CB>I don't often disagree with you on matters educational, but on this one
CB>I'm of a different mind.  Who needs to write programs today, especially
CB>in BASIC or LOGO?
I must say that I am shocked to here such an argument against
programming (why teach it as who really needs it nowadays) coming from
both you and Ron McDermott. Sounds very much like Tom and his "don't
teach art and music because we don't need it" or Matt's "what use is it
to teach Shakespeare...is it really needed in one's job?"
I hope by now you've seen the message I posted to Bob Anderson on the
benefits of programming in Logo. There are real visual benefits for the
child who works with the turtle. Such children learn a lot about
symmetry and other math and geometry topics. They learn how to problem
solve, how to think about their methods of solution so they can go back
and correct errors. I could post more on this or refer you to the Logo
Foundation Web site if you missed the other post.
  I've done both, felt both were a waste of time for
CB>6th graders when there are so many more useful things to learn - word
CB>processing, publishing, database & spreadsheet, typing, telecom and
CB>Internet, etc.
I agree that word processing and other things are valuable as well. It
is difficult for me to make a value comparison, as it seems to me like
comparing apples to oranges. Someone else (Rick Pedley?) posted a
response to Ron suggesting that students will actually need more
programming skills than we may realize. I don't know about that. But I
know that the problem solving and mathematical benefits imparted by
working in Logo are very useful, and I wonder that they aren't just as
useful as Word Processing skills, something that many of the teachers I
know have managed to teach themselves with no formal instruction.
CB>Perhaps for students with a particular interest in computers, such as
CB>those in a computer club or special activity group, teaching programming
CB>would be beneficial.  However, based on my own experience, most of the
CB>5th and 6th grade kids really didn't care for programming.
I just imagine that you must see it as a very dry topic. Basic I
probabyl wouldn't mess with. But I can see presenting some very fun
lessons in Logo (there are many activity books available through the
Logo Foundation) that would (hopefully?) grab the kids' attention.
Sheila
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