On Friday 26 Oct 2012 8:28:08 PM Harness, Kathleen wrote:
It is, however, great publicity for our pilot of Etoys in Champaign middle schools. I heard today that the city newspaper is doing interviews for an article and a local TV station has started filming for a story too.
Getting Etoys into mainstream education is an exciting development, esp. in middle school. I am glad that Jessica Pitcher pitched it this way: ---- “I feel like I just have scratched the surface of what you can actually do with Etoys,” she said, “There’s so many options and so many ways that you can use problem-solving skills and do problem-based learning with it. I really think there’s a lot of possibilities for a large range of ages.” ---- The use of Etoys goes beyond just programming into the zone of "ideation" and it can be used by students of all aptitudes.
Now that Etoys has been around for quite a few years in your schools, we should have enough data on its long term impact on students. Are you aware of any longitudinal studies? Often, the deeper benefits like increased problem- solving skills may take years to emerge. Semester or annual grading may miss it.
Regards .. Subbu