[Squeakland] Re: Squeaking Homeschoolers?

[Gary Frederick]

Howdy,

I showed her how to start Squeak and how to run the tutorials I got from
   http://www.squeakland.org/author/etoys.html#tutorials

I asked her to play with the car example in "The World of Squeak: 
Scripts". She did the tutorials, played with the script example and then 
looked around. She modified the example, replacing the car with 
something that looks more like a LEGO RCX. She added some of the widgets 
to the track and set it to go around the track by moving forward then 
turning. She then looked at some of the other examples in "The World of 
Squeak". She ended up playing with the music examples, modifying some 
midi files.

She thinks Squeak is worth using more. She said it was confusing at 
first and would have liked to have some help as she was getting going.

She felt uncomfortable with saving the image at first, wondering if she 
would break something when she saved.

She had some trouble when she was working with her image. We may get 
back with details. She found drawing to be comparable to using the Paint 
program on Windows.

I asked her to start using Squeak to get a feel for what it is like to 
start Squeaking around without much input. We will work with the kids 
when we introduce them, giving them support where needed. I'll get back 
with anything that seems worth saying as I show kids.

Gary


Kim Rose wrote:

> Hi, Gary -
> We'll be interested to learn more about your daughter's experiences and 
> thoughts!
> thanks,
> Kim
> 
> 
> t 8:55 AM -0600 3/22/04, Gary Frederick wrote:
> 
>> I'm looking over some of the recent messages and came across this one.
>>
>> I'll be showing homeschoolers Squeak and seeing where they take it 
>> over the next little bit. We are working on software that helps you 
>> learn to program. I'm thinking of showing one of our classes Squeak 
>> today and another Wednesday. The classes are very small (5-6 kids) and 
>> the average age is 12. One is all homeschoolers and another is not.
>>
>>> The first aims for the Squeak etoys were at what we called "lapware" 
>>> (a parent with a child on their lap). And we have been wanting to do 
>>> a major push for homeschoolers for quite a few years.
>>
>>
>> I remember our daughter setting on my lap drawing flowers and other 
>> shapes with LOGO. Several years later we were looking at Toontalk and 
>> remember the fantastic feeling I got as she was 'aha'ing the messaging 
>> between processes. She played with some of the etoys yeserday and I 
>> look forward to seeing what she came up with. (She is way bigger than 
>> lap size now :-)
>>
>> Gary
>>
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