Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Programming in LOGO

The little'un is going to be doing some basic programming in a language called LOGO
A - has anybody heard of this language
B - are there any child friendly resources available that anyone might have come across

Thanks

A - yes, it's famous in the computing world as the first (well-known) language for children to learn to program in. Lucky little'un!
B - we haven't used it yet, so no personal experience, but have a look at the Wikipedia page for LOGO:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language)
and then at the page for Etoys, which is essentially a LOGO implementation IIUC:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etoys_(programming_language)
(it may perhaps be what little'un is actually using?)
and follow some of the links at the bottom, e.g. to the Etoys official home page:
http://www.squeakland.org/

Have fun!

I really like it. No, I had never heard of this language. I was a computer programmer and really think students (especially gifted) should understand the breakdown of instructions. Most students do not have the patience so it is often not taught.

Taking something simple such as an addition instruction (such as the example forward and right) and breaking it down is different for the brain and sometimes tedious. http://el.media.mit.edu/Logo-foundation/logo/turtle.html

I have used Alice, which is object oriented programming and is free to download and learn. There are books one can order to accompany. It is wonderful and is directed towards middle to high school level. However, I think this is great for a younger gifted student. The tutorials are great so start with those.

I am not familiar with Logo (I'd love to hear more about it!), but my 2nd grade GT son LOVES Alice and has been playing with it independently all year - both the storytelling (jr high) version and then more recently the regular version (high school). Wonderful interface and tutorials to get you started.

my little guy really enjoys the Free Scratch program from MIT at
http://scratch.mit.edu/

Ellipses
Thanks I am a systems person myself, but in procedural languages like Cobol and RPG (so currently 'between assignments'). I have struggled with the OO stuff, but I will take a look at Alice as maybe both me and the little'un could both learn something.
thanks to all for their help, as always

Paul

Actually, I was a COBOL person myself and I love Alice. It makes it very accessible. I had to teach it.

Any recommendations for Alice? I just downloaded v2.2 for the Mac. Books?

I have not been on the storytelling Alice site. On the other, you create "worlds" and learn to pseudo code.

logo costs about �80 here in the UK. Litte'un has an unboxed Lego Mindstorms off Santa, so maybe I can get him to look at that.

I downloaded Alice 2.2 and, being of the 'older' systems generation managed to install it onto my desktop with the usual befuddlement with these PC things. Anyhow, te little fella and I took a look and it looks great.

Scratch I downloaded and I am quite impressed in how you can build up lists of instructions then wrap them in a repeat sequence (iteration as systems people might say ). I will plig this onw with Little'un, probably because I understand the way it works better - if I can ust figure out how to change the iterations once their in place without deleteing the whole 'program'

Phew!

Question for those using Alice ....

DS8 has been busy creating,hhhm is it called movies?....anyhow, he made one, saved it, then showed me a tutorial, and has now re-opened his movie. He needs to increase the duration for some text. However, he can't figure out how to get the actions on the screen for editing. It just has a blank screen ready for creating new actions. HHHHEEELLLPPPP! I figured I'd ask here before going to the Alice forum.

Thanks,
Dazey

Drag them at first. Then, following along the instruction, it will lead you to duration and other parts of the instruction.

Am I anywhere close to answering your question/

Well, we figured out how to increase the duration so that you have time to read the text but when he re-opened it, the previous code is not there for editing. You can play the movie just fine etc and it's waiting for new code but the old code is not there. Am I making sense?

Dazey (and still confuzed).

This is turning into a regular tech support post :-)

Has anyone used Processing? Processing

Interestingly enough, Scratch and *LOGO (which has tons of turtles instead of one) are both from the lab of the same professor at MIT. I used to work for him.

Do you guys find Alice easy to use? I dowloaded that and Scratch, and I found that my kids figured Scratch out a lot faster.