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An nice, simple example of Etoys use in primary school

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Hilaire Fernandes

An nice, simple example of Etoys use in primary school

Hello,

We have many examples of Etoys use cases in primary schools. However I
am looking for your advice for what you think the most interesting and
easy to understand use cases of Etoys in primary schools. I am looking
for 1, 2 or 3 examples. The example should be short as well.

I need such examples to demonstrate to deciders how good Etoys is and we
should spend human resources to develop its use, particularly to
encourage educator to produce resources with it, even ones without
programming skills.

Thanks a lot for your advices

Hilaire
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K K Subbu

Re: An nice, simple example of Etoys use in primary school

On Thursday 28 Jul 2011 1:20:12 PM Hilaire Fernandes wrote:
> We have many examples of Etoys use cases in primary schools. However I
> am looking for your advice for what you think the most interesting and
> easy to understand use cases of Etoys in primary schools. I am looking
> for 1, 2 or 3 examples. The example should be short as well.
Etoys was introduced into 120+ rural primary schools in Kanakapura, a rural
town 50kms south of Bangalore, in 2007 as an experiment in motivating children
towards learning. Each school got a desktop, and a laptop that could be
borrowed by students like a book and even taken home for working on evenings
and weekends. Students in upper primary (grades 5-7) got a USB "pen drive"
with Etoys-To-Go for their personal projects. Teachers were told that if the
two computers were fully utilized (as shown by usage logs), then additional
computers would be given. Surprisingly, no school has crossed this threshold.

Inspite of the cultural (first exposure to computers) and language barriers (
English is hardly used in these villages), this intervention was picked as the
third most effective one by teachers. Personal uninterrupted 15-20min sessions
(not groups) on personally chosen topics (vs. curricular topics) gave the best
results. See http://sikshana.blogspot.com under notebook computing tag for
details.

About 30% of the children hardly created projects even after one year. This is
when I learnt that Etoys is not really "accessible" to learners who are not
yet literate. They may play with it like a toy but get frustrated when it
comes to authoring projects. Literacy may not be an issue in monolingual
locales. It is a big issue in these parts. Because the numbers were high, I
had to push Etoys to back burner while focussing on interventions to narrow
this gap.

BTW, the best intervention was a competitive general knowledge quiz with the
winners going on week long trip, along with a few teachers, to New Delhi
(India's capital, ~1700kms) by train. The second best intervention was giving
students as many writing sheets they wanted to practice paragraph writing at
home from any source (textbook, story books, newspaper) as they liked. Most
students attain fluency in about three to four months of frenetic practice.

HTH .. Subbu
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Steve Thomas

Re: An nice, simple example of Etoys use in primary school

In reply to this post by Hilaire Fernandes

Hilaire,

In your definition of "primary schools" what ages/grades?

Stephen

On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 3:50 AM, Hilaire Fernandes <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hello,

We have many examples of Etoys use cases in primary schools. However I
am looking for your advice for what you think the most interesting and
easy to understand use cases of Etoys in primary schools. I am looking
for 1, 2 or 3 examples. The example should be short as well.

I need such examples to demonstrate to deciders how good Etoys is and we
should spend human resources to develop its use, particularly to
encourage educator to produce resources with it, even ones without
programming skills.

Thanks a lot for your advices

Hilaire

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Hilaire Fernandes

Re: An nice, simple example of Etoys use in primary school

Stephen,

6 to 11

Hilaire

Le jeudi 28 juillet 2011, Steve Thomas <[hidden email]> a écrit :
> Hilaire,
> In your definition of "primary schools" what ages/grades?
> Stephen
>
> On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 3:50 AM, Hilaire Fernandes <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> We have many examples of Etoys use cases in primary schools. However I
>> am looking for your advice for what you think the most interesting and
>> easy to understand use cases of Etoys in primary schools. I am looking
>> for 1, 2 or 3 examples. The example should be short as well.
>>
>> I need such examples to demonstrate to deciders how good Etoys is and we
>> should spend human resources to develop its use, particularly to
>> encourage educator to produce resources with it, even ones without
>> programming skills.
>>
>> Thanks a lot for your advices
>>
>> Hilaire
>>
>> --
>> Unless this email contains personal or other matters that need to be kept confidential, a
>> PLEASE CONSIDER: Moving/Posting your questions and discussions to the [hidden email] mailing list. This will allow a wider range of folks to have input on and understand what we are doing.
>>
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
>> Groups "Etoys Education Team" group.
>> To post to this group, send email to
>> [hidden email] <[hidden email]>
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
>> [hidden email] <[hidden email]>
>> For more options, visit this group at
>> http://groups.google.com/group/etoys-education-team?hl=en <http://groups.google.com/group/etoys-education-team?hl=en>
>
> --
> Unless this email contains personal or other matters that need to be kept confidential, a
> PLEASE CONSIDER: Moving/Posting your questions and discussions to the [hidden email] mailing list. This will allow a wider range of folks to have input on and understand what we are doing.
>
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Etoys Education Team" group.
> To post to this group, send email to
> [hidden email]
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> [hidden email] <[hidden email]>
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/etoys-education-team?hl=en
>

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http://community.ofset.org/index.php/DrGeo

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Harness, Kathleen

Re: An nice, simple example of Etoys use in primary school

Hilaire,
I know you have seen the K-5 Technology Passport and CS4K5 materials on Etoysillinois. Would it be helpful to know that projects on the web site that start with a name, e.g. Adonis . . .Abby . . .Zane, are made by students in K-12 schools or summer workshops? The materials include example projects and lesson plans, but only in English. Where I align with an national standard is not really relevant for your purposes, the learning goals vary from state to state, country to country but just because it has a grade level label does not limit it to a grade level.

If learning to read and use big numbers, hundreds of thousands and millions is a goal, then making a game that scores using these large numbers gives children experience when they design their project and then again when they play their game or games made by others. is a goal of the class, there are projects that children enjoy making at any age level. See for example: http://etoysillinois.org/library?sl=1707

Another set of examples to show teachers students can apply Etoys . . .
This past spring I thought my elementary school students would enjoy learning about the artist Miro' and be inspired by his paintings. I cut apart a book with 100+ of his paintings; we sat around a table looking at them and talking. Students chose one they especially liked to keep and then made an Etoys project that used motifs from that painting in an Etoys project. Here is a link: http://etoysillinois.org/library.php?tags=Mir%C3%B3%20Inspired

Almost all of the projects have scripts, some include a flap with information about the art or the artist. When I look at their projects I can see how they have incorporated motifs, themes, ideas, colors, shapes, lines etc from their survey of his paintings. Their projects are beautiful and I think spending three or four class periods on the project was a good investment of their time and thought.

If there are comments, I would enjoy participating in a dialog with teachers.
Regards,
Kathleen

From: [hidden email] [[hidden email]] on behalf of Hilaire Fernandes [[hidden email]]
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2011 11:40 AM
To: [hidden email]
Cc: squeakland.org mailing list
Subject: Re: [squeakland] An nice, simple example of Etoys use in primary school

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