[OLPC_Boston] Question on eToys Older kids and adults??

[Nicholas Doiron]

To clarify an e-mail I wrote quickly last night:

There are a lot of ideas out there about how to do intro-to-programming
and I like what people have done with eToys at the primary school level (
if you haven't seen Waveplace's experiences in Haiti, read
http://waveplace.org/news/blog/ )

As you target middle school level students or above, they're interested in
the internet and media.  Some are interested in technical details - ask
any programmer you know when they started.  You can make a high school kid
an expert in eToys, but they won't be any closer to making their own
website or Space Invaders game.  If you would give someone a power tool in
shop class, you should give them a real programming language on the
computer.

Mozilla's Hackasaurus program is designed for learning HTML at this level.
 Two amazing workshops in the past month: 
http://spotlight.macfound.org/featured-stories/entry/at-hackasaurus-jam-mozilla-encourages-young-programmers-to-change-the-web/
and http://brettgaylor.tumblr.com/post/3526122151/web-made-movies-at-bavc 
They have information about setting up your own workshop at
hackasaurus.org

Regards,
Nick Doiron


On Sat, March 12, 2011 12:05 am, Holt wrote:
> What a great meeting of 14 minds tonight, spending our Friday night in
> style, facing OLPC's most serious challenges:
> http://flickr.com/photos/curiouslee/5518687706/sizes/l/in/photostream/
>
>
> On 3/11/2011 10:52 PM, Nicholas Doiron wrote:
>
>> There were a couple of people at the meeting today talking about using
>> eToys or Scratch to engage older kids and/or adults with programming.
>>
>> Would I be able to reach them through the OLPC Boston e-mail list?
>> I'll
>> write a longer e-mail to share http://hackasaurus.org and
>> http://palpable-video.appspot.com/sample and one of my blog posts with
>> them, for online websites and media-making with a real visual and
>> creative feel.
>>
>> It's a lot more real-world and web-related than eToys, still very
>> hands-on and constructive
>
> Derek,
> Do you have the email addresses for Anastasia, the clinical testing
> software/dba gentleman she came & Brooks? Can you send these email
> addresses (privately, please) to me and/or the group of-14 who attended
> tonight?
>
> - Mike
> - Marina
> - Anastasia
> - Holt
> - Dogi
> - Andi
> - Allison
> - Jennifer
> - Nick D
> - Jean-Paul L
> - Brooks
> - Derek
> - (Anastasia's friend)
> - Matt who left early
>
>
> --
> Help kids everywhere map their world, at http://olpcMAP.net !
>
>
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>