Cathleen Galas, Christine Murakami, Cherry Withers, Randy Caton, John Stout, Tim Falconer, Rita Freudenberg
We started discussing the misison and role of the education team. Tim copied parts of his document:
The education director will manage a team of "ambassadors" ... people who represent Etoys in their local region, encourage content creation, and promote training workshops.
He mentioned that the ed team mission has expanded. Rita's position (from invitation email): Are we primarily developers of content and documentation? Are we mentors for Etoys users? Are we supporters for whatever need arises in the community regarding use of Etoys in the classroom or at home? What is most important?When we agree on our role, we also need some rules for processes. For instance, what happens when the education team makes a decision which effects the software, website etc.? If another team needs a decision, do they have to write a proposal for us to decide? I personally prefer as few rules as possible, we all are volunteers and I believe that this kind of project can only be done in a starfish organisation [*] .
Randy pointed out that interaction with the software team is very important. Cathie made a point that not every changes someone would like to have should go into the system. It is important not to disrupt the user experience. We agreed that the education team should balance the need for changes and the responsibility for user experience. Tim said, that changes only go into the software, if all teams agree. Education team are the "stakeholders" and decide which change requests to consider.
Cathie said:
I believe that the ed team should include both pieces for formal and informal learning environments. This would include giving teachers use tips for classrooms, and looking at content creation for formal learning, which is different from working with kids that find the site on their own and need mentoring individually. balance is important-and then the changes might only be made once in a while-at certain points in time that are pre-ordained?
Randy:
The education team should serve as a moderator for changes to Etoys and examine or suggest changes from an educational standpoint after careful deliberation and suggest associated documentation. I also believe that the education team should have input on the decision to add items to the featured showcase. The education team should be involved in planning Squeakfest as we have been.
Rita:
The education team will decide what goes to the fetaured showcase.
Tim told us about Squeakfest planning, announcement will coming soon. Also, we will add links to USEit project and Project Ceibal to the website.
Cathie:
Tim-are you going to be posting the Wilmington projects to the Community page? I wonder if there should be something on the site also referencing the OLPC project and noting that EToys is part of the package.
We discussed what has to be done regarding courseware. SQ82. Tim sets the goal for the courseware to "training wheels to get them to "i can do anything!" lightbulb".
Cathie pointed out one of her articles on the old Squeakland website:
This article that I wrote in 2001 also talks about projects and gives ideas for teachers to use the tool in the classroom. http://www.squeakland.org/resources/articles/article.jsp?id=1012 Maybe this could be posted to the education section for teachers?
Tim:
what i need in two weeks: 16 titles, 16 paragraphs, specifically ... picking topics that could be taught in 2 weeks for a 4th grade teacher
3 for math, 3 for language arts, 3 for science, 3 for social studies, 1 for visual arts, 1 for music, 1 for health
Cathie: outline of topics that a fourth grade teacher would recognize.
Cathie said, that we need a guide for teachers how to do projects (not Etoys projects) in the classroom and how they can include Etoys animations/simulations.
Randy:
I agree with what Cathie says and that is where my heart lies. I think it would be good to look at something concrete to develop guidelines for the courseware.
Rita: randy, that's why I want to develop one unit, we can discuss what kind of projects we will use by doing this one unit
Cathie lists skilld which can be learned with the courseware: learner engages in scientifically oriented questions, learner gives priority to evidence in responding to questions, learner formulates explanations from evidence, learner connects explanations to scientific knowledge, learner communicates and justifies explanations,
Tim--look at the above article to take to principals also: http://www.squeakland.org/resources/articles/article.jsp?id=1012 fourth grade math core standards http://www.uen.org/cc/uen/core/pub/displayCoreCourse.action?ccId=5040
Randy:
Etoys is a revolutionary computer-based learning environment that works well with the Universal Design for Learning approach and can be used to support the three recommendations of the How People Learn study. It is important to integrate mathematics into the development of science concepts to allow the levels of mathematical, conceptual, and science reasoning to rise together. This integration leads to a spiral process of understanding science through mathematics and building conceptual knowledge. The Etoys environment allows learners to use mathematics in simulations of science concepts. The ability of students to author their own projects or build on projects created by others supports an authentic approach to learning provides near instantaneous feedback to students while they are authoring. These features open the door for students to learn like experts learn.
We had a look at the old drive-a-car tutorial, which is on the old website: http://squeakland.org/content/oldsite/. Tim suggested to have an courseware unit with drive-a-car. Rita suggested to use it for the basic unit, where beginners learn about Etoys. Randy advised to especially highlight the philosophy behind the tutorial, which is described by Alan Kay. Rita will redo the drive-a-car for the courseware.
Tim will prepare a webpage for the curriculum, which should be the page where new users will linked to. The education team has time to work on this page, it's contents and look before it will be public. Tim wants to have the description for the courseware by October, 22. Randy prepares the units for math&science (he did that alerady), Cherry will do social studies, Tim will do language arts and music.
At the end of the meeting Tim told us about his idea to send out emails to the whole community and asking them to click a link and put their names on the website. The goal is to get to know, how many people actually read the mails on the mailing list.