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INACTIVE - http://mzl.la/ghe-archive - This repo is for tracking initiatives of the Mozilla Learning Networks team.
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[Tracking ticket] Back-to-School Thimble activities #224

Closed chadsansing closed 9 years ago

chadsansing commented 9 years ago

Review Back to School Activities

Back to the meta.

jgmac1106 commented 9 years ago

In an earlier curriculum ticket (issue #45) we thought about having a print stylesheet. I clicked on print and it wasn't bad but it would be nice if a print stylesheet deprecated the formatting of the unorganized list and did not include any images.

jgmac1106 commented 9 years ago

I have never done anything with javascript so I took a look at the postcard activity. I think the key definitions are good.

I would to like to have learned more about the function. Even if it is just for context. I am currrently just switching the words in javascript. What does the function do?

Also I wonder about linking to different Google Fonts and if that unnecessarily complicates things. I might go with a font family.

jgmac1106 commented 9 years ago

I also think we have way too many learning objectives for each teaching kit. Yes you will have to do all 6-7 objectives but that does not mean the educator should focus on those in terms of what she is trying to measure in terms of learner growth.

I would try to hone in on what they key lesson that make is trying to teach.

chadsansing commented 9 years ago

Great feedback moving forward. It's definitely a challenge to think about what - and how much - to surface where in terms of objectives and instructional copy and to have objectives that reflect what learners do in the activity. An explainer comment for the function would be great, as well.

I know feedback on these makes will help us refine instruction in future makes and help us with teaching new Thimble features, too.

jgmac1106 commented 9 years ago

Oh yeah nothing as a roadblock in terms of shipping the activities. They are good to go in terms of objectives. In the future we should think about what is the key take away. For postcards for example you are changing a variable in the array.

The postcard activity has all the css in the index file. Should this be pulled into a stylesheet file? The post card activity has both inline html comments and the tutorial. Do we want both or either?

The comic book activity has all the css in the index file. Should these be in a separate file?

On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 7:29 AM Chad Sansing notifications@github.com wrote:

Great feedback moving forward. It's definitely a challenge to think about what - and how much - to surface where in terms of objectives and instructional copy and to have objectives that reflect what learners do in the activity. I know feedback on these makes will help us refine instruction in future makes and help us with teaching new Thimble features, as well.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/mozilla/learning-networks/issues/224#issuecomment-136340128 .

chadsansing commented 9 years ago

First, let me say the new Thimble UI and features are awesome and facilitate so much good practice. I am excited! (cc @hannahkane)

In thinking of user-testing w/ the gamut of middle school kids I've taught, I recommended that we ship at least a few activities with the CSS and .js on the index.html pages. I think adding file-directory organization to introductory activities without actual file-directory activities presents a barrier to entry for kids not yet there with organization. I'm thinking of organizational readiness like algebra readiness. Some kids will be there on day one; some will not; start with one-pagers; add complexity later and teach the complexity explicitly.

Not sure novice teacher users would all be there, either.

Thinking that having everything on one page concretizes the connections between HTML, CSS, and .js, so those connections aren't lost in abstractions once the CSS and .js live elsewhere.

I agree, of course, that separate files are best practice and I know we'll work toward teaching the how and why in future materials.

jgmac1106 commented 9 years ago

WFM, and you are right Thimble rocks.

When I beta tested and asked teachers to start their own projects they got tripped up when trying to link back to their stylesheet. They were opening up projects on old thimble and trying to copy and paste so a make with one file structure makes sense.

Though I would argue I wouldn't do this for the .js make. If you are ready to level up your .js skills you are probably familiar with file-directories.

I think all three are ready to ship but wanted to leave feedback. Another thing I think we should consider is including links back to MDN articles where appropriate and if the articles are developed. This could be a want to learn more about Functions? Check out this resource....since the .js make only went over switching variable in the array.

On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 10:57 AM Chad Sansing notifications@github.com wrote:

First, let me say the new Thimble UI and features are awesome and facilitate so much good practice. I am excited! (cc @hannahkane https://github.com/hannahkane)

In thinking of user-testing w/ the gamut of middle school kids I've taught, I recommended that we ship at least a few activities with the CSS and .js on the index.html pages. I think adding file-directory organization to introductory activities without actual file-directory activities presents a barrier to entry for kids not yet there with organization. I'm thinking of organizational readiness like algebra readiness. Some kids will be there on day one; some will not; start with one-pages; add complexity later and teach the complexity explicitly.

Not sure novice teacher users would all be there, either.

Thinking that having everything on one page concretizes the connections between HTML, CSS, and .js, so those connections aren't lost in abstractions once the CSS and .js live elsewhere.

I agree, of course, that separate files are best practice and I know we'll work toward teaching the how and why in future materials.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/mozilla/learning-networks/issues/224#issuecomment-136397599 .

jgmac1106 commented 9 years ago

I also had a random thought on curriculum testing after watching the A/B testing being done on the CTA. Could a tool like optimizely (or something similar) test out, for example, one make with inline html comments as a tutorial and one make with the tutorial pages and track if either a make was finished or the time it took to complete a project?

Thinking about Richard Mayer's work and multimodal learning. He tested about every variable under the sun from font placement, to color, etc. This probably doesn't belong in this ticket at all (I couldn't find the measure learning on Thimble ticket) but the CTA testing sparked the idea of how can we get past costly cognitive labs.

On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 11:07 AM Greg Mcverry jgregmcverry@gmail.com wrote:

WFM, and you are right Thimble rocks.

When I beta tested and asked teachers to start their own projects they got tripped up when trying to link back to their stylesheet. They were opening up projects on old thimble and trying to copy and paste so a make with one file structure makes sense.

Though I would argue I wouldn't do this for the .js make. If you are ready to level up your .js skills you are probably familiar with file-directories.

I think all three are ready to ship but wanted to leave feedback. Another thing I think we should consider is including links back to MDN articles where appropriate and if the articles are developed. This could be a want to learn more about Functions? Check out this resource....since the .js make only went over switching variable in the array.

On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 10:57 AM Chad Sansing notifications@github.com wrote:

First, let me say the new Thimble UI and features are awesome and facilitate so much good practice. I am excited! (cc @hannahkane https://github.com/hannahkane)

In thinking of user-testing w/ the gamut of middle school kids I've taught, I recommended that we ship at least a few activities with the CSS and .js on the index.html pages. I think adding file-directory organization to introductory activities without actual file-directory activities presents a barrier to entry for kids not yet there with organization. I'm thinking of organizational readiness like algebra readiness. Some kids will be there on day one; some will not; start with one-pages; add complexity later and teach the complexity explicitly.

Not sure novice teacher users would all be there, either.

Thinking that having everything on one page concretizes the connections between HTML, CSS, and .js, so those connections aren't lost in abstractions once the CSS and .js live elsewhere.

I agree, of course, that separate files are best practice and I know we'll work toward teaching the how and why in future materials.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/mozilla/learning-networks/issues/224#issuecomment-136397599 .

chadsansing commented 9 years ago

+1 MDN & parallel development/testing. I'd like to explore lots of yes/and pathways across MLN.