Lessons from Squeakfest 2009 - Part 1

This entry is long overdue. The delay is due in part to a week long vacation that I took. Another reason it took me this long to write this is because it was too hard to summarize the experience with just one blog entry, nor would it give justice to the people who had put time in making the event a success. Like Tim Falconer’s post, I would just have to direct you first to the videos and I’ll try to convey the lessons that I learned personally from that experience.

I must admit that before coming to this event I was both filled with excitement and trepidation.
My experience with Squeak can be best described as a short “dabble”. How will I fit in with these seasoned developers and educators? I was there to find out more about Squeak and how this can change children’s education in the Philippines. Determined to do just that, I woke up at 5:00am in the morning and braved the LA traffic. I got to the event an hour and 15 minutes early and was met by the warm smile of Kim Rose from Viewpoints Research Institute the co-organizer of the conference. That’s just what I needed to start that day and it is the recurring characteristic of everyone there: welcoming and friendly.

Before long the event was underway. Kim made the introductions and gave the mic to Tim, who gave the brief story of how he started Waveplace, which eventually led him to Squeakland Foundation. Rita Freudenberg then spoke about what Squeakland Foundation is up to and told everyone that they need help in making things better for both Squeak/Etoys and Squeakland. I figured she was just talking to some of the older members in the conference, many of whom have known each other for more than 20 years. What is there for me to contribute? This question I hoped to answer in the three days that I was there. But first and foremost I was there to soak up as much information as I can.

“Teaching kids 21st century skills” is such a broad notion, but one that this group of folks are more than willing to tackle. That they know the community that they serve is an understatement. Talk to any of the developers and educators, and you will quickly find out that for them, a child’s mind should be allowed to soar not by feeding them information, but giving them the tools and skills for them to acquire the knowledge on their own. Kids need to be taught to be producers rather than mere consumers of technology. This is done splendidly through Squeak/Etoys.

Numerous activities done by children were presented and hundreds more online are stored. I’m reminded of what Dr. Sridhar Narayan has said “like a violin, the instrument doesn’t change but the quality of work gets better”. At middle school and high school level, children have started producing real world solutions from doing simple modeling of the spread of diseases to distribution models for warehouses. The possibility of children being productive contributors to the society at such an early age is awe-inspiring.

All throughout the course of this conference, I have not found one single person who’s intimidating to talk to. My questions were met with patient ears. My suggestions were met with open minds. I remember making a suggestion over dinner about an offline deployment version of the 16-unit curriculum that will help teachers, in remote places, with their lesson plans. I haven’t even completely formulated the idea in my head and already Milan Zimmermann and Ted Kaehler were there to say “that is possible, I’ll help you with that”.

For those folks out there in the Philippines who are thinking that only a seasoned programmer can teach children what objects, scripts, conditional statements, etc. mean. I would quickly point you to Kathleen Harness. This amazing woman has been teaching kids to be programmers,critical/logical thinkers and she started off as a music teacher! When other teachers have said that they COULDN’T possibly squeeze things on their full schedule, Kathleen found a way. At 40 minutes a week, she’s been teaching Etoys to children and those 40 minutes have translated to 3+ years of skills that children now are honing in and using to develop their own solutions and games.

And for those who are overwhelmed by the notion of a deployment to a remote region in the Philippines, I would point you to William Stelzer. He braved war-torn Haiti to deliver laptops to kids who would otherwise not know that there is a world beyond the chaos that they’re in. An accomplished filmmaker, he is by no means, a passive observer. He also teaches Squeak/Etoys to kids from St. John to Nicaragua. He does so with the help of a translator!

Each person that I talked to is dedicated to making lives better for kids around the world. Their passion is infectious. Their enthusiasm, unwavering. I definitely caught the Squeak bug and I will be guilty of spreading it.

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Pertinent Websites:
www.squeakland.org
www.etoysillinois.org
www.useitproject.org
www.youtube.com/wtstelzer

Special thanks to: Kim, Tim, Rita, Bill, Ted, Milan, Yoshiki, Kathleen, George, Takashi, Duncan, Sridhar, Chris, Annette Clarke and Family, Madhur, Donna, the rest of VPI team.