This week in the MOOC we were charged with reading and thinking about Powerful Ideas. We also tinkered with a Logo-like app called TurtleArt, which brings back the turtle geometry of Logo. You can read more about it in Turtle, Art, TurtleArt and see a gallery of images or download it at TurtleArt. For an oldie but goldie look at Logo, check out LogoWorks: Challenging Programs in Logo edited by Cynthia Solomon, Margaret Minsky and Brian Harvey.
Here’s my quick turtle art doodle, along with my reflections.
Enjoyed tinkering with Turtle Art, and appreciate that the makers of it wanted to bring back the turtle geometry of Logo. I LOVED Logo and thought it was an excellent playground for kids and adults. In fact, when I first started playing with Scratch, I used it to mimic Logo.
As for powerful ideas – it’s keeping PLAY alive, regardless of the age of the learner and regardless of the level of the learning. There is usually plenty of play in a lower school (elementary school), but the play gets sucked out of the school environment the higher up in the grade level the learner goes. It’s not just keeping PLAY alive in the learner’s life; it’s reigniting PLAY in the teacher’s life, as well.
