[squeakland] education meeting notes

[Rita Freudenberg]

Dear educators,

here are the meeting notes from our last meeting(s)! 

In our meeting yesterday we had a great discussion with Ana Maria Vacca from the Catholic university of Montevideo about Squeakfest, how to build on that, how to follow up, how can we support the teachers and students to use Etoys in the classroom. Ana Maria told us about the current situation in Uruguay, where most of the teachers are not using the computer in new ways. For instance, when starting Etoys, they see the book, that reminds them of power point and this is the way they use Etoys. Her aim is to help them use the computer in powerful ways, to use it to enhance learning. That requires a change in teaching. 
Marta stated that we need to think beyound the classroom, that the educational system needs to change. The coordinators in the educational systems need to understand, why learning powerful ideas is worthwhile. One of her ideas was to compare the traditional teaching to teaching powerful ideas. We also need to explain the value of Etoys and constructionist learning to the parents. 

We will continue the discussion, we will connect with the education team at Plan Ceibal and talk about the ceibal portal. We would like to put more information about Etoys there, especially a forum where teachers and users can ask questions and get answers. 
Ana Maria will take a closer look at Etoys, especially on Randy's projects. Then we can make more concrete plans. Until then, Randy suggested we start a new book for teachers to help them to introduce Etoys in their classrooms. We will start with an outline soon. 

Thank you all for a great meeting!

Here you can find the chat log:

http://wiki.squeakland.org/display/sq/2011/06/24/education+team+meeting+June%2C+23+and+June%2C+16

Greetings,
Rita