December 15, 2009
now, what cutting edge curriculum is this from?
and what would most teachers say - we don't have enough access? thats all very well for the laptop school down the road?
this from my 1985 year 12 text book, at a time when the computer ratio was perhaps 1:20 in the school
like most of my friends though, we tinkered a bit at home, typing in game code etc ...
(i learnt the DO and IF statement for example, on a Vic 20 that took 20 minutes to load 3k of memory from tape drive ... and it seemed unremarkable that the beautifully written manual would teach you how to write a binary search routine etc, or by plugging in a 16k system module, design your own characters using binary addition on an 8x8 grid .. and i was not the computer geek in the class, just a bit curious about these things
one page in to this maths 'option' :
anybody game to try even that introductory example with kids today? ( i know Bill grappled with that one .. but its unusual .. )
i was no maths genius, but something about tinkering here was a positive thing for me ...it stayed with me over the years; and i found myself wanting to open that possibility to kids i taught
but i think few would disagree that this looks like it has faded from the curriculum ... even from the IT curriculum, and certainly from the maths
for example it seemed quite possible in my first year of teaching to ask the year 10 kids to find and plot every prime number up to 20,000 ... and when that proved a little ambitious, to show them how .. i'd seen a Ulam spiral somewhere and it looked quite do-able and interesting
So while my maths and programming were rightly judged as unexceptional at the time - what surprises me since then is its quite rare to see it attempted or used as a teaching approach
here's the rest of the module - its overly loaded with questions and content; not saying its the best way it should be done ... but at least it was done
it seems to me that the maths faculty should be leading edge of these technical skills... unless i'm missing something?
so repeating some diagrams ...
this omission and exclusion seems most striking in the maths faculty ...
i guess the questions that remain for me are
(a) in terms of my research - can i justify all these diagrams ... maybe i need some hard data to back up my impressions 
(b) technology in maths can soak up some hackwork... but does this mean letting a black box of a program - one we would no longer presume to try to write - do the thinking for you?
(c) should technology change content as well as make some of the work more efficient... (should it open new ways of exploration - like the humble Ulam spiral example)
(anyone following this might notice the maths wars posts 3,4 have disappeared. I'm trying to hone in one a research topic, and trying out a few ideas by blogging them ... but decided there was little mileage in those mid posts
October 6, 2009
Looks like Youtube, twitter, and facebook have decided to explore the synergies of overlapping their social media
This is an exciting initiative that will allow RSS feeds from either site, to appear on each others site.
commentators rushed to explain why this is so significant:
'now we'll be able to broadcast your favourite tweets into an animated YouTube video for others to read and comment on .. and tweet back in the mix'
'like WOW ...that really changes the game'
'the convergence of social media is just so exciting ... can't wait to explore the synergies here'
'the future is here - its just not evenly distributed : but this is like a meme from the future'
'forget Web 2; this is Web X; where X iterates so quickly its like a singularity'
its expected that the new site might be called YouTwitFace which also created excitement:
'it just captures so perfectly how these early adopters are changing the world'
'cyber pioneers is so last century - but youTwitFace just expresses the niche i want to carve out for myself!'
several academics also expressed interest -
'i have several phd students exploring identity formation in this new hypermediated cultural space, using recursive discourse analysis' said one
(several listeners nodded - 'oh yeah, recursive DA - thats kinda cool' tweeted imaTwFa)
and although some foresaw a future where nobody, like, reads more than 140 characters at a time, there is just no reasoning with such a profoundly deep movement
July 11, 2009
There is an Excel file below for VELS (Vic Curriculum) auditing and planning.
Which has useful macros (mini programs)
But is requires you to lower macro security in order to run it.
So...
Its a free give-away, unsupported, as is, which you may or may not find useful.
Use at your own discretion ...
You will need to decide if you want to change the macro security settings in order to run it. You should only do that if you trust the file, and understand the macro security issues.
(more...)
November 3, 2008
Here's some info from a virtual house for learning sustainabiliy, which i've described before ...a project with Swinburne uni, orginally inspired by River City
its a full 3D environment, which kids seem to relate very well to, in our testing ...here's a few screenshots
we can give a copy of the game to educators who want to trial this hopefully they'll want to help develop curriculum, and provide feedback...but just having a look is ok
here's a collaborative doc, which i can give interested people access to
send me an email (rob at thinkingcurriculum.com) or comment below...
still looking at whether uploading or sending a CD is best option - its about CD worth of info...we could post it out if needed [update 8th Nov; have it on a server for download now]
So... something cool...open for any interested educators to get involved...
July 2, 2008
I guess nearly everyone is aware, to some extent, of the One Laptop Per Child Project – which is, as the same suggests, trying to get a cheap (nominally $100) laptop (known as the XO) into the hands of the world’s children; prioritizing poorer areas (outback Aus would probably qualify). Its hit various problems – and also had a strange spin off in provoking the large manufacturers into producing smaller models which compete with it… even Microsoft has suddenly found a way to get XP onto small systems.
One fall out of all this has been that the software (known as Sugar) has taken on something of a life of its own – and can be run other hardware (eg this CD allows you to run Sugar - even if you normally run MS or another non Linux system).
Another spin off has been a renewed discussion of how children learn – what’s the best thing to do with computers, anyway, if millions more kids are getting one? The OLPC thinking on this has focussed on ‘constructionism’ – which means, loosely, that people generally learn best by constructing their own understanding (not just being told) and a particularly good way to construct your own understanding is to make something. ('tell me and I forget, involve me and i learn' etc) (more...)
June 13, 2008
someone asked about flash projects for year 9s and i remembered this one - an animated acrostic poem (click the 'start' text).
Its pretty simple, but good for practicing layers and frames and tweens, and the kids seem to like it - so here's the instructions for doing it.
(This was originally done in Flash 5, and it works the same in Flash 8, so i expect it would be same in the later versions).
So, to start with - it needs staggered start and end points for each letter - (see the pic in step 4) .. so here's the process:
(1) set up as many layers as there are letters in your name -add label each layer
(in this case - 4 layers for FRED)
(2) on the bottom layer, add a key frame in frame 1, and use the Text tool to type in the first letter ("F') (choose a font of say size 24) .
(3) take the number of letters in your name, and multiply x 10. Fred has 4 letters, so the "magic number" is 40. Go out to the magic number (40 in this case), and add a key frame on the bottom layer.(So the 'F' starts on the stage at Frame 1; and ends at Frame 40 (or whatever your magic number is)
(4) on the second layer, add a keyframe into frame 10, type the second letter ("R" for Fred) , and offset the end point 10 frames on as well (see the pic) , so it is staggered in relation to the layer below.
(5) add the remaining letters into the other layers, and continue staggering the start and the end points 1o frames beyond the previous layer. (it doesn't look like the two top layers in the pic have staggered end points, but they do .. have just truncated the screen shot a little ) if you play it now, it will look like this (click the little "start" text at bottom)
so now to add in the rest of the word, and morph them (so 'F' morphs into 'Fruity' for example) :
(6) on the bottom layer, add another key frame 10 frames past the previous end point (now frame 50 for Fred). Edit the text so on this key frame so it has the full word (Fruity, not just F).
(7) Need to break the word into a shape, so its not ordinairy text. Select the text box (click the arrow tool first), then choose "Break-Apart" under the Modify menu, twice. (short cut : control-B twice).
(8) still on the bottom layer, break apart the single letter ('F') on the previous key frame.
(9) Now you can add a shape tween 
between these two keyframes, to morph the F into Fruity. Here's one method for this - with the "F' keyframe still selected (frame 40 in this case), and the properties window showing (select Window Properties if you need to), select "Shape" out of the "Tween" drop down
(10) all being well there should be a green arrow like this : 
between the key frames .... if you see the dreaded dashed line then one or other of the keyframes probably wasn't broken apart fully (needs to be done twice to break a word right down to a shape).
(11) so .. .repeat all that (step 6 to 11) on the other layers ..
(12) now add an extra keyframe to each layer so they all end in the same spot - so the end of the movie should look something like this
(13) from here, you could add images etc on other layers, to come in at appropriate times - an apple appears with the fruity layer etc, and motion tweens around, and maybe sounds, etc - or change the timing, if you want a delay between each letter etc
enjoy
June 8, 2008
I’ve wondered why ICT seems to lacks clarity of purpose in education. – why effective ICT usage is such an elusive thing. Also about the sense of alienation many seem to feel – that ‘technology is being done to us".
I think its because “ICT” is not one thing; it’s a million things.We might think a skilled IT person – in education say - is good at a set of programs {wordprocessing, spreadsheets, internet use; movie making … .etc}
Problem is that it is not a finite set – there are as many potential domains of ICT usage as there are domains of thought – so it’s a forlorn hope to try master it all. Taking a look at how software works, it can actually simulate every other system that can be thought of - any system that can be described, can also be simulated on a computer.
That might seem a big claim - but its what Turing mathematically demonstrated even before computers were built. And its why software is endlessly flexible–- its like the permutations of writing. - (and at bottom software is very like language) - so that set will never close.
(We don’t quite see this, partly because the physical object of a computer appears to be “one thing”, or one collection of programs – not quite seeing its capable of running every simulation that can be thought of – morphing into any conceptual form).
The first “meta medium” as Alan Kay called it.
So no wonder we’re not sure what the best way to “use ICT is” - its like asking what’s the best way to “use text”? It rather depends on what you’re wanting to do, express, analyse, what you are interested in. So what does an educator, with some responsibility for getting students or colleagues to “use it”, do?
A common approach is instrumentalist - we try to be adept at knowing a relatively wide range of tools, and potential ways to use them for learning and teaching. And then we expose others to some sense of the range of tools, and their use in mastering various domains.
(So implicitly some progressive position on education and curriculum etc often accompanies this - Marco Torres is really on about a passion for social equality, and Ken Robinson is really about creativity, as much as they might be interested in ICT as a vehicle for their ideas etc).
The mantra of this sort approach is ‘Its not about technology– its about achieving your goals etc / its about learning etc”
I think this goal driven approach is a productive and useful path, especially for busy teachers.
There is, though, a set of generic skills that still applies and is worth teaching children, who have time to learn. This seed will be more congenial for some than others – potentially grow some very big trees.Its understanding that software really is a “meta-medium” – that has a creative potential similar to language or mathematics; or some hybrid of the two.
That is, getting students to see that software is, behind the scenes, a particular type of formal language, limited in some ways – non emotive, analytical - but can be expressive and descriptive of ideas, and empowered to run at such speed that the simulation is tangible, interesting, expressive.
(listen to Steve Jobs describe the people who built the Apple
If you study these people a little bit more what you'll find is that in this particular time, in the 70's and the 80's the best people in computers would have normally been poets and writers and musicians. Almost all of them were musicians. Alot of them were poets on the side. They went into computers because it was so compelling. It was fresh and new. It was a new medium of expression for their creative talents. The feelings and the passion that people put into it were completely indistinguishable from a poet or a painter. Many of the people were introspective, inward people who expressed how they felt about other people or the rest of humanity in general into their work, work that other people would use. People put a lot of love into these products, and a lot of expression of their appreciation came to these things. It's hard to explain
So its interesting that when schools are talking so much about 'creative use of ICT', that the capacity to escape the boundaries of some else's simulation; and build ones’ own – to create at the language level – is not promoted more widely. One would think building and taking control like this would be included in the canon of constructivist / constructionist approaches to ICT.
It would help to get kids and teachers to understand that all flavours of software - spreadsheets or word docs or movie editors or browsers etc – everything is a system that begins life as an idea and becomes reality through a series of interactive expressions and rules.
It’s a pity in some ways the art of creating this is called 'programming' – since that feels like a dry, behaviourist sort of term. But as Seymour Papert said, its better for the kids to programming the computer than the other way around – and he investigated the wide ranges of “styles” that students brought to this medium.
As with other forms of literacy we want to be on the creating (writing) as well as consuming (reading) side. (The trap is because its so much easier to consume than produce - and using well designed software is such a compelling experience that we might be happy to leave creating it to the 'tech nerds').
Yet I think not doing this also contributes to a our sense of alienation – that ICT is being 'done to us', and we’ll never 'catch up'. That is, in a sense, probably true, if we’re just observing and positioning ourselves to try to use that set, which keeps growing.
Proprietary systems that position the “user” as completely apart from the “developer” and give little accessible or obvious means to get started with creating software are also part of the problem – most people sense that’s it all too difficult or involved to go the 'developer tools' and all that.
But really it doesn’t need to be that way - simulations that allow software development at some level should be quite accessible.
Ironically, the first generation of personal computers had a much easier starter language inbuilt (called BASIC) : Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Language.
Sounds like the sort of things schools should be interested in – and indeed many were.
Purists despise it of course – but it wasn’t bad for getting started – and that’s whats missing today – kids never get that start.
I'm not suggesting all should be programmers, (although if we called it software creativity it might sound more appealling) ; but the seed of that capacity should be on offer in schools; accessed via maths or english or science or robotics or overlaps of these - we should be able to cultivate that sense of creative control - which can grow in as many directions as there are ideas (in fact the idea can be the motive for learning the art).
this meta-medium allows any system to be created, simulated, transmuting one thing into something else – this is, from a particular point of view, the essence of ICT – and its what happens inside this software stuff, and so is worth understanding – or at least offering a scaffold for those how want to understand, since it becoming so pervasive and powerful. Its a slower discipline, compared to using software (maybe analogous to learning music, rather than the easier task of appreciating it) - but avoiding it seems to rule off a literacy that can be very empowering.
May 31, 2008
Wikipedia is the best known wiki. The wiki thing is about simple editing of pages, simple addition of pages, collaborative editing - and a mindset that allows work in progress to still be useful, sketched out and in use, and flexible, incremental changes
Ward Cunningham invented the thing and is also one of the developers of extreme programming - which loosely, seems to mean something similar; allow things to evolve, with a minimal master plan to start with - since its likely to change - allow incremental changes and constant updating
Nice to see the behind the scenes thinking of a key web 2 tool. There is - a fascinating podcast on all this here- cool design ideas on keeping it simple, intuitive, feeling empathy in the software process, teaching software ...
(twit has other very interesting insights from other creative types who were at the heart of whole software story)
May 30, 2008
[wrote this as postscript for some studies - following the intuition that the common experience of ICT as web 2.0 may eclipse some crucial understandings of classic IT, water down the content of computer science in schools] :
Sitting on a train, after a day wrestling with a research proposal, an interesting synchronicity unfolds. Passengers cram in; opposite one starts a crossword puzzle. Adjacent, one opens a laptop and starts programming. A few minutes layer another passenger gets on, sits opposite, and starts a sudoku. A moment later the sudoku solver and the programmer recognise each other; obviously know each other a little; but don’t talk for long, and settle back to their tasks. I’ve been glancing at the programming beside me; its in a terminal window and is full of test cases and assertions. I guess it might be a test harness for an electronic board.
After a while I notice the approach the sudoku player is taking, systematically listing, in small script at the top of each cell, the candidate possibilities for each square, identifying the most constrained cells first – then reducing elements out other cells once one is determined. I find myself thinking of procedures I could use to program that - looping through each column, and row, with an array attached to each cell; - maybe with colour if one just wanted to hint at productive cells…. I glance back at the programmers screen –and it suddenly seems like that is exactly what he is programming - he flicks a window and I see its called sudoku.py.
My sudden conjecture is that there might be coworkers, since they did recognise each other … even though the common link of sudoku algorithms seems like improbable work .. so I break the convention of commuting silence and start a conversation. It turns out their common focus is not these little numerical puzzles - they actually did a computer science course some years ago; the manual sudoku solver now works in a bank; as a systems designer; the programmer works for a stockbroker, programming automated trading systems – both are tackling the sudokus for distraction.
We chat, and I talk about this research, and Sherry Turkle’s reservations on today’s notion of IT– around the that fact that 20 years ago many kids programmed computers for fun – we all agree on that - but today kids are more likely to be on MySpace or World of Warcraft. I mention my suspicion that the lack of a 'BASIC' – the simple, pre-installed language we learnt with, might contribute to this. I’m interested in their opinions.
The stockbroker programmer indicates, wryly, he is happy with the lack of competition coming through from junior programmers. The sudoko banker rebukes him, and warns that below a critical mass that whole sector of the IT industry will be outsourced to India. Working in a large bank, he sees it already; there are no local programmers below the system designers. He also seems bit conflicted about ICT in schools; since he has fond memories of the control he felt in teaching himself programming language, and spending hours trying to make games, on a Commodore 64; but isn’t sure there is a future in it now. The stockbroker programmer disagrees – loves the technical work and sees it as a good career option for students.
I feel like I should interview these two, incarnations of the concerns I’ve been reading over for two days; early dialogue in an ‘outcome space’.. after they leave at the little satellite town, I travel on, feeling I might be on to something - that the historical tensions around how IT is conceived corresponds to real and current issues, and the strength of this little debate tells me the issue goes beyond schools - and the idea of visual schematics to examine the tensions might work.
many in education seem set on cheerleading the '21st century ict' ='web 2.0' =transformation' theme - lots of syrupy youtube videos on that theme - but not everyone agrees, or at least not without reservations about what is missing in that equation. Some have even stepped away from the spin and grappled with an historical context that is surprisingly absent from all the discussion of ICT in schools. Its quite stabilising to have some sense of the real historical trajectory of educational computing - the popular idea that its all progressed ignores some of the real history.
Scratch is cool. It makes learning programming fun … and collaborative.
The last 18 months has seen 140,000 projects uploaded, of the millions that have must have been made.
They range from the simple to complex, with kids and teachers and experienced programmers all contributing.It uses the tile metaphor (like etoys, Alice, Logo TNG, GameMaker).
I’ve previously questioned whether the "web 2" thing is a bit overdone as rationale for IT use, and whether we’re losing some possibilities in schools – such as the ability to construct software, and build simulations - whether we're so busy repackaging content that we lose the vision for creating at this level. So its great to see Scratch uses Web 2 to get people sharing programmable media. You can upload your projects, share them, download other peoples, and comment etc. I’ve just tried a little demo, where you can draw a steering wheel, draw a car, and control the car with the steering wheel.
Here’s the demo and a pdf file you could use for instructions
(This is the simplest of 2 minute scripts, and that 's the point - in what other environments could you draw a car, draw a steering wheel, and then link them together , so one controls the other, in a way that's accessible for kids? It gives a creative feel to the process.)
The idea is from a classic etoys demo – and indeed Scratch and etoys are both based on the same educational vision, and the same underlying platform. One of the kids made that link - "its like Squeak" which was cool. Those who remember Logo sometimes comment that its a bit like that too ).
There's a whole world of ideas lying just behind those comments - a little known history and rich array of educational ICT ideas and approaches, but won't go there now.
I'm hoping to get kids exploring maths with Scratch ... removes some of the programming language hurdles - still leaves you with the thinking challenges which are complex enough. They're enjoying it ok at present- liked some of the maths galleries and made some interesting effects with a few starters on pen drawings and iteration.