[Squeakland] painting with Etoys

[Paulo Drummond]

 From the time a child understands and actually use some of the  
functions of his/her fingers, any other (unnatural) interface will be  
difficult to understand, and will require a more experienced kid (or  
an adult) to show the first steps. Even with a real brush. Trial and  
error -- or discovery learning -- is one of the first things a child  
uses to develop his/her self-confidence.

I guess Etoys palette tool does a great job for kids of a certain age,  
and it is certainly a first step for creating objects, no matter shape  
this object may have.

So, yes, for a certaing age group, Etoys could well be preset to be  
opened with the paint tool already on. It could "invite" them to  
create almost immediately, just for the sake of creation (the object  
concept could be introduced later). For more experienced groups, just  
leave as it is now.

my 2ç

On Mar 1, 2009, at 1:28 PM, K. K. Subramaniam wrote:

> On Sunday 01 Mar 2009 6:49:47 pm Rita Freudenberg wrote:
>> That reminds me of a discussion about lowering the threshold into
>> Etoys by using it as a painting tool. I think, Yoshiki answered a
>> question about that. I'm not sure on which mailing list this
>> discussion took place. But nevertheless I think it is a very
>> interesting thought to have an Etoys version that maybe starts with
>> the paint tool open?
> The paint tool interface is complicated for children who are not yet
> functionally literate in the interface language. Artpad painter
> (artpad.art.com/artpad/painter) does a better job in introducing  
> painting to
> young kids.
>
> BTW, painting is not required to start composing etoys. The supplies  
> bin
> already has objects like Ellipse, Stars and Rectangles that can be  
> put to
> good use (e.g. http://community.ofset.org/index.php/Art_et_Squeak).
>
> Subbu
>
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