[squeakland] Artifacts in ObjectCatalog

[K. K. Subramaniam]

On Monday, May 31, 2010 11:42:49 pm kharness at illinois.edu wrote:
> Subbu,
> That sounds great that it is being used in so many schools. I wish I could
> say the same! What kinds of projects are students making? 
They start with painting simple figures while practising their WIMP skills. 
Simple figures are then composed leading to beautiful patterns exploring 
symmetry and colors.  We still don't have support for native language 
(Kannada) so titles and labels are typeset using LaTeX. After about a year of 
work, interest turns to animations involving revolving objects like moon and 
earth, eclipses, spinning wheels etc. Others use linear movements like 
football, driving car etc.

Back home, where English is not a barrier, I have seen my daughter create 
projects like a MS-paint like program, basketball games, pac-man type games, 
animated greeting cards etc. An interesting innovation was the use of whistle 
tones to control variables. I wished my mobile used whistles instead of voice 
recognition for activation ;-). No worries about ambient noise or accents.

I have not posted the projects because the aim of our intervention is different 
from regular deployments. We introduced Etoys in schools to stimulate the 
lower quintile performers to think and express freely and to aspire for higher 
goals. Etoys is not used for teaching lessons and projects are not assessed. 
Learning happens while "doing" and we use projects only as an evidence of such 
efforts. Students become more inquisitive, expand their reading habits and open 
up to a wider world. Once they get energised and become receptive to learning, 
the task of engaging their attention towards meeting curricular demands 
becomes easier for the teacher.

Subbu