[MWForum]Status of Logo, research summary
Karen Randall
mwforum@lists.mathcats.com
Tue, 20 Jul 2004 10:29:16 -0500
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My thanks to the 15 people who responded to the questions I posted
about Logo on the Ed Tech, MicroWorlds and Logo forums. Several of
you expressed interest in the outcome of the project, so here are my
observations pulled from your comments. The sampling is not at all
statistically relevant, still it was interesting to find some
patterns to people's thoughts and experiences.
1. Current U.S. Logo users seem to have been at it for a long time.
People wrote about having been introduced to Logo in 1972, or
the 80's, or 1995. While many still actively include the language in
their work, lots of comments I received were framed in the past
tense.
Sample comments:
"I am convinced that it has great educational value to teach a little
bit of programming.... Students practically taught each other how to
use it. If I showed a student a cool little procedure, within days
everyone in the class would know how to do it because the students
would teach each other. It was the most fun class I have ever taught."
"I am in the last years of my career and it will probably die here
when I retire as no other faculty has shown any interest in its
application."
"I'm no longer a classroom teacher. If I was, not sure if I'd be
using it or not. But I'm still convinced it has a lot of value even
though it's not 'flavour of the month'."
" Then I left. ... and MicroWorlds as a technology integration tool
largely vaporized from the school."
2. The strongest responses that documented growing use in school
settings came from England, and links to use in other parts of the
world were also sent along.
Comments:
"We are currently evaluating MicroWorlds EX here in Northumberland
(UK). ... The reception has been extremely positive with both staff
and students."
"Here in the UK, here in the UK, we use it a whole lot in primary
education ! ... Our teachers are given extra professional
development by working with the computer systems manager if they are
not confident in working with Logo when they come to our school."
3. While MicroWorlds was referred to by many, there are strong
advocates for other versions of Logo, in particular Visual Logic ,
StarLogo, MSWLogo and UCB Logo.
4. Logo users are a subculture, and joining the culture is not as easy.
This is my own observation, based on an Internet and
educational journal database search and personal experience. Once a
new teacher is introduced to Logo in a math method class, he or she
would have to be pretty motivated to track down the resources needed
to really use it. I have not seen Logo-based offerings at resent
teacher conferences in Minnesota, most journal citations are over 10
years old, and it takes a great deal of hunting and sorting to get at
the specifics of potential curriculum projects posted on the web.
5. The issues contributing to the limited use of Logo are the same
ones affecting the application of constructivist theory in general.
The current educational climate was cited by many as the
reason programming and project-style investigations are a shrinking
part of school curriculum. Where programming is taught, there is a
debate as to whether the instruction should be in languages which
have a marketplace use.
Sample comments:
"The summer before testing was implemented all schools officially
abandoned Logo. A handful of teachers (3) now teach it on the black
market so to speak. ...But in all cases in Colorado, it must be
carefully hidden because the test drives everything. A teacher who
blatantly taught Logo would run the risk of censure if his students
did not also perform very well on the standardized exams. Very few
teachers have enough confidence to risk that."
"The current teach to the test mind frame makes it difficult for
teachers to spend time on projects based learning even if they have
skills and inclination to do so."
"The learning curve for teachers can be fairly steep"
"* not all learners are suited or ready for the demands of problem-solving
with Logo
* very few teachers are suited or ready for it - effective learning through
Logo requires quite a hand-over of autonomy in my opinion
* teachers who taught programming from a commercial perspective didn't like
it because it encourages 'bottom-up' rather than 'topdown' approaches
* it's all about the process but teachers often focus on the product
* it's challenging *and* content-free, the opposite of what many
decision-makers think is important in education
* working with Logo looks a little too much like play for some people's
comfort"
"Since administrators got through their school lives without learning
anything about computer programming, it is largely a mystery to them,
and many cannot appreciate its inherent value nor the beauty and
simplicity of Logo.
Not one single course in programming is required for the Educational
Technology Master's degree."
6. My overall conclusion is that for a variety of reasons, Logo's
technology innovation and integration wave crested a while ago but
the arguments for its use remain strong. To remain viable a new
generation of educators will need access to resources, training and
support for implementation.
Karen Randall
St. Paul, MN
krandall@ties2.net
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summary</title></head><body>
<div><font face="Helvetica" size="+2" color="#000000">My thanks to the
15 people who responded to the questions I posted about Logo on the Ed
Tech, MicroWorlds and Logo forums. Several of you expressed
interest in the outcome of the project, so here are my observations
pulled from your comments. The sampling is not at all
statistically relevant, still it was interesting to find some patterns
to people's thoughts and experiences. <br>
<br>
<br>
1. Current U.S. Logo users seem to have been at it for a long
time. <br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>People wrote about
having been introduced to Logo in 1972, or the 80's, or 1995.
While many still actively include the language in their work, lots of
comments I received were framed in the past tense. <br>
Sample comments:<br>
"I am convinced that it has great educational value to teach a
little bit of programming.... Students practically taught each
other how to use it. If I showed a student a cool little procedure,
within days everyone in the class would know how to do it because the
students would teach each other. It was the most fun class I have ever
taught."<br>
"I am in the last years of my career and it will probably die here
when I retire as no other faculty has shown any interest in its
application."<br>
"I'm no longer a classroom teacher. If I was, not sure if I'd be
using it or not. But I'm still convinced it has a lot of value even
though it's not 'flavour of the month'."<br>
" Then I left. ... and MicroWorlds as a technology
integration tool largely vaporized from the school."<br>
<br>
2. The strongest responses that documented growing use in school
settings came from England, and links to use in other parts of the
world were also sent along.<br>
<br>
Comments:<br>
"We are currently evaluating MicroWorlds EX here in Northumberland
(UK). ... The reception has been extremely positive with both
staff and students."<br>
"Here in the UK, here in the UK, we use it a whole lot in primary
education ! ... Our teachers are given extra professional
development by working with the computer systems manager if they are
not confident in working with Logo when they come to our
school."<br>
<br>
3. While MicroWorlds was referred to by many, there are strong
advocates for other versions of Logo, in particular Visual Logic ,
StarLogo, MSWLogo and UCB Logo.<br>
<br>
4. Logo users are a subculture, and joining the culture is not
as easy.<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>This is my own observation, based on an Internet
and educational journal database search and personal experience.
Once a new teacher is introduced to Logo in a math method class, he or
she would have to be pretty motivated to track down the resources
needed to really use it. I have not seen Logo-based offerings at
resent teacher conferences in Minnesota, most journal citations are
over 10 years old, and it takes a great deal of hunting and sorting to
get at the specifics of potential curriculum projects posted on the
web. <br>
<br>
5. The issues contributing to the limited use of Logo are the
same ones affecting the application of constructivist theory in
general.<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>The current
educational climate was cited by many as the reason programming and
project-style investigations are a shrinking part of school
curriculum. Where programming is taught, there is a debate as to
whether the instruction should be in languages which have a
marketplace use.<br>
Sample comments:<br>
"The summer before testing was implemented all schools officially
abandoned Logo. A handful of teachers (3) now teach it on the
black market so to speak. ...But in all cases in Colorado, it must be
carefully hidden because the test drives everything. A teacher
who blatantly taught Logo would run the risk of censure if his
students did not also perform very well on the standardized
exams. Very few teachers have enough confidence to risk
that."<br>
"The current teach to the test mind frame makes it difficult for
teachers to spend time on projects based learning even if they have
skills and inclination to do so."<br>
"The learning curve for teachers can be fairly steep"<br>
"* not all learners are suited or ready for the demands of
problem-solving</font></div>
<div><font face="Helvetica" size="+2" color="#000000">with Logo<br>
* very few teachers are suited or ready for it - effective learning
through<br>
Logo requires quite a hand-over of autonomy in my opinion<br>
* teachers who taught programming from a commercial perspective didn't
like<br>
it because it encourages 'bottom-up' rather than 'topdown'
approaches<br>
* it's all about the process but teachers often focus on the
product<br>
* it's challenging *and* content-free, the opposite of what many
decision-makers think is important in education<br>
* working with Logo looks a little too much like play for some
people's<br>
comfort"<br>
"Since administrators got through their school lives without
learning anything about computer programming, it is largely a mystery
to them, and many cannot appreciate its inherent value nor the beauty
and simplicity of Logo. <br>
Not one single course in programming is required for the Educational
Technology Master's degree."<br>
<br>
6. My overall conclusion is that for a variety of reasons,
Logo's technology innovation and integration wave crested a while ago
but the arguments for its use remain strong. To remain viable a
new generation of educators will need access to resources, training
and support for implementation.<br>
<br>
<br>
Karen Randall<br>
St. Paul, MN<br>
krandall@ties2.net</font></div>
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