Classroom notes
Antony Harfield, who devised the original form of the Getting Started with JS-Eden worksheet writes (11/04/2016)::
In terms of how we conducted the workshop in Athens, important points were:
- Students worked in groups of 2 or 3, and each group was given the worksheet on paper to work through (with assistance from us as we wandered around).
- The worksheet encouraged the students to write their answers down for the first few (<6) questions. Later questions were a bit more open ended.
- At the beginning of the class, I demoed some of the basic points of the JS Eden environment: a) entering definitions, b) dependencies, c) the picture and defining dependencies such as Line. I think I told them that once they get through the first few questions and understood dependency then I would show them how they could use JS Eden to do something more interesting.
- When some of the students had got halfway, I stopped them all and showed them the solar system, and told them that this is what they could build by the end of the workshop.
- I expect that I talked for 10 minutes at the beginning and 5 minutes to explain the solar system halfway through. So not a lot of explanation. I expected them to read, which was ambitious! It might have been better to break a few more times to explain important concepts or tricks they could use as it became relevant -- although then you might break their concentration.