Journal 9 NETS Five

The article on L&L titled "Constructing Learning," by Eric Klopfer, Hal Scheintaub, Wendy Huang, and Daniel Wendel is excellent for a number of reasons. It talks about an innovate program which can be used in the classroom to aid in any number of science or math lessons. Basically this is free modeling software called Startlogo TNG (The Next Generation) which can be used by teachers and students to construct simulations for any number of scenarios. The format for creating a chemistry or physics experiment. It could also be used to simulate a local mountain range, or even create fun games. It may sound intimidating but the program seems to be constructed similarly to computer games like the Sims. You set the agents in the simulation and the scales. Then you kinda build a recipe "step-by-step." Agents or scenarios are programmed by connecting a series of blocks together. In these blocks in a logical statement attached. This is what causes the agents to interact. Once all agents are programmed then you can work on the fun stuff. If you have programmed a sea floor ecosystem, then make it all in 2D. The tools are there in a program called Spaceland. Hit play and watch it go. After a few lessons all students should be able to learn and create fun experiments on their own.

Of course this is only s brief synopsis of what the article explains but it does sound fun and it actually sounds practical. I am still a bit skeptical about the difficulty of using the program. Also the cheesiness factor. I have seen simulations before and they can be pretty bad. I think for this to be an effective program in the modern classroom it must be entertaining.