[squeakland] Artifacts in ObjectCatalog

[kharness at illinois.edu]

Subbu,
This sounds very much like what I do with my 2nd-5th grade students. This year, their first project started out painting an aquarium scene based on the one in our school and over several weeks, after the backgrounds were in good shape, we started painting something we would make move. I posted and tagged many of their projects as Aquarium and Seaside on EtoysIllinois. They are pretty to visit. We take our time with these early projects and the layers of complexity grow as children have ideas about what they want to have happen. So some projects use test statement to control an event like a coconut falling from a tree or a ship running aground. Other projects are fish with forward and bounce tiles. 

I do not grade projects but rather talk about the kinds of things they must include for example water, plants, rocks/sand, aquatic life, title. We check and recheck the spelling and at the end we talk about how to make sure it looks finished. We talk about making it easy for visitors to the projects. Eg are things where they should be when someone first looks at the project? ( When we make geometry puzzles sometimes they solve the puzzle rather than leave it as a puzzle for others to solve.) Switching their point of view from author to visitor takes thought.  Does the title look good where it is, is it easy to see,  good size and color and location? Does the project need a Scriptor or will it use an all scripts button? Does it need directions or helpful information? Usually we take a class period to move around from computer to computer to try other people's projects. Sometimes this causes changes based on new good ideas or problems they recognize in others but not in their !
 ow!
n until they see them. Lastly no trash can or trash left in the project unless it has a purpose. 

You mentioned font problems for Kannada. Would something like this letter slate project be useful? http://www.etoysillinois.org/library.php?sl=194  was done a few years ago but I still see children open those projects and write messages with the letters; good for titles, labels, or short poems. Children drew the letters of the alphabet each as a separate object and then put each on a maker button for an endless supply.

We did the same with numbers. http://www.etoysillinois.org/library.php?sl=195&viewProject The number slates ended up with children using them to make math problems for others to solve then and there. We also used these slates for making patterns. Those got tricky because they would blend number patterns and color patterns.
Regards,
Kathleen

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2010 23:58:28 +0530
>From: "K. K. Subramaniam" <kksubbu.ml at gmail.com>  
>Subject: Re: [squeakland] Artifacts in ObjectCatalog  
>To: kharness at illinois.edu
>Cc: squeakland at squeakland.org
>
>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