[Yr7-10it] girls, IT, computer literacy

[forster at ozonline.com.au]

> Has anyone used Cricket technology? (I haven't)
> 

Hi Bill,
No I haven't used Crickets but I am prepared to make predictions based on Lego Mindstorms programmable bricks. I would have given anything as a kid to have had Lego Mindstorms and was surprised that the kids showed little interest when they had GameMaker as an option. 

I put this down to the development cycle. In Lego Mindstorms and GameMaker there is a cycle of implement test debug implement. With Mindstorms, the implement & test is much slower. Consequently kids spend the majority of their time in implement & test in Mindstorms and debug in GameMaker.

The debug part of the cycle is where the real learning takes place. This is where the problem solving or higher order thinking takes place. To debug you build a runnable mental model in your head of the program and compare the output with what actually happens. Piaget would talk of cognitive conflict. I expect that being able to build these complex and robust mental models is an important generalised skill which is transferable to other visual learning domains. Building mental models is common to a lot of thinking, for example when we read a text we also build a mental model of the text. Our ability to use the text in sophisticated ways depends on the complexity of the mental model that we build and our ability to interrogate that model.

Debugging is highly enjoyable, if you have been up late fixing that last program bug or adding just one more road to Sim City, you will know what I mean. This is because debugging is learning at its best, all mammals are preprogrammed to enjoy learning, it is called play (Crawford, http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/game-book/Coverpage.html). It is closely bound up in flow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)) We enter a state of flow when we are problem solving and the challenge is matched to our ability, we also enter a state of flow when practicing motor skills, eg skiing, in both cases flow and learning are closely related.

Flow and Vygotsky's ZPD are related. With social support, it is easier to match challenge to ability, to put learning right out there on the edge of ability, to enter a state of flow.

With Cricket I would expect that kids would spend too much time implementing and testing and not enough problem solving and that the level of engagement would not be as high as when solving similar problems in a virtual space like GameMaker (or Scratch).

It would still be fun to try out Cricket, anybody know where I can get one?

Tony