Congratulations, Jim on your fabulous progress. And you're just a techie:)
It took me about five years to get our local public school board to: --find out how and find the person who woul create a link to Squeakland from our website, www.tdsb.on.ca and get it done ( I have a webpage, nothing fancy, but it's there) --find out how to start anything re the use of Squeak in an education bureaucracy, very big one at a time when the organization is in turmoil and resources are being ripped out of it by the provincial government --get senior staff to give their nod and two staff--a vice-principal and a superintendent, in my Ward--who saw Squeak for what it is, and were interested, had the authority to make decisions, and authority to allocate resources --get their stellar assistance/over committed time to organize said workshops for about 60 staff --rope in a personal friend who was on the verge of retiring to help with the workshops voluntarily who personally recruited Sebastian Hergott (can't say enough good things about Sebastian Hergott) and created a Squeak forum for kids/others to "play" in, totally voluntarily to this day (that would be Jane Matthews) --get senior staff in my Ward to encourage staff to download Squeak and use it, or at least give kids the opportunity to. (recently I heard that a third teacher is using Squeak and has joined our forum) --support Seymour Papert and Alan Kay's talks in Toronto sponsored by the Fields Institute on Research in Mathematical Sciences. They paid, I promoted the event across the country, through e-mail mainly. --support a live webcast of the event, including e-mailed questions, the archive of which we all eagerly await --the webcast made it possible to invite the world. Folks who attended got a Squeak CD, courtesy of our technical department --host Alan and Seymour to work with kids using Squeak at Don Mills Middle School. All were energized beyond belief. I enjoyed the events as vacation public library board and the Ontario Science Centre to begin to interest them in using Squeak in their programming for kids, and --get the support of another trustee to whom I will be forever indebted who will happily support my motion to the Board to adopt a formal commitment to continuing the Squeak trial. Incidentally, our board has been taken over by the Province of Ontario and so this motion, if passed, will be "advice" to the provinicially appointed Supervisor
I did all of this as a volunteer because I believe in what Alan, Kim, et al are doing to make this a more beautiful, better and peaceful world for our children.
You're doing great in an environment that is as unfriendly to learning as ours, despite the good intentions and commitment of a lot of people. Mega congratulations again. Congratulations to your colleague for assisting you. Drop me a line at sheine.mankovsky@tdsb.on.ca if you think I can be of any help.
Sheine
P. S. Re the print manual, still a no. Tutorials on-line and people to collaborate/consult with on a forum such as this one are still my choice. Still a "manual", just a lot richer. And we'd never have had the opportunity for this connection had you been limited to the black on the page!
-----Original Message----- From: Jim Ford [SMTP:jaford@watford53.freeserve.co.uk] Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2003 7:52 PM To: squeakland@squeakland.org Subject: Re: My contribution to recent comments/questions, etc.
On Sun, Mar 23, 2003 at 12:08:08AM -0500, Mankovsky, Sheine wrote:
I'd like to add a few comments with respect to the contributions folks
have
made in the last little while. First, on the matter of a book (text) to "help" teachers use Squeak in the classroom, I would suggest that it's
not
useful to go that route. The computer is the book.
Yes - but you can miss an awfull lot of nuggets of meat, tucked away in corners you never new existed. There's nothing quite like playing with a system (computer software/video recorder/car) until you think you know all about it, then sitting down with the manual (away from the computer) only to rush back 5 mins later saying 'Wow, I didn't know you could do that!'
As I've stated elsewhere, I'm not a teacher but a secondary school Science Technician (and have also been a Primary School Governor). From my observations in the U.K., schools are ridgidly constrained by 'The Curriculum', which is targetted towards pupils passing their G.C.S.Es. and 'A' Level examinations. Most teachers are so focussed towards this that they have no time for anything that is not in The Curriculum. Furthermore, the timetable is totally geared towards 'Delivering The Curriculum', such that there is no room for any flexibility or introduction of new ideas. With regard to computer related technology, most teachers horizons stretch no further that M.S. Word - with the more adventurous ones using Excel (and calling it a database). The pupils spend most of their time in I.T. cutting and pasting the same piece of text from Encarta or downloading the same clipart, for their projects. Creativity - sorry it's no longer in 'The Curriculum'!
I've managed to interest one of out Network Technicians in Squeak and am encouraging him to install it on the School Network. If this happens, I'll try to start a lunchtime 'club' to introduce pupils to Squeak. I'll get no encouragment from the teachers - after all as I've said before - what could I possibly know about anything, I'm only a technician!
Regards: Jim Ford
squeakland@lists.squeakfoundation.org