[Yr7-10it] why learn etoys squeak?

[Bill Kerr]

Etoys is part of the OLPC - that may well be a catalyst to learn etoys if
you are interested in what software the OLPC will be delivering to (perhaps)
millions of children. It was for me.

But here I'm trying to (briefly) outline some of the broader arguments for
learning etoys, as a piece of interesting software:

1) It represents an integration of some very good ideas that have taken some
years to develop and have been expressed so far on these systems: logo,
smalltalk, hypercard, starlogo. (What each of these systems offered could be
spelt out in more detail)

2) It is an exploration of a visual-kinesthenic programming approach, which
can be expressed with this slogan, "doing with images makes symbols" (from
Kay, based on Bruner). In part this is constructionism but it is also
pointing to a relationship between doing, visualising and abstraction that
can work for young children.

3) It is a "live" system. The code can be written and variables manipulated
directly while the system is still running in front of you. This makes
powerful ideas such as variables and feedback far more accessible. It has
transparent parallelism (aka late binding)

4) It represents an attempt to make an object <-- message model of
programming accessible to children, a better underlying model to represent
complexity than a procedural model. Some people have argued that this OOPs
model cannot be taught to children but Etoys represents an attempt to show
that it is possible.

5) In etoys the GUI consistently represents the underlying model. For
example, you have drag and drop visual tiles which then spell out something
like:
ball's heading <-- 45 + random(90)
This is like an English sentence:
<object> receives <message>
So, it is arguable that the meaning of the code will be accessible to young
users who understand simple English

6) It contains a further evolution of the user interface called morphic, a
range of halos that enable direct manipulation of objects (see screenshot)

7) There is an underlying philosophy of user as designer, not only of the
immediate task but of the system itself. The latter part of this point ("of
the system itself") may not be immediately apparent but the user is not
being treated in conventional sense of "user friendly" but in the sense of a
potential co-designer.


IMO it's fair to say that etoys is not particularly easy to learn. I think
that the main point about visual programming systems is not about "easy" but
about different channels of representation. Some learners become more
engrossed in visual-kinesthenic systems. However, I'm pretty sure that Game
Maker and Scratch are "easier" than etoys. Teaching etoys to experienced
users requires a lot of instruction in the early stages because it is quite
different to systems that these users are used to.

So my argument is not one of "user friendly" but that it is an innovation,
an exposure to a different way of doing computing - a rich and fruitful
pathway

also published on my blog with some accompanying screenshots:
http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/11/why-learn-etoys-squeak.html

-- 
Bill Kerr
http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/
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