Subbu,<br><br>Thanks for this.<br>Your idea about "watchers" is a really good one.<br><br>Gerald<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 7:53 AM, K. K. Subramaniam <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:subbukk@gmail.com">subbukk@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="im">On Friday 26 February 2010 12:12:19 pm Cherry Withers wrote:<br> > It's definitely a balancing act trying to get them to focus on finishing up<br> > something and getting them to explore. Once they realize that they<br> > can affect the object by scripts they just want to do everything they can<br> > possibly do in one sitting (dragging and dropping tiles in one script<br> > window ..then I'm in fire fighting mode). Too much resulted in chaos in my<br> > class. Not doing THAT again. I now give them some time to go nuts on<br> > exploration then pull them back in to finish a project. Now I'm<br> > introducing just a max of two concepts (or tiles) in one 40min. session.<br> </div>When a new tile is introduced, kids tend to use it over and over many times<br> before they get to a state where they can use it in a project. This is par for<br> the course.<br> <br> Alan's car demo script starts with commands. When the script says "forward 5"<br> what exactly is 5 in that blank space? Introducing watchers before commands<br> helps ease the up ramp. Learning about watchers for shapes<br> (length/width/heading), color and border and then position (x,y,..) allows<br> kids to grasp spatial and angular dimensions gradually.<br> <br> BTW, I wouldn't worry about kids "finishing" a project in the first few<br> sessions. Curiosity and experimentation will dominate the sessions. Only when<br> they reach a zone of comfort with the system will they become receptive to<br> tips on "saving" their projects.<br> <br> My experience is limited to non-English students in rural India using the<br> English GUI. I don't know how much it would apply to students in other<br> regions.<br> <br> YMMV .. Subbu<br> <div><div></div><div class="h5">_______________________________________________<br> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)<br> <a href="mailto:IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org">IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org</a><br> <a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep</a><br> </div></div></blockquote></div><br>