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43:37 It is modular, and suitable for commercial breaks, or airing
of segments.
The filmmakers hope to spread the word about this fascinating
new way of using cutting edge technology to playfully and effectively
engage kids in learning about math and science. In a larger sense, both
the designers of Squeak (Alan Kay and group) and the filmmakers believe
that long term results of developing critical thinking are world changing
and important.
They feel that the more that educators and parents know about
this, the more schools and parents will want to adopt these methods with
their own kids. At the very least, SQUEAKERS challenges people to replace
traditional "rote" methods of memorization and routine practice with something
that works much better.
Any adult concerned about how kids learn - especially the difficult
subjects of math and science - will find SQUEAKERS of interest. This includes
parents, educators, psychologists, and anyone who places high value on
developing the thinking skills of the next generation.
The creative team is a multiple Emmy award-winning duo,
Jim Shasky and Bonnie MacBird, who have over sixty national awards for
writing, directing, and producing. Ball State University provided a grant
for SQUEAKERS, grant funded by Ely Lilly Foundation. Executive Producer
is Scott Olson, Dean of CCIM, Ball State Univ.
Shot in Hi Def video in Los Angeles, Kyoto, Maine, Magdeburg,
and Tuscany, SQUEAKERS also has an original score by television and film
composer Matthew McCauley, and narration by Steve Bell, former ABC World
News and Good Morning America anchor.
No. There is nothing "for sale" about Squeak - the language or the
curriculum. The Squeak examples seen in this film are free to anyone and
downloadable off of the internet at www.squeakland.org. The original language,
Squeak, that this new curriculum uses, is also free and downloadable to
any programmers who want to use it at www.squeak.org
This documentary film works on several levels. For the general audience
of parents and educators, it's a look at an exciting new school curriculum
idea in action and exposure to some of the great minds on early childhood
education. They'll hear some of the theories, and then actually see fourth
and fifth graders simulating gravity on the computer, and explaining their
work. Parents and teachers may be inspired to try the ideas and methods
shown here.
For those with deeper backgrounds in psychology or education,
SQUEAKERS is a groundbreaking new approach to the "learning by doing"
theories espoused by Jerome Bruner, Seymour Papert, and prominent educators.
And viewers with a programming or technology background will respond to
the innovation of the Squeak programming language, a new and powerful
object-oriented language by the creators of Smalltalk.
But even the average viewer will be amazed at the level of
work acheived by these fifth and sixth graders, and drawn to the well
thought out research and ideas of Dr Kay and his colleagues.
At locations including Los Angeles, Maine, Tuscany, Germany,
and Japan, we see
interviews with computer heavyweights Alan Kay and Seymour Papert, renowned
cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner, and humanitarian and musician Quincy
Jones. We also visit two Los Angeles schoolteachers, and a number of 10
and 11-year-olds doing math and science, including a first time Squeak
workshop in Kyoto.
Dr. Alan Kay is known as the "Father of the Personal Computer" for
his work at Xerox PARC in the early seventies- where his group invented
not only the term "PC" but also the desktop metaphor, overlapping windows,
pointing, - the entire "graphical user interface" that is the face of
all personal computers today. Internationally known as a leading computer
innovator, Kay provides great reasons to rethink education.
Dr. Seymour Papert - pioneer in computers and education, developed
LOGO in the sixties at MIT based on his work with Piaget. Logo is one
of the earliest, and still one of the best, uses of computers in classroom
education - and Squeak is the next generation out. Papert advises Kay's
group today, and his interview explains why computers should play a vital
role in education.
Dr. Jerome Bruner - professor at NYU and key advisor to the
Squeak project is the foremost cognitive psychologist in the world and
author of many benchmark books on how children learn including TOWARD
A THEORY OF INSTRUCTION. Bruner is a major influence on the Squeak work
and provides fascinating insights on the minds of children.
Quincy Jones, famous composer, producer and humanitarian,
is convinced from his own charitable work that education is the foundation
for helping Third World countries. In a special appearance in this film,
Jones, who is on the advisory board of Viewpoints Research, watches Kay
give a Squeak demo which uses the power to science to graphically convey
the spread of Aids in a way that can help clarify the dangers of this
epidemic to others.
Squeak is a programming language developed by computer pioneer Alan
Kay and his group over the last ten years at Apple, Disney, Hewlett Packard
and his own company, Viewpoints Research, a 501(c3) nonprofit organization.
Kay is nonproprietary about his Squeak work and shares it freely on the
internet. Squeak is being adopted worldwide with pilot programs in a growing
number of schools here and abroad.
Any fees earned by broadcasting this show are split equally between
the producing entity Ball State University, and Viewpoints Research Institute,
a California 501 (c3) nonprofit.
To arrange broadcast rights, contact
Dick Block
Block Communications Group, Inc.
Tel: (310) 452-3355
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