Thomas, Thanks for sharing this. I have been using thymios to teach in a UK primary school for a couple of years now - it is both interesting and useful to hear about other people's experiences.
David Doak On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 4:24 PM, Thomas Schenker <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello to everybody in the Thymio community > > > > I haven’t written for a long time but I was pleased to read that there is > so much interesting activity in the community. Specially the activities in > France are very encouraging. > > I’m living in the North-western part of Switzerland in a small historic > town called Zofingen <http://www.zofingen.ch/?rub=9>. > > In schools around here Thymio is still hardly known. But I’m still > actively using Thymio and I try to use every chance to make Thymio known. > > > > But for the new members of the mailing list I first repeat my short > introduction: > > I’m actually an electro and software engineer but I decided to find a new > challenge in my life. I’d been working in the field of embedded systems > development for more than 20 years in an electronic department > <http://www.mullermartini.net/mf/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-10017/8945_read-13341/> > of big machine company producing print finishing systems. Finally, I > started a special study program in summer 2013 at the University of Applied > Sciences and Arts of North-western Switzerland FHNW. This program was > launched to gain experienced professionals to become teachers. > > During the past few month I was very busy finishing my studies and finding > a new job while teaching in a part time job. But now I’ve successfully > finished my studies. > > > > During the last school year I used Thymio with four of my classes on > secondary level 1 in Schönenwerd (Kt. Solothurn). During my studies at PH > FHNW in Brugg I got in touch with people from *imedias > <http://www.imedias.ch/>**. *Imedias is an organisation that consults > schools and teachers in digital media. They also provide teaching material > and teacher trainings. > > > > On 24 February 2016 I was invited to a meeting (*„3. Projekttreffen > Informatische Bildung“)* in Brugg where I could present the features and > potential of Thymio. The first part of the presentation was done by Dawn > Suter. She showed how she uses the pre-programmed behaviours in workshops > with primary school kids. I followed with an introduction to VPL and also > explained the basic concepts of text programming. Finally I presented a few > applications in VPL and text programming. My focus was the secondary school > level application of Thymio. > > By the way, imedias bought a set of Thymios and they should be available > for lending by now. > > > > On 11 April 2016 I got another chance to present Thymio. I was asked if I > could present Thymio in a team meeting of the *Mathematikdidaktik-Team > <http://www.fhnw.ch/ph/isek/professuren/Mathematikdidaktik>* of Prof. Dr. > Helmut Linneweber-Lammerskitten at the PH FHNW. > > > > With my presentations I could reach a few key people and make them at > least aware of Thymio. As a result I was asked by imedias to do a teacher > workshop for Thymio programming at the Stadtschule in Solothurn on 10th of > August 2016. There are not many participants but I’m happy that the > workshop will still take place. > > > > Starting in August I’m going to deputize the IT lessons for a teacher that > is interrupting her work for half a year. I showed Thymio to the head > teacher of this school in Safenwil (Kt. Aargau). As a result he agreed to > my proposal to use Thymio in my lessons. For me it’s another welcome chance > to gain further teaching experience with Thymio and hopefully involve other > people. > > > > I have got 6 Thymios that I bought myself. The school I just left was not > very open to new ideas and especially because it was clear that I would > leave the school this summer it wouldn’t have made sense to buy something > that’s not used afterwards. > > So I decided to buy some robots for myself. This way I didn’t have to > explain and justify everything and I could just use it what most of my > students really appreciated. > > > > I just think we should find ways to make more publicity for Thymio in > North-western Switzerland. If anybody has ideas or valuable connections let > me know. May be I could represent the Thymio concept with my set of Thymios > in other places in North-western Switzerland. > > > > I took the following two pictures during my lessons: > > This beautiful flower was drawn by one of my Thymios and the program was > written in VPL by a girl of my classes. There were many nice drawings but > the one above is definitely my favourite. For me it has a kind of symbolic > value. I gives me motivation for the coming school year where I hope that > other flowers with new students will grow. > > > > Apart from the many positive things I experienced with Thymio there is one > negative point to mention: > > Unfortunately, one of my Thymios failed. There must have been a short > circuit or a damaged component around the motor drivers. Is there a > possibility to get just a PCB as a spare part? I hope that there is not a > general quality issue in this product. When I opened the case I discovered > that the PCB was covered with many spots of soft solder flux material that > was spread over the PCB during the manual soldering process of all the > component that are not soldered in surface mount technology. For me (used > to Swiss quality standards) the PCB looked just awful. I think they should > at least cover the PCB somehow while manually soldering. > > > > Are there any plans for a redesign? May be with the direct integration of > the wireless module and the reduction of manual soldering? > > > > Finally, I would like to thank all the people who make the Thymio concept > ‘flourish’. I spent quite some time writing this email but I felt the urge > to sharing my first year of teaching experience with Thymio. May be this > urge is also based on the fact that there are almost any sparing partners > around in the German-spoken part of Switzerland. > > > > Feel free to provide any feedback. > > > > Best regards, > > > > Thomas Schenker > > > > Frohburgstr. 6 > > 4800 Zofingen > > Switzerland > > > > > > > > > > > > > <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient> > Virenfrei. > www.avast.com > <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient> > > _______________________________________________ > Aseba-edu mailing list > [email protected] > https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/aseba-edu > >
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