Impressions on B1 Machine

[Yoshiki Ohshima]

  Simon,

> >   Yes, I understand that part, but for having it as a top-level
> > accessible icon, it would be nice to have an answer for the question:
> > "what kind of educational value does it provide".
> >
>
> 1) I think there is an educational value in finding matching pairs.

  Oh, c'mon.  A computer should be a much better thing than just
mimicking stuff you can do with paper (or other physical objects).

> 2) This app will be different from the regular memory since it provides 
> sound facilities as well.
> Future modes will be:
>  - pictures only
>  - sound only
>  - pics and sounds
>
> 3) The sound part will be a good exercise to have the kids train there 
> musician-ship to some extent - providing sounds with similar rhythmic 
> patterns, differences in timbre and pitch will be interesting.
> 
> 4) Another part is the creation of digital content for the game (camera, 
> mic-in).

  And, let's think how we can make it so that a learner can open the
hood when we add complexity.

  (This is not about selling Etoys, but Etoys let you record sound and
use it in your program.  The video support is almost there, too.)

> 5) Fun - sharing with friends :)
> 
> 6) Remember, there are kids who have not been in contact with a lot of 
> technology and we need simple tools as well to overcome some early 
> barriers in interaction.

  Yes, but I'm not sure what you mean.  The hole in the wall
experiment is mentioned and it suggests that kids can learn the
surface level interaction quickly.  If you look at the lunar lander
game that is in the examples of Etoys, the control has some
non-trivial part, but I'd expect children can figure out it.

  The good thing about it is the code is right there visible to the
children.  And, it teaches the basics of calculus in a form of the
accelaration caused by gravity.

-- Yoshiki

P.S.
  It is completely unrelated, but if you are looking for some fun
stuff right out of box, open the "Object Catalog" of Etoys.  There are
chess game (that lets you play against the AI), Mine Sweeper, Free
cell, Same Game, Chinese Checkers and two other word games^^;  These
games are not written in the visual scripting language, but you can
modify them right in the Etoys environment.