Recreating the Playground

I'll be in Interior Alaska for a month

2007-07-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

I'll be wandering around Interior Alaska from July 19 to August 24. Catch me over at the Steese Review ... my travelogue.

Continuing with Scratch ...

2007-07-14T09:14:00.000-07:00

My latest two projects in Scratch:

Flowers in My Yard RDv1

and

Alaska Road Trip RDv1

are Scratch programs exploring the use of photos as backgrounds and sprites as well as with text Sprites. I plan to go back and add audio for RDv2.

Primarily I want to set up relatively easy to understand building blocks that explore possible uses for Scratch. These two programs demonstrate the use of programming to create an album ... say of a trip, a summer vacation, etc. ... that a child would like to share ... so the excitement of sharing a memory pulls them into learning the steps in creating a Scratch program.

And with Scratch, you can upload your photos directly off your computer ... so you don't have to have them stored in an internet site.

My approach ... stirring my own mud puddles

2007-07-14T03:04:00.000-07:00

First let me explain something ... I have had the good fortune to play most of my life ... not because I am independently wealthy, but because I have always "stirred my own mud puddles". In doing so, I have been caught up in the ongoing motivation of creative experimentation and discovery ... following my own inner excitement as it pulls me into whatever it is I am doing. And I have been fortunate in having someone pay me to do that.

Early on I used to wonder why others would not attempt something new ... and came to believe that while many are simply already up to their armpits in the day's alligators and don't have any remaining time or energy, others are simply intimidated by the expertise of others ... like in "I could NEVER be that good!" Still others are motivated by "How much will I get paid to do that?" Believe me, I have seldom if ever qualified as a "professional" at anything. Nor has a paycheck ever kept me glued to a project. The inner thrall of what I was creating always has, until at times I have literally fallen over from exhaustion, sleeping on the floor next to my work until I could summon the energy to go on.

It is the same today ... except that in being retired, I am even freer relative to a paycheck. I am working on more projects than I can count. I am leaving for a month in Alaska on Wednesday. I am in the midst of developing the technical tools (aka Gant chart, etc.) for monitoring a 5-year plan for a colleague's department, I am growing beautiful pots of petunias in the yard, + + + ... and I am creating personal toys using Web 2.0 tools ... I still hardly have time to sleep! And I really doubt if anyone would "hire" me to do any of it. (Thank god!)

One of the joys of being a child at play is as a child at play ... how we think at play. A child plays ... and becomes as good at whatever it is that he or she is doing as his or her ability and interest produces. As soon as a child starts thinking "I'm not as good as so and so" and stops playing (or learning) ... gives up the joy of creating their own "newness" ... we know we have a problem.

Vincent van Gogh has been my inspirational hero since, as a youth, I saw the movie "Lust for Life" about his life. Camus gave me a philosophical pov by pointing out the motivational difference between seeking change and seeking the credit for change.

Much of the excitement of the Web 2.0 world is finding others who share my passion for creating ... which for me starts in playing around with something (stirring the mud puddle) and watching the swirls take shape from my own hand ("Look, look what I made!") ... and learning how to make more patterns by watching the child next to me ("How did you do THAT!").

We have a Scratch gallery ...

2007-07-12T03:29:00.000-07:00

We can learn Scratch programming together ...

I have written three simple programs and have put them in a Scratch gallery titled, Creating the virtual playground from Scratch.

The programs are:

counting from scratch rd-v1

Counting from 1 to 10 with color changes to sprites (numbers) and the stage.

Cat and ghost on moon RD-v1

Learning to move sprites across stage. Ghost chases cat as their images morph to the fisheye effect.

Cat walking on boardwalk RDv1

This is a demonstration program to be used in Playground 2.0 (creating the virtual plaground) to learn how to use Scratch ... together.

A Scratch wiki ... anyone?

2007-07-11T07:08:00.000-07:00

If there is anyone out there who would like to set up a wiki group for learning to use Scratch, please contact me via Playground 2.0.

My suggestion would be to use Zoho tools—wiki, chat, notebook—and Screencast-o-Matic to explore programming in Scratch together.

And ... while we are honing our Scratch skills, we can also being working on setting up Web 2.0 learning groups ... and developing skills in using basic Web 2.0 tools.

Programing from Scratch ... well, using MIT's Scratch

2007-07-10T23:41:00.000-07:00

Scratch's url is http://www.scratch.mit.edu/.

I have written two simple programs in accessing and learning how to use it:

counting from scratch rd-v1

Cat and ghost on moon RD-v1

I am going to start developing a screencast on using Scratch ... and the basics of programming for interactive discussion here and on Playground 2.0. The Scratch site itself has a lot of excellent help for getting started ... and once you are registered and logged in, you can download te programs to examine how they were constructed.

Screencast from screensaver photos ...

2007-07-10T13:09:00.000-07:00

So ... set up a slideshow as your screensaver ... then capture a video with audio description using Screencast-o-Matic ... and voila! ... check it out:

Screencast-o-Matic video clip of my MAC OS X screen saver photos from my Alaska road trip in the Fall of '06. Note: Opens in separate window or tab.

I put this up over on the Steese Review also.

Linking to podcasts

2007-07-09T17:54:00.000-07:00

First attempt to follow Tech Teachers lead and insert a link.

If you click on the title of this post, you will get the VoiceThread of my Yukon River Raft Trip. Voila!

2007-07-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

Using Screencast-o-Matic 101v1

I have added audio to my VoiceThread, "Using Screencast-o-Matic 101v1. This is a R&D project for developing instructions for using toys/tools on our Playgrounds. I have a hunch that we can go directly to Screencast-o-Matic for many, if not most or all, instruction presentations ... so I thought I would work on developing a good set of instructions for accessing and using Screencast-o-Matic itself. As you will note this presentation adheres to "PNP" as a guiding principle -- progress not perfection. Hopefully others will find it useful, and become involved in its evolution.

And of course -- as a friend (Tech Teacher) pointed out early on -- VoiceThread allows for translation! So deciphering the mix between Screencast-o-Matic and VoiceThread will be interesting.

Here is the url: http://voicethread.com/view.php?b=3062

And here is the widget:

Math concepts for children

2007-06-22T19:40:00.000-07:00

An idea for the playground ... creating internet "toys" for learning math concepts ... that can be freely used by children.

Here are a couple that I developed as I played with the idea:

Counting 1 to 10

The url:

http://voicethread.com/view.php?b=2942

The widget:

Straight Line Curve in Red

The url:

http://voicethread.com/view.php?b=2900

The widget:

Welcome!

2006-02-20T04:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Recreating the Playground ...

Updated June 22, 2007 ...

Here is a place on the internet where we can explore creativity ... "we" being those who choose to do so here.

Remember, the internet is one vast playground in itself ... we can and will create—as well as discover—other playgrounds ... and learn about them here at Recreating the Playground. (Note: Sorry, no lesson plans ... just playing together in any old which-way we want to ... and if something doesn't pan out ... well, we are happy to go back to stirring mud puddles until something else does!)

We've come up with a set of first "toys":

Blog posts
Video clips
Podcasts

Rules? So far the following: The Golden Rule ... and "don't hurt anybody on purpose" ... and "If you do hurt someone, make amends." You know, like in Robert Fulghum's book, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten.

Cheers for our side!

Note:
Robert Fulgham's website:
http://www.robertfulghum.com/

Check out his post:

February 12, 2006

Seattle, Washington
Written February 12, 2006

PLAYERS