RE: Squeakland Digest, Vol 58, Issue 9

Hi,
We are teaching Squeak to school children of 8 to 12 years of age for since
2005. We are also organizing International Squeak Live Video Conference
between Japanese and Nepalese students on Feb 28, 2008. We held on on Feb
10, 2007.

If we can be of help, kindly let me know.

Best regards,
Yogesh Shrestha


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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore (Tony Forster)
   2. Re: An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore (Luke Gorrie)
   3. Re: An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore
      (Harish Pillay 9v1hp)
   4. Re: An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore
      (kathleen harness)
   5. Re: An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore
      (Harish Pillay 9v1hp)
   6. Squeak in Singapore (Kim Rose)
   7. duplicate (not sibling) - garbage collection? (Mark Nelson)


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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 07:24:25 +1100
From: "Tony Forster" <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [Squeakland] An opportunity to promote Squeak in
        Singapore
To: <[hidden email]>
Message-ID: <002f01c86f47$97908090$0701010a@forsterce3ea89>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
        reply-type=original

> b) suggestions on what kinds of contest we can run?  This would include
> topics and problems to solve within a reasonable (3-4 hour) session
> especially
> after the participants have been given some training.

Look at http://www.acmi.net.au/screenit.htm and
http://www.acmi.net.au/screen_it.htm which had game programming categories
in Game Maker and Flash for primary and secondary students




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Message: 2
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:12:18 +0545
From: "Luke Gorrie" <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [Squeakland] An opportunity to promote Squeak in
        Singapore
To: "Harish Pillay 9v1hp" <[hidden email]>
Cc: squeakland <[hidden email]>
Message-ID:
        <[hidden email]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hi Harish,

We've done two 3-4 hour Squeak-for-beginner sessions in Kathmandu
recently. There've been about 25-30 participants in each and from a
range of backgrounds (kids, teachers, programmers, our family members,
etc). Only a few of our participants have been under 12 (six of them
I'd estimate) and they've done at least as well as the adults. People
had a LOT of fun at the one last saturday.

The format is a computer lab where each student has their own computer
and the instructors share a machine that's hooked up to a projector.
We've had about five instructors each time: we take turns
demonstrating Squeak features on the projector and otherwise wander
around the room helping people out and answering questions.

The program we've used is based on the "drive a car" example from Alan
and Kim and we've found it very well matched to complete beginners.
Here's the agenda we used last saturday:

1. Introduction to Squeak (30 minutes). Demonstrate how to use
halos&handles and how to paint sketches. The students follow along and
have a 15 minute practice session to draw a car that they'll be
scripting.

2. Scripting (30 minutes). Introduce the concept of scripting and
build up to a car that can be driven. Usually we draw a steering wheel
and write a script that turns the car based on the wheel's heading.
It's also possible to e.g. have the car follow some object that you
can pick up with the mouse and other variations.

3. More advanced scripting (30 minutes). We create a simple car game
by drawing a racetrack on the background of the screen (painting a
curvy line with the largest brush setting) and adding some simple
scripts: (a) car moves fast on the road but slowly when off road
(introducing test/yes/no 'is over color' tiles), (b) car makes a
"brrrrbrbrbrbrr" sound when it's driving off the road (introducing
sound recorder and 'make sound' tile -- important to have microphone
and speakers on each machine!), (c) cheering sound is made when the
car crosses a differently-coloured finish line.

4. More practice followed by Q&A and demonstration of some fancy
projects that we had already prepared.

In the first workshop we had one additional segment but we reckon this
shorter agenda is better - it left people wanting more instead of
being a bit tired. (It also meant we could fit the whole thing in
before lunch instead of having a long break in the middle.)

There's a LOT of room for improvisation both on the projector and on
each person's own computer.  On saturday we showed a couple of people
individually how to program the car to drive around the road as a
robot and that was pretty clear to them (proudly one was my mum :-) a
born programmer if only she knew it!).

NB: We use the XO image on normal PCs for this.

Let us know if you have any questions. We're quite close to one
another so we could possibly cooperate a little bit. I passed through
singapore in december and january and I'll be sure to let you know if
I'll be there any time soon.

For more info see these blog entries:
http://blog.olenepal.org/index.php/archives/132
http://blog.olenepal.org/index.php/archives/107
http://blog.olenepal.org/index.php/archives/106

Cheers,
-Luke



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Message: 3
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:28:17 +0800
From: "Harish Pillay 9v1hp" <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [Squeakland] An opportunity to promote Squeak in
        Singapore
To: squeakland <[hidden email]>
Message-ID:
        <[hidden email]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Thanks, Luke, Tony and Eric for your responses.  It is certainly encouraging
to see the offers of suggestions and ideas.

The contest the ITSC is running, called code::XtremeApps:: 2008 has two
categories - an open and a junior.  The junior category is what I alluded to
-
for 12 and under.  THe open category is for just about anyone to take part
and is pretty much what we did last year:
              http://www.itsc.org.sg/codeXtremeApps.html

For the junior category, there exists some local expertise in Alice and a
decision has to be made as to whether Alice or Squeak is to be the chosen
platform.  If anyone of you have worked with both, can I ask for a
considered
opinion on the merits of them?  I have found out that stuff created in Alice
cannot be "exported" and worked on by others.  That could put a constraint
on how the contest is run.  Squeak, on the other hand, can easily import and
export stuff giving the children their own space to work and then for the
teams
to combine.  Please confirm that this is doable.

I need to report back to the organizing committee this coming Monday as to
which platform to use and I would love to have Squeak as the one.

I will look into all the links provided by the Luke and Tony to understand
better.  I am a coder myself, but I haven't had a chance to teach
programming
to young children and am trying to get my head around to the merits of Alice
and Squeak for this task.

Appreciate your inputs and suggestions.

Thanks.
--
Harish Pillay [hidden email] gpg id: 746809E3
fingerprint: F7F5 5CCD 25B9 FC25 303E 3DA2 0F80 27DB 7468 09E3



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Message: 4
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 06:38:45 -0600
From: "kathleen harness" <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [Squeakland] An opportunity to promote Squeak in
        Singapore
To: "Harish Pillay 9v1hp" <[hidden email]>, "squeakland"
        <[hidden email]>
Message-ID: <000c01c86fcf$b4ea0c50$6501a8c0@kathleen>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
        reply-type=original

Hi Harish,
Have you looked at the materials K-5 Technology Passport at
www.Squeakcmi.org
I wrote them as introductions to Etoys in the classroom and have used them
with many young beginners. The site also has some children's projects in the

Library Collection tags: letter slates, number slates, Aesop's Fables,
Science Books, and others.
Regards,
Kathleen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Harish Pillay 9v1hp" <[hidden email]>
To: "squeakland" <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2008 1:28 AM
Subject: Re: [Squeakland] An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore




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Message: 5
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:24:32 +0800
From: "Harish Pillay 9v1hp" <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [Squeakland] An opportunity to promote Squeak in
        Singapore
To: "kathleen harness" <[hidden email]>
Cc: squeakland <[hidden email]>
Message-ID:
        <[hidden email]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Kathleen -

Hi!  Thanks for the reply.

>  Have you looked at the materials K-5 Technology Passport at
>  www.Squeakcmi.org
>  I wrote them as introductions to Etoys in the classroom and have used
them
>  with many young beginners. The site also has some children's projects in
the
>  Library Collection tags: letter slates, number slates, Aesop's Fables,
>  Science Books, and others.

I am now exploring it.  I have given my 8 and 10 year old sons the
task of checking
it out for themselves.

Thanks again.
--
Harish Pillay [hidden email] gpg id: 746809E3
fingerprint: F7F5 5CCD 25B9 FC25 303E 3DA2 0F80 27DB 7468 09E3



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Message: 6
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:47:48 -0800
From: Kim Rose <[hidden email]>
Subject: [Squeakland] Squeak in Singapore
To: Harish Pillay 9v1hp <[hidden email]>
Cc: "Squeakland.org mailing list" <[hidden email]>
Message-ID: <[hidden email]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed


Hello, Harish -

I'd like to refer you to the group of three below -- Toh Hiew Kang  
(Dennis),  Katerine Bielaczyc and Yeo Tiong Meng.   As you'll see  
from their emails from late last year (below) they are working with  
students in Singapore in both elementary and secondary schools using  
Squeak Etoys.   I encourage you to introduce yourself and your program
(s) if you do not already know them, and their work.  I imagine they  
can provide some valuable information and insight from their  
experiences.  I had the opportunity of meeting Katerine in Singapore  
in early 2007 -- she is at the National Institute of Education there  
in Singapore,  and I know she is doing excellent work. http://
lsl.nie.edu.sg/bio/drkate.htm.  Please mention I encouraged you to  
contact them.

regards,
Kim




This from an email from Katerine....
[snip]
  I am teaching a course this semester called Theory, Design and  
Practice of Computer-Based Learning Environments.  As part of the  
course students work in teams to carry out a case study of a  
particular environment, which involves reading, working with the  
envrionment, and interviewing persons related to the environment.  
Two of my students are focusing on Squeak.  They are teachers and are  
really interested in learning more about teachers' experiences with  
Squeak.  They are excited by Squeak and are eager to learn more.

================




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Message: 7
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:48:51 -0600
From: "Mark Nelson" <[hidden email]>
Subject: [Squeakland] duplicate (not sibling) - garbage collection?
To: "Scott Wallace" <[hidden email]>,
        [hidden email]
Message-ID:
        <[hidden email]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hi Scott,

Recently you gave me a useful tip for creating duplicates (not
siblings) from a textual script using "costume duplicate player". This
has been working great except for one problem.  As students are
developing their scripts, their project files keep growing rapidly in
size. We start off with a 'template' project that is about 300 kB.
Each round of program development and debugging usually involves
creating and destroying multiple 'duplicates' using the above method.
Before long, the project files are many MB in size, even after all
players have been cleared from the playfield and the trashcan has been
emptied.  Loading and saving project files gets slower and slower.

I've discovered this happens even if the duplicates are created using
the halo icon, rather than the textual script. Each duplicate that is
ever created seems to leave a 'ghost' that take up about 130 kB of
storage.  In the process of debugging their scripts, students
typically create and destroy dozens of 'duplicates', leading to
multi-MB file sizes.  This growth in file size seems to happen only
with 'duplicates', not with 'siblings'.

Is there some way to do garbage collection to get rid of these
'ghosts' so we can keep the file sizes manageable?

Thanks,
--Mark



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