<div dir="ltr">On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 2:29 AM, Walter Bender <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:walter.bender@gmail.com">walter.bender@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
There are still a few loose ends to tie with the Turtle Art<br>
modification. I am trying to make it into somewhat of a case study<br>
that can be hopefully a catalyst not just to rote imitation but also<br>
to some deductive or model-based thinking about thinking. Also, the<br>
exercise has raised a few questions for me about our process that I<br>
hope to address/document.<br>
<br>
I realize that teachers don't have time to be developers, but I aspire<br>
that everyone will move towards all kinds of appropriation.<br>
<br>
Alas, I wish that OLPC had included the chapter on Modifying Sugar in<br>
their Help activity...</blockquote><div><br><br></div></div>The idea of building a bridge for that small percentage (I agree with rob's figures) who want to be developers is a good one<br><br>I've asked a friend over to talk me through <a href="http://sugarlabs.org/go/Patching_Turtle_Art">http://sugarlabs.org/go/Patching_Turtle_Art</a> I'm lucky to have such a friend, otherwise I would have to ask dumb questions in public, which is not good for teacher ego since teachers are meant to know things already :-) I would identify fear of looking dumb as a major obstacle to these bridging explorations. <br>
<br>Some educators have written about what it means to join a community - what does it actually mean to be a scientist, a basketball professional or a software developer? eg. James Gee wrote a book about how computer games could be used in this way. He identifies these elements of joining what he calls a semiotic domain:<br>
<ol><li>we learn to experience the world in a new way: see, feel and operate on</li><li>we gain the potential to join a new social group, a new club</li><li>we gain the resources that prepare us for future learning and problem solving in a new domain and perhaps related domains</li>
</ol>He's trying to draw a distinction between simple knowledge and being part of a community of knowledge, the latter being the real deal<br><br>When I read through walter's account, already knowing a little bit (but not a great deal) about programming, python, logo, turtle art, visual programming I still have really basic questions to ask - things that are so transparent to developers that it may not occur to even think of them as questions or problems that have to be overcome before being engaged in this activity:<br>
<ul><li>Where do you find things (python files, source code)</li><li>Which things do what? How does walter know which python files have to be tweaked?</li><li>Who do you communicate with? (I didn't know that Brian Silverman was the maintainer and didn't know his email)</li>
<li>How do you program more advanced stuff in python, eg. using lambda?</li><li>What is FOSS etiquette, how do you go about learning to be a member of this community?</li></ul>Due to the reality of being a teacher (lack of time, large classes, the need to keep kids busy on task, schools and communities dominated by propriety software) all of the above is problematic - but as rob says a small % of teachers and a bigger percentage of students are open to it.<br>
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