A micromonde is the name given to an environment particular Informatique, where the user, and particularly, the child, have some autonomy, even an unquestionable autonomy. The micromondes belong to the framework of the reflections on the methods of Pédagogie activates, and they are one of the objects of study of EIAH (data-processing environments for the human training).

Genesis

At the end of the Sixties, the theories behaviorists which largely prevailed until there, are deeply called into question by the projections of the Psychologie of the development. Following people like James Baldwin or Jean Piaget, the formation process of knowledge is re-examined and the idea that knowledge concerns an individual construction develops. Piaget thus bases its theory on the idea that one builds his knowledge starting from the Reconceptualisation of lived experiments, theory which will take the name of Constructivisme with Jerome Bruner.

Inspired by the work of Piaget on the one hand and their experiments in Artificial intelligence on the other hand, of people like Seymour Papert or Marvin Minsky quickly put the question to know which place could have the computer in this step constructivist: it was not any more time to propose with the child a programmed training, this one was to become truly actor of the construction of his knowledge.

“In many schools today, “computer-assisted learning” means that the computer is programmed to teach with the child. One could say that the computer is used to program the child. In my vision of the things, the child programs the computer and, by doing this, acquires the control of the one of the elements of the most modern technology and most powerful, while establishing a contact intimates with some of the major notions of science, mathematics, and art to build intellectual models. ” (Seymour Papert, Mindstorms: childrens, computers and powerful ideas ).

Papert thus quotes very often John Dewey, whose design of education is founded on the activity of learning and analyzes it its needs and for its interests more than on a detailed and preliminary organization of knowledge to be learned. Knowledge does not appear only any more as the sum of a certain number of elementary competences, but like the added-value resulting from the aggregation of multiple concepts.

This vision needed to be concretized in data processing, and Papert and Minsky conceive then, in 1972, the computer programming language Logo. More than one simple language, the Logo is connected with a complete environment of programming, equipped with a graphic part in which one can interact dynamically with an object, the tortoise, and of a textual part, the editor of program. The idea of this tool is to offer to the children a big space Liberté, easily accessible, and in which they will be able to express their ideas and to explore the consequences of them.

The Logo strongly influenced community EIAH in the broad sense and devotes the expression “micromonde” to describe environments based on the experimentation and the autonomy of the child. Multiples micromondes were born since, more or less specialized in a field.

Thesis of the micromondes

The micromondes aim at promoting the exploration of concepts abstracted by the children (first target customers). Logo is a flexible tool of training and it provides to the user an immediate feedback, so expensive with the constructivists. As a reflection of the intellectual mechanisms of the child-user, Logo makes it possible to make observations on the level of méta-knowledge (intellectualization of the intellectual processes).

Computer-tool, one passes to the computer-mediator (who allows to express and thus to act on his models of representation). According to Bruillard (see bibliography), “in the training by the programming, the languages used are a means, the goal being to build something. It acts, for learning, to translate its intuitions in the form of a program. It is advisable to find a form of communication between the pupil and the machine which does not disturb too the trainings concerned. One can think of a transparent interface (in the immediate direction, without obstacle) or sufficiently coherent with the handled objects. The expression of Papert, “tool to think with” corresponds well to this last idea. ”

So that this operation is concretized, Bruillard enumerates a certain number of important characteristics: first of all, these languages must be easy to learn and easy to use, which induces a certain proximity with a class of problems, but can constitute a limitation in addition if it is necessary to learn a new syntax to approach a new class of problems. Then, the interactivity and extensibility (i.e. the possibility of enriching the basic language, to work on successive layers, one could think of the metaphor of the network) seem to be important. Learning must be able to control the consequence of its actions, to follow a natural and controllable step by using a syntax close to the natural language. A list of problems and activities interesting must be able to be proposed (teaching scenarios) and the structure of the language considered must correspond to the handled objects. Lastly, beyond certain simplicities of implementation, the language must offer a sufficient power, by integrating effective concepts of programming.

Example of micromondes

The micromondes, since the appearance of this concept, were largely dominated by the language Logo, which in fact, is the most succeeded implementation of this type of environment.

These last years, however, saw a deceleration of the number of experiments carried out under this environment, dependant on the ageing of the tool (the first version of Logo goes back to 1972) and to the shift growing between the possibilities multi-media - limited - Logo, and this with what the young users of today can have access through vectors like Internet.

One of the others micromondes famous is CABRI-Geometrician: it is an environment of training of the geometry, where the child can very easily build figures while utilizing all kinds of concepts like parallelism, tangency, etc

Squeak is another micromonde, remote descendant of Logo, developed around the language Smalltalk by Alan Kay in particular.

MicroMondes Pro, and are direct descendants of Logo. It acts of more finished commercial releases and with a better support for the functions multi-media (particularly the english language version, more recent).

The most known element of MicroMondes (and Logo) is the tortoise, which can be handled using instructions so as to plot graphs, to carry out animations, interactive games or other types of simulations.

Technological developments then made it possible the tortoise to migrate towards a graphic screen (distinct from the screen of order (text)), then towards a mixed screen (with a zone text and a graphic zone). The modern versions combine without problems the text and the graphs.

MicroMondes is produced by LCSI and can be used on a PC or a Macintosh. There exists in several languages including English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, etc

The original vocabulary of MicroWorlds (or Logo) consists of primitives. Those comprise a few tens of orders:

avance, recule, droite, gauche, écris, fpos (position fixes), fcoul (color fixes), vt (vacuum text)…

and a few tens of rapporteurs:

couleur (pays the current color), pos (the position pays), texte1 (the contents it box of bearing text brings back this name)…

Certain primitives require one or more data:

bc (pencil drops, does not require any data)
avance 50 (a number requires which indicates the distance to be traversed)
saufpremier is a liste (a word or a list requires whose first element will be withdrawn)

This vocabulary can be increased by the user, using " procédures" of which here an example:

for cabriole
right-hand side chance 360
chance 1000
advances end

The procedures are created in a reserved space for this purpose: the page or the miter " procédures". In the most recent versions of MicroMondes (specifically MicroWorlds EX, MicroMundos EX, MicroMondi EX) the procedures can also be integrated inside the " bag with dos" tortoise object.

A procedure comprises three parts: the line titrates (the word pour followed name of the procedure, with the choice of the user), the body (the list of the instructions) and the line of fin. In the preceding example, the execution of the order " cabriole" amounts carrying out the instructions contained in the procedure: to turn right to an angle determined randomly between 0 and 359, and to advance a distance chosen randomly between 0 and 999.

In addition to the procedures, the instructions can be typed in the Center of Orders to be carried out " in direct" mode;.

MicroMondes is a software of general use which constitutes an excellent introduction into the world of the programming. A version " junior" , which allows the children in preliminary proof reading or readers beginners to program using icons rather than with textual instructions, exists in other languages. Another version allows, using some additional primitives, to control robot-like elements.

Limits of the micromondes

• learning It/user essentially has the monopoly of the initiatif act while the machine remains, in reactive acts (positive if the environment accepts the program and reacts correctly, negative if the environment returns for example of the error messages). So that the interaction starts, one sees the importance of the teaching scenario thus, like external initiatif act with the interaction learn-machine. This binomial learn-machine appears insufficient and must be widened by a secondary mediation, that of the tutor, that it is integrated into the environment of programming or that it is about a natural person (teacher, trainer…).

• the micromonde, only, very quickly becomes sterile, in the same manner that the best ground will never give corn if one does not put at it seeds. This implies that so that such a type of data-processing Environnements for the human training is interesting, he asks a work important of preparation of situation to be explored. Then, the micromonde makes it possible the child to carry out his investigations, but it does not bring, intrinsically, of knowledge. If the user has an ideal environment to build reasoning, to create designs and representations, the “raw material” remains essential, and it is necessary to think upstream of the means of bringing it.

Influence in the world of education

Subjects with criticisms for some their aspects, the micromondes were and are always, in a certain manner, the symbol in the computing world of the theories of the new education. They carry in particular this vision of the education where the child is “the author as of his Connaissance S” which it builds starting from the Expérimentation.

The influence and the real impact of these environments in education were variable, but Logo and CABRI, two tools used on broad scale, were (and are always for CABRI) unquestionably vectors of a certain vision of education at the school, about which one spoke higher.

See too

Related articles

• CABRI Geometrician

External bonds

• MSW Logo, free implementation of logo

• Squeak and its teaching aspects
• Official site of the creators of MicroWorlds and MicroMondes, click on the French section
• Seymour Papert, an excellent collection of articles on work of Dr. Seymour Papert.
• Gary Stager a teacher and agent of training specialized in Logo and robotics.
• Math Cats Several good examples of projects makes using MicroWorlds.
• StarLogo: modelings and explorations of the concepts of decentralized systems and emergent phenomena such automobile migrations, congestions, and market economy.
• Lifelong Kindergarten, Lifelong Kindergarten Group de Mitchel Resnick, to MIT - proposes bearing contents interesting on the programmable Locust and bricks.
• MW Forum: site of exchange for the users beginners and advanced of MicroWorlds.
• The Foundation Logo: a foundation which provides councils and resources to the teachers users of Logo and MicroWorlds.