[YL] ymca::kids::computers
Steve Bean
Steveb at etr.org
Fri Mar 18 19:56:23 EST 2005
I'd love to. I'll be brief, but you can read more about ourprogram on
the YouthLearn after-school website. So here's some of our experiences
and challenges:
1) We wanted girls to build games because research shows that 1) Games
are a "gateway" to more advanced IT activities, and 2) There aren't many
IT products, especially games that are built by and for females. When we
started designing our program three years ago, there were fewer software
applications for youth to use to build games. Now there's Stagecast,
which I highly recommend people check out. Then there was RPG maker,
which has a following, but little in the way of support materials, so
developing materials or finding someone who could teach it seemed
difficult. We chose Macromedia's Flash program, which we liked for it's
professional use on the web. Our girls were proud that they were
learning software that professional web designers use. However, it was a
challenging software program to build a youth program around. It's very
complex and doesn't have a streamlined internal logic, so much of it
does not lend itself to intuitive learning. When we started, there
wasn't any published resources for teaching Flash to youth, so we
developed our own materials from scratch. I hear now there is a book out
on the subject.
2) We wanted to attract girls to our program who weren't already into
computers. We had to learn how to market our program, emphasizing the
social aspects and the game-building and multi-media aspects and
downplaying the idea that this was a "computer club." We also had to
front load some non-computer activities in the beginning so the computer
activities didn't scare off girls who weren't as enthusiastic about the
technology. This was where we began to formulate our hypotheses about
how self-concept influences girls' pursuit of IT activities. My original
idea was to have girls create multi-media yearbooks, but we decided to
go with games becuase of some of the potential advantages and because we
wanted to look at girls' experience with game-building as a gateway to
IT. However (and our PI Jill Denner would probably disagree with me)
from my observation of what most of our girls liked to do on the
computer, namely drawing, adding sound and music to their games and
finding and downloading clipart, and from the results of a career
interest survey we had them fill out, on which most of our participants
ended up in the "artistic" category, I wonder if straight-up multi-media
projects aren't a better way to go. Or maybe what this tells us is that
middle school girls, at least in our population, tend to view computers
as a tool for artistic expression.
3) We decided to use a collaborative learning structure because of
research on learning that suggests that collaboration is a preferred
learning style for many, if not most, girls. We used Pair Programming,
where girls worked with the same partner and shared one computer. each
partner has a role. The "driver" operates the keyboard and the mouse and
does all the inputting while the "navigator" helps make design and
coding/operation decisions and tries to prevent or catch mistakes. Pair
Pogramming has been researched in industry and university settings, but
little has been done with it with youth. We found that mostly our girls
liked Pair Programming because of its built in social aspect and its
built in help/support. We always had about 1 pair in 10 that really
didn't collaborate well and consequently needed a lot of adult help and
coaching to make the collaboration work.
4) We slowly moved from a more didactic teaching model to a
project-based learning model. In retrospect, I feel like I should have
recognized the need to do this from the start. We started out more
didactic because we wanted to teach our girls a broad "palette" of Flash
skills that they could then pick and choose from to design and build a
game. if you go on our website and look at our girls' games, you'll see
the product of this first approach in the first group's games - they are
more "game-like" and very different from the subsequent games. However,
we earned with this first group that it is very difficult to teach youth
enough Flash to allow them to design a game out of thin air, so we had
to focus the skills we taught them by offering a single game format that
they would all build, but would allow for individual variation. We
selected a "choose your own adventure" interactive story basedon some
examples we saw on the web and because of some research suggesting that
girls and middle school youth learn better through narrative and their
own construction of narrative to help them understand concepts. Once we
limited them to that format, we were able to focus our instruction on a
discreet set of software skills and operations and were able to figure
out how they could practice and develop mastery of these skills as they
actuall builttheir game.
Thanks for your interest!
>>> r.chatham at worldnet.att.net 3/8/05 4:09:31 AM >>>
Steve
Thanks for your excellent reply. Can you tell more of your experiences
and share some success stories and some mistakes?
----- Original Message -----
From: Steve Wright
To: youthlearn at milhouse.edc.org
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 3:17 PM
Subject: RE: [YL] ymca::kids::computers
I totally agree that exposure to technology is critical for all young
people.
I totally agree that direct instruction teaching teachers to use
technology is critical, only if that instruction concentrates on the
teacher's ability to manipulate the technology as a tool. Technology
enables a teacher to be a coach, to easily access real time answers to
authentic questions. Technology enables students publish what they
know.
What I believe to be a mistake is the teaching of technology as an
end in itself. It is a pedagogical issue. Technology is a powerful and
rapidly changing communications tool. There is nothing special about it
other than that. (It is an idiosyncrasy of a slow and unresponsive
technology industry that we need to teach to the tool at all. The tools
get more powerful but the usability does not grow at a commensurate
rate. ) The idea that young people from underserved communities should
be asked to "learn technology" as opposed to be given the opportunity to
express themselves using rich media tools is problematic. Young people
are a sorely underutilized resource in our world. They have
extraordinary literacy with new media (with almost now direct
instruction). They are powerful truth tellers. We need to put the best
we have in terms of technical tools and respect in their hands and then
get out of the way.
From a broader perspective, we must walk away from the deficit model
of youth development. Focusing on the idea that young people are
at-risk or that they need skill remediation, defines them as deficient.
They are not deficient. The life experiences of young people who grow
up in underserved communities impart exceptional skills, perspective and
wisdom. We need to learn how to value these assets. We need to learn
how to value their strengths.
Technology, when applied appropriately, can magnify the injustice
done by ignoring the power and significance of our young people.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: youthlearn-bounces at milhouse.edc.org
[mailto:youthlearn-bounces at milhouse.edc.org] On Behalf Of Rodney
Chatham
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 4:58 PM
To: youthlearn at milhouse.edc.org
Subject: Re: [YL] ymca::kids::computers
Yes all students need to be fluent in technology to be successful.
And the at-risk student needs the most technology use- 24-7 tech access-
so that he or she can "catch up" and close the ever increasing gap.
Teachers can now individually prescribe to each student to strengthen
weaknesses before the student is trapped in perpetual failure. Yet the
at-risk student needing heavy telecom use is also often the student who
has little or no access to the needed technology.
How do we meet this challenge, to supply the digital inclusion so
that no child is left behind?
Rod Chatham
Tech Corps Ga.
----- Original Message -----
From: MEFurnas at aol.com
To: youthlearn at milhouse.edc.org
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 6:28 AM
Subject: Re: [YL] ymca::kids::computers
If we don't get children interested in computers NOW, then WHEN?
Failure in teaching computers to children - historical? My sense is
that our teachers often struggle with having to accomplish so much in
the day, like trying to manage the duties of teaching, NCLB, and at the
same time are expected to integrate computer learning modules - which
they may have not had training to do. Instructional Access
(www.instructionalaccess.com) offered a great summer resort-type for
teachers in the summer where the teachers got up to speed with
technology in the classroom and received a free lap-top. Hotel was
included in the cost which was reasonable.
My thinking is that students, both male and female, need the hands
on experience of computers both for the sake of "technology" (increased
math and science interest occurs), and applications of software. My
grandson who is six is on one computer in my office and I on another.
He does all kinds of learning programs, and he also has access to an old
computer where he learns what the internal components are (so he doesn't
take apart mine!) When I have a granddaughter she will have the same
opportunities. He doesn't have this option in the classroom at school.
We need after school programs that have opportunities for kids to
more deeply explore computers from both the technology career side, and
applications. They won't be prepared for their future if we don't.
Mary
In a message dated 2/22/2005 4:46:58 P.M. Central Standard Time,
SWright at salesforce.com writes:
Why do you want to work with kids and computers?
There is a long history of failure in education of teaching
computers to
youth. This is a sure fail approach. If technology is the
reason you
want to work with technology then you will only get kids who are
interested in technology.
Anybody remember how painful handwriting class was?
To horrifically overgeneralize, teching technology falls into
two
categories: 1) workforce development 2) communication
It is technology a communications tool that is most interesting
to me.
However, it is only interesting if the young people that I am
working
with have something to say.
-----Original Message-----
From: youthlearn-bounces at milhouse.edc.org
[mailto:youthlearn-bounces at milhouse.edc.org] On Behalf Of Brady
Mitchell
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 2:10 PM
To: youthlearn at milhouse.edc.org
Subject: RE: [YL] ymca::kids::computers
Here are some suggestions:
--kids are not motivated to use the computers
Find ways to integrate the computers into other activities you
are
doing. Even though kids are
generally very comfortable with technology, they sometimes run
the other
way when they hear
"technology" or "computers" because they associate it with the
boring
stuff they do in school.
--only 3 computers are functional..and are old (win98)
Are any of your kids good with computers, and would be willing to
help
repair broken computers? Is
there someone in the community who would be willing to come
teach
classes on computer repair?
If there is a university near by you might check and see if they
have
surplus sales of old
equipment. Many universities replace the computers in their labs
every
couple of years, so though
they are not brand new, they are usually fairly good computers.
--we don't really have a set computer time
I don't think that is necessary, if you find ways to integrate
computer
use into other things that
you do.
--What would be "beginning" exercises/activities that incorporate
both
computer and noncomputer
tasks?
Geography is a great one. You can learn how to use maps and a
compass,
then move on to using a GPS
unit to find your way around an area or do a scavenger hunt.
After GPS
you can move into GIS and
learn how maps are created on computers. Go to http://utah4h.org
and
click on "GIS" and "GPS" under
"Featured Programs" for some good links.
--what keeps kids attention at this age?
Hands-on activities are best. There are some good open source
programs
for kids like Tux Typing for
teaching typing (http://tuxtype.sf.net) and TuxPaint for
painting
(http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint/).
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Brady Mitchell
Utah 4-H Technology Programs
National 4-H Technology Team Advisor
http://utah4-h.org
http://ut4htech.org bradym at ext.usu.edu
http://4-h.org (435)797-2838
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
-----Original Message-----
From: youthlearn-bounces at milhouse.edc.org
[mailto:youthlearn-bounces at milhouse.edc.org] On Behalf Of
matt crichton
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 2:16 PM
To: youthlearn at phoenix.edc.org
Cc: dave.gildersleeve at gmail.com
Subject: [YL] ymca::kids::computers
hi there
I am working with the oak square ymca....david is one of the
group
leaders.
Here are some issues we are dealing with...has anybody faced
similar
things..or have any suggestions?
thanks.
matt
--grade 3-4: 12 kids
--grade 5-6: 6 kids
--only 3 computers are functional..and are old (win98)
--kids are not motivated to use the computers
--we don't really have a set computer time
--What would be "beginning" exercises/activities that incorporate
both
computer and noncomputer tasks?
--what keeps kids attention at this age?
==================================
Matt Crichton
CyberY Developer
YMCA Boston/Training, INC.
617-542-1800 x32
mcrichton at ymcaboston.org
bigchainring at hotmail.com
Cyber Y:
http://www25.brinkster.com/ymcaboston/index.htm
Personal: http://www20.brinkster.com/bigchainring/index.htm
AmeriCorps VISTA 2000-2002 (Seattle, Boston)
One of the illusions of life||
is that the present hour is not the critical,||
decisive hour. Write it on your heart||
that every day is the best day of the year.||
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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YouthLearn (http://www.youthlearn.org) brings together youth
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Morino
Institute (http://www.morino.org) and is now an Initiative at
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Education Development Center (http://www.edc.org). We hope this
list
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YouthLearn (http://www.youthlearn.org) brings together youth
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Institute (http://www.morino.org) and is now an Initiative at the
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Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree
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YouthLearn (http://www.youthlearn.org) brings together youth
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YouthLearn (http://www.youthlearn.org) brings together youth
professionals to share information on using technology to create
exciting learning environments. YouthLearn was created by the Morino
Institute (http://www.morino.org) and is now an Initiative at the
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