Re: [IAEP] [FIELDBACK] Etoys
On 02/25/2010 12:08 AM, Walter Bender wrote: On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 5:43 PM, Simon Schampijersi...@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. You know, of course, that under the View toolbar in Turtle Art, the coordinates of the Turtle are displayed. :) Any feedback re TA-83 would be very welcome. -walter Wow - This is great work! This was something I was missing in class sometimes, as I have already told you ;D This helps a lot for learners to draw the line between their program and the output. Thanks, Simon ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [FIELDBACK] Etoys
On 02/25/2010 02:59 AM, K. K. Subramaniam wrote: On Thursday 25 February 2010 04:13:52 am Simon Schampijer wrote: 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. Etoys can be more than just a topic in a curriculum. It is the swiss army knife of the 21st century. Sure, it is a tool in the end. And then you need to decide how you use it and how you integrate it into your curriculum. That is why I gave the examples of what you can use Etoys for to reach certain goals. Teachers do not to see those possibilities to get interested, in my opinion. An interesting possibility is to get old students to create animated flashcards/sounds clips to teach a topic (say English) to younger students. Traditional flashcards just present a letter as a block. Instead, one can use a bug to create letter shapes with its trail so the children can also perceive how letters are formed. Thanks for that idea. Is there a tutorial for creating flashcards you know of? Thanks, Simon ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [FIELDBACK] Etoys
You know, of course, that under the View toolbar in Turtle Art, the coordinates of the Turtle are displayed. :) Any feedback re TA-83 would be very welcome. -walter Wow - This is great work! This was something I was missing in class sometimes, as I have already told you ;D This helps a lot for learners to draw the line between their program and the output. Walter (and helpers) have done an amazing job transforming TurtleArt. As I write this its 3:50am Walter time and he is still up coding Turtle Art. New features include multiple turtles, zoom, polar and cartesian coordinates, SVG output, variable names and stack names can be variables too, collapsible stacks, comments, multimedia, debug mode, Python block, tooltips, trash it is still low entry but packs lots of high level opportunities with a strong educational focus You can download the new Turtle Art for testing from http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/File:TurtleArt-83.xo any feedback is welcome Tony ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [FIELDBACK] Etoys
On 02/26/2010 01:29 PM, Kurt Gramlich wrote: * Cherry Witherscwith...@ekindling.org [100226 07:42]: 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. And 40 minutes are short :/ I definitely have learned by now that you have to teach smaller pieces so the concepts are understood well. I will hand out Sugar on Stick [1] to my learners this week and I am very excited how that will effect their learning curve. They have time to explore at home and I am sure this will advance my learners quickly. Kathleen Harness has really good lesson plans for teaching one concept at a time: www.etoysillionois.org Thanks for sharing this great resource. I really like the step by step tutorials made by waveplace [2]. That helped me a lot to get into Etoys. Regards, Simon [1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick [2] http://waveplace.com/resources/courseware/ ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [FIELDBACK] Etoys
Roberto, Here are some examples of teaching Mathematics with Etoys: 1. Fractions: 1. Fraction Tools http://squeakland.org/showcase/project.jsp?id=7673 - Use virtual Cuisenaire Rods to help kids obtain a better understanding of fractions and units of measure. 2. Fractions of a Circlehttp://squeakland.org/showcase/project.jsp?id=7372- A Fraction Game 2. Area: 1. Area Geo Boards http://squeakland.org/showcase/project.jsp?id=7744 - Exercises for learning about squares and areas. 3. Pythagorean Theorem: 1. Demonstration of Pythagorean Theorem Proof: Check Video first: video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIGCdOtfd7E The project http://squeakland.org/showcase/project.jsp?id=9486 shows the final result, could be modified to challenge kids to prove it. 4. Geometry 1. Shapes http://squeakland.org/showcase/project.jsp?id=7751 - This project introduces kids to Geometric Shapes, terminology and comparing and contrasting different shapes. 2. Creating Polygonshttp://www.squeakland.org/showcase/project.jsp?id=9444- Based upon 40 Math Shapeshttp://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2009/08/40-maths-shapes-challenges.htmldesigned by Barry Newell. This challenge could also be done in Turtle Art and Scratch, but it demonstrates one of the advantages of Etoys over Scratch (haven't used Turtle Art, so can't comment). In that you can drag scripting tiles onto the Playfield in Etoys. This allows you to focus the students attention on the problem you want them to solve rather than having them look through all the tiles to figure out what to use. The Etoys Challenges are an excellent example of this. One of the challenges of learning Scratch and Etoys is discovering all the scripting tiles. This is easier in Scratch as they are always visible, in Etoys you have to open an Objects Viewer, not hard, but an extra step. NOTE: In this project all the scripting tiles you will need aren't always visible (it is a work in progress I believe, so it may have changed by now). What grades and subject matter will you be teaching? On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 1:58 PM, roberto robert...@gmail.com wrote: On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 2:43 PM, Simon Schampijer si...@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. thank you for sharing you experience; i have to choose between EToys, Turtle Art and Scratch for next year math courses; i like TA too much and i won't take it apart; but i need to understand well the differences between EToys and Scratch: their goals, their functionalities, pros/cons etc is there a comparative study available ? -- roberto ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [FIELDBACK] Etoys
On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 2:09 PM, Steve Thomas sthom...@gosargon.com wrote: Roberto, Here are some examples of teaching Mathematics with Etoys: thank you What grades and subject matter will you be teaching? subjects: math and physics grades: from age 10 to 18 -- roberto ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [FIELDBACK] Etoys
On Tuesday 02 March 2010 02:28:42 pm Simon Schampijer wrote: An interesting possibility is to get old students to create animated flashcards/sounds clips to teach a topic (say English) to younger students. Traditional flashcards just present a letter as a block. Instead, one can use a bug to create letter shapes with its trail so the children can also perceive how letters are formed. Thanks for that idea. Is there a tutorial for creating flashcards you know of? No. But if you pose it as a challenge for the students I am sure they will figure out a way. Letters like C, D, I, J, L, M, N, O, V, W, Z are easy while A, B, E, F, H, K, T, U, Y may stump them for a moment. S is really difficult and may need some help. Know why S is difficult is part of the fun (cf. Digital Typography by Don Knuth, chapter 13). Subbu ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [FIELDBACK] Etoys
On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 2:43 PM, Simon Schampijer si...@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. thank you for sharing you experience; i have to choose between EToys, Turtle Art and Scratch for next year math courses; i like TA too much and i won't take it apart; but i need to understand well the differences between EToys and Scratch: their goals, their functionalities, pros/cons etc is there a comparative study available ? -- roberto ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [FIELDBACK] Etoys
* Cherry Withers cwith...@ekindling.org [100226 07:42]: 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 did you mean http://www.etoysillinois.org/ Regards/AmicaLinuxement/Saludos/Viele Gruesse! Kurt Gramlich Projektleitung skolelinux.de -- k...@skolelinux.de GnuPG Key ID 0xE263FCD4 http://www.skolelinux.de ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [FIELDBACK] Etoys
On Friday 26 February 2010 12:12:19 pm Cherry Withers wrote: 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. When a new tile is introduced, kids tend to use it over and over many times before they get to a state where they can use it in a project. This is par for the course. Alan's car demo script starts with commands. When the script says forward 5 what exactly is 5 in that blank space? Introducing watchers before commands helps ease the up ramp. Learning about watchers for shapes (length/width/heading), color and border and then position (x,y,..) allows kids to grasp spatial and angular dimensions gradually. BTW, I wouldn't worry about kids finishing a project in the first few sessions. Curiosity and experimentation will dominate the sessions. Only when they reach a zone of comfort with the system will they become receptive to tips on saving their projects. My experience is limited to non-English students in rural India using the English GUI. I don't know how much it would apply to students in other regions. YMMV .. Subbu ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [FIELDBACK] Etoys
Subbu, Thanks for this. Your idea about watchers is a really good one. Gerald On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 7:53 AM, K. K. Subramaniam subb...@gmail.comwrote: On Friday 26 February 2010 12:12:19 pm Cherry Withers wrote: 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. When a new tile is introduced, kids tend to use it over and over many times before they get to a state where they can use it in a project. This is par for the course. Alan's car demo script starts with commands. When the script says forward 5 what exactly is 5 in that blank space? Introducing watchers before commands helps ease the up ramp. Learning about watchers for shapes (length/width/heading), color and border and then position (x,y,..) allows kids to grasp spatial and angular dimensions gradually. BTW, I wouldn't worry about kids finishing a project in the first few sessions. Curiosity and experimentation will dominate the sessions. Only when they reach a zone of comfort with the system will they become receptive to tips on saving their projects. My experience is limited to non-English students in rural India using the English GUI. I don't know how much it would apply to students in other regions. YMMV .. Subbu ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [FIELDBACK] Etoys
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 echer...@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 cwith...@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.ard...@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 cwith...@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 si...@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 ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
Re: [IAEP] [FIELDBACK] Etoys
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.ard...@gmail.comwrote: 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 cwith...@ekindling.orgwrote: 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 si...@schampijer.dewrote: 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 ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
