Making a Morphic Book released, please critique

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Making a Morphic Book released, please critique

Gary Dunn-2
I have released a first version of my first Chalk Dust book, "How to Make a Chalk Dust Morphic Book." This book makes a reference to my next book, which describes using the Squeak mouse. That should be done soon. The intended audience for this book is a teacher or college student who is at least a beginner at using Squeak -- this book does not teach someone how to use Squeak, but it does focus on fundamentals relavent to using a book morph. The intended audience for Chalk Dust books are students at the middle and high school level, say 14 - 18 years old. An older demographic than OLPC.

One of the goals for this effort is to use Squeak "out of the box." I realize that to you folks, a little code here and there is easy. Picture an alternative to PowerPoint and you will be close to what I have in mind. As an author gains experience with Squeak they should be able to create increasingly fancy books.

If anyone has some time (ha ha) I would appreciate any and all comments, starting with spelling and grammer and going up from there as far as you like. After I have had time to incorporate your suggestions I will make a formal announcement on the Open Slate web site and mailing list.

Read about the new book on the wiki:


Link to the project file:


In closing let me say thanks to all of you who have responded to my queations here.

--
Gary Dunn
Open Slate Project
Honolulu

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Re: Making a Morphic Book released, please critique

Steve Thomas
Gary,

On Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 8:44 PM, Gary Dunn <[hidden email]> wrote:
One of the goals for this effort is to use Squeak "out of the box." I realize that to you folks, a little code here and there is easy. Picture an alternative to PowerPoint and you will be close to what I have in mind. As an author gains experience with Squeak they should be able to create increasingly fancy books.
A very good goal.  Have you considered using Etoys as a PowerPoint alternative?   If your target is 14-18 year olds, this may be a much easier on-ramp for them.  Your ideas and documentation are good a similar version for Etoys (perhaps using Event Theater to demonstrate how certain things are done would be nice as you can create "screencasts" within Etoys, just be sure not to move the mouse too quickly as it can cause problems).
 
If anyone has some time (ha ha) I would appreciate any and all comments, starting with spelling and grammer and going up from there as far as you like. After I have had time to incorporate your suggestions I will make a formal announcement on the Open Slate web site and mailing list.
One idea is some sample books, perhaps along with screencasts on YouTube or embedded within the project using Event Theater to demonstrate how you made them.

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Re: Making a Morphic Book released, please critique

Gary Dunn-2

I will consider using Etoys instead. Squeak just feels more like what Alan Kay and Seymour Papert had in mind.

Screencasts have their place. I just don't like the idea of going outside of Squeak to teach someone how to teach using Squeak. We need to bring back multimedia.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I'll look more at how to make a screencast.

Gary Dunn
Open Slate Project
http://openslate.org

On Aug 3, 2011 4:00 PM, "Steve Thomas" <[hidden email]> wrote:

Gary,

On Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 8:44 PM, Gary Dunn <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> One of the goals for thi...

A very good goal.  Have you considered using Etoys as a PowerPoint alternative?   If your target is 14-18 year olds, this may be a much easier on-ramp for them.  Your ideas and documentation are good a similar version for Etoys (perhaps using Event Theater to demonstrate how certain things are done would be nice as you can create "screencasts" within Etoys, just be sure not to move the mouse too quickly as it can cause problems).


 
>
> If anyone has some time (ha ha) I would appreciate any and all comments, starting with spelli...

One idea is some sample books, perhaps along with screencasts on YouTube or embedded within the project using Event Theater to demonstrate how you made them.

_______________________________________________
Beginners mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners


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Re: Making a Morphic Book released, please critique

Steve Thomas
On Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 10:44 PM, Gary Dunn <[hidden email]> wrote:

I will consider using Etoys instead. Squeak just feels more like what Alan Kay and Seymour Papert had in mind.

Etoys came from Alan and his group at VPRI (see: http://www.squeakland.org/about/people/) 

Screencasts have their place. I just don't like the idea of going outside of Squeak to teach someone how to teach using Squeak. We need to bring back multimedia.

Agreed, multimedia is definitely needed. Event Theater inside Etoys allows for "screencasting" within Etoys.  The advantage of a YouTube video (or vimeo et al) is that it helps you reach a wider audience and introduce them to the ideas. 

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I'll look more at how to make a screencast.

If you have a Mac (10.6 or higher and iMovie I created a blog post on how to create a screencast here

Cheers,
Stephen

Gary Dunn
Open Slate Project
http://openslate.org

On Aug 3, 2011 4:00 PM, "Steve Thomas" <[hidden email]> wrote:

Gary,

On Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 8:44 PM, Gary Dunn <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> One of the goals for thi...

A very good goal.  Have you considered using Etoys as a PowerPoint alternative?   If your target is 14-18 year olds, this may be a much easier on-ramp for them.  Your ideas and documentation are good a similar version for Etoys (perhaps using Event Theater to demonstrate how certain things are done would be nice as you can create "screencasts" within Etoys, just be sure not to move the mouse too quickly as it can cause problems).


 
>
> If anyone has some time (ha ha) I would appreciate any and all comments, starting with spelli...

One idea is some sample books, perhaps along with screencasts on YouTube or embedded within the project using Event Theater to demonstrate how you made them.

_______________________________________________
Beginners mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners


_______________________________________________
Beginners mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners



_______________________________________________
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[hidden email]
http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners