Letter to the Editor - Com 3

Letter to the Editor - Com 3 - November 1983

Dear Editors,

I wonder how many people found last month's Turtle Talk as stimulating as I did. Sandra's exten­sive transcription of Tim Riordan's "classroom" prompts me to share one of my Monday afternoons.

There are 20 sixth grade children in the classroom and eight com­puters. These children have been us­ing computers for 18 months and a great deal of experience has been gained. Last year the robot Turtle was driven about the floor by children who wrote the classic "house" procedures, but there were other experiences:

  • the girls were often reminded by their permanent class teacher that computing was really for boys;
  • the "brighter" children acted like mini-experts and consultants to the more average class members;
  • there was the usual group of children who were not "bright enough";
  • and there was an elite, those
  • children whose dads had got a com­puter for them — usually a games machine picked up on the way through an airport or those who, with equal pride, had received a computer magazine and copied a programme on to disk.

All these inequalities were the main target for my computing ac­tivities for the first few months of this year. "Programming skills", perceived intelligence, different learning styles, different interests, different levels of self-esteem and authority hierarchies were all in focus.

These are the thoughts which dominate as the ten or so minutes of plugging-in and booting-up take place.

"Now, who wants to do what?"

Apple Logo, Terrapin Logo, Bank Street Writer and "A Day at the Shops" are chosen.

Apple Logo is used by a group of children who like playing with shapes. They have a collection of procedures from previous weeks and they are happy to recall them and play at de-bugging. They have no specific aims but seem never to be satisfied. Every time a change is made to the procedure, several others are thought of and there is another frenzy of activity and helpful ideas around the screen. Inevitably the changes do not work as ex­pected and another round of de­bugging starts. There is an air of op­timism every time a new command is entered. There isn't a role for a teacher.

Another group of children want Terrapin Logo. They have a set of procedures which at particular stages call in different pictures as backgrounds for actions they have prepared for the Turtle. These children behave much as the others, but are recognizing that the dif­ferences between languages can be used to advantage sometimes.

The Bank Street Writer word-processors are predominantly girls. They are as eager as the others, but they are at the stage when romantic stories appeal more than anything else. These children are writing for fun. There is laughter amid the discussion about what should go in­to the story next. Like the Logo pic­tures, the story changes completely from time to time as someone has a "brainwave". There is no pre-set topic or flavour.

The fourth group wanted to go shopping. This is an English pro­gramme which simulates a shopp­ing spree. The constraints are: the shopping list, the amount of money, and the fact that if the players dilly­dally too long they will miss the bus. _ The items on the list are real — chocolate, a comic, a banana, a balloon, and an ice-cream. When an item is chosen, the scene changes to the appropriate type of shop and a range of the type of items is shown, with their prices. When the one wanted has been chosen, the coins left are shown and the players choose suitable coins to make up the price. They are given change and the shopping goes on. It is surpris­ing to realize that there are many children who don't go shopping and that this will be a chosen activity.

Not all the children have been computing, and suddenly it is half­time. There is a hassle around the computers and then the scene settles down again in much the same way as before.

At the end of the afternoon there are a couple of children who have been doing their own activities quietly all afternoon. They don't rush off when the bell goes, but ask if they can stay back and play Kingdom. Kingdom is a very simple simulation of village life over a period of five years, each with three seasons. The villagers grow rice but have a busy time guarding against flooding from the nearby dyke, and thieves from the nearby forests. The growing and harvesting seasons can for a substantial amount of labour in the fields. The players have to make decisions about how much rice to plant, and where to employ the man­power. When it's time for these children to go home, they are discussing not the results of the game, but what factors are impor­tant when the decisions are being made.

For me it's been a long day of computing. Two classes of 5th grade children used the computers first thing in the morning. Their ses­sion was very like the last one. Then two classes of 2nd grade children had a turn. Just before they ap­peared an interested bystander asked how I would get them started. Ten minutes later she was still laughing as she joined in the fun.  The children were directing the moving Turtle about the screen and asking him to draw nums and hums (see - the picture).

 

Although the day is long, it is different. There have been no organisa­tional needs. The children share because it's fun to compute In a group. There are no groups left out. Some of the children who are usually retiring and anxious in the learning situation have come out of their shells. There has been no failure because there were no goals. It is hard to say what has been learnt but one thing is sure: so long as children are operating in computer micro-worlds, so long as they are ac­tive and dominant, they are learning more than a teacher would dare to state as the aim of a lesson in a well-designed lesson-plan.

As a post-script it may be worth adding that "programming" and "computer awareness" have not ever been in these children's syllabus.. From the beginning they have been using the computer as a tool for one purpose or another.

The other comment is the non-role for the teacher. Good computer sessions put everyone in the same role of discoverer, not allowing the teacher the highly-priced luxury of deciding what the children are to discover.

Liddy Nevile

COM-3 PAGE 16