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I would love to see something like Geometer's Sketchpad (based on ideas
from Ivan Sutherland's original Sketchpad) on the OLPC. <br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.dynamicgeometry.com/">http://www.dynamicgeometry.com/</a><br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketchpad">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketchpad</a><br>
<br>
"Sketchpad was a revolutionary computer program written by Ivan
Sutherland in 1963 in the course of his PhD thesis. It helped change
the way people interact with computers. Sketchpad is considered to be
the ancestor of modern computer-aided drafting (CAD) programs as well
as a major breakthrough in the development of computer graphics in
general. Ivan Sutherland demonstrated with it that computer graphics
could be utilized for both artistic and technical purposes in addition
to showing a novel method of human-computer interaction."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometer%27s_Sketchpad">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometer%27s_Sketchpad</a><br>
<br>
"The Geometer's Sketchpad is a popular commercial interactive geometry
software program for exploring Euclidean geometry, algebra, calculus,
and other areas of mathematics. It was created by Nicholas Jackiw. It
is designed to run on Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 or later and Mac OS
8.6 or later (including Mac OS X). It also runs on Linux under Wine
with few minor bugs.<br>
<br>
Geometer's Sketchpad includes the traditional Euclidean tools of
classical Geometric constructions; that is, if a figure (such as the
pentadecagon) can be constructed with compass and straight-edge, it can
also be constructed using this program. However, the program also
allows users to employ transformations to "cheat," creating figures
impossible to construct under the traditional compass-and-straight-edge
rules (such as the regular nonagon)."<br>
<br>
-Don<br>
<br>
<br>
Steve Fullerton wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid74745e6d0705311026o122cea4ahd8a074200187c692@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">A very simplified spreadsheet on the OLPC machine would be
nothing more than a teacher's blackboard that is interactive. E.g. the
child can experiment/interact with the blackboard. Traditionally,
numbers are written on the board; solutions are given. The ability of
the student to manipulate these would be a great advance. The bridge
from rote learning to experimental learning. <br>
<br>
This is something we are thinking about at UCSD.<br>
<br>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 5/31/07, <b
class="gmail_sendername">Yoshiki Ohshima</b> <<a
href="mailto:yoshiki@squeakland.org">yoshiki@squeakland.org
</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Michael,<br>
<br>
> There are no plans for an official OLPC spreadsheet activity. At
<br>
> least, none that I have heard of (or could imagine). Largely
because 6<br>
> year olds shouldn't have access to it.<br>
<br>
Can you explain why they shouldn't?<br>
<br>
Spreadsheet is a good way to experiment numbers and (usually)
<br>
provides simple rules to manipulate them. Thinking about patterns and<br>
relationships, it can be a pretty good tool.<br>
<br>
A built-in graph feature would be a plus, but it is also good way to<br>
make them "draw" a graph by usign each cells as pixels. Making a
<br>
graph feature should give them better understanding what a graph is.<br>
<br>
(For the making graph part, many kind of graphs can be done in Etoys<br>
(and TurtleArt) by using the pen feature. Etoys has a "holder" object
<br>
that can hold a sequence of numbers as text, so you can do very<br>
rudimentary spread sheet like thing by yourself...)<br>
<br>
-- Yoshiki<br>
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</blockquote>
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