[Edu-sig] More Pipeline News

[kirby urner]

Appended: a cut 'n paste from Math Forum, fixing one
typo.  Posted here cuz of the reference to South Africa,
home of kusasa.org and the Shuttleworth pipeline
(Logo -> Squeak -> Python).

On the Logo -> Squeak front, I'm seeing a lot of activity
in robotics, making a Squeak front end for controlling
robodogs, other kid friendly cuties, e.g.:

http://www.bioloid.info/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=MicroRaptor

That's good, cuz the Logo and GvR type IDEs, involving
controlling an avatar, need to blend towards Immersion
Phase (Squeak, Sims, ActiveWorlds...).

In the meantime, the Kay Group is thinking to reinvent
the wheel and implement the whole show in like just
20K lines of code, intended for pedagogical purposes
(not just pie in the sky).

http://irbseminars.intel-research.net/AlanKayNSF.pdf

More power to 'em, though of course OLPC isn't waiting
for that project to finish (I doubt Kay would want it to --
kids need Net access today -- tomorrow is not soon
enough).  And besides, we already have Python.

Kirby

Onward:

==========

> Part two: how are they going to do it? Can you
> you give us a hint as to how the choices will be
> presented, under your scenario, and how the children
> will choose?
>
> Haim
> Je me souviens

Just to butt in, but why not use the present tense?
Why all this future tense nonsense?

MPG was saying the Net is one promising way we're
offering choice (remember choice?), and I'm agreeing,
saying our students are choosing even now, even today,
to read this and not that, to study this and not that
(life is short and you've got to prioritize).

Take, for example, the Freedom Toasters now spread
across 16 cities in South Africa: brightly colored
kiosks where you stick in your blank DVD or CD and
then choose from a menu what to burn (LinuxUser &
Developer #68, pg. 61). There's choice involved,
especially if you just have the one blank CD (can't
just grab everything).

The canard I'm tired of hearing is that we have to
wait for some big wheels to turn, in New York or
Detroit or someplace, before choice becomes a reality.
At least in *some* regions of the country, we *already*
have choice and yes, kids are doing much of the
choosing.

http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=1534429&tstart=15

Kirby