• Schedule
• Hackerteen Story
• Leader Activities
• Student Activities
• Equipment and Software Requirements
• See Also

Hackerteen Story

Hackerteen: Volume 1: Internet Blackout, an entertaining graphic novel (aka fancy comic book!), is completely unrelated to Greenfoot. One of the main points of the story is that for kids who would like to be on their computers 24x7, if only their parents would let them, they should not be mere consumers of computer technology, they should learn to be producers. But with knowledge comes power, and therefore the Hackerteen School teaches not just technical skills but also ethics applied to the field of computer technology. Discussing ethical challenges and behavior in online communities and virtual worlds is important for real students, also, not just storybook characters.

The Hackerteen website actually offers distance learning courses on technology, security, and ethics, letting teenage students earn belts, as they might in a martial arts school. This is similar to the "school" in the novel. Unfortunately for us, in the real world, the Hackerteen courses are not yet available in English! So for this club, we will simply read the book for fun and then discuss the ethical questions outlined in the next section.

1. Run Greenfoot: Open and run each scenario in the Scenarios folder in Greenfoot. Learn the function of these buttons: Compile All, Act, and Run.
2. Make minor changes to a few scenarios and watch how the game changes. In particular, observe the connection between the code and the resulting behavior of the actors in the game.
3. Watch these two videos: Greenfoot Introduction (12 minutes) and Creating a New Scenario (7 minutes). Afterwards, work together to create a scenario just like the one in the video on the leader's computer, which is projected to the front of the class.
4. Watch the other basic videos and then work together to write the code that accomplishes the tasks explained in each video: making objects move, creating backgrounds, reacting to mouse clicks.
5. Step through the Greenfoot Tutorial, with students working on their own computers in parallel with the leader's computer. Advanced students: Customize the features described in the tutorial, for example, creating a different sort of animal, controls, or actions--whatever the students want to attempt.
6. Cover the following topics in a Hackerteen group discussion:
   1. What does the word "hacker" mean? Are there "good hackers" around? What problems have hackers caused? Do hackers break laws?
   2. What are some of the examples from history of people who broke laws on purpose to call attention to a law with which they disagreed? What is that action called? If you break a law, does your reason for breaking the law matter in the courts? How old do you have to be to practice civil disobedience?
   3. Though fictional, the Hackerteen novel links to real-live technologies. What are those technologies?
   4. In the Volume I story, which characters make mistakes? Cite a few examples of poor judgment.
7. Greenfoot How-Do-I? Students who are working on a scenario and who have encountered problems in implementing their ideas describe the problems to the class. The leader then demonstrates how to analyze one of those problems and, as a first step, solves at least a part of it.

1. Modify a scenario that you created together: The picture or animal for the actor, the background, whatever you desire to change.
2. Read a portion of the Hackerteen novel or its entirety. Read Volume II after it's published.
3. Write and draw, on paper, your idea for a game you can create in Greenfoot and show it to other students and the Leader to get their feedback on your ideas.
4. Create your own game for one person.
5. Create a game for two people to play on the same computer, sharing the keyboard.
6. Create a game that uses sound.
7. Download the source code for a scenario on the Greenfoot Gallery and then:
   1. Read the code to see if you can understand it.
   2. Modify the code to see what happens.
   3. Modify the code to change the way the game works.
8. Help another student find and fix a bug in a scenario that is giving them trouble.

• A projector to connect to a laptop for running leader activities so that everyone in class can see the projected screen at the same time.
• A computer, installed with the Java 5 or Java 6 SE Software Development Kit (SDK), for each student. See the system requirements for Greenfoot.
• A high-speed Internet connection for each student's computer.
• A high-speed Internet connection for the leader's laptop (MacBook Pro).

Play 2 Learn Computer Club

DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT!!

July 26: I've changed the name to Play 2 Learn Computers Club but I have not edited the rest of the page yet to reflect the new name, nor have I put in the edits from Marina's review...

Introduction

This is a fun activity club that will focus on playing and creating free games using Greenfoot. It is possible to structure an introduction to object oriented programming class using Greenfoot, but that is not the purpose of this club. This club is about a fun introduction to programming, where students learn as much as they are interested in learning. They can come each week and participate and not look at any of the materials outside of the meetings at all, and have a perfectly good time learning, playing, and creating games in class. Or, if they want to work independently outside of the club, there are plenty of resources available to help them do that, too.

The Hackerteen book, an entertaining graphic novel (aka fancy comic book!), is completely unrelated to Greenfoot, but the people who create Hackerteen also believe in teaching students how to use computers to produce good work. Students can be producers, not merely consumers. And as producers or consumers, they need to understand the ethics around participating in the online communities and virtual worlds. The Hackerteen website actually offers distance learning courses on technology, security, and ethics, letting teenage students earn belts, as they might in a martial arts school. This is similar to the "school" in the novel. Unfortunately for us, in the real world, the Hackerteen courses are not yet available in English! So for this club, we will simply read the book for fun and then discuss the ethical questions outlined below.

Schedule

Leader Activities

These are examples of Leader Activities. Depending on the activity, the students may simply watch it on a screen at the front of the room, or participate in a discussion, or they may follow along together, all doing the same steps each on his/her own computer.

1. Play games on Greenfoot Gallery
2. Run Greenfoot, open and run each scenario in the scenarios folder that comes with Greenfoot. Learn the function of these buttons: Compile All, Act, Run.
3. Make some small changes to certain scenarios and see how the game changes. (See and understand the connection between the code and what happens in the game.)
4. Watch the Greenfoot Introduction video (12 minutes) and Creating a New Scenario (7 mins), then work all together to create a new scenario, just like in the video, on the Leader's computer projected to the front of the class.
5. Watch the other Basic videos and then work together to write the code to do the tasks explained in each video: making things move, creating backgrounds, reacting to mouse clicks.
6. Step through the Greenfoot Tutorial, working on student computers in parallel with the Leader's computer. For students who are ready, customize the features in the steps in the tutorial, e.g. making a different sort of animal, or having different controls or actions or whatever the student wants to try.
7. Hackerteen Group discussion: What does the word "hacker" mean? Is there such a thing as a "good hacker?" What sorts of problems have hackers caused? Do hackers break laws?
8. Hackerteen Group discussion: What are some examples from history of people who have broken laws on purpose as a way to call attention to a law that they believe needs to change? What is that called? If you break a law, does your reason for breaking the law matter? How old you have to be to practice civil disobedience?
9. Hackerteen Group discussion: the story is fiction, but it has some technology links in it to real urls. What are these things?
10. Hackerteen Group discussion: in the Volume I story, which characters make some mistakes? what are some examples of poor judgement?
11. Greenfoot How-Do-I? Students who are working on a scenario and have an idea for what they want to do but don't know how to do it tell the class, then the Leader shows how to break the problem down and solve at least a piece of the problem, as a first step.

Student Activities

These are examples of activities appropriate for 1-3 students to work on, either during a meeting or outside of the club, bringing questions to the next meeting (or getting them answered on the club discussion list).

1. Play more games on Greenfoot Gallery
2. Take the new scenario created all together and change something about it: the picture/animal used for the actor, the background, whatever you want.
3. Read some or all of the Hackerteen book, Volume I (and Volume II when it comes out)

Equipment and Software Requirements

• A projector to connect to a laptop for running Leader Activities so the students can all see the projected screen at the same time.
• A computer for each student, with Java installed per the System Requirements for Greenfoot.
• A highspeed internet connection for each student computer.
• A highspeed internet connection for the Leader's personal laptop computer (MacBook^? Pro).
• A folder on the computer where Greenfoot can be downloaded for execution.
• (Optional) Students may bring a flash memory stick to use for saving games or taking them home to work on.

See Also

-- MarlaParker - 26 Jul 2008