Computing Environments

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by John Faig on February 16, 2009 at 7:54pm

Nancy,

I just watched some of the introductory videos on Alice. How difficult is it to create my own object? Does the object have to be a person?

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on February 16, 2009 at 8:19pm

I do not have a clue!! I teach gifted kids and my 4th-6th grade kids are the ones that know how to use Scratch and Alice--definately not me!! haha. Maybe some Alice-literate person will respond.

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Permalink Reply by Jane Krauss on February 5, 2009 at 5:12pm

Your first statement (not about not being a teacher!) just summarized "computational thinking". As Greg says, this interdisciplinary projects idea is a great one. Pat Phillips, who came up with these good CSTA computational thinking materials (watch the camtasia preso), told me that she always had her CS students do a project related to, extending the learning from, another class. The other teachers, history, math, lit, whatever, were always so amazed and excited to see their subject matter advanced in novel ways. Pat said it gave her a foot in the collaboration door :)

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Permalink Reply by Colin Matheson on February 3, 2009 at 12:36pm

My post is just to say ditto to the original post: I am trying to get my district to use these tools, and to line them up in a continuum so that all students gain that programming literacy early and keep building on it, so that when they reach high school we can get them into CS. My gut feeling is this is the most valuable set of 21st century standards and the one we are totally ignoring. I remember learning logo in 3rd grade and it seems like CS in education has regressed since then.

There seem to be several options and I also don't have a lot of information about them. I like the idea of Scratch and Alice because they are free and was thinking of getting Scratch used in elementary and Alice used in Middle school. I also found the options listed below, I hadn't found Atmosphir (mentioned in another reply). I don't have any info on how userfriendly, powerful, and relevant they are:

http://www.yoyogames.com/make
-download gamemaker
-free with a cost for a more advanced version
-looks good for secondary

http://www.immersiveeducation.com/
-interactive 3D curriculum
-digital storytelling

http://www.toonboom.com/products/animationish/
-doodle, then flip book, then animate
-looks easy to learn, maybe primary
-can try
-$60

http://www.clickteam.com/eng/index.php
-game creation
-secondary advanced
-download demo

http://www.stagecast.com/
-storytelling, games, and simulations
-120 day trial
-$775.00 for a lab of 25

http://www.kahootz.com/
-storytelling
-online sharing
Product Code Product Type RRP ($AUD)
KZ3HE Home Retail Version 69.95
KZ3L05 5 User Licence 264.00
KZ3L20 20 User Licence 632.00
KZ3LS Unlimited Site Licence 1099.00

http://sketchup.google.com/
-3D modeling
-free
-ties in with Google Earth
-allows you to insert your building from google earth right into sketchup

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on February 3, 2009 at 1:54pm

Colin, You can find Atmospir here http://atmosphir.com/. So far it's been a cross between the 'absolutely most fun thing' to a 'giant waste of time'. It's one of those programs the kids love so much I'm afraid there is no redeeming value!! I think'll it'll be short lived in my classroom---way too much joy coming from the kids ((2-6th).

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Permalink Reply by Jane Krauss on February 5, 2009 at 5:18pm

Wow, Colin, THANKS for your ideas and the big list. Good luck getting computing instituted in your program. So much of it is hit and miss, it would be nice to see a coherent, scaled approach.
Right now I'm working out how algebra and computing can be mashed up so kids learn both better. The terms "algebraic thinking" and "computational thinking" are getting a lot of deserved attention right now, and there is an enormous degree of overlap (see my AT and CT wordles)

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Vance on February 3, 2009 at 3:35pm

Full Disclosure -- I work for Clickteam and Google Alerts keyed me into this thread.
We make The Games Factory 2 and Multimedia Fusion 2.

I just got back from the Florida Education Technology Conference and met with many many teachers who all agree with you that the tools your mentioning are effective for teaching programming concepts.

One big huge problem is the lack of materials to help teachers get started :(
Something Clickteam is working on but I wouldn't expect to see anything big and new till the end of the year.

There are some free lesson plans if your interested in learning more about using Clickteam's products as a learning tool for in the classroom.

Lesson Plan from University of Waterloo
http://www.gamessound.com/develop.htm

Teacher Tube video tutorials/projects
http://www.teachertube.com/uvideos.php?UID=47728

Other tutorials
http://www.clickteam.com/eng/learning_resources.php

There are also a couple commercial lesson/project plans for sale from Modern School Supplies.

We are currently looking for teachers who want to write/develop some lessons and projects using Multimedia Fusion 2.
So I would love to talk to teachers who would be interested in helping us to fill out the teacher materials in exchange for free software for the school.

Perhaps some payment if your interested in marketing your lesson plans. We do this with 2 teachers from Kansas city who wrote a lesson plan. We give away the lesson plan for free when a school purchases a site license for the product.
(as low as $400 for 10 computers and a one time purchase)

If anyone happens to be going to the NECC conference this summer -- Please stop by our booth and visit us.
I will also have at least 1 and hopefully 2 full conference registration we can give away ... Usually it goes to waste so let me know you want it and its yours.

Sorry if this seems like a sales pitch ... really its not.
I just wanted to throw out a few tidbits and you can always adapt the materials we have mentioned above for use with other tools.

Thanks,
Jeff
jvance[at]clickteam.com

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on February 3, 2009 at 5:21pm

Jeff, here's a 'back in the day' story. Fifteen years or so ago I heard about a software called Clik and Play. I ended up buying multiple copies and my students loved it (it was so cutting edge at the time). the next year I bought Games Factory. Years passed, hardware changed and we never heard any more about "video game" development software. A couple of years ago I bought Games Factory 2. In my opinion it has a steep learning curve and only a few kids (grades 4-6) used it. Hopefully your new product will appeal to elementary kids. Good luck, N.

PS If you are ever looking for beta testers I teach gifted kids and they make great guinea pigs.

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Permalink Reply by Jane Krauss on February 5, 2009 at 5:31pm

I'm curious how boys and girls respond to Scratch and Alice. Do you have them in groups? BB/GG/BG? What a learning lab you have there!

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on February 5, 2009 at 5:36pm

Generally they work alone but if they work in pairs they usually choose to work with a same sex partner. When we do Robotics we assign same sex teams. The girls do a lot better that way. BTW, here's the videos of the latest Robotics challenges, Can Do and Dance Party. The files are huge so slow to start but worth the wait!!

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Permalink Reply by Lijun on February 12, 2009 at 4:28pm

I agree with Nancy. Just last saturday in our discipliarnary commons for computing eduactors project meeting, a few computing teachers talked about pair programming, and the secondary teachers discussed about what is the best pairing. If not assigned. girls always tend to sit with girls in labs. But when assigned with boys in the team, girls are more likely to be quiet and the boys led the project.

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Permalink Reply by Jane Krauss on February 13, 2009 at 5:59pm

If anyone wants a great "how to" on pair programming, let me know. I work with the National Center for Women & IT and in conjunction with UC Irvine, we created "Pair Programming-in-a-Box", which gives rational, steps, talking points for course staff and students, the works!

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