[Edu-sig] FYI: PataPata postmortem link

[Arthur]

Paul D. Fernhout wrote:

>For reference, the PataPata project is/was """an experiment to support 
>educational constructivism on the Python platform, inspired by "Squeak" 
>and "Self", but going beyond those in a Pythonic way."""
>  
>
Was PataPata an experiment in education or an experiment in technology??

My own reaction was a strong desire to take it apart to see what made it 
tick, but little interest in using it as intended - or said better, its 
intent was never clear to me. Certainly not its *educational* intent..

Nothing about that is made clearer by reading your self-critique.

I think that the real introspection that is necessary in order for you 
to better apply your technical expertise to the matter of education 
would be in regard to some of the underlying assumption you are making 
about "educational constructivism", particularly as that relates to the 
use of technology, and more particularly as it relates to use of the GUI..

IOW, I think the real issues are at the level of your axioms, not your 
implementation

Sure there is a strong school-of-thought that would support your 
axioms.  What that school-of-thought seems to rally around, it sometimes 
seems to me, is hostility  to the notion that devotion to these axioms 
needs to re-examined every few decades.

That is the self-critique I would like to be reading, anyway.

Art