[MWForum]have you tried MW EX or new web player?

[Wendy Petti]

Windows XP Home Edition should be able to run MW EX.  The LCSI site
lists only these requirements for MW EX running on a PC:

Windows 98/NT/Me/2000/XP
Pentium processor or higher
32 MB RAM
CD ROM drive
Support for 32 bit color mode
Sound card

If you have any trouble running EX with XP, please talk to Shawn of
LCSI at 1-800-321-LOGO.  If he can't solve your problem he'll report
it to the folks who work on improvements to the software and they'll
tackle it.

I agree that the MW Pro environment might look too busy for younger
children, and the working area can be small if your screen resolution
is 800 x 600... if it is higher, then the working area is larger.  But
there are some features of Pro (and EX) that are more user-friendly
for young children than MW 2.0.  As an example, in Pro you can
right-click on any turtle and select "animate" and it will begin
moving, without requiring any programming.  It's a fairly simple way
of getting children to enjoy the environment before they begin
learning commands.  And after activating that simple animation, you
can right-click and select "edit" and now you will see the simple
commands that the "animate" option placed there (forward 5 wait 1) and
can edit the numbers as a first step into programming.

I also find it much much much easier to create and edit my own shapes
with MW Pro.  I use it to create all of the artwork for my Math Cats
site, in fact (such as it is...).  I can zoom in to a variety of
magnifications for detail work; I can adjust the boundaries of each
shape just by dragging the borders... these capabilities are well
within the grasp of young children and make it easy for them to create
custom shapes.  And they can stamp these shapes on the page without
requiring a turtle, if they wish.

The project tab makes it much easier to keep track of all (programmed)
objects in the project, and the processes tab helps greatly on
troubleshooting.  I love being able to slow down the action and watch
what processes are being activated, real-time, as the project runs.

I resisted MW Pro for a long time because of the busy interface, but
now I'm a complete convert, even for use with young children!  And the
OWL computer labs have been using Pro successfully with children as
young as 6.

There is only one weird thing... now with the new EX, LCSI may not be
supporting future improvements to Pro, as they hope more and more
people will transition to EX.  I think they intend to keep MW 2.0
around for the sake of those with older slower computers.

Wendy Petti
OWL's MicroWorlds in Action
http://mia.openworldlearning.org
Math Cats
http://www.mathcats.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com
> [mailto:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com]On Behalf Of Mikula Family
> Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2003 10:47 PM
> To: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com
> Subject: Re: [MWForum]have you tried MW EX or new web player?
>
>
> Hello All,
> Was eager to view MW EX. No luck. I am on a Mac - as was my entire
> school. They are stalled at OS 9 due to lack of funds. No
> luck on the
> Mac.  So, OK  - try the family PCs. Out of luck there too
> as they are
> running Windows XP home Edition.
> BTW. I installed MW Pro and remembered why I stuck with MW
> 2.0 The screen
> layout is too complicated for the young children I teach
> and the working
> area too small.
> I will always love MW so I hope these compatibility problems are
> resolved.
> Kate