Our first meeting was held on what felt like the first day of spring after an extremely cold winter. Perhaps as a direct result, only five students attended the first day. The influence of weather on learning is probably not very well studied, due in part to the givens that school is mandatory and lets out for summer. However, in light of this program’s voluntary nature, it leads me to my first INSIGHT FROM PRACTICE (IFP):

IFP #1 - Start any voluntary after school technology or computer program after the first frost. Plan to end any program at the first full thaw.

We started our first day with a simple assignment to assess students’ academic and social COMPUTER INTEGRATION. I use this term to describe the level at which students choose, rely on, or are required to use a computer to complete homework assignments, study, communicate with friends, play, or pass the time. Here is the assignment drafted for this first class meeting:

Word Processing

Using “WORD”

Open up the program called “Micosoft Word”. Have you ever done this before?

Open up a new Blank Document. “New” can be found in the “drop down menu” under “File”. Have you ever done this before?

In this new document, answer the following questions.

* Have you ever done your homework on a computer? What kinds of homework can you complete on a computer?
* Have you ever saved anything on a computer before? What does it mean to ‘save’ something on a computer?
* Have you ever been on the Internet before?
* What is cyberspace?
* Do you like computers?

Number your answers using the numbers 1 through 5. Does anything funny happen with the numbers?

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This assignment worked to assess students’ ability to create, draft and save a Word document. It also served to teach students new to Word how to accomplish these tasks. The questions in this assignment are appropriate for students aged 12-16. Younger students will have to rely on ‘yes’ and ‘no’ responses , so open-ended questions should be revised for younger students to account for one-word replies.

As expected, students were confounded by the auto-formatting that took place while they attempted to number their responses. Auto-formatting is a perfect segue or illustration of the concept of MACHINE LEARNING or ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. Even young students (9-11) are engaged with by the question, “Are computers alive?” (See Wikipedia to start your research on the Turing Test and chatterbots (see for example, Jabberwacky or ALICE). Take your own turing test — perfect for 14+ — at http://www.turinghub.com/.

This is a blog to be written by students as they design their own private spaces - “homesteads” -  in a virtual world hosted by the Cornell Theory Center. Their world is one among a universe of worlds run by Scicentr.org. These students — you’ll meet them later — are  just beginning a computing curriculum in their newly outfitted computer lab. Every Tuesday, as we work on basic concepts like keyboarding skills, using a mouse, understanding ‘memory’, and saving files, we’ll also work on other literacy skills like writing for an audience, organizing ideas, and the old favorite — coming up with a topic. Every Wednesday, students will be “inworld” building their space. Both days, we will be working together in a real community space where these students not only learn, but live. Ultimately, these students will develop an understanding for the ’space’ of the internet, and as they research and design the shared space in their virtual world, they will be doing the same for this virtual space: their blog. They will be asked to consider questions at the interface of design and function as they think about what it might be like to visit and explore their virtual spaces, and how these spaces might serve as communication tools that allow them to reach beyond the real place we meet in twice a week. We hope you’ll visit us often as we tell you about what we’ve learned.