[M]etabrain [E]ntry [L]og - Braindumps on things Mel Chua has found shiny lately.

• A discussion led by Jonathan Austin (from the upcoming Birmingham, Alabama deployment) on training volunteers, getting funding, and building local communities. This led into side discussions on grassroots finances and more…
• Chris Ball gave us all a crash course on Pippy, a learn-by-example programming Activity, and how it can be used to develop Activities and scripts for the XO. Again, the topic was so compelling that a cluster could be found huddled in the back corner talking about internationalization of Pippy, even after plates of food had been placed less than 10 feet away.
• Special guests included Pam Cooney from World Computer Exchange and Cynthia Solomon from the OLPC Learning Team, one of the co-creators of Logo.
• Cynthia and Francesca Slade also led a roleplay during the afternoon where the rest of us pretended to be 8-year-olds learning Scratch (actually learning Scratch in the process). I don’t know about the rest of the “students,” but Chris Carrick, Nikki Lee, and I ended up engrossed in exploring forensic ballistics* with a Scratch activity that Chris had created to go alongside…

All this and more (including – yes, you guessed it, transcripts!) are available here.

*we were strange 8-year-olds, yes.