[IAEP] [FIELDBACK] Etoys

[Edward Cherlin]

 I would also like to hear any such ideas. I am writing about
exploring the XO and its software, to be followed by a teacher's guide
that will show how to introduce everything that children cannot
discover for themselves in dependency order, and a bite at a time,
with appropriate reinforcement. I need all of the real-world
information I can get about both problems and solutions.

Then, of course, I will need people to try out what I write and tell
me what's wrong with it. ^_^ I would particularly like to hear from
children who have issues, and be able to discuss those issues with
them.

On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 01:42, Cherry Withers <cwithers at ekindling.org> wrote:
> Gerald,
>
> It's definitely a balancing act trying to get them to focus on finishing up
> something and getting them to explore. Once they realize that they
> can affect the object by scripts they just want to do everything they can
> possibly do in one sitting (dragging and dropping tiles in one script window
> ..then I'm in fire fighting mode). Too much resulted in chaos in my class.
> Not doing THAT again. I now give them some time to go nuts on exploration
> then pull them back in to finish a project. Now I'm introducing just a max
> of two concepts (or tiles) in one 40min. session.
>
> Kathleen Harness has really good lesson plans for teaching one concept at a
> time: www.etoysillionois.org
>
> I would like to hear more best practices/ideas, etc. for teaching Etoys in
> the classroom.
>
> Cheers,
> Cherry
>
> On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 4:13 PM, Gerald Ardito <gerald.ardito at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> I agree. Watching the car script is fun for a while. But when they make
>> their own first script, it is exciting each and every time.
>>
>> I also find that the students (I work with 10 year olds) get overwhelmed
>> by the number of choices they have.
>>
>> Anyone else have that experience?
>>
>> Thanks.
>> Gerald
>>
>> On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 7:11 PM, Cherry Withers <cwithers at ekindling.org>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> The very first time a child sees their object move with a simple forward
>>> script is always a magical moment for me and the kids. Never fails.
>>> Exploration and excitement explodes after that. I'm new to teaching Etoys as
>>> well. Definitely caught the bug. :-)
>>>
>>> On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 2:43 PM, Simon Schampijer <simon at schampijer.de>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I am teaching on a regular basis in the Planetarium pilot in Berlin,
>>>> Germany [1]. I have been using Etoys now for several weeks and here is
>>>> some first feedback.
>>>>
>>>> First: The kids do like it a lot! I want to encourage everyone to
>>>> include it in his curriculum.
>>>>
>>>> For example you can teach easily the concepts of the coordinate system
>>>> with Etoys. You create an object and print out the X and Y values when
>>>> moving it on the screen. Or you can use a joystick to alter the position
>>>> of this object and use this method to deepen the coordinate system
>>>> concept.
>>>>
>>>> Of course we did as well the famous car example. It was slightly changed
>>>> in my class: A bug has to crawl a lane using one or two sensors to stay
>>>> on the lane. A lot of interesting concepts to learn here, too (positive
>>>> and negative numbers for example).
>>>>
>>>> And to bring this all together into a portfolio you can use the book
>>>> tool (found in the treasure chest) to create a story including all your
>>>> objects and games, pictures etc you created.
>>>>
>>>> I wrote down a few items I was missing when using the book tool and
>>>> while doing so, I figured they were all there, just hidden by default.
>>>>
>>>> - resize all of the book not just one page
>>>>     - maybe that could be the default option?
>>>> - duplicate a page
>>>> - different background color
>>>> - different sound when turning the page
>>>>
>>>> When you hit the little button at the far left you will get more
>>>> options. And when you use the menu in the middle of the book toolbar you
>>>> get all of these options and a lot of more. Just in case someone runs as
>>>> well into this :)
>>>>
>>>> A few things that I came across, too:
>>>> - German: When you drop the 'joystick up down' and 'joystick left right'
>>>> option onto the world it will change to English. Not when you use it in
>>>> a script though.
>>>> - some buttons are hard to use: for example when you want to alter the
>>>> behavior of the X value of an object (increase..). Those are hard to
>>>> navigate. Or dropping options into the test script does not work as
>>>> smooth.
>>>>
>>>> That's all for now - keep up the good work, team Etoys!.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>     Simon
>>>>
>>>> PS: Of course I am happy to turn items into bugs later. Just thought I
>>>> give here a little summary first.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> [1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Deployments/Planetarium
>>>>
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>>>
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>>
>
>
>
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-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://www.earthtreasury.org/