We want to make the dynamic models we develop available to as many people as possible. In the era of computational thinking, writing scripts to design simulations based on these dynamic models is an original and enriching approach to computing, and to learning more generally.
Whether you are a teacher, learner, developer, parent, or sponsor, do not hesitate to to share your experience or your questions.
Financial Support
Developing and promoting this work requires resources in time and material means. For each DKM module that we develop, our final goal is to make it available to the public under an open license LGPL. However, its development is not free, and we offer crowdfunding directly from its descriptive page.
Until its development cost is covered, any DKM already developed is available under the non-free license CC by-nc-nd.
The funding raised helps in the development of the objectives of the iStoa organisation.
There are many ways to support our work. Whether you are a teacher, a university professor, a parent, a learner, an occasional or seasoned developer, you have different possible approaches to support us.
Teacher
Write scripts to create simulations in your classes.
Set up classes where your students are active participants using the iStoa environment. Different goals are possible: teaching computer programming; teaching your discipline, other than computing, by having your students write simulation scenarios; or even better, both at the same time.
Our experience in writing scripts to design simulations shows that it is very stimulating for students, regardless of their academic level. Educational sequences must, of course, be carefully crafted.
Share your experience by highlighting it in educational journals or on your blog, if you have one.
Learner
As such, you can learn the basics of programming and express your creativity. To do this, in the iStoa environment, you choose a DKM that interests you and experiment with writing scripts in that field.
University Professor
In teaching computer science or related fields, for year-end assignments or any other long-term project, proposing to your students to imagine and develop new DKMs, at the intersection of several disciplinary fields, can be very stimulating. We have developed several documentations on programming, and in particular with the Cuis-Smalltalk environment.
In the context of didactics, research work on the pedagogical impact of DKMs would be an interesting contribution. This would help corroborate, or not, what we observe in the field. More modestly, designing pedagogical sequences of DKM scenarios, to be validated in the field, is a pragmatic and relatively rewarding approach to pedagogical innovation. Read our articles on this subject.
Developer
If you enjoy software development, you will find the experience of designing a DKM both intellectually stimulating, rewarding, and relaxing:
Stimulating. The field is wide open to deepen your knowledge in one or more subjects taught at school. If needed, the theoretical knowledge required to develop a model can be enriched with the help of an AI.
Rewarding. The development of a DKM, due to its deliberately reduced scope, quickly yields operational results. For example, the source code of the gas simulation DKM is less than 40 KB (less than 1000 lines of code).
Relaxing. The development of our DKMs is done in the Cuis-Smalltalk agile environment. Among its many strengths, the jointly incremental and live development avoids the classic disruption of the compile-run-debug-edit development, a source of stress in software development.
Furthermore, thanks to our iStoa simulation environment, the developed DKMs are quickly available to end users. We have developed several documentations on programming, and in particular with the Cuis-Smalltalk environment.
Parent
Imagine usage scenarios for DKMs to illustrate concepts for your children. They undoubtedly have many questions that can be illustrated with a DKM.
Another approach is to help them develop scripts; it is very intellectually stimulating.