NCAECT 2008 Presentation

Thirty seven teachers attended our NCAECT "Alice- the Free, Fun & Easy Way to Introduce Students to Programming" class. As Jill Nelson and I presented the teachers seemed enthusiastic and interested in Alice and asked a lot of good questions. Carnegie Mellon donated Alice, animation/video game software, free of charge and it can be download at http://www.alice.org/.

Everyone enjoyed the Prentice Hall book give away. They generously donated 4 Alice text books door prizes.

One question that was discussed was how the students could show their work on the Internet. Alice animation will play on computers that have downloaded Alice. Our student videos were created by the students playing their Alice animations on a Smartboard and using the record feature which records their Alice videos as a avi format. Soon to be released Alice 2.2 will have a record feature built into it. If you can't wait that long I just read an interesting blog at http://segatech.us/ (March 19, 2008) that tells about free online tools for transforming files. I haven't tried them yet but they are located at Media Convert and Zamzar.

Miss Witkowski talks about "Girls and Computers"


Miss Nelson talks about "How Easy Alice is To Learn Programming"

Creating in a new world

Aaron is creating a new world using animation.



(Note- Parental release is on file allowing Aaron to share his creativity)

Aaron may also be creating in a new world when he graduates from college in 2016. I read Marc Prensky's article "Programming: The New Literacy" in February's Edutopia magazine and agreed with his premise that in the near future literate adults will need to know how to program to some degree.

He provides many examples supporting his claim. One of his most compelling examples was when he explained that back in the Middle Ages when there were only a few literate people who knew how to read people had to hire people to write letters for them and to read letter to them. Today many people hire Geek Squads to install and show them how to use their new electronic devices.

I have read several articles which point to an increased emphasis on programming in the future. The video game industry made more money than the motion picture industry last year. Homeland Security and the Armed Forces are using video games to train their employees/soldiers. The iphone's success and the placement of electronics in our cars and homes all signal a need to understand a minimal amount of programming.

The free Alice software donated by Carnegie Mellon University is a fun and easy way to start you journey into the programming world.

Both Girls and Boys Enjoy Alice Software

What's really great about Alice software is its flexibility. There are so many templates that both girls and boys can find items of interest. While most boys gravitate toward the "war" game scenario, most girls like the "non-violent" games. Pamella created a race car game and spent a lot of time creating a realistic setting for it. (A parent release form is on file giving permission for Pamella to describe her game.)