Etoys is part of the OLPC - that may well be a catalyst to learn etoys
if you are interested in what software the OLPC will be delivering to
(perhaps) millions of children. It was for me.<br><br>But here I'm trying to (briefly) outline some of the broader arguments for learning etoys, as a piece of interesting software:<br><br>1)
It represents an integration of some very good ideas that have taken
some years to develop and have been expressed so far on these systems:
logo, smalltalk, hypercard, starlogo. (What each of these systems
offered could be spelt out in more detail)<br><br>2) It is an
exploration of a visual-kinesthenic programming approach, which can be
expressed with this slogan, "doing with images makes symbols" (from
Kay, based on Bruner). In part this is constructionism but it is also
pointing to a relationship between doing, visualising and abstraction
that can work for young children.<br><br>3) It is a "live" system. The
code can be written and variables manipulated directly while the system
is still running in front of you. This makes powerful ideas such as
variables and feedback far more accessible. It has transparent
parallelism (aka late binding)<br><br>4) It represents an attempt to
make an object <-- message model of programming accessible to
children, a better underlying model to represent complexity than a
procedural model. Some people have argued that this OOPs model cannot
be taught to children but Etoys represents an attempt to show that it
is possible.<br><br>5) In etoys the GUI consistently represents the
underlying model. For example, you have drag and drop visual tiles
which then spell out something like:<br>ball's heading <-- 45 + random(90)<br>This is like an English sentence:<br><object> receives <message><br>So, it is arguable that the meaning of the code will be accessible to young users who understand simple English
<br><br>6)
It contains a further evolution of the user interface called morphic, a
range of halos that enable direct manipulation of objects (see
screenshot)<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br><br></span>7)
There is an underlying philosophy of user as designer, not only of the
immediate task but of the system itself. The latter part of this point
("of the system itself") may not be immediately apparent but the user
is not being treated in conventional sense of "user friendly" but in
the sense of a potential co-designer.<br><br><br>IMO it's fair to say
that etoys is not particularly easy to learn. I think that the main
point about visual programming systems is not about "easy" but about
different channels of representation. Some learners become more
engrossed in visual-kinesthenic systems. However, I'm pretty sure that
Game Maker and Scratch are "easier" than etoys. Teaching etoys to
experienced users requires a lot of instruction in the early stages
because it is quite different to systems that these users are used to.<br><br>So
my argument is not one of "user friendly" but that it is an innovation,
an exposure to a different way of doing computing - a rich and fruitful
pathway<br><br>also published on my blog with some accompanying screenshots:<br><a href="http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/11/why-learn-etoys-squeak.html">http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/11/why-learn-etoys-squeak.html
</a><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Bill Kerr<br><a href="http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/">http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/</a><br><br>