[Squeakland] collaborative uses

[Randy Heiland]

Thanks for the reply, Kim.  I do plan to attend the Chicago SqueakFest
and hope to learn much more then.  I'm quickly getting attached to
Squeak as a science/math learning tool - having bought the "Powerful
Ideas ..." book, Squeak DVD, and playing with it with my 7-year-old.
I'd be curious how many folks who are members of nsta.org are familiar
with/using Squeak (I just recently became a NSTA member).  Perhaps
having a workshop at the annual NSTA mtg next year would be something to
shoot for.  For now, I intend to take a grass-roots approach by teaching
a Sat. morning class at our county library.

I head up a new, small lab here in Indianapolis that's one of a
so-called "Pervasive Technology Labs" affiliated with Indiana
University.  My lab is called the Scientific Data Analysis Lab and one
area I'd like to become more involved in is K-12 science & math
education using computers/IT.  Indianapolis also has some terrific
museums where it would be interesting to set up a "Squeak station" for
children to use.  One thought I've recently had is to consider porting
Squeak to a large tabletop display which a sister lab has devised that
would allow for multiple (~3) children to stand around and collaborate.
(This would require changes to the user interface/mouse).

I'm certainly open to the possibility of going after joint funding and
would be happy to discuss this offline (as I'm sure many other academics
are :).

--Randy

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kim Rose [mailto:kim.rose at squeakland.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2004 10:25 AM
> To: Randy Heiland
> Cc: squeakland.org mailing list
> Subject: Re: [Squeakland] collaborative uses
> 
> Hi, Randy -
> 
> When I think of "collaborative possibilities with Squeak" I think
> first of people getting together and working together in groups
> toward a common set of goals.  Ironically, I don't think immediately
> of how the Squeak enviornment might help us collaborate, but rather
> how we can work together socially (either via email, phone, face to
> face meetings) to create more curriculum, project examples for new
> users, new "first time" and introductory experiences, etc.
> 
> In "Squeakland" we have a developing community of players and
> practitioners who are very interested in coming together and creating
> some of this work.  SqueakFest (in Chicago/August) will give us an
> opportunity to meet face to face, exhange ideas, develop deeper
> relationships and enable opportunities to work together to produce
> some meaningful Squeak-based content and proejcts.
> 
> The workshop at Teachers Colleage (April 1 and 2) also just
> announced, is another opportunity for collaboration.  The folks at
> T.C. are most interested in establishing a shared database/repository
> of Etoy projects accessible to teachers and students to which we
> might all contribute examples.
> 
> Other possibilities are to enter into grant opportunities together to
> receive funding to enable further development of not only the Squeak
> system,  but again, content and projects suitable for different
> learners of different ages, in different subject matter areas.  I
> think this is what we deeply need at this time.
> 
> Hope to meet you in either New York, or Chicago or both!
> cheers,
> Kim
> 
> 
> 
> >Hello,
> >
> >I was just curious if there are any existing collaborative
possibilities
> >with Squeak?  This is a very open-ended question, I realize, but I'm
> >interested in any/all aspects of it.  Well, I'm not into multiuser
> >gaming.  I am curious about the possibility of squeakers being able
to,
> >say, obtain/display data from online instruments.  Or being able to
> >build up a regional/national database of (local) measurements -
similar
> >to the "plot of temperatures" figure in Alan Kay's "Computers,
Networks
> >and Education" paper?
> >
> >More on the tech side, are protocols such as XML-RPC supported in
> >Squeak?
> >
> >thanks,
> >Randy
> >
> >
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