Friday, December 26, 2008

Training for Mexico

A couple thoughts from mentors Kyle Knoblock and David Zou after training sessions before the big trip to Mexico*:

"The Media Lab training was a lot of fun. The discussions with Andres about Scartch and PicoCrickets was interesting, but I really enjoyed when we had the oportunity to write a program in Scratch and build something with PicoCrickets. I am a computer science student, and for me seeing a method of programming like that was surprusing. It was quite easy to learn and very fun to do. I believe that the Mexican kids will like Scratch and PicoCrickets a lot, and I'm happy that they will have such an oportunity to learn about technology."
- Kyle Knoblock

"I think PicoCrickets and Scratch are a great way for students to use technology and become comfortable using it. The Scratch website and the ability for students, from all over the world who don't necessarily even speak same languages, to share their project with each other is an especially exciting feature of Scratch. The training got me very excited about introducing Scratch and PicoCrickets to the students and I really look forward to seeing the different projects the students will make with them."
- David Zou

* Scratch and PicoCrickets are two examples of technology we are implementing into the new curriculum. Scratch (scratch.mit.edu) allows users to use basic programming tools to convey a message that can be shared on the web. PicoCrickets (picocricket.com) combines a small computer and an assortment of sensors to create different works of art with which you can interact.

1 comment:

Andrés Monroy-Hernández said...

Hi guys. It was great doing the workshop. By now you're probably in Mexico. Please let us know how it goes! :)