Kids Asked, We Listened: Set Mouse Color
How do I change the color of the mouse?
Over the summer, I taught Music Blocks classes for MAP Family Learning Center and Kithara Project. Over the course of the summer many students asked “How do I change the color of the mouse”? There has always been a way to change the color of the mouse, but it was not very elegant or satisfying. However, I ignored the requests because we are now in development of Music Blocks 4.0 and the current version of Music Blocks is in a feature freeze.
After the summer I began teaching afterschool classes for MAP Family Learning Center where we do music, art, and programming (hence “MAP”). To teach programming, we use Music Blocks. I taught my first classes to a group of 2nd graders and–again–one of the very first questions was “How do I change the color of the mouse?” These students were insisted and were not going to be ignored, so I explained to them one way to “change” the mouse color.
Set Mouse Color: The Old Way
In the olden days (like since a week ago), this was the only way to set mouse color:
- Pull out new Start Blocks until you get the color mouse you want (which is chosen at random, btw)
- Delete the Start Blocks of the mice that do not have the color you want (however, most students I observed just left a bunch of Start Blocks on their screen, which cluttered their projects)
This, I suppose, is simple enough, but this approach is rather clumsy. Sometimes students would get the color they want (or otherwise satisfied with) on the first attempt, sometimes they would have about 7-10 Start Blocks on the screen until they found one that they wanted, and the process was totally “hunt-and-peck”. Of course, I tried to get the kids to focus on other aspects of the programming language, but they wanted to set mouse color, and they wanted it now!
Feature Request: Set Mouse Color
For those interested to know a little bit more about software development, or how Music Blocks is made, this section is for you.
Given the demand from students for a good way to Set Mouse Color, I decided to write up a “Feature Request” as an issue on Music Blocks’ GitHub page.
I wrote up a description of the issue and the rationale behind it. Later in the week, I met with Walter Bender during a Music Blocks development meeting (you can stay tuned to those by joining the Matrix chat as detailed on the learn and connect page). By week’s end, we had the “Set Mouse Color” feature available on the Master Branch.
Above is a record of the newest changes to the code, which drive the new “Set Mouse Color” feature.
Set Mouse Color: The New Way
One hesitation I had in pushing for “Set Mouse Color” as a feature is that it did not seem to be a programming feature for Music Blocks. By “programming feature”, I mean unlike the other blocks like “Set Pen Color”, it did not seem like you could program this block to do operations dynamically. However, during the conversation with Walter, we decided to make “Set Mouse Color” into a block, and that the block would take a number as its input. The number specifies the color of the mouse, and it behaves very similarly to “Set Pen Color”. This way, a student can put values that change dynamically, such as the “Time” block and “Box” blocks.
The following video demonstrates a few of the features of “Set Mouse Color”.
What Does Set Mouse Color have to do with Music?
As is shown in the video above, since Set Mouse Color accepts values dynamically as part of the student’s code, you can take “current pitch” as a number and use that value to set mouse color. This way, you can have a synesthetic mouse whose color changes based on the pitch!
Conclusion: The Students Were Right, Set Mouse Color is Fun
What I learned over the summer is “listen to the students”. Kids come up with great ideas, and it can be a lot of fun to tag along with their ideas. Of course, I do listen to my students, but listening to students and taking their requests seriously is something that must be learned again and again and again. And it is something that then must be acted upon.
Super-big thanks to Walter Bender for taking the time to implement this feature for our Music Blocks students. And super-duper big thanks to all the students who raised their voices and requested this feature.
Got a Great Idea? Tell us in the Comments.
If you have a great idea for Music Blocks, you are encouraged to leave a comment. Cheers!
