Ji-Young Kim Explains "Empowering Teachers With Squeak" at Squeakfest

Ji-Young Kim Explains "Empowering Teachers With Squeak" at Squeakfest 2007
Originally uploaded by Lucas Gillispie

Ji-Young Kim, a graduate student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign shared her work researching professional development programs, facilitators and teachers. Her research focused on the integration of technology with a first grade teacher (case study) that utilized Squeak to teach science. Her findings underscored the importance of the role of the facilitator in professional development especially with technology that's new to them such as Squeak. The use of Squeak bolstered that teacher's pedagogical content knowledge by requiring thought about the connections between the science and Squeak, incorporating decision making, expanding the the teacher's view of the use of Squeak in other subjects, and insights into a deeper understanding of science concepts.

Otowa and Takada Share "A Squeak Project Sharing System Through

Otawa and Takada Share "A Squeak Project Sharing System Through Tangible Contact and Smart Cards" at Squeakfest 07.
Originally uploaded by Lucas Gillispie

Tadayuki Otowa and Hideyuki Takada of Ritsumeikan University in Japan shared their work in a system that allows students working on Squeak projects to easily share their work and collaborate using Smart Cards.

Smart Cards are memory devices that include a processor which is powered and can be read and written to via radio waves. They have a 128 Byte capacity. Students using the cards can drag an object they create to a smart card flap which is written to the card. They then, can pass the card to a fellow student who passes the card over the reader to load the object. The system also allows interfacing with SuperSwiki and SuperPartsBin.

Offray Luna Cardenas Presents "Collective Problem Solving Using Squeak"

Offray Luna Cardenas Presents "Collective Problem Solving Using Squeak" at Squeakfest 2007.
Originally uploaded by Lucas Gillispie

Offray Luna Cardenas of the Javeriana University in Columbia, South America made a presentation describing his research on multiagent models and collective problem solving in the classroom using Squeak as a medium. The goal was for his students to collaboratively create a "Lemmings-style" game using the Squeak environment. His research studies how the students interact do achieve this. Furthermore, he uses Squeak to model this collaborative behavior.

Harness, Smith, and Snir Present "Curriculum Applications of Squeak" at Squeakfest 07.

Harness, Smith, and Snir Present "Curriculum Applications of Squeak" at Squeakfest 07
Originally uploaded by Lucas Gillispie

Kathleen Harness, Kathleen Smith, and Avigail Snir of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign presented a variety of uses for Squeak in the k-5 Curriculum. Using a variety of projects from the areas of mathematics, science, and language arts, the presenters showed how Squeak can effectively model a variety of concepts effectively allowing students to experiment in a way that allows discovery learning. Their website includes about 40 projects that act as tutorials for using Squeak, as well as a number of Squeak projects for students.

Visit the Squeak CMI site at: http://squeakcmi.org.

Tadashi Yokokama Shares "Squeak for First Grade and Beyond" at Squeakfest 07

Tadashi Yokokama of the Suginami Wada Elementary School in Japan presented his work with Squeak with elementary students. His presentation is available as a Squeak image here.

Barry and Patrick Kayton Present Kusasa at Squeakfest 07

Barry and Patrick Kayton Present Kusasa at Squeakfest 07
Originally uploaded by Lucas Gillispie

Barry and Patrick Kayton of The Shuttleworth Foundation presented Kusasa, which will serve as a resource for educators and students worldwide. They are using Squeak to enhance modelling with students in grades 4-9 as part of the project. To learn more about their work, visit http://www.kusasa.org.
A .pdf of their presentation can be found here.

Alan Kay - "One Laptop per Child - A Call for Content" - Squeakfest 2007

Alan Kay - "One Laptop per Child - A Call for Content" - Squeakfest 2007
Originally uploaded by Lucas Gillispie

Alan Kay, of the Viewpoints Research Institute presented the keynote address at Squeakfest 2007. Alan suggested the revolutionary nature of the personal computer was on par with the printing press in its ability to reshape society, however, he expressed concern that since the days of the Dynabook, though the PC has advanced considerably, the user interface has not. Citing Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death," he suggests that there is little worthwhile content in our media-rich environment. With the advent of the OLPC (aka "The $100 Laptop"), millions of children in developing countries could easily obtain a functional personal computer. System software along with authoring, scripting, and interface issues are somewhat easily overcome hurdles, however effective "Powerful Ideas" curriculum and particularly a network of qualified mentors will be particularly challenging.

To visit Viewpoints Research Institute, go to http://www.vpri.org/.