Subbu, Thanks for this. Your idea about "watchers" is a really good one.
Gerald On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 7:53 AM, K. K. Subramaniam <subb...@gmail.com>wrote: > On Friday 26 February 2010 12:12:19 pm Cherry Withers wrote: > > It's definitely a balancing act trying to get them to focus on finishing > up > > something and getting them to explore. Once they realize that they > > can affect the object by scripts they just want to do everything they can > > possibly do in one sitting (dragging and dropping tiles in one script > > window ..then I'm in fire fighting mode). Too much resulted in chaos in > my > > class. Not doing THAT again. I now give them some time to go nuts on > > exploration then pull them back in to finish a project. Now I'm > > introducing just a max of two concepts (or tiles) in one 40min. session. > When a new tile is introduced, kids tend to use it over and over many times > before they get to a state where they can use it in a project. This is par > for > the course. > > Alan's car demo script starts with commands. When the script says "forward > 5" > what exactly is 5 in that blank space? Introducing watchers before commands > helps ease the up ramp. Learning about watchers for shapes > (length/width/heading), color and border and then position (x,y,..) allows > kids to grasp spatial and angular dimensions gradually. > > BTW, I wouldn't worry about kids "finishing" a project in the first few > sessions. Curiosity and experimentation will dominate the sessions. Only > when > they reach a zone of comfort with the system will they become receptive to > tips on "saving" their projects. > > My experience is limited to non-English students in rural India using the > English GUI. I don't know how much it would apply to students in other > regions. > > YMMV .. Subbu > _______________________________________________ > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) > IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep >
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