Tore -
Thank you for that valuable contribution to this discussion. I think
you nailed it perfectly here:
In my opinion LiveCode should try to put together a package of
resources that can help teachers to use LiveCode in accordance
with the competence aims of their respective curriculums.
What could happen if we change "LiveCode" there to "we"?
The company has many deep technical obligations to complete, and
education is an area that really needs the insights of education
specialists to guide it.
And since we're talking about things that would be scripted, who better
to do that than educators who script?
How shall we proceed with identifying the tools and other resources we
need to fulfill the vision you've outlined here?
We set up a section of the forums for educational outreach:
http://forums.livecode.com/viewforum.php?f=107
I would encourage you to consider posting your thoughts there, and let's
see if we can put together a team and make it happen.
--
Richard Gaskin
LiveCode Community Manager
rich...@livecode.org
Tore Nilsen wrote:
27. feb. 2016 kl. 03.35 skrev ambassador at fourthworld.com:
Another good way to get a user base is to be available in schools.
This is hard work, as network administrators, school boards, and
politicians are often against all change. RunRev put a little
effort into this a long time ago and I don't think they currently
do anything in this regard.
Agreed, it is hard.
What specifically do you think LiveCode Ltd should be doing for greater EDU
outreach?
And what do you think the community of educators using LC might be able to do
to also further those goals?
Apologies for the length of this, but the questions raised by Richard are
something I have been thinking about for quite some time.
As a teacher I use LiveCode for two different purposes:
a) As a tool to make educational software “on the fly”. I find LiveCode to be
an invaluable resource, if and when I encounter a situation where I can see
that my students will benefit from using digital learning material. I can
easily make an application that will either help my students in the process of
understanding a particular topic, practice skills or solve problems. Since I am
making my own pedagogical software, I can be quite certain that it will fulfil
the needs of my students, and myself, at any given time. This is in my opinion
a great time saver, as I do not have to spend time looking for a solution for
my particular problem(s), only to discover, half way through the process, that
the chosen application does not have the content or the methods I am looking
for.
I think a lot of teachers would benefit from being able to make their own
software. This is one area where I think LiveCode as a company should focus
their effort and where educators using LiveCode can contribute. Most teachers
would be happy to use the community edition of LiveCode, so in order to make
some money out of this, LiveCode should put together a course package, that
could be sold at a reasonable price, either to individual teachers, to single
schools or to groups of schools.
Educators using LiveCode could help put together such a course. The content of
the course should be delivered as media rich content with video lessons, text
material and sample stacks to show a variety of possible solutions. Educators
familiar with LiveCode could also be listed as “certified” instructors. If this
is done right, LiveCode should then be able to offer this course both with or
without instructors.Schools and teachers will have the opportunity to decide
whether to do this on a personal basis or as a part of the schools effort to
enhance the skills of its teachers.
b) I also use LiveCode as the preferred tool to teach programming to our last
year students in an upper secondary school in Norway. It is not necessary for
the students to have any prior knowledge or experience in programming or
coding, and only a handful of them do have such knowledge. I have found
LiveCode to be a very good tool in this course. The main reason being that my
students can concentrate on learning and understanding the principles behind
programming, as they already do understand most of the basic syntax. I have
found that LiveCode easily adapts to our national curriculum, and in some parts
actually makes it easier for my students to perform at the highest level of
competence, as it is described in the competence aims in the curriculum.
In my opinion LiveCode should try to put together a package of resources that
can help teachers to use LiveCode in accordance with the competence aims of
their respective curriculums. The resources should ideally be localised and
presented in native language wherever possible. The content of these resources
should be linked to the different competence aims of the curriculums, with a
clear explanation of how different techniques demonstrates important principles
in programming.
This is also on area where educators can help out, choosing the appropriate
resources based on their personal knowledge off their curriculums and
experiences as teachers. It should be possible to come up with suggested year
plans to help teachers to use LiveCode as their preferred tool for teaching
programming. Such plans could serve as an interactive “menu” by which the
students could access the different resources. These resources could be
webpages, videos, downloadable stacks, presentations and text files.
LiveCode could sell these packages together with an Indy licence at reduced
price for teachers, a hosting solution for schools and offer a community for
both students and teachers alike, thereby making it possible for a wider
network of students and teachers to collaborate. As with the course for helping
teachers to make their own software, educators familiar with LiveCode could
become “certified” instructors, and LiveCode could offer introduction courses
in using LiveCode as a tool for teaching programming.
Another area into which LiveCode could venture, is the ever-growing area of
code-club initiatives. Many of the aforementioned resources could be targeted
at this segment, and both teachers and other users of LiveCode could use these
resources to offer LiveCode as a tool for children and youth who would like to
learn how to program, out of school.
I do appreciate the fact that these suggestions will demand personell, time and
financial support from LiveCode, and that the company may not have the
sufficient amount of resources to back such initiatives. I still think it is
important that the company invests time and resources to reach out to the
educational sector, and that it does so in a manner that will make them a
viable player in this market. They need to be visible in the most important
arena where the future customers and users are.
In the last five years, I have been attending the BETT-show in London, on the
behalf of my school on several occasions. For those unfamiliar with the
BETT-show, it is the largest expo of tech in education in Europe, and it
attracts thousands of teachers, school management, network administrators and
others with a connection to education, from all over Europe. Even though I
often find most of what happens there to be of lesser interest, I can’t help
but thinking that LiveCode should consider participating. I don’t know the cost
of participating, and my guess is it would not be cheap to have a decent sized
stand. In my opinion the most successful stands are those who not only put a
product on display. In order to make an impact, it should be possible to have
fringe seminars within the stand, where the audience could see demonstrations
of the capabilities of LiveCode. Such demonstrations could also be in area
where educators could help out.
I hope that someone would make an initiative to bring together educators who
use LiveCode on different levels, to discuss how we can contribute to bring
LiveCode into schools, as a part of the conference in Edinburgh. I am attending
the conference, and I would very much like to take part in both a discussion
about the future of LiveCode in education, and any initiative that may come
from it.
Regards
Tore Nilsen
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