Fwd: Re: Squeak ideas for a classroom/clubhouse

[Kim Rose]

>Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 10:03:48 -0800
>To: jahanzeb at lums.edu.pk
>From: Kim Rose <Kim.Rose at viewpointsresearch.org>
>Subject: Re: Squeak ideas for a classroom/clubhouse
>Cc: Squeakland.org mailing list
>Bcc:
>X-Attachments:
>
>Hi, Jahanzeb -
>
>Thanks for sharing your initial experiences and suggestions.
>
>Your suggestions on the Paint tutorial are well taken; we will 
>revisit that and make some changes based on your experience and 
>suggestions. Thanks.
>
>I am suprised to hear this:
>>2) To demonstrate the simplest of scripts, by creating a sketch, and then
>>dragging the "Sketch Forward by 5" tile to the workspace, 50% of the time
>>the tile transforms into a new script, and the other 50% it just sits there
>>as a tile (and not a script). Only after dragging an "empty script" tile,
>>and then putting the "forward by 5" tile onto it, does it achieve the
>>desired effect. Is there something that I'm doing differently in these 2
>scenarios, or is it something else?
>
>I cannot drag the "sketch forward by 5" tiles to the workspace 
>*without* it creating a script to contain those tiles....hmmm??  Can 
>anyone else offer an insight? (Scott, perhaps???)  The "empty" 
>script is available an an alternative way to start..
>
>I see that Andreas Raab addressed your other questions.
>We wish you continued good luck with your sessions!  Your input 
>provides us with great feedback so that we can continue to improve 
>Squeak and help others as they begin to use it too.
>
>  -- Kim
>
>
>
>At 1:00 PM -0800 1/14/03, Jahanzeb Sherwani wrote:
>>Hello everyone,
>>
>>Thanks to everyone who replied... it's been excellent advice, and I will
>>write back in great detail to each of your mails individually. Right now,
>>I'm in between the two weekly sessions (Tue & Thu) and have a truckload of
>>things to take care of before then, most importantly planning the next
>>session and going over what happened in our first one with my research
>>supervisor. I can probably write a rather good "How NOT to conduct your
>>first squeak session with children" paper right now! :) Having been through
>>one session, and reading your mails again, I realize the importance of a
>>variety of pertinent points that each of you have put across.
>>
>>For instance, I assumed that the tutorials would be a great place to start,
>>so I cobbled together an offline version of the tutorial page on
>>squeakland.org and we got the kids to start off with the Paint tutorial.
>>However, without having a *need* to learn, and a context to learn within,
>>it seemed to everyone that we were introducing nothing more than a
>>glorified paint program, until the very end when we were able to get them
>>to put in some basic functionality. That was just one of the mistakes we
>>made in our research design.
>>
>>One suggestion that I have, though, is that in the Paint tutorial where it
>>says to drag a paint icon into the working area, MOST kids dragged it out
>>onto the world, not just the work area, and so weren't able to access the
>>nextpage prevpage yellow buttons. In fact, I even made this mistake myself
>>at home, but I figured that others would not be silly enough to do it too!
>>If there's any workaround for that problem, it might help for subsequent
>>users of the tutorial. Just a suggestion!
>>
>>I can describe the various problems (mostly due to my mistakes in setting
>>up the structure session) in great detail if anyone is interested.
>>Actually, my research supervisor (who co-conducted the session with me)
>>suggested we should actually write another paper on what we were thinking,
>>and how things actually happened, so that others who embark on similar
>>projects don't get into them again.
>>
>>Anyway, I'll get to these concerns on the weekend most probably. Right now
>>I have a few pressing technical concerns that I need to fix before our next
>>session:
>>
>>1) The school's PCs are networked, but offline. On installing the squeak
>>plugin, and running it, it asks for updating itself but cannot. Would
>>copying over the SqueakPlugin.image file from an updated version fix this?
>>I'm now assuming it will, but I didn't get a chance to try this because the
>>error came too late in the game for me to try new things at the time.
>>
>>2) To demonstrate the simplest of scripts, by creating a sketch, and then
>>dragging the "Sketch Forward by 5" tile to the workspace, 50% of the time
>>the tile transforms into a new script, and the other 50% it just sits there
>>as a tile (and not a script). Only after dragging an "empty script" tile,
>>and then putting the "forward by 5" tile onto it, does it achieve the
>>desired effect. Is there something that I'm doing differently in these 2
>>scenarios, or is it something else?
>>
>>3) Whats the easiest way of creating a central place where they can put
>>their projects up in separate spaces, yet shareable and viewable by all? I
>>have a swiki running on one of the PCs, and they are all on a LAN.
>>
>>4) To save a project, does the Publish button save it both locally and on a
>>server? Also, what's the easiest way for them to browse the projects that
>>they have saved, without getting into the hassle of dragging-and-dropping
>>from Windows explorer into the Squeak window?
>>
>>Again, I'm deeply grateful for the thoughtful responses that I've received
>>from all of you who wrote back to my initial mail. Thank you all very much,
>>and I'll get back to in a few days.
>>
>>Jahanzeb Sherwani
>
>
>--
>


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