Actually, there hasn't been anything similar for a number of years, and it feels like we've all missed a fantastic opportunity in changing how traditional education is done. Pioneers like Seymour Papert imagined learning as a discovery activity, performed by students who would use information they already know to acquire more knowledge^*. And the computer could be a big part in helping the exploration of the world. This learning by creating/inventing/discovering is what some call constructionsim, by the way.

To be useful to students, computers would have to interact with them in a way that allows for that exploration and creativity to take place. And that's where the idea of Logo in its day, and Scratch nowadays, enters the scene.

I was reminded of all this when I saw today the #ScratchAtHome challenge that the creators of Scratch have started. It “provides children, families, and educators with ideas for engaging in creative learning activities using the free Scratch coding environment”. It's a really cool thing to do among the other “at home” things during these days of coronavirus confinement.

Maybe you wanna try?

#education #foss #programming

It's something I have seen countless times in websites when they talk about their updates. And I am no exception.

To me, it is the feeling of being read that puts me off most. Plus simple and pure procrastination.

I'm pretty sure there must be a name for this, and it must be a well-known thing that every psychology student has seen from their first year.

Anyway, this is a possible comeback, and in any case let me talk about this very cool thing I've recently discovered: https://hypothes.is/. It is an extension for the main browsers that allows to annotate webs and pdfs, and share those annotations collaboratively. It has already many of the things that I wanted as a project to make web annotations. And it is free software.

Hypotes.is has many cool features, but for my interests it lacks the possibility of seeing the annotations in a more hierarchical/scored/transitively-interest-oriented way, so even with an immense amount of annotations per page one could easily see the main ones for her. Well, I can collaborate with them.

#diary #programming #life #activism