education meeting May, 27 2010
Avigail, Cathie, Kathleen, Cherry, Randy, Rita
We started talking about Squeakfest preparations, where we have work to do: go for funding, spread the word about the call for presentations, invite people, prepare flyers, think about give-aways etc. Since this is more business-related we will schedule another meeting for that topic. Everyone who wants to help with the preparations is invited to join us!
Next we talked about the idea of "artefacts" in Etoys, where we have slightly different feelings about. We agree that it is part of the job of the education team to look closely on new ideas to give advice and discuss it. With new Etoys versions, we can do "house cleaning", remove unused objects etc. There are things we discovered while writing the Etoys reference manual, we will make our notes there and before a new release look at them and react. To communicate this to the developers, we will use jira, and on next meeting spend some time figuring out how.
Randy gave us more feedback on Rico's work and more improtant, asked for feedback for his next milestone. We will invite him for our next meeting and talk especially about Input/Output of Data From/To Files.
[27.05.10 18:33:58] Rita Freudenberg: hi there
[27.05.10 18:34:14] Randall Caton: hi
[27.05.10 18:34:11] akathleen: Hi
[27.05.10 18:36:38] C Galas: hello everyone-apologies for last week-I tried skype on my iPhone when I was caught without my computer after picking up my car from service. I knew I couldn't make it home, so I just ducked into a starbucks, but typing on my iPhone didn't work well. Apologies for any confusion!
[27.05.10 18:40:09] Rita Freudenberg: squeakfest preparations: cherry made great mock-ups for program flyers
[27.05.10 18:40:35] Rita Freudenberg: contact the previous sponsors like MaMaMedia
[27.05.10 18:40:43] Rita Freudenberg: write grant proposals
[27.05.10 18:41:19] Cherry Withers: Let me hangup...it might be me
[27.05.10 18:42:20] akathleen: are we still connected
[27.05.10 18:42:49] Rita Freudenberg: everyone but you
[27.05.10 18:42:53] Cherry Withers: oh no
[27.05.10 18:43:02] Rita Freudenberg: we will get you back!
[27.05.10 18:45:20] Avigail Snir: # 5 The World Wide Workshop Foundation
- 5.1 GLOBALORIA Program
[27.05.10 18:46:16] Avigail Snir: The foundation of Idit Harel: # 5 The World Wide Workshop Foundation
- 5.1 GLOBALORIA Program
[27.05.10 18:49:29] Rita Freudenberg: talk to Sridhar if funding could go through UNCW
[27.05.10 18:50:39] Rita Freudenberg: propose a different time for a business meeting
[27.05.10 18:51:41] Cherry Withers: Rita please send me the sample letter for sponsorship grants and we can divide and conquer on sending them out?
[27.05.10 18:51:43] akathleen: what costs will UNCW cover
[27.05.10 18:52:31] C Galas: we can't take money in yet-we can't use Viewpoints and we are not set up. I'm not sure we can take money in until we get (hopefully!) into the software consortium?
[27.05.10 18:55:05] Rita Freudenberg: invite Sridhar to a Squeakfest meeting next week
[27.05.10 19:00:06] C Galas: it's doing the same things the same way instead of doing the same things DIFFERENTLY!
[27.05.10 19:00:29] C Galas: teacher is not understanding the power of the computer-
[27.05.10 19:01:00] C Galas: needs to know what possibilities there are-yes and show EToys with math concepts- variables, zero,
[27.05.10 19:01:27] Avigail Snir: I was asking about the squeakers from Nepal and south America. Are they aware of the sqeakfest and are we going to help them pay for participating? Could you hear me when I talked?
[27.05.10 19:01:46] C Galas: that comes from fear-not knowing-that is something we need to overcome-fear of a new thing and not understanding how to use in a classroom
[27.05.10 19:01:52] Randall Caton: i coulnd't hear you
[27.05.10 19:02:10] akathleen: I can not hear you Avigail, are you muted?
[27.05.10 19:02:22] Avigail Snir: Please call me again
[27.05.10 19:03:19] Rita Freudenberg: are the artifacts worksheets?
[27.05.10 19:03:38] C Galas: i agree-building is the core concept-seeing what happens when you take off the hood
[27.05.10 19:03:52] C Galas: where are you seeing these worksheet Etoys?
[27.05.10 19:04:09] C Galas: projects, artifacts, buildings, all good!
[27.05.10 19:04:11] Cherry Withers: I've only seen the graphing object
[27.05.10 19:05:05] Cherry Withers: and Stephen
[27.05.10 19:05:10] Rita Freudenberg: http://www.squeaksource.com/LearningArtifacts/
[27.05.10 19:06:28] Cherry Withers: Steve base it on cuisenaire rods
[27.05.10 19:06:48] Cherry Withers: Miquon Math
[27.05.10 19:07:47] Rita Freudenberg: education team should look more into these new things to have more influence
[27.05.10 19:08:08] akathleen: http://www.mathplayground.com/%5C/
[27.05.10 19:09:20] Rita Freudenberg: with artefacts there is no thinking?
[27.05.10 19:09:48] akathleen: This web site has so many nice math projects and some of them could be made by students with Etoys. It would be great if we could make some of these as Etoys projects and show how they are done.
[27.05.10 19:10:09] Cherry Withers: for maybe assessment not necessarily for instruction?
[27.05.10 19:13:15] Rita Freudenberg: fractions project on the showcase http://www.squeakland.org/showcase/project.jsp?id=9975
[27.05.10 19:13:49] C Galas: I get a statement that says You do not have access to that porject. ?
[27.05.10 19:14:03] Cherry Withers: same here
[27.05.10 19:14:03] Rita Freudenberg: I logged in on the website
[27.05.10 19:22:59] Rita Freudenberg: do we want to have these artefacts in Etoys? education team should discuss this.
[27.05.10 19:24:45] Rita Freudenberg: we have already many things in Etoys, we should do a "house-cleaning" to remove things?
[27.05.10 19:25:36] Rita Freudenberg: put the list of things to remove into jira
[27.05.10 19:26:53] Rita Freudenberg: tag it with "education"
[27.05.10 19:26:53] Cherry Withers: Do people actually look at that? I feel like it's a blackhole for information. I never see responses to my entries.
[27.05.10 19:27:04] Cherry Withers: Maybe it's just my settings
[27.05.10 19:27:54] Cherry Withers: yes please!
[27.05.10 19:28:02] Rita Freudenberg: jira workshop in next meeting
[27.05.10 19:28:35] Rita Freudenberg: orientation for new members
[27.05.10 19:29:07] akathleen: Is there a way for us to use the alt-shift-w "update code from server"? As I read about all of the changes that are being added, I don't have any sense of how all of those changes are going to fit together as a whole.
[27.05.10 19:29:20] Cherry Withers: Maybe have a default Welcome e-mail for new members coming in would be helpful in the future.
[27.05.10 19:30:41] Rita Freudenberg: educators need to be able to test changes easy
[27.05.10 19:31:03] Rita Freudenberg: cherry, could you start writing such a message, and we refine it later?
[27.05.10 19:31:11] Cherry Withers: sure
[27.05.10 19:31:18] Rita Freudenberg: thanks
[27.05.10 19:31:57] akathleen: Etoys Kurznkeitengun
[27.05.10 19:32:23] Rita Freudenberg: kurzanleitungen
[27.05.10 19:32:36] C Galas: the other thing that Alan and Dan have talked about is being able to not download Etoys-this is the big thing that will make it so much easier!!-and better for schools that can't download due to firewalls.
[27.05.10 19:32:55] C Galas: Alan is talking with Steve Jobs about getting Etoys on the iPad too
[27.05.10 19:35:02] akathleen: Etoys in iPad would be great
[27.05.10 19:35:44] C Galas: can't you see it working on that screen-it's like the Dynabook!
[27.05.10 19:35:46] Rita Freudenberg: release date: mid-June
[27.05.10 19:36:17] Cherry Withers: bye Kathleen!
[27.05.10 19:36:27] Cherry Withers: great!
[27.05.10 19:37:48] Randall Caton: Graphing of Data ------> finished by April 16
Better translation support ------> finished by May 7
Wider font support ------> finished by May 28
Input/Output of Data From/To Files ------> finished by June 18
Learner and Teacher Feedback ------> finished by July 9
Etoys paint tool ------> finished by July 26
EtoyMaker ------> finished by August 9
[27.05.10 19:38:23] C Galas: These dates are from Rico's project?
[27.05.10 19:38:55] Rita Freudenberg: have ricoh on one of the next meetings
[27.05.10 19:40:26] Rita Freudenberg: invite rico next week
[27.05.10 19:41:09] Cherry Withers: It was Flash-like
[27.05.10 19:41:21] Cherry Withers: html5/javascript
[27.05.10 19:42:23] Cherry Withers: He has a sponsor
[27.05.10 19:43:59] Rita Freudenberg: contact madhur shresta, ask if he plans to come
[27.05.10 19:44:40] Rita Freudenberg: Cherry will have a Kedama presentation
[27.05.10 19:45:31] C Galas: Cherry-I'm trying to get in touch with Linda Kao, who wrote the tutorial-I have an email int to Aimee Dorr at UCLA, who was her advisor. I'll let you know if that happens.
[27.05.10 19:45:41] C Galas: the tutorial on Kedama that is
[27.05.10 19:48:40] Avigail Snir: Rita, can you email me madhur Shresta's Email address?
[27.05.10 19:48:59] Randall Caton: Goals for Richo's project
[27.05.10 19:49:02] Randall Caton: 1. Input/Output of Data From/To Files: Tiles would be created to allow data from the Etoys environment to be output to a file and for information from an external file to be imported into the Etoys environment.
2. Learner and Teacher Feedback: Tiles would be created to allow formative feedback to be provided to learners and teachers as a student progresses through a project.
[27.05.10 19:49:03] Cherry Withers: ok..thank you everyone!
[27.05.10 19:49:56] C Galas: thanks everyone-bye!
education meeting May, 20 2010
Avigail, Cathie, Cherry, David, Steve, Kathleen, Beth, Carlos, Randy, Rita
Rita gave a short review of her visit and talk in Portugal, which led us to the topic of the different versions of Squeak Etoys which are used. We agreed that we at least need to put some information on the website about which projects work well with the showcase and Etoys 4.
Randy gave us an overview about Rico's progress on his GSoC project, which is really good. Steve asked to switch the last two topics on his agenda and to do Learner and Teacher feedback before Etoys Paint tool. For the paint tool we will ask the community for feedback before changes or additions will be made.
Then we came up with the first presentation proposals for Squeakfest and other related issues.
You can find the chat log below.
Rita
[20.05.10 18:35:56] stevesargon: That's a great idea for learning a new language
[20.05.10 18:36:34] Rita Freudenberg: bug: recorded audio files are missing
[20.05.10 18:37:45] Rita Freudenberg: Kathleen: sometimes it workes, sometimes it didn't
[20.05.10 18:38:04] Rita Freudenberg: happens when there are a lot of sound bites
[20.05.10 18:40:47] Cherry Withers: PC for me
[20.05.10 18:40:59] Rita Freudenberg hat David Corking zu diesem Chat hinzugefügt
[20.05.10 18:41:02] Cherry Withers: also how long are each of the sound bites?
[20.05.10 18:41:33] Rita Freudenberg: randy: it worked fine before the XO version
[20.05.10 18:41:58] Rita Freudenberg hat C Galas zu diesem Chat hinzugefügt
[20.05.10 18:44:36] C Galas: Hi everyone
[20.05.10 18:48:10] Rita Freudenberg: http://www.squeaklandia.pt/index.php/In%C3%ADcio
[20.05.10 18:50:21] stevesargon: A known issues section of the website
[20.05.10 18:52:27] Rita Freudenberg: ask Luis if projects from squeakland are running in Squeak 3.9
[20.05.10 18:52:38] Beth Santos: oops! need to lose my internet connection for just one second but i'll be right back!
[20.05.10 18:54:35] Randall Caton: Graphing of Data ------> finished by April 16
Better translation support ------> finished by May 7
Wider font support ------> finished by May 28
EtoyMaker ------> finished by June 11
Input/Output of Data From/To Files ------> finished by July 2
Etoys paint tool ------> finished by July 23
Learner and Teacher Feedback ------> finished by August 9
[20.05.10 18:54:41] akathleen: I must stop for a while to speak to a repairman
[20.05.10 18:55:21] C Galas: Please try calling me once more?
[20.05.10 18:56:38] stevesargon: Cathy, try mute
[20.05.10 18:58:50] Rita Freudenberg: more tools in the catalog
[20.05.10 18:59:04] Rita Freudenberg: if you open rico's projects
[20.05.10 18:59:38] Cherry Withers: it would help to have someone include this as a presentation on Squeakfest as "New features talk" and demo them
[20.05.10 18:59:52] stevesargon: Screencast
[20.05.10 18:59:56] stevesargon: put on YouTube
[20.05.10 19:00:03] Cherry Withers: great idea
[20.05.10 19:00:06] Cherry Withers: yes!
[20.05.10 19:00:20] Cherry Withers: you can also do Jing
[20.05.10 19:02:00] Cherry Withers: They would love the beach!
[20.05.10 19:03:50] Randall Caton: 1. Input/Output of Data From/To Files: This would allow learners to import data for visualization in the Etoys environment. Etoys is richer than most learning environments used in education and very creative things could be done in Etoys to visualize and use external data from a file. Learners and Teachers would also benefit from getting formative feedback on how the learner is progressing. Etoys is a rich environment of objects and data regarding the learner's manipulation of these objects would be sent to an external file for educators to analyze at a later date. The feedback would be more sophisticated and useful than a simple list of keystrokes or monitoring of eye movements. Further, data could be retrieved from these files to present to the learner or teacher as formative feedback on the learner's progress.
[20.05.10 19:06:50] Randall Caton: ask Richo to move up Learner and Teacher Feedback
[20.05.10 19:06:59] akathleen: i"m back
[20.05.10 19:07:21] Beth Santos: i'll be doing some work in sao tome over the next month and can give feedback on my experience there too!
[20.05.10 19:07:22] Rita Freudenberg: ask community for feedback on etoys paint tool before Rico starts working on it
[20.05.10 19:07:40] Carlos Rabassa: africa
[20.05.10 19:07:58] Randall Caton: 1. Input/Output of Data From/To Files: Tiles would be created to allow data from the Etoys environment to be output to a file and for information from an external file to be imported into the Etoys environment.
2. Learner and Teacher Feedback: Tiles would be created to allow formative feedback to be provided to learners and teachers as a student progresses through a project.
[20.05.10 19:08:05] Carlos Rabassa: Sao TOme e Principe , they speak portuguese
[20.05.10 19:08:07] stevesargon: thanks
[20.05.10 19:09:44] stevesargon: Is the latest version .010 there?
[20.05.10 19:09:49] Beth Santos: sorry, just ran off but i'm back 
yes, lots of connections with portuguese diaspora. not necessarily waveplace-related
[20.05.10 19:10:13] Rita Freudenberg: so you know about the portuguese material, yes?
[20.05.10 19:10:14] C Galas: What is the learner and teacher feedback? Is this written by the one who makes the project? Is the intent to provide scaffolded instruction?
[20.05.10 19:10:33] stevesargon: Its whatever you want it to be
[20.05.10 19:10:57] Beth Santos: just learning about the portuguese material as you all speak!
[20.05.10 19:11:00] Randall Caton: http://www.pcs.cnu.edu/~rcaton/ESUG/ESUG.html
[20.05.10 19:11:34] C Galas: It appears when summonses or when triggered by certain responses?
[20.05.10 19:11:41] Beth Santos: sounds great!!
[20.05.10 19:12:00] Randall Caton: Cathy - the intent is for the teacher to be able to write the feedback in Etoys
[20.05.10 19:12:30] akathleen: http://www.etoysillinois.org/library.php?tags=Etoys%20Kurzanleitungen%202010
[20.05.10 19:12:53] akathleen: just a start on the German translations at web site above
[20.05.10 19:13:15] Cherry Withers: Would it look like the one you had Randy? or is it something that educators can also put in different format or table?
[20.05.10 19:13:26] akathleen: repair meeting again, back soon
[20.05.10 19:13:48] Randall Caton: Cherry - like the example I created
[20.05.10 19:14:04] Randall Caton: only much more
[20.05.10 19:17:37] Rita Freudenberg: Merik Vosswinkel created an Etoys version for the iPhone
[20.05.10 19:18:05] stevesargon: Etoys on Android is a great idea
[20.05.10 19:18:22] C Galas: Alan is working on this. But thinks it would be the next version pf etoys
[20.05.10 19:18:41] C Galas: On the upas with Steve
[20.05.10 19:21:37] David Corking: Steve - have you posted an example project showing cuisenaire rods or other manipulatives?
[20.05.10 19:23:10] stevesargon: David - yes, its called Fraction Tools
[20.05.10 19:23:37] Cherry Withers: I can do a short one on Etoys in Philippines: Etoys contest as a filler.
[20.05.10 19:24:06] Cherry Withers: How many "experts"/developers do we have who are going to attend?
[20.05.10 19:24:07] stevesargon: I will be doing on on "Tools to Teach with"
[20.05.10 19:24:12] akathleen: back
[20.05.10 19:24:38] stevesargon: Fraction Tools - http://www.squeakland.org/showcase/project.jsp?id=7673
[20.05.10 19:25:08] stevesargon: Also Area blocks - http://www.squeakland.org/showcase/project.jsp?id=7744
[20.05.10 19:25:24] Cherry Withers: Can we possibly put a banner/ad on the NYU event at the end of the month?
[20.05.10 19:25:29] stevesargon: Am working on a GeoBoard as well
[20.05.10 19:25:44] Cherry Withers: Alan Kay is a keynote speaker
[20.05.10 19:25:45] Cherry Withers: yes
[20.05.10 19:26:07] akathleen: olpc learning club might be willing to post info about Squeakfest, I will get in touch with Mike Lee
[20.05.10 19:26:50] Rita Freudenberg: contact Idit Harel
[20.05.10 19:27:36] stevesargon: is anyone else going to NYU?
[20.05.10 19:27:36] C Galas: I worked with her and Yasmin Macao
[20.05.10 19:27:43] David Corking: steve, I will ask my son's teacher if I can try Fractions and Area Blocks on his interactive whiteboard
[20.05.10 19:27:52] C Galas: Kafai
[20.05.10 19:28:10] C Galas: Cc
[20.05.10 19:28:14] stevesargon: David, thanks I would appreciate any feedback and suggestions for improvements
[20.05.10 19:29:45] Rita Freudenberg: cathie, what do you think? will you contact Idit?
[20.05.10 19:31:20] C Galas: Kathleen let's chat later by email and we can both call her?
[20.05.10 19:31:41] Rita Freudenberg: Cathie, it was Avigail
[20.05.10 19:32:15] C Galas: Sorry I only see the chat and hear voices
[20.05.10 19:32:38] C Galas: Abigail we will chat later?
[20.05.10 19:33:04] C Galas: iPhone auto correct avigail
[20.05.10 19:33:16] Rita Freudenberg:
[20.05.10 19:33:50] Cherry Withers: It would be interesting to know how UNCW keep their students interested
[20.05.10 19:35:02] Carlos Rabassa: Nice being with all of you. Thanks for inviting me to join. Have to leave to pick up grandson from school. Bye
[20.05.10 19:35:11] Rita Freudenberg: bye Carlos
[20.05.10 19:35:50] Cherry Withers: bye Carlos
[20.05.10 19:37:07] C Galas: Thx all I will go now apologies for my poor connection. Cathie
[20.05.10 19:37:24] Rita Freudenberg: thanks for joning us!
[20.05.10 19:40:27] stevesargon: Thanks
[20.05.10 19:42:29] akathleen: I just sent a note to Mike Lee about Squeakfest OLPC Learning Club DC
[20.05.10 19:43:39] Rita Freudenberg: in Chicago: went out to a restaurant and listened to jazz
[20.05.10 19:44:19] Rita Freudenberg: reception on campus was better
[20.05.10 19:46:47] Rita Freudenberg: book sprint June, 14
[20.05.10 19:48:21] akathleen: I must leave for a meet at 1 PM
[20.05.10 19:48:53] Beth Santos: i'm also heading out. thanks everyone! i'll be in touch about haiti and sao tome
[20.05.10 19:53:50] David Corking: thank you - bye
[20.05.10 19:54:11] Cherry Withers: It was nice talking to you David! Bye bye everyone
education team meeting April, 29
Rita, Christine, Bruno, Randy, Kathleen, Avigail, Steve, Cathie, Cherry
#1 Squeakfest: Rita showed an outline from Sridhar about how the Squeakfest could be strucured. Avigail asked if we will exclude elementary school teachers? We will not exclude them, it depends on what kind of presentations we will get. The call for papers should start soon, submisison via email to UNCW and education team.
#2 Squeakfest website: Rita will try to update the website, if this will not work, we will start a new one.
#3 blog and newsletter: Cathie suggested to start a blog somewhere and collect information. Since the blog on Squeakland still isn't working properly, we will start a Google blog and link to it from the website. By talking about Google we came to the conclusion to switch to Google Groups with the education mailing list and try it out. Steve created it immediately
#4: textbooks: There is a need for a new textbook, a replacement for the powerful ideas. We started to talk about how this could look like, this is still in progress.