Squeak ideas for a classroom/clubhouse
John Steinmetz
johns
Fri Apr 18 14:54:41 PDT 2003
>1) How does one act as a facilitator in such an open setting with Squeak,
>so as to allow diverse views of what each wants to do, but still make sure
>that there is some learning (and not just air guitaring) going on? There is
>so much you can do with Squeak (no ceiling), but how does one try to nudge
>it along lines that will lead to good learning -- or is that a
contradiction in terms?
Think of a good question or a good project, preferably one with
multiple good solutions. In the early stages this might be fairly
tightly constrained ("Draw a car and steering wheel, and use the
wheel to drive the car.") Later projects, when users have more
experience and know the tools available, can be more open-ended.
To make sure learning happens, the project contains a challenge: some
particular thing must be accomplished. It must be easy for students
to know if they have met the challenge ("My car isn't obeying my
steering wheel!"), even though they may take different paths to the
solution. They don't have to invent the means to meet the challenge;
they can help each other and learn from each other.
Another way to check on the learning is to give a followup project,
to see if students are able to use what they supposedly learned in
the first project.
Facilitation mostly consists of asking questions (What causes that
turning? What would make it turn more slowly? what's another way to
do the same thing?) Sometimes, of course, one needs to demonstrate
how the user interface works or how a particular tile works. It's
best when the coach doesn't provide answers, but helps students solve
problems for themselves.
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