[squeakland] [IAEP] Why is Scratch more popular than Etoys?

[K. K. Subramaniam]

On Monday 19 Sep 2011 2:27:55 AM Jecel Assumpcao Jr. wrote:
> About programming for the masses, I see two educational reasons to
> insist on that.
The debates about programmin I encounter is usually around "how" and not 
"why".
> A much better reason is Papert's: so the children will have an object to
> think with. The idea is to learn to learn but we need a suitable way to
> talk about learning strategies.
Papert had a multi-modal approach to develop thinking skills in children - 
using large spaces, physical movement, manipulation in three- and two-
dimensional spaces etc. Etoys collapses everything to a single dimension - 
left-to-right sequence in tiles and top-bottom in scripts.

Papert's methods were more closely aligned to the way children think and act 
while the gap seems to be much larger in Etoys and smaller in the case of 
TuxPaint or Scratch. There is lot more in Etoys than in these two but that is 
irrelevant if children cannot cross the initial chasm. Yes, a few children may 
make it across the chasm on their own steam, but thinking tools should be 
designed to benefit 80% of children, not just the top quintile.

Regards .. Subbu