What student to teacher ratio is needed for this style to be 
successful?

-david

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alan Kay [mailto:Alan.Kay at disney.com]
> Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001 1:16 AM
> To: squeak at cs.uiuc.edu
> Subject: Re: Squeak for 3-year-olds
> 
> 
> Oh, but you are missing the entire point of that part of that 
> project. It was specifically made to be difficult to control so the 
> kids would say "wow, this is difficult to control", and we say "yeah, 
> that's because you made a race car. There are no gears between the 
> steering wheel and the front wheels of your car". And they say 
> "what's a gear?" and we say, "see that little triangle after the word 
> 'heading', click on it". They do and then for the first time in their 
> lives, they get to see why division might be useful by dividing the 
> number coming out of 'heading' by 3 or 4".
> 
> The whole idea of good learning environments is to avoid as many 
> gratuitous difficulties as possible, but to specifically introduce 
> just the difficulties that will motivate appropriate learning.
> 
> This is why we have worked with literally thousands of children now 
> since 1973 or so. BTW, the "drive a car" etoy is specifically aimed 
> at children from about 8 years old and older. There are numerous 
> projects suitable for younger children, but they have different aims. 
> Each developmental stage of children allows them to do different 
> kinds of thinking, and you have to take that into account when you 
> design etoys for them (and when you bring children to them). There 
> are a number of examples on Squeakland.org, and there will be many 
> more over the next few weeks and months.
> 
> For those of you who have very young children, you are much better 
> off having them start to learn to build things with their hands. Most 
> computers are not equipped with enough tactile feedback to be great 
> learning environments for very young children.
> 
> A great book to read for those who are interested is "Towards a 
> Theory of Instruction" by Jerome Bruner. It doesn't talk about 
> computers but it is one of the best books about designing good 
> educational environments for children of various ages.  Last year I 
> wrote a chapter for a book about kindergarten that discusses the 
> suitability of computers for 3 and 4 year olds. This will also go 
> online sometime this summer.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Alan
> 
> -----
> 
> At 4:51 AM +0100 4/30/01, John Hinsley wrote:
> >Lex Spoon wrote:
> >>
> >>  Steve Wart <thecows at home.com> wrote:
> >>  > Had an interesting session with my son today. Played 
> around in the
> >>  > scripting world for over an hour - I think that's the 
> longest he's ever
> >>  > sat still at the computer.
> >>  >
> >>  > He loves the car, but steering is pretty hopeless (I 
> can't get the hang
> >>  > of it either :). He liked it when I changed the colors. 
> Usually he wants
> >>  > to do things himself, but I think he realized changing 
> colors was too
> >>  > finicky for him. The color picker is pretty though. It 
> would be nice to
> >>  > see more like this.
> >>
> >>  Have you tried "gearing down" the stearing wheel: 
> dividing the amount in
> >>  the "turn by" command by 3 (or so) ?  It makes it much easier.  :)
> >
> >Yes! I think only an 8 year old with the reactions and skill 
> of the late
> >great Ayrton Senna could keep the car on the track with its original
> >settings.
> >
> >I think one of the greatest things we can do to improve our programs
> >(and our programming skills) might be to have young children 
> (and aged
> >relatives) act as human programming interfaces. I'm sure most adults
> >(and most "real" programmers) get too carried away with the beauty of
> >the code to adequately consider the underlying metaphors: we 
> really need
> >"untainted" brains to show us the way. (Not, incidentally, that I
> >consider myself a "real" programmer -- an adult, maybe.)
> >
> >Maybe Steve could try my Rolodex Tutorial out on his son in 
> 2 or 3 years
> >time?
> >
> >Cheers
> >
> >John
> >>
> >>  Overall, thanks for sharing your experiences -- I've found them an
> >>  interesting read!
> >>
> >>  -Lex
> >
> >--
> >*************************************************************
> *****************
> >Marx: "Why do Anarchists only drink herbal tea?"
> >Proudhon: "Because all proper tea is theft."
> >*************************************************************
> *****************
>