Squeak ideas for a classroom/clubhouse

[Andreas Raab]

Hi Jahanzeb,

A few quick answers to your questions:

> 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?

Yes, it would. Though I'm wondering - did you mirror the Squeakland
stuff for offline use?! The plugin should only ask for updates when you
run it in the browser ... and then we generally assume that you are
online ;-)

> 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).

The rule is: If you drag a tile out of the viewer, it *will* create a
new script. If you drag it out of an existing script it will *not*
create a new script. I know this is slightly inconsistent but it seemed
to be the best solution considering all the other tradeoffs.

> 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.

If you want each of the kids to have their own folder, you need some
sort of shared network drive they have access to. In order to identify
"their" folder they will have to log on though (so Squeak can see who
they are). There are some settings that one can use to make this
accessible (Mike might be able to help you with this).

> 4) To save a project, does the Publish button save it both 
> locally and on a server?

Yes.

> 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?

Use the "FIND" button, Luke! In the nav bar where the publish button is.

Cheers,
  - Andreas