RE: [Fwd: LOGO-L> ideas needed!!!]

[mikedoyle@cix.compulink.co.uk (Mike Doyle)]

In-Reply-To: <01BC6360.13184860@ip203-72.cc.interlog.com>
Process representation
Computer language has two elements: data and instruction (equivalent to 
nouns and verbs in language and variables and operations in mathematics). 
By process representation I mean writing instructions to represent a 
process or procedure i.e. the equivalent of a verb phrase. 

Commands and operations
(LCSI call operations reporters in LogoWriter and MicroWorlds.) The 
commands are instructions such as forward, which make things happen. 
Operations supply (report) information, e.g. heading. The way in which 
Turtle Geometry is usually taught leads to kids spending most of their 
time ordering the Turtle to draw rather than asking it its state.

Children
I do not have the luxury of letting the kids I teach do what they find 
interesting. I teach mentally handicapped kids, so the thinks they find 
interesting might well kill them. I have to be their guide in a dangerous 
environment. As I hold that all kids are on a learning continuum I must 
assume that the same principle applies to more able kids. Hence, I must 
convince myself of the validity of what I teach before adopting the mantle 
of teacher. Where the medium is as new as the computer (the first one ran 
in 1948 at Manchester University in the UK) we have to be very careful not 
to transfer our presumptions from non-computer media. I.e. we must be 
aware that we are most likely to assimilate the computer's capabilities to 
our existing schema (as Piaget would have put it). 

Micheal O Duill
EuroLogo Scientific Committee Chairman

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