[Squeakland] Thank you to all who have gone before

[Kim Rose]

Dear Marsha,

I want to thank you for taking the time and courage to write to us. 
Your feedback is most important to those of us at Viewpoints 
Research/"Squeak Central/Squeakland" and to your fellow teachers who 
are also exploring Squeak and participating on this mailing list. 
Without reports such as yours it is impossible for us to know what is 
happening in classrooms, computing centers, etc. around the world. 
We only have a vague sense of who is using Squeak, which is a strange 
phenomenon given the way people can get Squeak off the web and then 
use it quietly, or with more communication.

In case you don't know who I am, I have spent several years 
developing and testing Squeak-based curriculum in classrooms -- most 
of the "real time" has been spent in Los Angeles public schools.  I 
have been working most closely with BJ Allen-Conn a 4th and 5th grade 
teacher at the Open Charter School.  BJ and I have shared both the 
pleasure and pain that you have experience.  The victories send you 
home believing that our world has a positive future in the hands of 
our children,  and the frustrations make you wonder if the time and 
effort are worth it.  From my experience (I've been working in this 
area with Alan Kay for 17 years now) it *is* worth it, but the kids' 
tears are tough to take.  Thank goodness, this part is occassional. 
(I tell myself the same frustrations occur to learners attempting to 
learn a musical instrument or new language, however, the instrument 
itself should not break!)

When this scenario happens to me, I remind myself that what I am 
doing is *research* and forging new territory in creating new tools 
for learning.  In the classrooms I've been involved in using Squeak 
we have let the kids know that they are part of something new, an 
experimental program and something that is not yet a "product".  When 
the kids hear this and also learn that their reports, remarks, 
feedback are taken to the designers, developers and engineers they 
are generally entusiastic and delighted to participate in the 
creation and change.   In the first years of the Etoy system's 
development we would often make changes in user interface and 
functionality based on teacher and student feedback.  When the 
teachers/students saw those changes materialize a short time after 
making the recommendation they felt a great reward and pride in 
participating.

Here is some concrete info on how you can help....
What will help the developers greatly is if you, and others reading 
this mail (which is why I chose to send my reply to the group and not 
just Marsha) will do this:

When you have a problem, please let us know!  Unless people make 
reports we believe things are going well.  Please don't continue to 
be frustrated and feel alone.  Although we are geographically 
separated, we can use this list and direct email to help, 
troubleshoot. and hopefully solve the problem or change the system to 
improve it.  Using this mailing list  can help identify colleagues in 
your area.  Recently, a group of "New York City Squeakers"  decided 
to meet face to face in a user group meeting.  This will get people 
together to exchange and share project ideas, problems, victories and 
defeats.

When reporting a problem, please let us know what computer platform 
you are using -- there are so many possibilities today, it is 
important for us to know and we are trying to make Squeak work on 
each and every one but there are differences...if it is Windows or 
Mac please let us know which version -- i.e., 2000, XP, home version, 
or Mac OS 9.xx, OSX...OSX.??

Also if you have problems installing, it is important for us to know 
which browser and browser version you are using.

Then, if you have a project which will not save or load or loads and 
appears "broken" or different from the previous time you loaded it, 
please send us mail and attach the project (the .pr file).   Look 
into your "My Squeak" folder to see if there is a "Debug Log" file 
with the time and date that you tried to save the project and send us 
that text file as well.   This will give us specific information to 
evaluate.  Withouth these specifics we are rather helpless.

Also, be sure you are using the latest version of Squeak and have it 
fully updated. We just posted an announcement of new installers which 
are now available via Squeakland.org.  To get this version you must 
do a new installation of Squeak from our website. This install will 
also give you a new "VM" (Virtual machine) which is needed to run the 
application.  Then, it's always a good idea to check for updates now 
and again.  (When we issue something significant we send mail to the 
list but sometimes small updates are issued via the website).  To get 
updates go to Squeakland.org and on the homepage you can "Get Squeak 
Updates" from the "Download Squeak" button in the center of the page.

I am curious, Marsha, to learn more about you and your students -- 
where are you? What age students are you working with?

We want to support you as we have been with others who have been 
courageous enough to try something new, and changing.  I hope you 
will continue to use Squeak and to help us by creating new project 
ideas, sending us feedback so that we might continue to change and 
improve it, etc.   Last summer about 50 "Squeakers" gathered from 
around the country and Canada for a 2 1/12 day "SquaekFest" in 
Chicago.  This was successful for a number of reasons...to meet, to 
share, to build community, etc.  We are planning a SqueakFest for 
summer 2004...details will be coming.  I hope you might be able to 
join us.

Thank you again for being part of this beginning (including the 
growing pains).  We are encouraging the use of the system to gather 
useful experiences (including bugs) and to provide 
perspective-changing experiences for endusers like you.
Please continue to correspond with us, share ideas and problems and 
be part of our great adventure.

regards,
Kim






>It is with much hesitation that I write this, but also with great 
>excitement.  I learned about Squeak this summer and then took the 
>plunge with my students the past few weeks in experimenting with it. 
>We have experienced everything possible....from excitement to 
>frustration.  My students have been so enchanted that they have gone 
>home, downloaded it and played with it and come in and chattered 
>away with what they figured out on their own...and then showed all 
>of us what they learned. Does it get any better than that?  Don't 
>think so.  We've worked to learn how to build scripts, tests, paint, 
>and on and on and on.  We've tried almost all of the different green 
>tiles and tried to see what they do....almost like the old math 
>guess and check method.  Then we wrote down what they did.  Pretty 
>crude but we didn't know how else to attack it and it sort of 
>worked.  Then we just jumped in and figured out which ones we could 
>use to do the things we wanted to do to build the animations the 
>kids wanted to create.  Barbie cars at the beach, rocket ships, 
>Sonic the hedgehog, skateboarders, and on and on. We had a gallery 
>showing today and they pretty much worked and we called it good.
>
>Yet, it is so frustrating at the same time.  There isn't enough 
>places to go to learn what to do and how to fix stuff.  And we've 
>had tears when we've lost stuff or they've been so frustrated that 
>they just gave up.  One of my skateboarder kids just freaked and 
>quit.  Hopefully he'll try again but I just didn't know what to do 
>to help him anymore than I did.
>
>But I count it all a victory because this Squeak is very cool and 
>engages them like I haven't seen anything else do.  I am working so 
>hard at getting one of our math teachers to let me integrate this 
>into one of the modules they have.  I'm experimenting at home in my 
>spare time and if I can come up with something, I think she'll be up 
>for it.  Because I think the real excitement of this is really out 
>in the math or science classroom instead of just in my 
>animations....although they are great fun.
>
>All of you who write on this list do things I don't 
>understand.....that's OK because someday I will.  I thank you for 
>having something like this for teachers like me who want to learn 
>and having a place just to listen in on those of you who do get it. 
>And I wanted to share our small victory with you because it is 
>inspired by what you write and I read.  So thank you.
>
>marsha ratzel
>
>_

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