejandro Fernandez schrieb:
>>> Hi,
>>>      I'd like to get in contact with those using XOs with kids under 5.
>>>
>>>      I am helping a group of kindergarten teachers use a pair of OLPC
>>> I got for them. Last year we made a small experience teaching kids to
>>> use the XO to take pictures and video. Then, they took the XO home,
>>> taught their family how to use it, recorded greetings, and browsed the
>>> greetings and pictures left by other families. They enjoyed it.
>>>
>>>     This year we are planning to use them as educational tool (that
>>> is, adding value not just technology).
>>>
>>>     Pointers to books, blogs, pedagogical patterns, activities, and
>>> notes are welcomed.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Alejandro
>>>
>>>
>>
>> --
>> Christoph Derndorfer
>> co-editor, olpcnews
>> url: www.olpcnews.com
>> e-mail: christoph at olpcnews.com
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>>
> _______________________________________________
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> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>



-- 
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And Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination.
http://earthtreasury.org/worknet (Edward Mokurai Cherlin)