Advice for teaching Alice in High School

I'm about to begin a unit in "Alice" in my High School digital imagery class. My goals are to teach a little about 3D imagery. I'm more focused on creation of creative and artistic "worlds," than I am on programming.

Any advice for a first time teacher of Alice?

[g-whizz]

tell them that this program will frustrate them, beyond their wildest dreams. i like it, but it crashes alot, sometimes won't save, can't handle a file over 15mb, exit for no reason. be prepared for a backlash.
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DIGITAL BOX VAPORIZER

Thanks G.

And yep, all of the above have already happened. I guess I'm used to programs crashing and having problems and issues and can approach those issues with only a little frustration.

My high school students don't have much patience. The slightest issue and a few are ready to quit.

I've worked with them and enough of them are into it that I think we'll be ok.

Hoping that 3.0 solves some of the issues. But only hoping.

Thanks!

I think there is something called Storytelling Alice, this maybe better for what you have in mind. here is the link

I downloaded a series of clips on youtube made with alice by other high school students (youtube is blocked in my school). I showed these to the kids and it really inspired them. There's some great work out there - have a look!

What I found helpful was that I had competitions with my friends. I was a self taught in Comp Sci, being the best in my class. I kept challenging my friends to make better animations (I usually won) and we would get better like that.

Make the students actually wat to do the work. Give them a kind of reward for a very good job. Offer extra credit, priveledges, prizes even.

Just make it fun. I am a B average student, having A's in the math and science classes, and C's in the language and social studies classes. The only reason is that I have a 100 average in Comp Sci is because it is fun. The first few days I was on Alice, I felt as though I was playing a game.

Also, make sure that the students have flashdrives. If they save it to a network drive, the programs will crash faster. My school has 2.0, on my flash I have 2.2. A lot better, a lot faster, and the computer works better that way.

[djslater107]

There are a wide variety of resources at Alice.org that are free and can get you started. You will also find different textbooks listed there. I do not think your students need a text, but it might be useful for you to have one as a reference / resource.

Alice 3 has more engaging graphics, which might suit your purposes, but You may find Alice 2 more accessible and it has a built in tutorial.

I will also be happy to answer any questions you have

dslater@andrew.cmu.edu