Scratch is a great introduction to programming. I use it even for VCE students. It is intuitive, fun, easy to learn and importantly, attractive to the girls in my classroom. There are some less obvious but splendid web2.0 features built in that let you embrace social networking, documentation, responding user feedback, code publishing and improving your creations. Absolutely splendid stuff for working towards the VELS progression level 6 assessment.<br>
<br>Dr Paul Candler did a lot of work with Alice a couple of years ago. I introduce it as a kind of tool, like how they program 3D cartoons at the cinema. My primary aged kids at home keep jumping across to it on the laptop then show off their movie creations. There is some Python scripting built in but at this point I usually jump across from Scratch to Python.<br>
<br>Gamemaker is fun with more complex modelling and game type programming. Tony Forster has published some splendid resources on this.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">2009/11/14 Costello, Rob R <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Costello.Rob.R@edumail.vic.gov.au" target="_blank">Costello.Rob.R@edumail.vic.gov.au</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
hi Paul<br>
<br>
what can be done?<br>
<br>
:)<br>
<br>
everything.<br>
<br>
i came from a similar angle - VB ...happy to tinker ...<br>
<br>
learning how to program in flash took a while though - i read some books over a couple of hols - unusual for me, i usually jump in - (Colin Moock is the author (x3) i'd recommend there - takes you through in a thorough way that worked for me anyway)<br>
<br>
AS1 was kind of easier to learn (and you can still program in that style), AS2 uses the same language elements but introduced a more object orientated approach (classes etc), AS3 has taken that further ...<br>
<br>
i think i'd probably aim at the AS1 style with students<br>
<br>
what would i actually do with kids though ...<br>
<br>
rollovers, mouseovers, follow the mouse games etc<br>
<br>
some people on this list have been suggesting some templated games (AS3 style) (ie copy most of the code in, tinker from there)<br>
<br>
i'm not sure ... it gets them started, but not sure well how it travels beyond the samples...maybe someone can comment<br>
<br>
a few of the yr 8 boys wanted to learn AS last year, and while we did a little, - we decompiled some games and changed gravity values etc - but i'm not sure its designed for teaching with (as a first language anyway)<br>
<br>
some flash coders would probably disagree with me - i'd be very interested if anyone has kids fluently programming in flash<br>
<br>
(i have one student example - self taught was well - <a href="http://www.firoweb.com/simulations/%0A%28AS1" target="_blank">http://www.firoweb.com/simulations/<br>
(AS1</a> approach) - but he had learnt some logo before that (check the frog one!)<br>
<br>
i haven't really tried to teach actionscript as a course so can't be very helpful - (Alice, Scratch, GameMaker, even VB, all seemed much easier to start with)<br>
<br>
did do this for the year 8s - but me, not them, so its not the best example - though we did have some good class discussion around it<br>
<a href="http://thinkingcurriculum.decenturl.com/linerider" target="_blank">http://thinkingcurriculum.decenturl.com/linerider</a><br>
<br>
along those lines, another thing i played with ... (for kids, not by them ... so i'm not sure about this)<br>
<a href="http://www.thinkingcurriculum.com/demos/widgets/logspiral" target="_blank">http://www.thinkingcurriculum.com/demos/widgets/logspiral</a><br>
<br>
its sad if we can't get to this with kids by the end of school; but i'm not sure flash coding is the starter<br>
<br>
no answers i'm afraid!<br>
<br>
scratch? Alice?<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
rob<br>
</font><div><br>
-----Original Message-----<br>
From: <a href="mailto:yr7-10it-bounces@edulists.com.au" target="_blank">yr7-10it-bounces@edulists.com.au</a> on behalf of Paul Golub<br>
Sent: Fri 11/13/2009 4:30 PM<br>
To: Year 7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List<br>
</div><div><div></div><div>Subject: RE: [Yr7-10it] Flash<br>
<br>
Hi Rob,<br>
<br>
I would be interested in doing more actionscript. I currently use Visual Basic as my prgramming language but if I knew more actionscript I would use Flash. I currently only know how to do scripts for buttons - move from one scene to the next or stop or play a scene.<br>
<br>
What I would like to know is, what else can be done with actionscript? (Nothing complicated - aiming at year9 maybe 10)<br>
<br>
Thanks.<br>
Paul Golub<br>
Santa Maria College<br>
50 Separation Street<br>
Northcote 3070<br>
Ph: 9488 1674<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
-----Original message-----<br>
From: "Costello, Rob R" <a href="mailto:Costello.Rob.R@edumail.vic.gov.au" target="_blank">Costello.Rob.R@edumail.vic.gov.au</a><br>
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:01:14 +1100<br>
To: "Year 7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List"<a href="mailto:yr7-10it@edulists.com.au" target="_blank">yr7-10it@edulists.com.au</a><br>
Subject: RE: [Yr7-10it] Flash<br>
<br>
hi karen<br>
<br>
you might like this acrostic activity in flash<br>
<a href="http://thinkingcurriculum.decenturl.com/acrostic" target="_blank">http://thinkingcurriculum.decenturl.com/acrostic</a><br>
<br>
there is a programming language in flash (actionscript), but i probably wouldn't go there unless you and/or the kids have done a little programming; probably not the best place to start<br>
<br>
probably enough design things to do to fill a course<br>
<br>
cheers<br>
<br>
rob<br>
<br>
________________________________<br>
<br>
From: <a href="mailto:yr7-10it-bounces@edulists.com.au" target="_blank">yr7-10it-bounces@edulists.com.au</a> on behalf of Karen Webster<br>
Sent: Thu 11/12/2009 8:16 PM<br>
To: <a href="mailto:yr7-10it@edulists.com.au" target="_blank">yr7-10it@edulists.com.au</a><br>
Subject: [Yr7-10it] Flash<br>
<br>
<br>
We have recently added Flash CS4 to the network. I am beginning lessons with Year 9's. I have begun with the basics: workspace, drawing tools, basic animation using classic tween.<br>
<br>
I am not sure if I am heading in the right direction, maybe I am taking it too slowly. I haven't used Flash before so I am not sure.<br>
What do you do with Flash?<br>
thanks in advance<br>
Karen Webster<br>
ICT Teacher<br>
Alexandra SC<br>
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