Advanced Logo

A Language for Learning

Michael Friendly

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317766780
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychologie
• Subtopic: Histoire et théorie en psychologie

Advanced Logo shows how LOGO can be used as a vehicle to promote problem solving skills among secondary students, college students, and instructors. The book demonstrates the wide range of educational domains that can be explored through LOGO including generative grammars, physical laws of motion and mechanics, artificial intelligence, robotics, and calculus.

1	What is Logo?

“When we were little,” the Mock Turtle went on at last, more calmly, though still sobbing a little now and then,’ “we went to school in the sea. The master was an old Turtle—we used to call him Tortoise—”

“Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn’t one?” Alice asked.

“We called him Tortoise because he taught us,” said the Mock Turtle angrily. “Really you are very dull!”

(Alice in Wonderland, p. 126–127)

1.1. Learning to Compute and Computing to Learn

“Logo is a language for learning.” This sentence—the subtitle of this book—has become one of the slogans of the Logo movement. There is of course a double meaning hidden slightly beneath the surface. One meaning suggests that Logo is a language for learning to compute, or to “program a computer.” This is true, since Logo was designed to make computing as easy as possible to understand. But Logo is also a language for computing to learn. In this sense, it is useful to think of Logo as a computing environment to explore and “play with” ideas.

This book has two parts, each written to achieve a particular goal corresponding to these two meanings:

Part I, “Logo Thinking,” is designed to help you learn the important ideas behind Logo as a programming language. The emphasis in this part is on learning to compute by describing ideas and processes with Logo programs, and understanding how to translate a verbal description into a working Logo program.

Part II, “Learning with Logo,” is designed to demonstrate the use of Logo as a tool for exploring a variety of content areas. The emphasis here is on computing to learn and understanding the power of computing for making abstract ideas more concrete and manipulable.

The rest of this chapter describes some additional relations between Logo and language, explains how Logo is tuned toward learning and education, and describes how to use this book.

1.2. Logo is a Language for Learning

There are several deeper meanings to “Logo is a language for learning.” First of all, Logo shares a great deal with natural language in its construction and how it is learned. Of course, Logo is not a natural language (which is not to say it is an unnatural one), and the differences outweigh the similarities if we are simply counting “features.” Yet, the characteristics that Logo shares with natural language are, I believe, among the important reasons for its success as a tool for learning and education.

Perhaps the most important characteristic of natural language is the way larger language units are built from smaller units at several levels, as shown in Table 1–1. Most natural languages have many thousands of words constructed from 20–50 characters, letters, or symbols. Words in natural language stand for things (“tree”) concepts (“education”) a process or action (“sell”) or a relation or property (“larger”; “red”). In Logo, words are also used as names for such things.

At higher levels, the words of natural language are combined to form phrases, sentences, paragraphs or verses, stories, chapters, and books. In every case, larger structures are built out of smaller units, and the range of ideas you can express increases enormously. Again, many of these things may be said about the use of words in Logo to build lists, commands, procedures, and so forth.

There are also similarities between learning natural language and learning Logo, though it is stretching the point to claim that they are the same. Children learn language in an orderly, step-by-step fashion. Starting with the basic sounds of language, they learn word concepts, learn to combine words into simple sentences, and are soon using language in a rich and productive way. And all this happens with very little direct instruction but with a great amount of active exploration and experience. Throughout, language learning begins with actions, sensations, and concrete objects and proceeds to words and more abstract concepts.

Logo learning also begins with a few simple words, but with these the learner can “say” some interesting things. There is very little overhead needed to get started. Like language, Logo can be learned in small increments, begins with concrete and graphic things, and can progress to words and more abstract concepts.

1.2.1. Logo is a Language of Words

ABRACADABRA! Open Sesame! The power of magic words plays a big part in stories and folk tales. Yet all words are powerful, and some have a bit of magic too. One of the most important features of nat...