TBGC Session 11

Some changes and additions have been made to the graffiti grapher applet, so I had the kids experiment with the applet again. Since they had used it before, I didn't need to do much instructing. I just answered questions when they had some.

The younger groups seems to give up and lose interest more quickly than the older group. The older group is able to focus on the task at hand and is more interested in seeing what their changes will produce. The young group just gets frustrated when it doesn't produce what they want.

I noticed that the "CLEAR EFFECT" and "Create Object" buttons do not yet work. This may be because they are new features that haven't been perfected in the core, but I will still bring it up in our weekly meeting. When the "CLEAR EFFECT" button is working properly, it seems that it will perform the same function as the "STOP" button after begin has been pressed. I think the "STOP" button should be removed, because the kids were a bit leery of clicking on it because they were worried their work would disappear.

I also noticed that the codelets must now be removed one by one if they are no longer wanted, and the "CLEAR" button is not working as it should still. They will disappear when the button is clicked, but they will reappear if you click on the spray can.

I have not been able to find a way to draw with two spray cans yet. Some of the kids have wanted multiple spray cans to draw at the same time. I even tried creating a second spray can and launching it in the code for the first can, and I still wans't able to succeed.

One of the students suggested that the draw speed be variable. Sometimes they just want the can to draw quickly, but other times they would like to see how it does it.

Thursday will be the last day for the program this summer. I will administer a final post-test, and then try to talk to the kids about the things they liked, didn't like, and what they might like to see changed. The rest of the summer will be devoted to processing data and compiling my final comments about the summer.