In OLPC we have been working on creating lessons about Continents on the older version of Scratch. Everyone has a different continent and we are putting facts about the countries, geography, culture, among other things. Many, if not all of us, have never used the older version of Scratch. It is cool to see the differences between the different versions and see which one you like to use better. The continent that I am researching is Africa. I have decided to allow the child using the lesson to be able to choose what part of Africa they want to learn about by adding a map and a cursor. Others have added maps, pictures, flags and many other things. Since the age group that these lessons are aimed towards are younger we have to be careful about how complex we make it. I have definitely learned a lot about both Scratch and communicating with younger kids.
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Throughout the past few weeks in One Laptop Per Child, my class has been working on preparing a series of interactive, electronic lessons about the major world countries and oceans. Each student has taken the responsibility of creating individual lessons about a particular continent, and we recently just began coding games and information into our lessons.
While coding isn’t necessarily something that comes easily to me, the project is allowing me to be creative, and forcing me to think in ways I never have before, in trying to figure out how to code a part of a lesson, or coming up with ways to make the material fun and interesting. While it has been quite challenging, the experience so far has been so rewarding, and I can’t wait to see the finished product of our set of lessons. It feels so good to know that all of our hard work will help so many kids in need, and that through the process, I have been able to learn so much more about not only coding and thinking creatively, but also about myself. This past week in One Laptop Per Child we have continued to work on our projects for our Barbados service trip! We all have figured out the direction we are going with our projects, and what we want to showcase about each continent. I have Antarctica, and I am making it interactive while teaching the kids about the different countries that have ownership of the unique continent. I have learned a lot about Scratch recently since we are using the old version. The new and the old version of Scratch differ in many little ways. I had gotten used to the new version over the past couple weeks and know where everything is new again with the old version!
These projects have been a really good learning experience because while making this I have had to think about what appeals to children and what is easy for them to understand. I’ve definitely started to step outside my comfort zone with this project, but I’ve really enjoyed it I can’t wait to actually show the kids my project! Right now in OLPC we are working on our geography lessons that we post online for people to use. Each of us got assigned a continent to research. With our research we will create a Scratch lesson to teach the students about or assigned continent! With our research we are to find different things about countries in our continents like culture, dress, food, landmarks, etc. So far my favorite part is coming up with fun lessons to ensure that the students are enjoying how they learn!
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May 2017
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