squeakland May 2010

squeakland@lists.squeakfoundation.org

14 participants
39 discussions

Guias Rapidas de Etoys
by kharness＠illinois.edu 22 Jun '10

22 Jun '10

Hello, Guias Rapidas de Etoys are Spanish translations of the Quick Guides by Sdenka Salas Pilco of OLPCPuno-Peru. EtoysIllinois is grateful for her work and for allowing us post them on our site. http://www.etoysillinois.org/library.php?tags=Guias%20Rapidas%20de%20Etoys Find out more about the OLPC project in Peru: http://olpcpuno.ning.com If you are working on translations of the guides, please let me know and we could share the work. If you provide translations, I will make the interactive guide projects. I know the format details very well. Regards, Kathleen Harness

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Re: [squeakland] Artifacts in ObjectCatalog
by kharness＠illinois.edu 22 Jun '10

22 Jun '10

Hi Hilaire, I looked at the png of the die, dot in table, and fraction box and wonder, are they objects like the polygon with a dedicated set of tiles or a halo menu of options? The label Artifacts is confusing me; in schools here the label artifacts can mean educational materials used for assessment or, do you mean ready-to-use objects? The Object Catalog and Supplies have similar things. Will DrGeo be a new tab in the Object Catalog? Do you propose another new category called Artifacts in the Object Catalog and then do you plan to add many objects to the next release of Etoys? Will they all be of special interest to math teachers and/or science teachers and at what grade levels? Do you know the USEIT adaptations of Etoys in use at the University of North Carolina Wilmington? The UNCW adaptations are for middle and high school science teachers. Are these similar to your ideas? Would they fit your category of Artifacts? I am growing more uncertain about what Etoys will become if many specialized objects are added. To be useful, some of these objects require more knowledge in math and science. For example, the particles are amazing and whenever I show them to science teachers they are a wonderful example of using Etoys to explore ideas in physics. They are however, sophisticated and difficult for students to use without instruction. They are not intuitive unless you are already know physics. My elementary students click on them in the Object Catalog and then are at a loss, they have neither the science knowledge nor the programming skills to use them. Are the teachers you know using Etoys for math instruction? The microcosm of the school where I work has not shown any interest in using Etoys to teach math even though the teachers are always impressed with the math students use to make projects. The teachers are more concerned with following a rigid curriculum that pre-tests, introduces concepts, post-tests, bench-marks, and quarterly assesses. And all of that instruction/assessment is, of course, focused toward the standardized tests given in March. Their curriculum is too large, time is too short, and each concept and skill is given too little time to mature. But, that is a problem for the math establishment and one of the reasons I like Etoys is that it is so much more open ended and so much less prescriptive and so much outside of the whole assessment environment that is consuming education in the US today. The god of assessment has always had clay feet and Diane Ravitch's book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (New York: Basic Books, 2010) gives me hope that we will see less emphasis on multiple-choice-single-right-answer-learning. I would urge that we (Etoys) not spend very much time developing subject area electronic worksheets and mechanisms that count right/wrong answers and keystroke attempts to be part of the software. Book publishers routinely provide such materials that are specific, sequenced, and aligned and, from what I can see, teachers are hard pressed to use everything that is already available. If new artifacts are being considered as potential objects for the next release of Etoys, we should start talking about our vision for Etoys and what the core of it will be. Etoys thrives on mathematics and, on imagination, but to put too much emphasis on teaching a core curriculum of math or science will limit the other uses and imagination. My students use math in their projects and are indeed learning concepts at a deep level but they are not learning the math curriculum for their grade. For example, my 2nd-5th grade students routinely use test statements, create variables, and add random number generator tiles to projects. They use xy coordinates fluently because they want to control locations of objects and to position objects with reset scripts. Most of the Races and Mazes in EtoysIllinois were made by elementary students and show these kinds of applications of learning. Unfortunately, standardized assessments do not assess for this kind of learning and certainly not in elementary grades in dynamic environments. My sense is that subject area teachers everywhere are bound by local, state, and national requirements. My hope is that Etoys provides collections of projects that show examples for deep learning and that as schools react to the growing need for more and more people who can program, who can use the language of the computer to express ideas, who are creative and, who will thrive in the future or, in careers that use programming skills, that Etoys would be in a position to be adopted as the tool for teaching programming in K-12 schools. Etoys is certainly powerful enough to grow up with children from elementary to high school . . . without a doubt. It was one of the reasons I first considered Etoys, that is, it can not be outgrown or worn out in a year or two. I have written materials that show how easy it is to integrate Etoys into core curriculum but in every case I find that the core curriculum is already full, too full, and very well planned by curriculum specialists and that there is no room for Etoys in their view of their subject. I said this at a MSTE Board of Advisors meeting a year ago and Chip Bruce said: if there was no room at the table we should make our own table. It seems to me, Etoys could make its own table and in doing so raise the rather low expectations for what is currently passing as computer literacy. Keyboarding and using the internet are at a much lower level than the most basic Etoys project. The K-12 cs/programming discipline is very new and that is good for us. It is an opportunity for us to define what should be. If we can provide a cogent set of projects that develop good habits of mind, creative, and logical thinking we might find Etoys adopted by schools who are looking ahead for their students' futures. I would much prefer that we build our own table rather than try to squeeze Etoys as one more topic into other disciplines already full curricula. My hope is that schools will see the need for specialists to teach the subject of programming, just as music and art specialists focus on providing an excellent general education for all. Wouldn't it be grand if children routinely went to the computer lab to learn Etoys, just as they go to the music room to learn music. You may know, I was a music teacher and taught music to everyone in the school every year. It was not a course with preliminary requirements of talent, IQ, skill, interest or, potential for becoming a professional musician. Music is part of what it means to be educated. If we can align with that kind of belief, that knowing how to program, how to use the computer creatively to express ideas rather than being passive users or used by it, then we will have achieved something of value. I know this note is too long but I hope we can start talking about some of these ideas. Regards, Kathleen ---- Original message ---- >Date: Fri, 28 May 2010 09:22:40 +0200 >From: Hilaire Fernandes <hilaire.fernandes(a)edu.ge.ch> >Subject: [squeakland] Artifacts in ObjectCatalog >To: "squeakland.org mailing list" <squeakland(a)squeakland.org> > > Dear all, > > In the latest Artifacts package at > (http://www.squeaksource.com/LearningArtifacts) I > added a category Artifacts as a place holder for the > artifacts. > See the attached screenshot. > > I also added an Artifact DotInTable to represent > collection of token in row and column. It can be > used to represent graphically the multiplication of > two integers. The column, row and dot color are all > Etoys scriptable. > Again as an artifact, teacher can invent new way to > use it and to combine it with other artifacts for a > teaching purpose. > > By the way, I tried these artifacts with Squeak 4.1 > and it works perfectly well from there, and the > Squeak environment is more pleasant to write > Smalltlak code. > > I will continue to add artifacts to this package. > > Hilaire > > -- > http://blog.ofset.org/hilaire >________________ >ArtifactsObjectCatalog.png (16k bytes) >________________ >_______________________________________________ >squeakland mailing list >squeakland(a)squeakland.org >http://lists.squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland

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Thoughts on Assessment
by Steve Thomas 22 Jun '10

22 Jun '10

Assessment is a tough problem. I share the frustrations with the current forms of assessment (especially in Math) that others have expressed. While I am constantly assessing while teaching (as I am sure you are too) it is not in a way that produces evidence that could be used to facilitate appropriate comparisons. While I have many problems with assessment, I fear "its the worst form of figuring out what works, except for all the others" The problem, to quote Peter Drucker "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it" Society (ie: people, parents, politicians, school board members, even teachers) need to have a way of knowing how well their kids are learning and I would argue that they are right to demand it. The challenge for educators (and it is in no way an easy one, otherwise it would have been solved already) is to come up with an appropriate way to measure. The folks at CRESST (well actually I only know of the work I saw by Greg Chung, which I saw at G4L, the following is my limited understanding of what they are trying to do) have a potentially interesting approach where they set up environments (where they design in from the beginning methods of assessment) that records "events" (actions taken by the kids within a given "micro-world") then use those events to analyze understanding and what works and what doesn't work. I would expect in the future they will take those events in real time, analyze them and provide feedback to the micro-world (thus to the user) to facilitate a customized learning environment (like customized search) based on what works (and yes what works can differ, just as customized search differs). Stephen On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 1:04 AM, Avigail Snir <avigail(a)snir.org> wrote: > And we can probably repeat word by word when speaking about current and > future attempts to introduce Etoys into school life. > > I wish our society will not be as obsessed about standard measuring as a > way to define accountability and evaluate achievements. I feel it is > counterproductive. > > > > *From:* stevesargon(a)gmail.com [mailto:stevesargon@gmail.com] *On Behalf Of > *Steve Thomas > *Sent:* Sunday, May 30, 2010 11:56 PM > *To:* Avigail Snir > *Subject:* Re: FW: also this article > > > > Thanks. I agree with the one comment in the article you attached: > > "the problem of training teachers in new mathematics topics and new > pedagogic approaches was never solved, especially for the large contingent > of teachers in elementary grades" > > > > The other hard challenge is figuring out how to do good assessment. > Especially doing it in a way that has a realistic chance of being used given > time and cost constraints. > > > > Stephen >

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Re: [squeakland] Artifacts in ObjectCatalog
by kharness＠illinois.edu 22 Jun '10

22 Jun '10

Kim, I came across Lockhart's Lament last year; it is very good. Math education is a chaotic arena and at this point I don't think it is a good place for Etoys. They have somehow pulverized the joy mathematicians find in their subject and are just offering dry husks to children. When a school is ready to add computer science, that is where we fit. That means for many school buildings just one teacher, like for music, art, and phys ed. So a district like Unit 4 with ten elementary schools would not have to in-service 500 classroom teachers to teach Etoys, but rather just find ten teachers who could/would. Just ten teachers reach 5000 students; very efficient and very effective. Sadly, we are still searching for those districts. Have you read the Ravitch book yet? It is too bad she didn't foresee the consequences of the policies she so ably advocated and now renounces. At least she has the courage to say she was wrong. Education is slow to change and the testing industry will not go quietly. Our group here is working to have a curriculum ready for the time when people realize they need one. You know, of course, there is a difference of kind between an assortment of experiences/projects and a curriculum. This summer we are working on a set of materials for HS computer science and we will see what teachers think of them in our August workshop. The prerequisites require that they already know one programming language and are already teaching CS. We are looking forward to some interesting discussions with them; their knowledge and experience will be invaluable to us. --------------------------------- Call for Applications! CS4HS: Summer Workshop for Computer Science teachers! Generous stipends! Supported by Google and the University of Illinois, this workshop is aimed at teachers who are looking for exciting content for teaching beginning programming at the high-school or middle-school level. Join us as we explore the Etoys programming language as a platform for attracting students into the field of computing. Dates: August 3-5 Location: University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) Details and Application: cs4hs.mste.illinois.edu -------------------------------------------- Thanks for the cheerful note. Regards, Kathleen ---- Original message ---- >Date: Sat, 29 May 2010 10:53:28 -0700 >From: Kim Rose <kim.rose(a)vpri.org> >Subject: Re: [squeakland] Artifacts in ObjectCatalog >To: "<kharness(a)illinois.edu>" <kharness(a)illinois.edu> >Cc: "Hilaire Fernandes" <hilaire.fernandes(a)edu.ge.ch>, "squeakland.org mailing list" <squeakland(a)squeakland.org> > >Beautifully stated, Kathleen -- hear, hear! > >For additional reading, I'd also like to recommend "A Mathematician's >Lament" by Paul Lockhart. > >A (shorter-than-the-book PDF version is available here: www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf >, but also highly recommend reading the (slightly) longer book. > >Kim > >On May 29, 2010, at 8:45 AM, <kharness(a)illinois.edu> <kharness(a)illinois.edu > > wrote: > >> The god of assessment has always had clay feet and Diane Ravitch's >> book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How >> Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (New York: Basic Books, >> 2010) gives me hope that we will see less emphasis on multiple- >> choice-single-right-answer-learning. I would urge that we (Etoys) >> not spend very much time developing subject area electronic >> worksheets and mechanisms that count right/wrong answers and >> keystroke attempts to be part of the software. Book publishers >> routinely provide such materials that are specific, sequenced, and >> aligned and, from what I can see, teachers are hard pressed to use >> everything that is already available. If new artifacts are being >> considered as potential objects for the next release of Etoys, we >> should start talking about our vision for Etoys and what the core of >> it will be. >> >> Etoys thrives on mathematics and, on imagination, but to put too >> much emphasis on teaching a core curriculum of math or science will >> limit the other uses and imagination. My students use math in their >> projects and are indeed learning concepts at a deep level but they >> are not learning the math curriculum for their grade. For example, >> my 2nd-5th grade students routinely use test statements, create >> variables, and add random number generator tiles to projects. They >> use xy coordinates fluently because they want to control locations >> of objects and to position objects with reset scripts. Most of the >> Races and Mazes in EtoysIllinois were made by elementary students >> and show these kinds of applications of learning. >

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Re: [squeakland] kedama tutorial by linda kao
by Korakurider 21 Jun '10

21 Jun '10

It is really great we finally "rescue" historical contents! The tutorial have example projects attached. Where will we maintain them (revised for newer version of Etoys)? of course Showcase is one option, but it seems better if flossmanuals can manage such materials for translation and distribution, /Korakurider On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 5:46 AM, Kim Rose <kim.rose(a)vpri.org> wrote: > Yes, this work was created by Viewpoints and a graduate student at UCLA who > was an intern for us at the time. > We hope it can prove helpful to any Etoys users. > > Kim > > On Nov 25, 2009, at 10:22 AM, Yoshiki Ohshima wrote: > >> At Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:25:56 +0100, >> Karl Ramberg wrote: >>> >>> On 2009-11-25 18:08, Yoshiki Ohshima wrote: >>> >>> The "source" of the PDF version, the Word document file was found. >>> So, I uploaded the file to: >>> >>> >>> http://wiki.squeakland.org/pages/viewpageattachments.action?pageId=16844 >>> >>> -- Yoshiki >>> _______________________________________________ >>> squeakland mailing list >>> squeakland(a)squeakland.org >>> http://lists.squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland >>> >>> Great, >>> can we use this on http://en.flossmanuals.net/ ? >> >> Kim (the executive director of VPRI, who funded making the >> document) says it is perfectly fine to make it public so it should be >> fine to use it for the FLOSS manual. >> >> -- Yoshiki >> _______________________________________________ >> squeakland mailing list >> squeakland(a)squeakland.org >> http://lists.squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland > > > _______________________________________________ > Squeakland mailing list > Squeakland(a)squeakland.org > http://lists.squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland >

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seymour papert joins squeakland
by Timothy Falconer 20 Jun '10

20 Jun '10

Hi everyone, I'm very happy to announce that Seymour Papert is now a part of the Squeakland Foundation: http://squeakland.org/about/people/ The photo is a recent one of Seymour. He's doing well, reading the New York Times each morning, working on projects from home. We are of course thrilled to have him part of the team. Take care, Tim -- Timothy Falconer Squeakland Foundation http://squeakland.org 610-797-3100 -- "Intelligence is what you use when you don't know what to do." ... piaget

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Etoys developer chat log
by Bert Freudenberg 02 Jun '10

02 Jun '10

Hi all, we just had a chat, few people around today (it's a holiday in the US): * Ricardo prefers the September release schedule * talked mostly about camera and movies * need replacement for the spam-ridden forums. help welcome. Full log below, as usual. And see you next Monday, same time: http://tinyurl.com/368xxgn - Bert - <Richo2> hi <Richo2> :) <bertf> ugh, I'm late -*- bertf apoligizes <bertf> apologizes, even ;) <bertf> hi Richo2 <Richo2> hi bert <bertf> anyone else here? <rockyBoland> I am <Richo2> hi rockyBoland <rockyBoland> hi <bertf> small group :) <bertf> Richo2: translation stuff is starting to look good :) <bertf> do you have an opinion abou the release schedule? <Richo2> thanks <Richo2> yes <Richo2> I think I prefer the second option <Richo2> just yesterday I added Andreas code <Richo2> for font support <bertf> Yes, saw that. <Richo2> and even though his code works fine, I'm worried of introducing a lot of new bugs <Richo2> having more time to found them and fix them is good <bertf> yes. we first need to switch over to using that code and then give it some time for testing <jecel> Would it be interesting to have the translation stuff in the basic Squeak? It would be nice if the GUI elements such as menus and buttons could be in local languages <bertf> Korakurider is working on getting the subversion repo into shape <bertf> jecel: definitely <bertf> I also tried http://www.squeaksource.com/WebCamMorph.html <bertf> copied the CameraPlugin from Scratch, works <bertf> (on Mac) <bertf> should work elsewhere too <bertf> rockyBoland: do you have some specific issue, or do you just want to listen in? <rockyBoland> mostly just listening in. I am considering using etoys to build a game for teaching GCD and LCM algorithms. --> matmo (~chatzilla(a)doconnel.force9.co.uk) has joined #etoys <matmo> hi all <Richo2> hi <bertf> ah, matmo <bertf> was just saying I tried WebCamMorph on Mac, works <matmo> great :-) <bertf> was surprised it drags in the plugin class. we don't use MC dependencies normally <bertf> and we do not have VM classes in the Etoys image <bertf> no VMMaker either <bertf> there is a bug when you rotate it <matmo> dependency removed <bertf> and duplicating it gives odd issues too :) <matmo> I had not thought of rotation or duplication yet but will check it out <bertf> maybe for easier testing we should make a project with the code? <bertf> we have some testers that are not familiar with Smalltalk tools <matmo> what issues have you got with duplication? <bertf> when closing one it stopped the other IIRC <bertf> I don't think we need to support duplicating it <matmo> projects, yes, there should be a some in a few days time (if squeakland upload works) <bertf> I thought the problems are specific to thomas' account <bertf> or do you have problems uploading too? --> karlram (~51aa9a20(a)skylab.immuexa.com) has joined #etoys <matmo> IIRC I tried an upload last week and failed (will check again). Also had problems saving. Will submit reports when I've had a chance to recheck it's not something I have done or doing. <bertf> karlram: hi <karlram> hi <matmo> hi <karlram> hi <matmo> the "movie" morph doesn't look like it has had much looove :-) <bertf> matmo: when more people have seen it maybe we can come up with a sensible list of tiles for it. <bertf> for now it seems you just threw everythin in ;) <bertf> the movie morph is one of the abandoned demos <matmo> sure. I've actually paired it down but any/all suggestions welcome <bertf> not much love indeed <bertf> well there are some unusual concepts, like the holder reference for storing frames <bertf> (in webcammorph) <matmo> what would you call storage for snapshots? <matmo> album <matmo> album? <karlram> there is also a internal video format <bertf> matmo: if possible, that should not be built-in <bertf> but rather you would write a script that gets a frame and puts it in a holder <bertf> that would be the "Etoys way" <bertf> though the idea of using moviemorph to hold frames might be interesting <matmo> I was thinking "convenience" and in that particular example taking multiple snapshots as fast as capturing <karlram> it would be nice if we could get project publishing work with videos <bertf> well, Etoys isn't really about "convenience", but about learning how stuff works ;) <matmo> the "manual mode" gives the script writer full control <bertf> yes. I think for a first iteration, that is all there should be <bertf> becasue it is impossible to remove features later <matmo> agree, I completely open to suggestions re use in learning context. I'm not in education so happily defer to others opinion <bertf> once we know how people would like to use it we can add convenience features, as needed <matmo> ok, so remove auto-capture? <bertf> well, hide at least <bertf> there are some tiles that are hidden in "etoy-friendly" mode <bertf> but if you are okay with removing it, that would be a good option for now too <bertf> makes code review simpler <matmo> ok, I'll take a look <bertf> do you have an idea about how to deal with the old cameramorph? <bertf> karlram: publishing movies doesn't work? <-- karlram (~51aa9a20(a)skylab.immuexa.com) has quit (Quit: CGI:IRC (EOF)) <bertf> oh. we lost karl <matmo> re camermorph, would it siffice to remove it from Objects tool? <bertf> Richo2: did you have anything else to chat about? <matmo> suffice <bertf> matmo: that's one option <rockyBoland> This chat room is obviously about etoys development. Is there a chat room or mailing list for etoys users? <bertf> it could also be rewritten to use CameraPlugin <Richo2> bertf: no, thanks <bertf> rockyBoland: not really <matmo> rewriting, yep, I planned to look at doing that <bertf> rockyBoland: most etoys users apparentyl don't liek chat rooms :) <matmo> many things, little time ;-) <bertf> it would allow older projects to work, if those should exist <rockyBoland> What about for people who want to develop projects using etoys? <matmo> ok, I will bump it up the list <bertf> rockyBoland: those are what I call "etoys users" <jecel> rockyBoland: this is a weekly developers meeting. The rest of the time this channel is very quiet and can certainly be used for general user questions <bertf> rockyBoland: but the better option is to write an email to the squeakland list <rockyBoland> Will do that. Sorry for interrupting your meeting. <bertf> no need to apoligize :) -*- bertf can't spell that word <jecel> Besides the list, there were also some online forums, right? I don't know how those are doing these days <bertf> attracting spam <bertf> we're considering to shut them down <bertf> replacing with google groups or yahoo groups or something like that <jecel> Ok, then the list is certainly the best place for users <bertf> needs to have a list gateway and forum view and spam protection <matmo> trying an upload to squeakland in a mo <bertf> ok <bertf> I'll call this meeting closed - everyone is welcome to stay around and chat of course. <bertf> the channel is open 24/7 :)

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Re: [squeakland] Artifacts in ObjectCatalog
by kharness＠illinois.edu 01 Jun '10

01 Jun '10

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? The Birmingham, Alabama schools bought 14,000 OLPCs but I have not heard much about what they are doing with them. Birmingham is about 500 miles south of here so it is too far to just go visit for a day or two. Maybe this coming year I will make a longer trip. There is a group from University of Alabama Birmingham working with the Scratch-ed team. It will be interesting to see what comes with one-to-one computing. My local district has computer labs in most building and additional pcs in each classroom but there is not a cs curriculum so what is done at one school may or may not be done at another but nothing in Illinois is on the scale of what is being done in Uruguay, Brazil and Peru.I hope Marta will share the experience they will be gaining soon in Rio Grande do Sul. They are using Intels. I think teachers might be more flexible and innovative if given a chance but the system level math curriculum is rigid and those standardized tests loom large. Regards, Kathleen ---- Original message ---- >Date: Mon, 31 May 2010 01:13:37 +0530 >From: "K. K. Subramaniam" <kksubbu.ml(a)gmail.com> >Subject: Re: [squeakland] Artifacts in ObjectCatalog >To: squeakland(a)squeakland.org >Cc: kharness(a)illinois.edu, "Hilaire Fernandes" <hilaire.fernandes(a)edu.ge.ch> > >On Saturday, May 29, 2010 09:15:54 pm kharness(a)illinois.edu wrote: >> The teachers are more concerned with following a rigid curriculum that >> pre-tests, introduces concepts, post-tests, bench-marks, and quarterly >> assesses. And all of that instruction/assessment is, of course, focused >> toward the standardized tests given in March. Their curriculum is too >> large, time is too short, and each concept and skill is given too little >> time to mature. But, that is a problem for the math establishment and one >> of the reasons I like Etoys is that it is so much more open ended and so >> much less prescriptive and so much outside of the whole assessment >> environment that is consuming education in the US today. >These beliefs are widely prevalent in my locality too but I have met a few >teachers who refuse to subscribe to these beliefs. They are quite clear that >most students can be taught to qualify in sixty days provided they are >motivated. So they spend the initial weeks in motivating them and then bring >in the curriculum. Board officials don't dare :-) take a performing teacher to >task. Questions arise only when students don't make the grade. > >In around 110 village public schools in my locality, Etoys is used as a >motivator but not integrated into the curriculum (yet!). There are no canned >projects illustrating lessons. Teachers reported that kids who used Etoys are >easier to teach than other kids. In one cluster, they even had their own mini- >conference on Etoys [1] where teachers watched student present their projects. >Appropriation has been slow but steady. > >[1] http://sikshana.blogspot.com/2009/12/students-conference-in-halasuru- >school.html > >Subbu

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Re: [squeakland] Artifacts in ObjectCatalog
by K. K. Subramaniam 31 May '10

31 May '10

On Friday, May 28, 2010 12:52:40 pm Hilaire Fernandes wrote: > I also added an Artifact DotInTable to represent collection of token in row > and column. It can be used to represent graphically the multiplication of > two integers. While on the topic of multiplication, the Holder Etoy is very handy for learning about factorisation and prime numbers - one of the toughest topics for young kids. A child can draw a small toy and drop a number of its siblings (say 24) into a Holder and then try to resize it using its yellow handle icon. The Holder automatically adjusts its rows and columns into 6x4, 2x12 and so on. The count can be displayed alongside by dragging a simple viewer from "Holder's count". If the length and width viewers are also put alongside, then the game can be used to learn about squares too. As a kid, I used to play this game with a 10x10 grid (laid out in sand or on the floor using chalk/coal) and a bag of seeds. Each player takes turns to pick a handful of beans blindly from the bag and place them one-per-slot in a tight rectangle to score as many points as the beans placed. The one who picks a prime loses a point. Subbu

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Etoys developer chat today
by Bert Freudenberg 31 May '10

31 May '10

Please join our weekly Etoys developer chat today, as every Monday at 12 noon Squeakland Time. Follow this link to see the time in your local time zone: http://tinyurl.com/28gbrh7 To participate, enter your name as nickname on http://chat.squeakland.org/ and press "Login". Then say hi :-) Alternatively, use an IRC client of your choice to join #etoys on irc.freenode.net Everyone is welcome! - Bert -

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squeakland May 2010