Hi Squeakers,
Is anyone out there controlling your LEGO MindStorm from Squeak? I
found this page:
http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~lego/
and just attempted to use it, but was unsuccessful. On closer reading,
it's probably because I'm using MindStorm Invention 2.0 with an IR tower
attached via USB.
Any advice/links, etc much appreciated!
--Randy
Hi Kim,
My name is Miriam Bogler and I am a new user of Squeak. I have been using it
for about a year now. I am a database developer and a former computer
teacher for grades 1 -12, teaching a wide variety of softwares - with a
focus on Logo programming (MicroWorlds). At present I have founded a
non-profit organization that intends to open an after-school club which will
be dedicated to introduce technologies that encourage children to create
their own products. It will be similar to the first MIT after-school club.
At present, my organization is functioning in the San Fernando Valley
(Northridge) and helps local public and private schools establish techology
programs that include: robotics-using Lego Mindstorms, game design-using
Squeak, and Macromedia's Director.
I discovered Squeak about a year ago, and proceeded to read "Powerful Ideas
in the Classroom," which helped me discover new things daily. About six
months ago, I started teaching a Squeak class for fifth graders at Napa
Street Elementary School - a Title One public school in Northridge. These
children have been previously exposed to Lego Mindstorms, so they were not
entirely new to programming. The learning curve was much higher than in
Mindstorms and therefore I had to be very creative in attracting their
attention to the task. I decided to introduce small manageable tasks and
urged students that understood and seemed comfortable with the ideas to
assist the other students. I am a strong believer that teaching to others
assists one in learning the information and concepts themselves, because one
must truly be proficient in order to relay information to someone else. My
idea seemed to work better than I imagined. Students, equipped with a new
sense of responsibility, were eager to teach their peers the skills that
they mastered so well. Suddenly, everyone wanted to become a teacher and
teach something the rest did not get. A new atmosphere emerged in the
classroom, in which students started appreciating Squeak and understanding
its potential. Their new- found confidence manifested itself in
personalizing the project that was initially intended to teach them the
skills. Finally, they became so engaged that they asked to come to class on
a day that school was not in session. For me, this was a sign of bigger
things to come.
My main frustration with Squeak was the fact that I did not have a
systematic, detailed help source. In my attempt to master the skills, I went
through many sources of help such as: the tutorial on the web, the Powerful
Ideas book, different projects on the internet. One that I particularily
enjoyed was the project created by Dr. Alan Kay, which was a reply for
Tamika. However, even that project seemed to have missing scripts and syntax
that changed since it was created. As I created more projects, I figured out
new things all the time. It was very time-consuming, however . I wish we had
more sample projects such as the Tamika, which would serve as a sample for
users to expand on. There may be resources out there that I am not currently
aware of, but there were many details I was unable to figure out due to a
lack of known resources. I am aware that there are plenty of resources for
SamllTalk. I am referring to E-Toys because I teach small children.
As a former teacher of Logo using MicroWorlds, I must say that I am amazed
with the possibilities in Squeak (or E-Toys). However, in order to have the
children benefit from this powerful program, they probably need access to a
help menu that would provide a small animation of what can be done with a
Squeak component that they are retrieving. Learners in general, and children
in particular, learn best by example. A good example is worth a thousand
words.
Miriam E. Bogler
President
Apollo's Vision Computer Clubs, Inc.
22560-3 Jeffrey Mark Ct.
Chatsworth, CA 91311
Tel: (818) 576-1428
Fax: (818) 773-8970
E-mail: mebogler(a)apollosvision.org
Web: www.apollosvision.org
-----Original Message-----
From: squeakland-bounces(a)squeakland.org
[mailto:squeakland-bounces@squeakland.org] On Behalf Of
squeakland-request(a)squeakland.org
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2004 12:00 PM
To: squeakland(a)squeakland.org
Subject: Squeakland Digest, Vol 14, Issue 10
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Today's Topics:
1. Happy Summer - Please send us your feedack! (Kim Rose)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 11:27:48 -0700
From: Kim Rose <kim.rose(a)squeakland.org>
Subject: [Squeakland] Happy Summer - Please send us your feedack!
To: "squeakland.org mailing list" <squeakland(a)squeakland.org>
Message-ID: <a0602040cbcff6cfc6946(a)[192.168.0.52]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
Dear Squeaklanders,
Happy Summer! For those of you affiiliated with schools or universities I
imagine your summer has just begun. I hope you all had a wonderful academic
year.
Before you go off on well-deserved holidays, or get "out of school
mode", we at Viewpoints Research ask a favor: If you've been using
Squeak/Etoys this year with your children (at home, school, after school
clubhouses, etc., etc.) we'd love to receive your feedback!
Please send us (and the whole list if you'd like) your thoughts,
remarks, suggestions, frustrations, etc. It will be very helpful
to us in many ways.
Also, if you and/or your students have created projects you would be willing
to share, if you could put those on a personal homepage or school website we
could point/link from the Squeakland.org site it
would be fantastic. We're hoping to build more links to help others
see the kinds of Etoy projects created using Squeak.
We're working on an improved version of Squeak this summer which we'll make
available in August -- in time for your testing/playing before the start of
the next academic year. Stay tuned for more news on that front.
In the meantime, we'd love your feedback on the experiences you had this
school year and we wish you all a marvelous summer!
We look forward to seeing some of you at SqueakFest in Chicago. If you
haven't yet, and still want to come, there's a few days left to "register".
(See Squeakland.org and "Squeak News" for details.)
best regards,
Kim
------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Squeakland mailing list
Squeakland(a)squeakland.org
http://squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland
End of Squeakland Digest, Vol 14, Issue 10
******************************************
Thanks for the reply, John. I'm simply trying to connect these 2
projects (Squeak & Mindstorm) to make for a more interesting
education/outreach project. I happen to be using Windows - simply
because that's what the various groups (schools, libraries, Girl Scout
camp) have in their computer labs.
--Randy
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Purcell [mailto:john.purcell@gmail.com]
> Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2004 9:53 PM
> To: Randy Heiland
> Subject: Re: LEGO MindStorm control
>
> Hi Randy,
>
> The package you found was developed with RIS 1.5 using a serial IR
> tower. I've been thinking about looking into a solution for the USB
> tower, but haven't had much luck yet. I don't know of many other
> people using mindstorms in squeak; the other stuff that is out there
> is pretty old (http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/2412) and I don't
> know of anyone that has successsfully used version 2.0.
>
> There is a possibility that squeak could interface with the api that
> lego provides to talk to the USB IR tower (though that won't be of
> much use to you if you're not running windows). There is also the
> possibility of developing a custom driver that squeak could talk to.
> The driver option would involve some heavy-duty coding though.
>
> I would be interested in knowing what you're using the kit for, and
> what operating system you are using.
>
> - John
>
> On Sat, 26 Jun 2004 13:45:18 -0500, Randy Heiland
<heiland(a)indiana.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Squeakers,
> >
> > Is anyone out there controlling your LEGO MindStorm from Squeak? I
> > found this page:
> > http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~lego/
> >
> > and just attempted to use it, but was unsuccessful. On closer
reading,
> > it's probably because I'm using MindStorm Invention 2.0 with an IR
tower
> > attached via USB.
> >
> > Any advice/links, etc much appreciated!
> >
> > --Randy
> >
> >
>
Dear Squeaklanders,
Happy Summer! For those of you affiiliated with schools or
universities I imagine your summer has just begun. I hope you all
had a wonderful academic year.
Before you go off on well-deserved holidays, or get "out of school
mode", we at Viewpoints Research ask a favor: If you've been using
Squeak/Etoys this year with your children (at home, school, after
school clubhouses, etc., etc.) we'd love to receive your feedback!
Please send us (and the whole list if you'd like) your thoughts,
remarks, suggestions, frustrations, etc. It will be very helpful
to us in many ways.
Also, if you and/or your students have created projects you would be
willing to share, if you could put those on a personal homepage or
school website we could point/link from the Squeakland.org site it
would be fantastic. We're hoping to build more links to help others
see the kinds of Etoy projects created using Squeak.
We're working on an improved version of Squeak this summer which
we'll make available in August -- in time for your testing/playing
before the start of the next academic year. Stay tuned for more news
on that front.
In the meantime, we'd love your feedback on the experiences you had
this school year and we wish you all a marvelous summer!
We look forward to seeing some of you at SqueakFest in Chicago. If
you haven't yet, and still want to come, there's a few days left to
"register". (See Squeakland.org and "Squeak News" for details.)
best regards,
Kim
I'll mention my experience in another message and post a link to my uploaded
projects at that time.
Here's a reference to experiences of games in the classroom in general that
might be helpful. This is from a teacher in the UK. I've summarized his points.
____
Found at:
http://www.educationarcade.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=32
"I've run three surveys over the last two years of teachers and their attitudes
and (in some cases) experiences in using PC and (in a very small number of
cases) console-based games in the classroom. Most comments have come from UK
teachers.
"Out of these have come 10 problems or obstacles that reoccur. I call it the
decology of problems (or a charter for people who like saying "can't")."
1) The violence issue pervades, making many teachers afraid of using commercial
games for fear of the publicity consequences.
2) Time involved in setting up the game.
3) Time involved in getting to the point in the game where "useful learning"
begins.
4) Games consoles, unlike PCs, have very few other uses (and thus are difficult
to justify from a budgetary point of view).
5) Lack of publisher licensing means that a classroom of games can work out
expensive if the school has to buy one unit per PC or student.
6) Often, older PC hardware cannot handle many modern games.
7) Keeping the student "on track" during the game.
8) Familiarity of the teacher with the game, and amount of effort required to
become familiar.
9) Appropriateness. For example, the accuracy of a medieval simulation game
could be lost when one needs to use magic in order to repel an invading force.
10) Imbalance of previous experience of the game across the class. In a
competitive situation, an imbalance will cause the weaker players to become
resentful and put-off the game. In a collaborative situation, an imbalance can
cause the experienced player to dominate the input and "lead" the others,
reducing their role to passive observers.
___
Also more info at http://www.seriousgames.org/
Hi everyone
When my students Save (Publish it) their creation, the only options are the
local drive or on-line. How can I save onto our shared server drive?
Sue Bicknell
Congratulations! And best wishes for many well-deserved acknowledgements.
Sheine
-----Original Message-----
From: squeakland-bounces(a)squeakland.org
[mailto:squeakland-bounces@squeakland.org]On Behalf Of Kim Rose
Sent: Friday, June 11, 2004 11:32 PM
To: squeakland.org mailing list
Subject: [Squeakland] The "Triple Crown" for Alan Kay!
Dear Squeaklanders -
I am writing to share more exciting news!
Just today, Alan was named "Laureate" (in the Advanced Technology
category) by the Inamori Foundation and will receive the 2004 Kyoto
Prize! He's hardly had time to "come down" from the excitement of
the ACM Turing Award, which he received in New York, just last
weekend.
For more on both please see the Squeakland website, specifially these pages:
http://www.squeakland.org/images/news/html/turing03.htm
and
today's "Breaking News" story here:
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2004/Jun/1047805.htm
For more on the Inamori Foundation and Kyoto Prize:
http://www.inamori-f.or.jp/index_e.html
It's been a most remarkable year! We are all so proud of this
recognition given to Alan.
cheers,
Kim
_______________________________________________
Squeakland mailing list
Squeakland(a)squeakland.org
http://squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland
Dear Squeaklanders -
I am writing to share more exciting news!
Just today, Alan was named "Laureate" (in the Advanced Technology
category) by the Inamori Foundation and will receive the 2004 Kyoto
Prize! He's hardly had time to "come down" from the excitement of
the ACM Turing Award, which he received in New York, just last
weekend.
For more on both please see the Squeakland website, specifially these pages:
http://www.squeakland.org/images/news/html/turing03.htm
and
today's "Breaking News" story here:
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2004/Jun/1047805.htm
For more on the Inamori Foundation and Kyoto Prize:
http://www.inamori-f.or.jp/index_e.html
It's been a most remarkable year! We are all so proud of this
recognition given to Alan.
cheers,
Kim