Re: [IAEP] kids building Re: activities (games) recommended age
Yama, I know a proud father (not affiliated with OLPC in any way, nor is his daughter) whose daughter likes telling stories. She's too young to write them down, so her father helps with that. He has enough of her stories that he's going to publish a collection on Create Space. I've read one of her stories. It wasn't bad. I doubt that the father could do as well without his daughter's assistance. I have two smart nieces. One went to the Illinois Math And Science Academy. The other went to Thomas Jefferson High School in Virginia. In both schools there are no textbooks. The teachers are responsible for creating the materials the students study. I helped my niece with her Java homework, so I got to see the texts she was studying from. They were quite good, and they had a CC license so other schools could use them if they wanted to. I don't know how much effort the teachers put into making that happen. I imagine if they tried too hard they could get into trouble. Going from consumers of education (or even just textbooks) to producers is a big step. Children and teachers alike need some encouragement to make that step. They can't be punished for doing it wrong, or for doing it at all. I'm a big believer in constructionism because as a kid I was always trying to poke around and learn things on my own. I watched Mr. Wizard on TV and my mom bought me his book and I did experiments from the book on my own. I learned about amateur radio and I had a friend whose dad was a Ham who built his own equipment. The antenna in their back yard was almost bigger than their house. Their garage was full of radio parts. So you could say that we have only a handful of students writing code for Sugar and Activities, but they didn't develop in isolation. They're all in the same club. So maybe that's one possibility. You need an environment outside of normal school where a kid can learn stuff he wants to learn without getting punished for his failures, with adults available to offer guidance. James Simmons On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 6:10 PM, Yama Ploskonka yamap...@gmail.com wrote: James, impressive work! congrats! On 11/28/2012 04:19 PM, James Simmons wrote: snip http://www.flossmanuals.net/e-**book-enlightenment/http://www.flossmanuals.net/e-book-enlightenment/ eate books too. Just as we have students writing Sugar Activities and even contributing code to Sugar itself we will also soon have students writing and publishing textbooks and other materials. in a few words, what do you think is the key elements that are stopping kids from doing that? As you present them so well, it is not because of lack of tools and resources. I would assume there would be a ramp up, a few at first, then a deluge. So far apparently really not much... Something must be missing. After 5 years and couple million XO's in the wild, it's not happening (yet?), to the point that maybe it will never happen? BTW, you know that the kids contributing code, they can be counted with the fingers of one hand... Which makes them all the more important, but, again, why not more? why not teachers, hundreds of them? Maybe it's something to do with construct***sm? Evolution? __**_ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/**listinfo/iaephttp://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] kids building Re: activities (games) recommended age
James, impressive work! congrats! On 11/28/2012 04:19 PM, James Simmons wrote: snip http://www.flossmanuals.net/e-book-enlightenment/ eate books too. Just as we have students writing Sugar Activities and even contributing code to Sugar itself we will also soon have students writing and publishing textbooks and other materials. in a few words, what do you think is the key elements that are stopping kids from doing that? As you present them so well, it is not because of lack of tools and resources. I would assume there would be a ramp up, a few at first, then a deluge. So far apparently really not much... Something must be missing. After 5 years and couple million XO's in the wild, it's not happening (yet?), to the point that maybe it will never happen? BTW, you know that the kids contributing code, they can be counted with the fingers of one hand... Which makes them all the more important, but, again, why not more? why not teachers, hundreds of them? Maybe it's something to do with construct***sm? Evolution? ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] kids building Re: activities (games) recommended age
Howdy folks, just a reminder that to get some other folks involved from outside of the IAEP group looking at your educational games questions/comments/research you should think about joining the International Game Developers Association Special Interest group on Learning, Education and Games (https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/igdaleg) We've got 112 members from Industry and Academia and it's a great way to find like minded folks On Nov 28, 2012, at 7:10 PM, Yama Ploskonka wrote: James, impressive work! congrats! On 11/28/2012 04:19 PM, James Simmons wrote: snip http://www.flossmanuals.net/e-book-enlightenment/ eate books too. Just as we have students writing Sugar Activities and even contributing code to Sugar itself we will also soon have students writing and publishing textbooks and other materials. in a few words, what do you think is the key elements that are stopping kids from doing that? As you present them so well, it is not because of lack of tools and resources. I would assume there would be a ramp up, a few at first, then a deluge. So far apparently really not much... Something must be missing. After 5 years and couple million XO's in the wild, it's not happening (yet?), to the point that maybe it will never happen? BTW, you know that the kids contributing code, they can be counted with the fingers of one hand... Which makes them all the more important, but, again, why not more? why not teachers, hundreds of them? Maybe it's something to do with construct***sm? Evolution? ___ 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] kids building Re: activities (games) recommended age
Hi Yama, 2012/11/28 Yama Ploskonka yamap...@gmail.com: why not more? why not teachers, hundreds of them? Few is better then Nothing Projecting a possible situation: If you are a student, you must study and you have the responsibility to conserve your qualifications. If you are teacher, you work and you get money teaching a school program, not contributing to Sugar. Now, I think: If you like history, you are good writing and the author of your history book makes a new edition every year, you may contact the author and contribute to the next edition. But if not; you may wait the content come to you without any interest in participate in its creation and then read it or only take a look at the cover and the table of contents. Cheers, Daniel. ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] kids building Re: activities (games) recommended age
yes sir, 4 is a gazillion-times increase on the statu quo ante! :-) I have been reflecting on how much world open source owes to the subsidies given by European and US university research programs and the ensuing ecosystem of paid grad students and those who want to grow up to become such. And uni professors that get paid couple hundred grand per year or more. Yes, it would seem that to do good *scalably* you do need lots of available time, and someone has to pay for that. Otherwise you're a quijote - we have at least Sebastian and Laura... Now, if what we call education would value and recognize contribution to open source - if having a track record in Communities did give you extra points... If it gave points to the meritos for the teachers (instead of getting them in trouble for being different) Otherwise, as I found out in this diplomado de software libre that was taught in Bolivia, it turns out you're an expert in software libre if you know the history of open source, its advantages, etc. It didn't have a single taller that would be /contributing/ to open source, /living/ it. With 1/2 million XOs in Uruguay, you would expect the Wikipedia articles in UY to be really advanced. Not quite, but better than I thought. Though users seem to have gone down, while they have grown in Pero http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportPageEditsPerCountryBreakdown.htm Let's not forget the no te metás, and el clavo que levanta la cabeza recibe martillo. Quite a difference from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homebrew_Computer_Club , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tech_Model_Railroad_Club In a country that does not allow its kids to use sudo, well, very hard to nation build... That simple thing is symptomatic of the view that the Powers That Be have of those who want to do something different than the officially mandated, one-size-fits-all construct***sm. Things might change. They better. I have high hopes for you guys. Especially that you be hundreds, and thousands, very soon! Have you seen this? Self-taught African Teen Wows M.I.T. - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOLOLrUBRBYnoredirect=1 14-Year-old is America's Top Young Scientist: Her Solar-Powered Jug Purifies Water - YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71c95-LoBok On 11/28/2012 07:52 PM, S. Daniel Francis wrote: Hi Yama, 2012/11/28 Yama Ploskonka yamap...@gmail.com: why not more? why not teachers, hundreds of them? Few is better then Nothing Projecting a possible situation: If you are a student, you must study and you have the responsibility to conserve your qualifications. If you are teacher, you work and you get money teaching a school program, not contributing to Sugar. Now, I think: If you like history, you are good writing and the author of your history book makes a new edition every year, you may contact the author and contribute to the next edition. But if not; you may wait the content come to you without any interest in participate in its creation and then read it or only take a look at the cover and the table of contents. Cheers, Daniel. ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
