Rita, Steve, Marta, Avigail, Randy, Ana Maria, Carlos
In our meeting yesterday we had a great discussion with Ana Maria Vacca from the Catholic university of Montevideo about Squeakfest, how to build on that, how to follow up, how can we support the teachers and students to use Etoys in the classroom. Ana Maria told us about the current situation in Uruguay, where most of the teachers are not using the computer in new ways. For instance, when starting Etoys, they see the book, that reminds them of power point and this is the way they use Etoys. Her aim is to help them use the computer in powerful ways, to use it to enhance learning. That requires a change in teaching.
Marta stated that we need to think beyound the classroom, that the educational system needs to change. The coordinators in the educational systems need to understand, why learning powerful ideas is worthwhile. One of her ideas was to compare the traditional teaching to teaching powerful ideas. We also need to explain the value of Etoys and constructionist learning to the parents.
We will continue the discussion, we will connect with the education team at Plan Ceibal and talk about the ceibal portal. We would like to put more information about Etoys there, especially a forum where teachers and users can ask questions and get answers.
Ana Maria will take a closer look at Etoys, especially on Randy's projects. Then we can make more concrete plans. Until then, Randy suggested we start a new book for teachers to help them to introduce Etoys in their classrooms. We will start with an outline soon.
Thank you all for a great meeting!
June 23
[23.06.11 19:06:10] Rita Freudenberg: hi everyone
[23.06.11 19:06:27] stevesargon: I see
[23.06.11 19:08:22] Rita Freudenberg: introductory round
[23.06.11 19:12:34] Rita Freudenberg: Ana Maria is working on workshops for educators for secondary school
[23.06.11 19:20:15] stevesargon: Is there a copy of Randy's presentation? video?
[23.06.11 19:21:08] Rita Freudenberg: there was no recording at Squeakfest
[23.06.11 19:21:48] stevesargon: How can we support Ana Maria?
[23.06.11 19:23:32] Rita Freudenberg: prepare some lessons for workshops
[23.06.11 19:26:08] Rita Freudenberg: ceibal portal where we can put examples
[23.06.11 19:27:50] stevesargon: It would be good to post Powerful Ideas to the portal.
[23.06.11 19:28:40] stevesargon: It would fit here interest in Kinematics
[23.06.11 19:32:14] stevesargon: Yes Avigail agreed
[23.06.11 19:34:25] stevesargon: We can do that
[23.06.11 19:34:53] stevesargon: but we need folks in country
[23.06.11 19:38:49] stevesargon: A forum on the Ceibal web site for trainers and others to ask "How can I ..."
[23.06.11 19:38:59] stevesargon: "Why isn't this working ..."
[23.06.11 19:43:54] Marta Voelcker: maybe because there is another question before "How can I..." techers might be thinkings "why should I ..."
[23.06.11 19:48:22] Marta Voelcker: and seems to me that CEIBAL DIDN´T BRING UP THis things as a goal
[23.06.11 19:50:15] Rita Freudenberg: Ana MAria: How can we use Etoys to enhance learning?
[23.06.11 19:50:23] Marta Voelcker: I think that it is our role to help ceibal to express this things as a goal, becaese they want it , they just have not stated pririties and new goals that are now possible with the use of technology
[23.06.11 19:53:12] stevesargon: So one of my thoughts on that question is to "go to them" by providing Etoys to help them teach concepts they already teach in different and hopefully more powerful ways, where kids can constuct themselves. That said, I still struggle and see lots of problems with my approach.
[23.06.11 19:53:32] stevesargon: What we need (I think) are concrete examples of what we are talking about
[23.06.11 19:53:39] stevesargon: That is hard.
[23.06.11 19:55:05] stevesargon: Yes, we need to demonstrate small successes
Randy, Avigail, Rita, Steve
June 16
next week Ana Maria Vacca will join our talk
[17.06.11 18:09:57] Rita Freudenberg: Avigail reports about the project with MIT
[17.06.11 18:12:25] Rita Freudenberg: project about using scratch, starlogo and etoys for teaching computer science
[17.06.11 18:12:52] Rita Freudenberg: by going from one platform to another, learning about programming
[17.06.11 18:13:23] stevesargon: Also Mark Gudial's program for teachers is very good
[17.06.11 18:14:31] Rita Freudenberg: aimed at middle and highschool students
[17.06.11 18:17:44] stevesargon: Do they have a list of CS topics or "Computational Thinking" topics?
[17.06.11 18:20:23] stevesargon: Do you have a link to a list of topics for the German curricullum?
[17.06.11 18:25:15] stevesargon: http://www.squeakland.org/showcase/project.jsp?id=11011
[17.06.11 18:25:36] stevesargon: The above link is my lesson 1 for Computer Science based upon Mark Guzdial's course
[17.06.11 18:26:35] stevesargon: http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/mediaComp-teach
[17.06.11 18:27:09] stevesargon: For Teachers:
Python Second edition slides
MediaTools,
Python 2ed Errata
[17.06.11 18:32:48] Rita Freudenberg: barry newell
[17.06.11 18:37:15] Rita Freudenberg: make a questionnaire for squeakfest participants
[17.06.11 18:38:19] Rita Freudenberg: ask for feedback from squeakfest, dividing between workshops and presentations
[17.06.11 18:38:38] Rita Freudenberg: avigail suggests to ask why they came to squeakfest, how they heard about it
[17.06.11 18:40:18] Rita Freudenberg: ask if the would attend squeakfest 2012 to buenos aires
[17.06.11 18:41:39] Rita Freudenberg: tell the argentinians about the support from the embassy marta got
[17.06.11 18:45:54] stevesargon: Ideally the conference would have kids workshops as well
[17.06.11 18:47:38] Avigail Snir: What do yremember most? What was the most beneficial? Do you plan to use Etoys next year? iWhat type of help will be mosy usefull? What are the main hurdles for using Etoys in your classes? What benefits do you see for your class, if any?
[17.06.11 18:47:54] stevesargon: Okay, sorry, need to run, thanks.
[17.06.11 18:47:55] Rita Freudenberg: put on the questionnaire if teachers would give a workshop for children
[17.06.11 18:53:08] Rita Freudenberg: http://www.squeakland.org/resources/community/
[17.06.11 18:59:35] stevesargon: I just posted an announcement for some invited talks we're having at
OLPC's new offices this Friday:
http://cananian.livejournal.com/64747.html
It will all be live-streamed at:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cscottnet
[17.06.11 18:59:50] stevesargon: But I'm pretty sure we'd have at least one
person in #olpc-devel on freenode,
[17.06.11 19:00:53] Rita Freudenberg: neal stephenson
[17.06.11 19:00:55] Rita Freudenberg: diamond age
[17.06.11 19:06:56] Rita Freudenberg: research in using games in the classroom, Avigail will send a link