An Interview with Bill Kerr on Scratch, Squeak & OLPC Etoys in the Classroom

Bill Kerr is a South Australian Secondary Teacher and Blogger, and has spoken at educational conferences on Alan Kay and Etoys, and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project. He uses Scratch in his classroom.

We visited his school to meet his class, find out how he was using these tools in the classroom and find out some of his philosophies on open source and the OLPC project.

Whole Interview as a Podcast 32:07

1. Can you briefly describe the scratch and squeak environments and how they are useful? 1:30

2. How have you used MIT learning activities in the classroom? (Focus on scratch). 1:29

3. What do you think of scratch for the classroom? 0:54

4. How long does it take a class with no prior programming learn and become proficient in some of the visual development tools, such as Scratch? 1:19

5. Is there anything you would change or improve with Scratch or etoys to make it for useful in a classroom setting? 3:39

6. Are there similar learning computer activities that would help with learning or understanding Scratch Squeak (Smalltalk)? 2:55

7. How does open source, both as a concept and with software tools such as scratch, help education? 1:53

8. Would older students be able to create etoys for younger OLPC uers? 3:06

9. How do the MiT learning activities such as Squeak and Scratch facilitate constructivist learning? 6:11

10. How do you see the OLPC, especially the etoys environment, changing teaching and learning IT in the 21st century? 5:44

11. Would the OLPC XO laptop be appropriate for an Australian National laptop project? 3:23