Subject:
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RE: legOS (-> Interdisciplinary Learning?)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Tue, 1 Dec 1998 18:55:36 GMT
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Original-From:
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Vaan, Howard <howard.vaan@csfp.co.+NoMoreSpam+uk>
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Viewed:
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2599 times
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Funnily enough, my first degree was philosophy. It was quite a lift to see
a Papert quote printed on a box of Lego!
The VB SDK that Lego provide might be OK for a non-technical undergraduate
class, although I'd hesitate to introduce nasty MS VB as a teaching
language. I'm not up to date on current Logo implementations, but from what
I know this seems too limited (you can surely do as much, albeit more
slowly, with the Lego software). SmallTalk seems like a great choice - in
my original mail I was going to suggest MindStorms as a platform for
learning object orientation. SmallTalk has the nice self-developmental feel
that you need as well.
Do you have a version of SmallTalk in mind?
Also, I'd love to do a predator-prey evolution project, but alas I have only
a single RCX. It's a good project because it's fun and can be approached
using a number of different methodolgies: Symbolic vs sub-symbolic,
adaptive, genetic etc.
Can't the IR transceiver send numbers in the 1-255 range? That should
enable some fairly productive messaging.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stefano Franchi [SMTP:franchi@csli.Stanford.EDU]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 1998 6:30 PM
> To: lego-robotics@crynwr.com
> Subject: RE: legOS
>
>
> At 5:04 PM +0000 12/1/98, Vaan, Howard wrote:
> > I guess this depends what you're trying to teach.
>
>
> I teach philosophy and I have been waiting for something like Mindstorms
> for a long time. I am thinking about an "Introduction to AI" class for
> philosophy or non-computer-science majors. I have been following Papert's
> (and Piaget's) work since the seventies and I see Mindstorms as the best
> and potentially most fruitful outcome of that research so far.
> Unfortunately, the software side is still weak for my intended audience:
> the Lego software is trivial, while the alternatives that I have seen
> (NQC,
> TCL) are too techie-oriented (not in general, of course, but for the
> students I have in mind). I'd really love to have something like Logo
> available, or perhaps Smalltalk.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > My background's in AI and I bought the set with the intention of keeping
> > that interest going. One of the big debates in AI has always been the
> > difficulty of real world environments for AIs - Lego means I don't have • to
> > worry about getting heavily into 'real' robotics to try this stuff out.
> >
> > I guess one of the points about a classroom is that it will have more • scope.
> > With 20 RCX units there's the possibilty of organising/evolving • co-operation
> > between units. The breadth of this mailing list illustrates that the RCX • is
> > a great platform for learning about many interacting technologies and
> > concepts (even I'm having to learn SOME basic engineering principles).
>
>
>
>
> I agreee that this is potentially the greatest benefit, although from the
> discussions I have seen on this list, coordinating the RCX's is far from
> trivial. But the educational benefits would be substantial. A long time
> ago
> I used to teach programming by having the students implement predator/prey
> behaviors in Logo virtual turtles ( with ideas lifted from
> Abelson/DiSessa's great book on Logo). It was a very successful approach.
> Has anyone tried something similar with MS?
>
>
> Stefano Franchi
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> +-----------------------------------------------------------+
> | Stefano Franchi |
> | |
> | Department of Philosophy Phone: Off: (650) 723-2192 |
> | Stanford University Home: (650) 497-2812 |
> | Stanford, CA 94305 Fax: (415) 723-0985 |
> | USA |
> | |
> | e-mail: franchi@csli.stanford.edu |
> +-----------------------------------------------------------+
>
>
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | RE: legOS (-> Interdisciplinary Learning?)
|
| (...) Jerry Bell wrote me that someone has managed to interface Dolphin Smalltalk to the RCX. It is just too bad that Stanford is Mac based and Dolphin Smalltalk is Windows only. I didn't have a specific version of Smalltalk in mind when I wrote the (...) (26 years ago, 1-Dec-98, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: legOS (-> Interdisciplinary Learning?)
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| Folks, (...) what (...) feel (...) There is a Smalltalk (note the small 't') interface to MindStorms and Cybermaster. It's called Bot-Kit and you can find it at my web page: (URL) It's free but requires Dolphin Smalltalk (Win32 only) which costs (...) (26 years ago, 2-Dec-98, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: legOS (-> Interdisciplinary Learning?)
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| Andy, if my plans for a RCX-based come to fruition (i.e. I get the funds, etc) I may try to write a RCX interface in Squeak's version of Smalltalk. Would you be interested in sharing the knowledge you have gained from your Bot-Kit project? Or is it (...) (26 years ago, 3-Dec-98, to lugnet.robotics)
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