Memories
What do you remember learning in school? This question usually elicits
a variety of responses, depending on the educational system each
of us attended. Many people I have asked this question of talk about
projects they designed and built, or experiments they conducted.
All related how interested they were in the topic and that they
were allowed to pursue their interest. Most people comment on the
inordinate amount of time they spent on the project, the resources
and people they had to contact for expertise, the depth of their
understanding in the topic area, the extensive planning involved,
and the problems and frustrations they endured. Yet the excitement
of those all too few experiences stayed with them and shaped their
learning and widened their view of the world.
Most people remember projects, science fairs or experiments that
involved some kind of active learning. Few remember with any relish
at all times spent working alone on a ditto sheet of math problems.
Usually the math problems were the follow-up to a math lesson, which
introduced rules and algorithms without any real understanding of
the math involved. The light has to go on for the learning to be
productive. The light can't go on unless the learner is involved
and active in his or her own learning. The first situation creates
passive learners, who sit waiting for the expert, the teacher to
open their head and pour in knowledge. But knowledge is constructed,
just like a building, one block at a time. You can't put the roof
on until the foundation and the walls have gone up. Learning is
the same. Kids may be able to memorize math algorithms without understanding
them, but sooner or later it catches up with them in some way. They
may not later be able to understand more advanced math because the
foundations have not been laid. They may go through advanced math,
but when asked simple questions about understanding and making connections
between the big ideas, they are lost. Richard Feynman, once walked
into a very prestigious university, asked advanced physics students
easy questions about connections with real-world phenomena. He was
surprised to learn that most of these advanced students were not
able to make the connections. With all of their formal training,
the advanced physics students had been taught without gaining understanding.
Although they could quote and work out complex problems through
the rules and algorithms they had been taught, they could not make
the connections necessary to solve problems. This kind of connection
making and problem solving comes from thinking dexterity, or flexibility
in solving problems in different ways, or creativity.
Doing the Same Things Differently
All the elements mentioned (personal interest in topic, expert sources,
planning, time, depth of learning, communication with others, problem
solving), are present in progressive school settings and project
based educational environments which are student centered and constructionist
in nature. Classrooms that empower children to plan, design, and
build personally meaningful projects engage children in ways that
motivate students to spend inordinate (and by traditional educational
standards, fairly unusual) amounts of time mastering difficult skills.
Much technology use in classrooms is limited to presentation of
already learned information, using presentation systems like HyperStudio
and PowerPoint presentations, or assisting research for these "term
papers" on computers. These programs allow students to present
their findings and their completed learning on the computer instead
of on paper. In this way, we are reproducing the old instructional
paradigm with the new powerful technology. Instead, we can use computers
in a new way to do something different, instead of doing the same
things differently.
Doing Different Things
Computers can be utilized to help create technological educational
environments that take advantage of computer interactivity to enhance
learning. Tool programs allow students to learn while working on
the computer, versus just presenting their research via computer.
These programs use the computer as a tool for learning, instead
of mimicking past educational practices for instruction and learning,
and then using the computer as the presentation system. Students
create their own learning environment and manipulate it to understand
it more deeply.
I've just been introduced to Squeak in March of 2001. However,
I have many years experience using Microworlds Logo, an iteration
of Logo developed by a team from MIT with Seymour Papert, and Cocoa,
which was originally developed at Apple as open source, but was
later sold to become a commercial venture, Stagecast Creator. My
experience using these programs in classrooms has resulted in students
constructing simulations of complex, high level, conceptual understandings
of science phenomena. Students have been involved, motivated, developed
collaborative skills, and have built simulations such as ocean ecosystems,
neurons, and planetary systems. Because these programs have been
integral elements in my classroom environment, and exemplified deep
conceptual learning, I was open to explore Squeak.
Squeak Can Do Different Things
Squeak can serve students and teachers as a powerful tool to amplify
learning. Kids can construct their own deep understanding of big
ideas as they interact with objects in Squeak. Although I am a neophyte
Squeak programmer myself, the more I discover about objects in squeak,
the media available within the program, the ease of construction
of representations, the more excited I become about Squeak's possibilities
in classroom settings.
Students can interact almost immediately with Squeak by learning
a few commands. This immediate interactivity allows students to
manipulate simple objects using many different media, including
graphics, sound, music, motion, and books. The power and ease of
making something move is innately motivating. Students see each
other's work and begin to collaborate with "How did you get
it to do that?" They start to problem solve to create new object
behaviors. In a classroom, an experienced teacher can take advantage
of learning opportunities to point out observable phenomena and
ask pertinent questions to stimulate students thinking and problem
solving. Observing the headings when an object, a car, for example
is moving creates a sense of unease when students can't immediately
explain the relationships between the heading and the car. Classroom
discourse encourages creation of hypothesis. Students debate and
discuss deeply their ideas, then are able to go back into Squeak
to test out immediately. In the hands of a skilled teacher, Squeak
offers tremendous opportunity to explore big, complex ideas in mathematics
and science, and to explore these ideas fully in ways that encourage
a real, visceral understanding of the concept.
Spring 2001
In April and May 2001, I introduced Squeak to my sixth grade classes.
One observation I have about introducing Squeak is regarding the
comfort level with a new technology. The students I had for three
years had used Logo in design projects in science about three times
a year. The students new to my class first used Logo in the fall
of 2000, and had been introduced to several other technology applications
that were new to them. The old-timers seemed to have more comfort
in the new setting with Squeak. They seem to have a higher threshold
for working through problems, intuiting the new platform, and a
higher frustration level. They were more apt to be able to "mess
around" to borrow the phrase from Mr. Toad. The new timers
seemed to want more direction and input and were a bit less comfortable
at first in trying to make something work. They seemed a bit less
willing to play with the numbers to see what happened, for example,
when they changed the ratios on the wheel heading. The new-timers
seemed more likely to want to get the car driving, and then sit
with a working "finished" product instead of experimenting
with the possibilities. The old-timers, on the other hand, have
opened up all the menus, and pulled several items out of the toolbox
to play with and explore what happens. Several of the old-timers
worked quickly to successfully controlling the car and having the
car drive itself on the track. Then, they wanted new challenges,
and were motivated were willing to help other students, and to begin
real "meson" around" with Squeak. One of them quickly
programmed a superman game with a comet, where Superman intercepts
the comet.
The differences I observed in the short time with Squeak illustrate
the powerful influence of a continuing, evolving classroom culture
of inquiry and curiosity about how the world works. Squeak can serve
as the tool through which this curiosity is nurtured and encouraged.
The more students are exposed to real problems, such as they encounter
in an open ended technological learning environment like Squeak,
they refine their problem solving skills and their ability to reason
logically and fluently explain their thinking. Student frustration
index rises as they become more used to applying their ideas to
behaviors of objects on the screen and testing and sharing their
results. Confidence in their abilities increases, as their success
as programmers feeds the circle of motivation to do more. Teacher
intervention in posing questions and observing connections extends
Squeak's effect as a powerful amplifier of learning.
I have found that having a brief demonstration that allows students
to get working on a new task, then adding pieces as students successfully
find ways to continue working, helps most to be successful quickly
and minimize frustration. For example, the classroom culture allows
for quick bits of input. A signal is given to which students are
used to responding, they stop and focus for a brief minute while
new information is shared, usually by students who have mastered
a new task or difficult problem, and they are off to work again.
Since students know that the interruption is very brief, and it
is introduced quickly as information they may need just about now,
or in a very few minutes, they do focus and then go back to work
to try to apply the new information. If they're given too much at
the beginning, and they are not yet using it, the information is
usually lost and they will again need that information individually
if they do not intuit it themselves. This seems to be especially
true of the students who do not have as much experience working
with simulation tools. Their more extensive background in working
with simulation tools seemed to offer the old-timers a stronger
context for intuiting the new program nuts and bolts.
Although I paired the students, or had them in threes on computers,
old-timers saw the value in being the only one at the computer,
and always jumped at that opportunity when available. When that
opportunity was presented to new-timers, many of them lamented,
"I couldn't work alone, I don't know this yet". The new
timers seem to be more hesitant to "mess around" especially
on their own. The old timers seem willing to experiment in pairs
or a group, readily using the group input to extend their manipulative
abilities, and yet, to relish on their own time too. I think these
observations, although informal, speak to the benefits of a whole-school
community becoming involved in using tool technologies. Since girls
and boys are equally well enucleated into the classroom culture
when there is an apprenticeship model in a two-grade classroom,
I have not seen gender differences in the past several years in
ability to learn new technology or willingness to do so. However,
this spring, when introducing Squeak, the old timer girls have been
absorbed by learning something new, and are not yet available as
mentors and models of technological competence. Since they are not
competent yet in Squeak, they don't offer that model of "you
can get there too" to the other girls. This just reminds me
that often the models that are chosen in schools to first be introduced
to new technologies, and to serve as mentors to others as they gain
confidence, are often the boys. Just a reminder that we need to
spend time assisting girls to the competent mentor level, not only
for their own competence, but to be a powerful model to other girls
as they learn.
Big Ideas
The reason for using Squeak, or any simulation tool, is to over
time develop through design and experimentation your understanding
of how principles work through your manipulation of Squeak. As your
ability in Squeak grows, you get better at understanding various
principles and beginning to solve and visualize problems and concepts.
These problems should not just be calculation problems; they should
be authentic problems to be solved so that something works better.
The idea of using gear ratios to make the car drive better is an
example. One must have an understanding of how the concept of gears
is applied to the problem. By experimenting with different ratios,
and likening it to the kid's world using bicycles and gears climbing
a hill, students develop visceral understandings of big concepts.
The problem that they can't control the car is an authentic problem
within Squeak. Driving the car successfully is motivating. Solving
the problem becomes important the students. It is not a problem
posed by the teacher of just using Squeak to create artificial data
sets to solve problems with no real world interest. Solving the
problems must require students to make decisions, make choices and
test out their hypothesis to solve the problem.
Sixth Grade Student Feedback: Fall 2001
Sixth graders in my class this year have been using Squeak for about
a month. We talk a lot about possibilities and ways to use Squeak.
We've explored building cars, headings, driving the cars, making
a steering wheel drive the car, discovering gears and their relationship
to the ease or difficulty of controlling the car, and making robot
cars to follow a maze. Discourse is an important part of understanding
your learning and your learning environment, so we share a lot with
each other about what we do and how we do it. Some of my present
sixth graders were with me in fourth grade, and built several Logo
simulations. We've discussed using Squeak in some of the ways we've
used Logo in the past, as well as looking at all the math we've
learned with Squeak so far. I thought I would get their feedback
on why they like Squeak and think Squeak should be in classrooms.
Here are some of their thoughts:
"I think Squeak is good. It's not just like learning about
the brain, you're learning not just about the frontal lobe, but
you can build the lobe and make it work. You just get inside what's
going on because you're doing it at the same time." (This student
had experience building simulations with logo.)
"You are so eager to get your car driving that you know the
facts of what to do, so you can have fun driving your car. You're
making an opportunity for yourself to express your creativity through
math and science."
"Squeak is really fun because you're having fun, but you're
learning math at the same time. Some people think I'll put in 53
as a heading, and then you think, " what's 53 times 2?"
And you get 106. You don't know what will happen, but you try it
and see. You're just doing math and you're having fun like that."
"Sometimes people can say that math or science can be boring.
You go on Squeak, and you realize that making cars turn, you have
learned things that you thought might be boring, it has become fun,
as opposed to just memorizing, it s playing our way to learning."
"People just say 1+1=2, remember that. If they say, you turn
a 90 degree angle, it's this, but you go on Squeak and you type
it in and you see your car turn, you learn it, you don't forget
it."
Home Use
At UES, we are fortunate to have administration and resources which
value students having computer access at home. Students without
home computers are offered older computers when the school buys
new computers in order to help encourage use at home. The vast majority
of my students now have computers at home, and by Thanksgiving all
will have this access. They have been encouraged to download Squeak
from the internet. Those that have trouble downloading, or do not
have internet access, have been given a Squeak CD to take home to
install the program. Having Squeak at home has extended school learning
time. Now students can work on Squeak with teacher intervention
at school and continue at home with the benefit of focused play
and observation.
Future of Squeak in Education
Following Logo, there were other software products: all constructivist
tools (enabling children to construct and reconstruct their understandings
of the workings of the world--Boxer, Cocoa, and now Squeak!
However, the revolution never caught on completely. Why? This is
the question we need to reconcile. We now have Squeak--combining
the best of smalltalk, alice, starlogo, logo computing ideas, on
an internet, multi platform basis, available to all who can access
the internet. Swikis provide the platform that enables projects
to be published, used and changed, and republished. Children and
adults become users and creators of intellectual property available
in the public domain.
The ideas incorporated into Squeak make it easier to use-object
oriented programming. Users have the ability to share ideas on the
web with other students, with experts. Users get clearer concept
understandings by mediating projects with the world instead of just
turning it into the teacher. (Often students in traditional settings
don't even view each other's projects) Squeak allows immediate publication
to the world via the internet, and the building and manipulating
of interactive simulations and animations. This publication ability
will eventually enable students to interface with experts and other
students globally. Student publishing work creates a forum for intellectual
discussion of their ideas and processes. Here, they will need to
defend and change their ideas as the occasion arises.
How can we make the revolution happen in classrooms all over? How
can we get classrooms to use the computer as a tool to amplify learning,
rather than just word process or present? How can the computer become
the tool to enhance learning?
We need classrooms wherein children are encouraged and taught to
think, to plan, to process, to problem solve. Although this sounds
simple it is not, and in many cases it is not happening. It is possible
and probable that many students are going through schools, passing
tests, getting decent grades, but not learning to learn or learning
to think. They do learn to memorize and regurgitate, but not deconstruct
and construct their own understandings. Then how are they prepared
for the world? How can they interact in teams and in communities
as they grow? If they are lucky, they learn some of these skills
at home, through an exceptional teacher, or through a mentor they
have been lucky enough to know.
How can we free students to learn and think? How can we free teachers
to facilitate student learning and understanding, rather than regurgitation
or just test taking?
Squeak may have some answers. If Squeak catches on with students,
and teachers become comfortable facilitating learning in an environment
in which students can learn concepts by playing and manipulating
variables in Squeak, perhaps it can be a useful tool helping to
form the new paradigm for education. It is in this new paradigm
that students become active, not passive learners. They learn to
create and build their own understandings of the world, facilitated
by an opportunistic teacher who can utilize learning opportunities
to point out powerful connections, question, mediate classroom discourse
and nurture the development of curious thinkers and problem solvers
of the future.
Squeak is a tool to amplify learning. Squeaking in classrooms may
have an impact on the school memories of this generation. Will they
remember building a maze and successfully programming their car
to drive through it? Will they remember getting the car to drive
more easily with a steering wheel after experimenting with several
different ratios and immediately seeing the results? Will they be
comfortable manipulating powerful ideas and changing variables to
explore new possibilities? And these are just the getting acquainted
with Squeak ideas. What memories, and thus deep learning and understanding,
can we create when we really get "inside what's going on"? |
