How to do timing in Etoys?

I just got this question from my students and I thought there might be others with similar interests. So how can I control sequences of actions over time? Say, I want to use speech bubbles to tell a story. I have a number of sentences to show, one after another, and I want to let some time pass between them to give the reader time to read. How can I do that?

Well, I can build a timer and check the time to trigger actions when a certain time is reached. How can I build a timer?

First of all, you need a variable to count time steps. Open the viewer for your object. Create a variable by clicking the "v" - symbol in the top row of the viewer and give your variable a name. I choose "seconds". The default type is "Number", which is fine and 0 decimals places are perfect as well.

Now open a new empty script and drag the tiles to assign a new value to your variable into the script. Change the operation to "increase by" and the number to "1". Make sure the value of your variable is "0" at the start! Name the script "timer".

You do know already that the script, once started, will be executed repeatedly until it is being stopped, right? Do you also know how fast or how slowly this happens? You can see this when you click on the watch in the top row of the scriptor and hold the mouse button down. And you can also change it there! By default, it will be executed 8 times per second. Change this into once per second!

When you now start the script, each second it will increase the value of your variable "seconds" by 1! Now you can use the value of the variable in other scripts:

Use a all-scripts-tile from the supplies to start both, your script and the timer, at the same time and watch :)

Please note: It depends on your computer and what other programs are running on it at the same time, if a second in the Etoys project will be the same as a second at a real clock. It may not be exactly the same, but probably close. It is definitely good enough to control the flow of a story, but for scientific experiments, you should use a real timer!

There is another approach to time handling in this post from Ricardo Moran.

You can also find a tutorial to build a timer in project 6 of the book "Powerful Ideas in the classroom" by Kim Rose and B.J. Allen-Conn.

Google Hangout with Unleash Kids, August 19

Bert and I feel honoured to be invited as guests in the Google Hangout of Unleash Kids, a series of live discussions with OLPC activists from around the world. Meet us tomorrow, Monday, August 19th!

http://blog.unleashkids.org/2013/08/17/etoys-architect-education-director-live-monday-august-19/

Etoys at Maker Faire in Hannover

This weekend, our family presented Etoys at a local maker faire in Hannover, Germany. It was the first time I attended an event like this and I liked it very much. The whole idea of "making" fits pretty good with what you are doing with Etoys.
But it was very different from what I usually do when presenting Etoys, too. First of all, people come and look and need a short concise introduction of what Etoys actually is. They all have different backgrounds, you can not assume that they are interested in teaching a certain subject. Of course, during the discussion, you find out what interests them and can show these aspects. But at some point, we had 3 or 4 different groups of people visiting and each of us was engaged in her own conversation. This is ok if there are enough people at the booth.
We used 4 XO laptops to show Etoys. This was a good idea in several ways, for one, it was sunny and you could still read the screens :) The laptops are eye catchers, too and we also answered questions about the XO's and OLPC.
What worked good was showing the Etoys challenge and ask visitors to try to solve it. It was engaging and needed not too much explanation. Turtle geometry is also a nice and quick activity, the drive-a-car-curriculum is still one of the best ways to give an introduction and show the power of Etoys (this is Bert's favorite).
What would I do next time? It would be nice to have a bigger screen and show Kathleen's videos in the background. The XO's were in use most of the time and been left in various states.
I would prepare / look up more projects like the Etoys challenge, where visitors (most important, kids) can just start doing something.
I would like to have something physical, maybe a robot controlled via Physical Etoys, because it is even more engaging then movement on a computer screen and draws attention. I also like the idea from an event in Japan I read about: create a physical object like a clay-figure, take shots with a camera and create a stop-motion-animation. But maybe this already points towards the other thing I really would do: offer workshops.

 Bert explaining Drive-a-Car, standing beside our self-made Smalltalk balloon.

Jakob and Sophie showing Etoys to other kids.

Squeakland Education Team at Google Doc Camp 2012

Starting Monday, Dec 3, six members of the education team are sitting in an office at Google in Sunnyvale, writing a book for teachers who want to teach Etoys in their classroom. We, that are Kathleen Harness, Avigail Snir, Kathleen Smith, Steve Thomas, Randy Caton and myself, Rita.
We are here with two other teams, and the first day was filled with many activities getting to know each other and talking about general questions regarding writing documentation in a community for open source projects.
On Tuesday afternoon, we started writing our book, starting around 9:00 am and working until 8:30 pm. These are long days, but we are perfectly provided with everything we need during the whole day (and even night, since they also pay the hotel). So we can completely concentrate on writing and discussing. This is the most wonderful time we have as a group since the last time we met face to face at Squeakfest in Wilmington 2010.
On Friday, we will have a new Etoys book!

Squeakfest Argentina 2012 Day 1

The first day was the day of presentations, starting with myself in the morning and ending with Randy's at the evening.
I cannot thank Sebastian, Ricardo and Matias from the Physical Etoys team enough for all their help with the translation! Gabriela Arevalo did an awesome job preparing everything for the conference, including simultaneous translation of the talks. With the help of Matias, this worked really well!
Between the two presentations we had workshops. Stephen directed another Dr. Tecnico / Etoys workshop through videoconference with me as the local robot. It worked very well, the participants were very engaged and created different solutions for the given problem of steering a robot to a certain goal. All material from Squeakfest Argentina can be found at http://tecnodacta.com.ar/gira/

Randy and I traveled to and from the hotel together with Patricio Acevedo and Ricardo Salvador, which perfectly solved the communication problem with the cab drivers (I did had a problem in Montevideo, where I didn't pronounce the name of the place correctly and ended up in the wrong area)! During all days we were hosted perfectly at the Universidad Abierta Interamericana thanks to Gabriela and her team. Also, Gabriela is the one who found the money to pay for our traveling, so she helped not only Squeakfest Argentina, but also Squeakfest Montevideo that way!

Having said this, thank you very much Gabriela and Physical Etoys team for the great time in Buenos Aires!!

 

Squeakfest Uruguay 2012 Day 3 - Workshop DrTechniko

This was a very fun workshop! Steve presented it virtually with me and Randy on site in the lab. The idea is from DrTechniko - How to train your robot. Steve had the handout translated into Spanish. Randy and me worked as "robots" for the participants.
It was a great experience, even our lack of the spanish language was not to our disadvantage, since we robots understood only a very restrictive vocabulary. After being trained to walk in a square the task was for the participants to come up with a more complex script for walking to a table, grab a bottle and bring it back. That resulted in different kinds of scripts and, as expected, participants started to make up more complex commands for the robots.
That was fun, but not the last of it. Steve had an Etoys project prepared where everyone now could create scripts for an Etoys robot, based on the experience with the human robots. This is a very motivating activity for the classroom!

Robot Randy walking in a square.

Squeakfest Uruguay 2012 Day 2 - Diner with Plan Ceibal

I accompanied Mariana Herrera to the Plan Ceibal offices the day before. There I met Lidia Barboza, the coordinator of research and evaluation in educational technology. She introduced me to her colleagues and explained the ideas and ongoing projects at Plan Ceiabl in the area of primary education. Then she invited me and Randy for diner the next day.
We had an inspiring and deep conversation during diner, where we also met Lidias colleagues from Plan Ceibal and Carlos and Nanny Rabassa, who support and volunteer for Etoys since the Squeakfest in Brazil in 2009.
I'm especially happy about Lidias view of Etoys and how it could be used for deeper learning in schools. She has an understanding for constructionist learning, knows that the way of teaching needs to change and has ides on how to accomplish that. I hope we can go on working together and make a difference for primary education in Uruguay!

It was a very interesting diner, which unfortunately took longer than we had planned, so I arrived late for my own workshop.

Squeakfest Uruguay 2012 Day 2 - Presentation from Novo Hamburgo

The next presentation I saw on the first full day of Squeakfest was a real special one. A whole class from Novo Hamburgo in Brazil came to Montevideo to present the projects they did with Etoys.
It was Bruno Sperb, who got them started with Etoys during a workshop at their school. After that, the students and teachers started a project where older students created learning projects for younger students of their school. At Squeakfest, the students presented the projects they created. It was wonderful to see the variety of projects and ideas. The students did a great job talking about their work in front of a whole room of visitors!
To come gto Squeakfest, they did a great job to find sponsors, rent a bus and drove the 12 hours down to from Novo Hamburgo.

Squeakfest Uruguay 2012 - Day 2, Randy's workshop

On the second day, we had several highlights, so I'll have more than one post for Day 2. The day started with Randy's workshop. Randy had the text of his projects translated into Spanish by Carlos Rabassa, he had learned some spanish phrases himself and he had Ricarco Moran to translate him on the first day and Sebastian Blanco on the second. That way, every teacher in the room could follow the workshop and there was a very interesting discussion. That is the best thing in a workshop, when participants get really involved in a topic.
Randy's projects are created in a certain way, derived from conclusions of the book "How people learn". There is an introductory text about the subject and then students are confronted by common preconceptions regarding it. A teacher needs to be able to lead a discussion about these preconceptions in the classroom, and give students ideas on how to prove what they think.
In this workshop, Randy presented a variety of projects about several topics. You can find his projects here: Squeak Courseware: Science

A picture from the second workshop.

Squeakfest Uruguay 2012 - Day 1

José Miguel García: Robotics and education

 

In his talk, Miguel explained how robots are being used in the schools in Uruguay. There are robotics kits in every school in Uruguay and teachers are starting to adapt to robotics programming. What he did and talked about were really great robotics courses with amazing results. 

We attended his workshop later at Squeakfest Buenos Aires, where we were supposed to build robots from materials like cardboard, woodenstrips, yarn and a NXT motor within two hours. At first, we were imagining what we would like to automate (without knowing about the materials). Then we learnde what materials we had available, so we had to refine our idea to something that could actually being done in the given time. And then came the tinkering and programming. We used TurtleArt to control the motor, we could easily have used PhysicalEtoys as well. It was about doing the whole design process from the idea to the finished project thinking like an engineer. 

This is how they do workshops with kids at schools!

 

Squeakfest Uruguay 2011- Day 2, Steve's Talk

I just eperienced a wonderful virtual talk from Steve Thomas. He was able to start it interactively with the audience, even while he could not see the audience and they could not see him. But they saw his screen, and he played a game with the audience, having them suggesting numbers to win a tictactoe. It was amazing to see how the audience loved his talk, the little surprises his projects give and all his wonderful examples.

You can find more of it here: http://mrstevesscience.blogspot.com/
and here http://etoys4teachers.blogspot.com/

Squeakfest Uruguay 2011- Day 2

We arrived around 8:30 at the university for Squeakfest and I tested the internet connection for our online talks. Thanks to Bert and the technicians at the university, we got it connected. So Steve's and Walter's talk should be no problem.
I started a bit later than planned, at 9:30 with my presentation. It went well, but was an unusual experience for me. Because Valentina had to translate, I could only say 1-2 sentences at once. Usually, I start talking and get going. Now I had to stop all the time. But the audiencesat sat there, nodding, so they seemd to understand and agree.
Right now, Randy and Ricardo are giving a talk together. This is very nice, Ricardo is showing his Speech Bubbles, graphing tools, etc. which he developed in the GSoC-project. Randy gives the pedagogical background, with Ricardo translating. It is very nice to see how well they work together!

Squeakfest Uruguay 2011

Squeakfest in Montevideo has started today at 7:30 pm. We are in Aula Magna of the Catholic University in Montevideo, a verynice room, it actually looks like a church (and probably is). There are about 100 people in the room at this opening night. Many more are expected tomorrow, when participants from other parts of the country wil arrive.
Mariana Herrera, who organized the conference, opened it at 7:30, then MSc. Ing. Catalina Fellaggiwelcomed us at the university. I was the first to give my welcome speech, which main objective was to thank Mariana for all the work she did to make this happen. Valentina, a 17-year-old friend of Mariana translated my talk, she is really amazing! Then Enrique Verdes from the Uruguayan Linux User Group talked about the importance and possibilities of free software. Finally, Monica Baez from Plan Ceibal welcomed everyone and talked about the importance of educating the children for the technological age. All these organizations supported Squeakfest and helped tomake it happen.
I already met several people, Lino Bessonart, who will conduct the Etoys workshops tomorrow and on Saturday. Ricardo Moran, Gonzalo Zabala and the whole group of "Physical Etoys" are here. After 2 years, I met Marta Voelcker from Porto Alegre again. Right now, she is talking about "Education, Technology and Skills of the 21st Century". Fortunately, she gave me an overview of her talk before, because she is speaking Portuguese. This is very similar to Spanish, so the participants will understand it. Her talk will set the broader context for the then following focus on Etoys.
The conference is supposed to end today around 9:30 pm. Then we will go to dinner, which I have learned is the usual time people in Uruguay go out to eat. But probably I'll stay some time longer and try out the internet connection for the online talks that are planned for tomorrow.

Squeakland week

These were the last two weeks:

#1. Uruguay is now the country with the most registered Etoys users in the world. Congratulations!

#2. Tim Falconer started a discussion "A school is not a building" on several lists, even on the developer chat on Monday this was the topic. [1], [2]

#3. We tested the next environments for online collaboration on the education team meetings. This time it was Skype and GoToMeeting. With Skype, the screen sharing didn't work. This week in GoToMeeting we had an audio chat and could share our screens, so this is working well. It was fun to show each other projects and play around! [3]

#4. Carlos Rabassa did send his notes from the "Digital Citizenship" conference he attended in Montevideo, with detailed feedback for individual presentations. [4]

#5. And here is a nice website with ideas for mathematical doodling, have a look and start your next Etoys project :) [5]

Fun with pattern blogs and transformation tools

Read this great blog from Steve!
http://mrstevesscience.blogspot.com

New chapter in Physics FlexBook using Etoys!

Today, I saw this article about a new chapter for a NASA physics FlexBook:


http://www.itnewsonline.com/showprnstory.php?storyid=120290

The chapter called "Modeling and Simulating NASA's Launch Abort System" has been written by Randy Caton, an active member of the Squeakland education team and board. You can find it here:


http://www.ck12.org/flexr/chapter/7847

Enjoy!

book sprint - day 1

When we made the plan, I didn't realize that the first day of our book sprint is labor day! So there was time for a thorough inventory. What do we have so far? I used the time to go over every chapter and put notes and comments in chapter talk of the particular chapter. If you login to FlossManuals, you'll know what I mean.
In order to get finished, we need to cut back on some things. Put everything in we need and leave out the nice-to-have stuff. This will of course not be deleted, but put into appendices or other files for later use.
One convention we agreed on was to base the manual on Etoys 4.0. I think this should still be the case, and we should add notes for the changes in the new Etoys 4.1 version.

Etoys reference manual

We will have a book sprint next week to hopefully finish the Etoys reference manual in time for the next release. A book sprint is usually held in some place, where the participants meet face-to-face and spend a weekend or rather a week writing a book.
Unfortunately, we cannot have the physical meeting, but we can do it online. We are using FLOSS Manuals, a web-based tool for collaborative writing. Since we started last December, we already have gained some experience. I like the tool! It will get more interesting when it comes to the design of the pages and cover. Right now, my biggest problem is to find a good structure for the book. It needs to have numbered chapters and sub-chapters to give the reader the context, but on the other hand, too much numbering (like 2.1.3.4.5) isn't help anymore. So we need to find a good balance. Fortunately, with FLOSS Manuals, the layout is made using css, so we don't need to worry about the design yet and can just write.
We have a wiki page with more information about the book sprint here:
http://wiki.squeakland.org/display/sq/Book+Sprint

Etoys is a modeling tool

Mark Guzdial cites Adele Goldberg in his blog today, emphasizing, that the focus should be on "modeling" instead of "programming". I think this is exactly what Etoys is made for. Not to learn how to program, but as a tool to be able to model a real world phenomenon.  Read more in his blog:

http://computinged.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/adele-goldberg-modeling-not-programming/

You can also get the book Points of View: A Tribute to Alan Kay here:


http://vpri.org/pov/

Squeak Etoys on the iPad

Bert has ported Etoys on the iPad! Check out in his blog
http://croquetweak.blogspot.com/2010/06/squeak-etoys-on-ipad.html