Video-Logo-Lesson
USING VIDEO-TAPE AS A MEDIUM FOP GIVING TEACHERS AN INTIMATE VIEW OF LOGO PROGRAMMING
There are hundreds of courses which are designed to teach Logo programming to teachers. The levels of competency differ, and of course, the cultural values which are conveyed with the skills do too.
In particular, there is a problem inherent in the task where the teacher of the teachers wants to convey a student-led ethic to those who will become the teachers of others.
For many teachers who are keen to acquire skills so they can choose their own cultural bias, the skill learning process is considered most successful where the method is somewhat authoritarian. (There may be some doubt about whether this model is not likely to be transferred later for use with the ultimate students.)
Concern for such issues, and the need to find a way of allowing teachers who lacked computing and programming skills to both learn the skills and experience a simulation of 'doing programing' led to the making of a short video of a would-be Logo hacking session.
The tape features a close relationship between the viewer and the activities of the two programmers involved. For most of the tape the screen is split so the programers and the screen which they are watching can be seen simultaneously. The discussion which takes place is typical of classroom discussion.
The content of the programing relates to the value of apparently trivial tasks like the programming of a football game, and the use of the dreaded list-processing to achieve ambitious results simply.
The cast are adult users of Logo who have been responsible for teaching Logo to hundreds of people in all age ranges and from different interest groups. The session proposed is a viewing of the tape (20 minutes) and a discussion of the content and media in terms of its value for teaching teachers.