[IAEP] [squeakland] Etoys Video's for Khan Academy

[Edward Cherlin]

I have been wishing for this, particularly the Cuisenaire rods and the
full tutorial on eToys. I'm in. You have the full cooperation of the
Sugar Labs Replacing Textbooks project, all both of us. ^_^ Plus
whomever we can recruit now that we have a specific OER project to
talk about.

On Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 15:15, Steve Thomas <sthomas1 at gosargon.com> wrote:
> In the OLPC News article How Khan Academy Can Help OLPC it was stated:
>
> A. In terms of The Basics
>
> Khan Academy covers almost every basic academic subject in its videos. In
> addition, it has one hundred sets of math exercises. OLPC could either use
> the exercises from the website or rewrite the programs to make them work
> offline in Sugar. Problem Solved.

Problem correctly posed.

> Okay, well how much disk space would that take?

In what encoding at what resolution?

> I like the idea of re-writing them.

I like the idea of challenging students to animate them, without using
language if possible.

> The videos as introduction to concept
> via demonstrations, visual models, playthinks and excercise that can (and
> should) be done w/o a computer.  For exercises I am working on basic
> configuration/generation engines for creating exercises so teachers can
> easily generate their own exercises using a set of "playthinks" for
> particular concepts.

We will want to collect such exercises along with lesson plans for
reuse and remixing.

> For example: Cuisenaire Rods (some with vector arrows)
> is a great tool for learning.

We have Caleb Gattegno's old company, Educational Solutions, on board
with Replacing Textbooks for both math and language teaching. Gattegno
color-coded every spelling of every speech sound in several languages,
and put them on wall charts, as part of his more general plan for
teaching language using Cuisenaire Rods. The company has since done 80
languages in all, and is willing for us to put out the charts and code
text accordingly.

> I built a number line where you can set the
> unit to a particular rod and provide a playfield so things snap to grid.

Another thing I was specifically wishing for but hadn't gotten around
to asking. Thank you.

> Another example is my OOO tools where you have "operation blocks" that you
> can drag numbers or other objects that represent numbers into the operations
> and play games/excercies like "How many ways can you name 15."

I know a countably infinite number of names for 15, and I can probably
think of more--yes, I did.

Peter Hewitt has a Numbers game based on the converse of that idea,
challenging users to make a specific number using three or four
starting numbers and the + and × functions. Parentheses are avoided by
allowing calculation of intermediate results.

3 5 6 2   27

3×5=15

15+6×2=27

APL programmers play the Game of the Year by seeing how long an
initial segment of the natural numbers can be generated with
expressions of the form (this year)

f 2 g 0 h 1 i 1

where f, g, h, and i are any combinations of the built-in APL
primitive functions, or are omitted in order to make two-digit or
larger numbers. No parentheses, no precedence. Strict right-to-left
evaluation.

2×0×1×1 --> 0

2 min 0 max 1 = 1 --> 1

2 max 0×1×1 --> 2

2+0+1×1 --> 3

2+0+1+1 --> 4

2+0+1×floor circle 1 --> 5

  where circle 1 is pi.

etc.

20*11 --> 204,800,000,000,000

*2011  is beyond the range of IEEE floating point, but we can continue
with **2011, ***2011, etc.

One can adapt this challenge to a wide range of computer languages
with a wide set of choices about what functions to use.

> I could use some help and collaborators as there is a lot to do to create an
> OER that is a textbook/workbook replacement.
>
>
> D. In terms of the Teacher/Developer Communication Dilemma
>
> I was talking to Bert Freudenberg the other day about developing video
> tutorials for eToys, and he said there would need to be about 100 to give a
> complete tutorial of the program. Imagine if Khan Academy could help us pull
> those videos together. With video tutorials, developers and teachers
> wouldn't have to communicate at all! I'm sure this a big relief for both
> parties. Problem Solved.
>
> Name the 100 topics and I will start making the videos (I already have a
> number of "Etoys Minutes")
>
> B. In terms of Motivation into Exploratory Learning
>
> In an ideal world, kids would pick up the laptops and go to town on all the
> amazing programs available on the XO. But that just isn't how it works,
> because there is more immediate gratification to be found in simple games
> and Facebook. You and I know that exploring the world of science, art, math,
> and literature is much more satisfying than whatever instant satisfaction
> Facebook or (non-educational) online games can provide. But kids don't yet,
> so we need to get our hooks in first. Khan Academy does this through a
> system based on gaming, with badges and rewards, just like Xbox Live or the
> PlayStation Network. Problem Solved.
>
> Yes providing game mechanics (like bages and awards) and tracking is a nice
> touch and hooking into the Khan Academy system (or Sugar providing its own
> system) would be nice. Also I like the idea of "disconnected from the
> network" XO so there are less "distractions" (no I am not suggesting that
> kids can't access the internet, but as a parent and working with kids,
> having no TV/Computers/Electronics time has its advantages.  Perhaps a
> "Internet is turned off until you do the following tasks option. For those
> who don't like this and think kids should have full access to everything all
> the time, think of it as a motivation for hacking and getting peer-to-peer
> networking working so they can find other distractions ;)
>
> C. In terms of the Impending Evaluation and Testing
>
> The people want proof. If governments or private schools are going to employ
> this system, they’re going to want evidence that the program works in some
> measurable way. We can talk all day about the evils of evaluation but the
> fact is that it exists and we need to deal with if we want this to work.
>
> Testing is already built into the Khan System, so teachers and students can
> track their own progress. The system is measured whenever it is employed in
> a new school, and the statistics show that it WORKS. Problem Solved.
>
>
>
> I agree wholeheartedly with the first comment "people want proof" and yes I
> know and agree with the "evils of testing," but we need to deal with the
> political realities if we want to have a larger impact.
> My question is how exactly do we use/hook into the "Testing" in Khan
> Academy?  Should Sugar provide some method of tracking (as anathema as I
> imagine this may be to some)?
>
> How do you folks envision working together with Khan Academy? Would they be
> open to it?
>
> Stephen
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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://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks