On Wednesday 28 October 2009 02:36:13 pm Carlos Rabassa wrote:
What recommendations would Etoys - experienced teachers and the creators of Etoys give to teachers who are just starting to use Etoys in their classrooms?
Etoys is a powerful learning environment. People need time to get used to this environment. The toys in the catalog are based on metaphors that may not correspond to objects encountered by children in daily life in your region. So make sure teachers (and students) get lots of time to play with it and establish their own metaphors. For instance, some children may prefer to think of "lasso" as "scissors".
Not all features are discoverable through exploration. So guidance is necessary for such advanced features. For instance, Etoys can also exist on screen without being "visible". The object can be transparent, hidden or use a camouflage costume. You could immerse a piece of glass in water to illustrate such features.
BTW, Etoys is a "classroom" ;-).
How much should they do and how much should they ask the students to do?
Initially it is very much co-exploration. Teachers have the advantage of experience, but fear of accidents may hold them back. Children, with unbridled curiousity, explore freely without fear and discover "features" faster than adults. But they also get distracted easily.
One way to work around such issues is for teachers to initiate a project on a particular topic (e.g. water conservation) and then get the students to elaborate it further. Learning happens while "doing" projects.
What is the best way to ask the class to do a project?
The best way is best left to teachers and local practices :-). I assist teachers only on the mechanics of Etoys. I encourage them to ask "how to..." rather than "what is the best way..".
Most teachers use activities (like paper craft, beads, ball game etc.) for concept development. I help teachers model those same activities in Etoys. Children get to redo the same activities in Etoys and then go on to discover the extra capabilities in the digital environment.
For instance, a given count of beads are arranged in a rectangular shape to discover factors. The same can be done by resizing a holder with objects. This experiment is much easier (and faster) in Etoys.
Or a teacher can get students to drop a ball and trace its locus on a wall and then create this model in Etoys. Once this is done, students can study how different gravitational forces affect the movement.
How do experienced evaluators rank projects? Where do they look for value in a project?
I am not sure if Etoys projects can be evaluated this way. The value is in the thinking ("debugging") that goes into a project. Of course, it is possible to create a project specifically for evaluation (e.g. an essay or a diagram). In this case, Etoys is just an digital editor.
It is nice to get in touch with school supporters around the world. Thanks for reaching out.
Regards .. Subbu