OLPC Greece/Random thoughts

Thoughts, analogies: the koufa stuff

• Always good to start with Resnick’s (MIT lab) paint brush analogy: we want children to use computers more like paintbrushes and less like televisions). Using platform such as Sugar we are trying to use computers not simply as information machines, but also a new medium for creative design and expression.
• Through a platform like Sugar one aim is to challenge criticisms and concerns that a growing number of educators and psychologists have expressed that computers are stifling children’s learning and creativity, engaging children in mindless ineraction and passive consumption.

(EXAMPLE 1 ……for the Passive consumptions component we can show the example of the maze ‘game’. Getting children to make and programe their own games rather than consume what is ready …. We can show video of maze game the children in Kermaikos made.

EXAMPLE 2: Getting children to think about test design for an orthographic test.. …example of test design from Kerameikos last week (see attached file)) ).

An example of stop motion:

For the past year one common workshop we do in classes is a short stop motion animation. This tends to involve a 20-minute workshop for students who often tend to have no prior experience working with and editing audio visual material and computer programming techniques.

Following the 20 minute workshop children often quickly develop numerous ideas about what projects they could execute… and immediately attempt to think through ways they could develop them. We have often been surprised by the abilities of students to translate stories in there minds into short animations often surprising us with they way they integrate images into the animation.

(EXAMPLE of Acharnes animation with blender and sound recording into story with the tomato ΟR Sminthi and talk about the animation with the bird.)