[Yr7-10it] Hey Roland...What is Sqeak?

Sun Jul 15 12:49:49 EST 2007

I pulled together some threads from different directions.

   - Global warming was a big topic so the students negotiated producing
   some media (video / animation / radio commercial ) .. some brought in
   material to the class such as the trailer for the the Al Gore climate change
   film released last year. It was great to watch them deconstruct this media.
   Kids had fun making movies with the digital cameras, animations with
   MonkeyJam and radio stuff with audacity.
   - Use Google Earth to take pictures standing on the top of famous
   locations (Ularu, Kilimanjaro etc) then reformat these into a hand copy
   postcard with stamp etc.
   - Use a database printout of several thousand weather data
   observations and race along the floor with calcuators for a small prize,
   adding up the numbers in your team column to determine min, max and average
   "Sir is there an easier way .. " (grin)
   - Remote sensing is big in Australia so I get them to design, model,
   build cardboard satellites. We blog and gallery the experience in Moodle,
   design the satellites with Google Sketchup, take photographs and add
   backgrounds / layers with Gimp, Paintshop Pro and Inkscape. I was delighted
   by those that revisited using the free software at home to extend their
   thoughts and interests.
   - After watching a small video clip about Ubuntu by Nenson Mandella we
   decided on another project was to produce a game that highlighted the
   problems in Africa. As a hypothetical, the local Rotary club was to pay
   $2000 for a fun game that would highlight an issue (Aids, Food, Poverty)
   with programming, artwork and music. I got the Rotary Club president to give
   a brief talk and set the challenge. Kids were in awe that people got paid to
   have fun (and do work of course ;-)
   - I have a bag of hand puppets that we use for making movies about IT
   issues. .. etc

I was rather ruthless, insisting that they had no money to buy software,
commercial artwork or external support. Instead, they had to work with what
we have, respect what each other could contribute, respecting copyright and
use creative commons material and show some pride in all our work.

I avoid slick, polished productions and talking up the software side of
things. Pride in a great animation can be easily killed by a colleague that
says "If we all had (insert expensive software) we could then (insert fancy
feature / eye candy) without any effort (insert thinking / planning /
cognitive development) ". Whilst solar pannels might fall of the satellites
that I hang from our ceiling, our hand drawn sprites and animations might
look rough and the games might play-out crude .. inspiration is the new
ceiling that I set. We celebate innovation and work-arounds, laugh off our
failures and have fun at what we are doing, not gloat over the gloss of a
final destination. Considering different backgrounds of my students that
some of you already know, this is enough of a challenge. :-)

Now for your first question. Bill Kerr has a good review and samples about
Squeak and Etoys at this tag location.
     http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/search/label/squeak
<http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/04/comparing-game-maker-with-etoys-squeak.html>
They have a growing sense of social justice at this age so it is stimulating
to explore that Etoys and Squeak are being distributed on the One Laptop per
Child Project. I use this as a context for examining, introducing hardware
.. imagine if you had to design and build a super cheap computer for East
Timor schools from parts you could buy in Australia. What would it look
like, what would you put into it, how could you network it, what would you
run on it? Get into your groups, grab a pencil and start drawing out your
ideas whilst I shop around to build a new computer from this catalogue of
parts. (grin)

It goes beyond what teachers feel most comfortable about learning to teach,
towards what students can do to best learn. I think that it is good to push
these students out of their comfort zone, it is as much of creating a
cognitive challenge that can help stimulate learning. Much the same happens
when we learn and play with operating systems such as Ubuntu. I am getting
my head around the horizontal scaffolding that is needed, I wish I was a
prolific worksheet author like many of you on this list. I may not end up
with as many flashy looking folios that show off their stepwise development,
or pretend to be an expert but we have fun with some covert learning along
the way.

Regards Roland

On 14/07/07, Kent Beveridge <kbeveridge at stbc.vic.edu.au> wrote:
>
> Hey Roland,
> What is squeak? Where can I get it and is it free...sounds up my alley..My
> smart ones have worked out Scratch already and some of the others
> are about to!
> I'm open to ideas at this level to make it fun for the kids too. I like
> your idea about them creating a project..any tips or worksheets you have
> given them
> about projects you might share?
> Go the Roos!
>
> Kent Beveridge,
> I.T. co-ordinator
> St. Brigids Catholic Sec. College
> Horsham
> email.. kbeveridge at stbc.vic.edu.au
>
> Wishes and Eggs, one you make and one you break!  A bit like promises.....
>
> "This email and any attachments may be confidential.  You must not
> disclose or use the information in this email if you are not the intended
> recipient.  If you have received this email in error, please notify us
> immediately and delete the email and all copies.  The School does not
> guarantee that this email is virus or error free.  The attached files are
> provided and my only be used on the basis that the user assumes all
> responsibility for any loss, damage or consequence resulting directly or
> indirectly from the use of the attached files, whether caused by the
> negligence of the sender or not.  The content and opinions in this email are
> not necessarily those of the School."
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Roland Gesthuizen
> Sent: Thu 7/12/2007 8:51 PM
> To: Year 7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Yr7-10it] What to teach for year 8 IT?
>
>
> Why expand to trying out Squeak or GameMaker .. but instead of letting any
> one application tool drive their interest or the course, why not get them to
> brainstorm a project idea, design a model, build a prototype, try it out
> with their friends, document then respond to the feedback. Keep it fun and
> flexible, you can even draw material and inspiration from another study area
> or another interest. I have a lot of fun teaching environmental studies as a
> context with my year 9 class.
>
> Regards Roland
>
>
> On 12/07/07, Stephen Yuen <byyuen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>         Hi there,
>
>         I'm teaching a year 8 info tech class next semester, and besides
> getting my students onto LOGO for the next three weeks, I'm stuck for ideas
> for what to teach for the rest of the time. Can anyone help?
>
>         Thanks!
>
>         Stephen Yuen
>         _______________________________________________
>         http://www.edulists.com.au <http://www.edulists.com.au/> - FAQ,
> resources, subscribe, unsubscribe
>         Year 7 - 10 IT Mailing List kindly supported by
>         http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au <http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/> -
> Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and
>         http://www.vitta.org.au <http://www.vitta.org.au/> - VITTA
> Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association Inc
>
>
>
>
> --
> Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
> http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au <http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au/>
>
> "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
> change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret
> Mead _______________________________________________
> http://www.edulists.com.au <http://www.edulists.com.au/> - FAQ, resources,
> subscribe, unsubscribe
> Year 7 - 10 IT Mailing List kindly supported by
> http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au <http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/> - Victorian
> Curriculum and Assessment Authority and
> http://www.vitta.org.au <http://www.vitta.org.au/> - VITTA Victorian
> Information Technology Teachers Association Inc
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.edulists.com.au - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe
> Year 7 - 10 IT Mailing List kindly supported by
> http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority
> and
> http://www.vitta.org.au  - VITTA Victorian Information Technology Teachers
> Association Inc
>

-- 
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/yr7-10it/attachments/20070715/b7167322/attachment-0001.html