[Squeakland] ideas to promote squeak in telecenters in Brazil

[Alan Kay]

Yes, Scratch is another Squeak based authoring 
system for young people. MIT did a nice job with 
it. It is aimed at teenagers and is more of a 
productivity tool than an educational authoring environment.

Cheers,

Alan

---------------

At 02:18 AM 5/21/2007, José Luis Redrejo wrote:
>For telecenters, I would take a look to Scratch 
>( 
><http://scratch.mit.edu/>http://scratch.mit.edu/ 
>), even if at their homepage they only speak 
>about windows and macintosh, it works under 
>linux too (only some issues with the midi 
>support are still remaining, but the rest of the 
>tool works ok). I think Scratch is specially 
>thought for places as telecenters.
>Regards
>
>2007/5/21, Marta Voelcker 
><<mailto:marta at pensamentodigital.org.br>marta at pensamentodigital.org.br>:
>Dear Squeakers,
>
>As one of the researchers from the University 
>that is running the OLPC pilot project in Porto 
>Alegre, Brazil, I was introduced to squeak, last 
>February, when I could bring an XO home during a weekend.
>
>But now,  my work  is related to promote 
>capacity building to the staff of  organizations that run TELECENTERS.
>
>Telecenters, in Brazil, are rooms with an 
>average of 12 computers(PCs) with access to 
>Internet inside NGOs or grassroots 
>organizations, located in low-income communities in Brazil.
>
>I am the coordinator of a Foundation that 
>promotes capacity building to the staff of these 
>organizations, to implement curses in 
>telecenters. Our methodology has the same line of constructionism...
>We have been working "IT Basic 
>knowledge"  through project-based learning, now we want to start using Squeak.
>
>In Brazil, schools work on shifts. Children go 
>to school in the morning (8:00 to 12:00) or in 
>the afternoon (2:00 to 18:00). If the child goes 
>in the morning, during the afternoon he or she 
>might get a vacancy in an after school program 
>offered by an NGO or grassroots organization, or 
>religious organization. Government helps 
>supporting these organizations to implement this 
>after school programs. Those organizations are 
>frequently receiving refurbished computers and 
>building partnerships to create their 
>telecenter. Than, they come to us, asking for 
>guidance about what to do with the telecenter.
>
>So, we have telecenters as informal educational 
>environment to work with children and teenagers. 
>We don't need to relate our work to school 
>curriculum, we can promote any kind of curses, 
>workshop, guided playtime... any thing!
>
>We have about 45 of these NGOs equipped with 
>telecenters in Porto Alegre, already working 
>with us (from a total of 150 NGOs partners from other cities).
>
>Our motivation is strongly related to develop 
>programming skills on children and teenagers.
>
>We are thinking about to start with a group of 
>age around 10 and another group around 15. We 
>would choose one  telecenter and plan to  work 
>there ( instead of train their staff).
>
>But what would we teach? Should we keep thinking 
>in project-based learning? When we use  other 
>software we frequently start working 
>with  identity construction, and after some 
>exploration of the software, the group starts a project...
>
>But to understand the basis of squeak, the 
>"drive a car " project seems so important!!!
>
>Well, sorry guys to be so long in this Sunday 
>night! Seems that to write to you already made some goals clear to me!
>
>Ideas, experiences and suggestions are welcome!
>
>regards,
>
>Marta Voelcker
>
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