Cet interview a été conduit par e-mail car le d. Ken Schweller est difficilement rejoignable sur MOO. Il est l' "arch wizard" de Colledgetown: il en a dirigé la construction avec sa classe d'informatique.
1. what kind of objects do you have on the MOO to teach people to learn programming ?
We have tutorials available for viewing on virtual tv sets. These interactive tutorials help new players learn to program in MOO code. You may experiment with these tutorials by going to the tv studio and acquiring a tv set there. (Ask the robot assistant there for help..). Then watch the tutorial on tv.
2. I heard about a programming class; can you explain me how does it work ?
For 3 weeks this January i am teaching a college class called 'Psychology of Cyberspace'.. we do moo projects such as putting on plays, poetry readings, radio broadcasts, scavenger hunts, make moovies, make books etc and learn to program in moo code. Some of the work is done in class but a lot is done on the moo itself.
3. how many programmers students do you have usually on Colledgetown ?
Our total population is about 300 members, usually we have from 5 to 10 people on at a time during the day.
4. how a MOO can be interesting to learn to program ? What is the difference with a traditional learning ?
Programming is not the only thing taught on CollegeTown. Several professors of Philosophy hold graduate seminars here.. several writing teachers at different universities hold collaborative writing classes here etc.
5. when you started the MOO, I've heard that all the class work at it; how was the organization of the work ?
Collegetown is a little over a year old. In the beginning of last years Psychology in Cyberspace class there was nothing but one character and one room.. Students were encouraged to build their own homes and areas of interest.. we started out with all kinds of things... a downtown area, a college quad, classrooms, a ski resort etc .. I integrated these objects into a conceptual physical and logical layout with streets, rivers, hills, etc.. There are 3 parts of CT... college, town, nature area
6. what do you think about children: is it possible for them to learn to create objects ? Do you have some special helps with them ?
We have many kids between ages of 10 and 14 here and they are in some ways our most productive programmers. The whole middle school area here was built by 7th and 8th grad students..
Thank you for answer me and excuse me for my very bad English...
Goodbye
Eric
My pleasure.. good luck with your project.
Dr. Ken Schweller
Prof of Computer Science and Psychology
Buena Vista college
Storm Lake Iowa