[IAEP] [FIELDBACK] Etoys

[Gerald Ardito]

Edward,

I know that my 5th graders who are using XOs and Sugar would love to
participate with you in this project.

Gerald

On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 11:58 AM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:

>  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/
> _______________________________________________
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
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>
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