Changes

===Sugar Digest===

===Sugar Digest===

1. As Caroline Meeks and I are wrapping up the Sugar-on-a-Stick summer programs, it has been a time to reflect upon what we have learned and what challenges face us in September (Many thnaks to Greg, Anurag, Jennifer, et al. for their help). The goal of our pilots was to identify any issues we might face with a school-wide rollout of Sugar on a Stick and to work through many unknowns regarding the logistics of deployment.

1. As Caroline Meeks and I are wrapping up the Sugar-on-a-Stick summer programs, it has been a time to reflect upon what we have learned and what challenges face us in September (Many thanks to Greg, Anurag, Jennifer, et al. for their help). The goal of our pilots was to identify any issues we might face with a school-wide rollout of Sugar on a Stick and to work through many unknowns regarding the logistics of deployment.

We learned a great deal, e.g., replication of custom keys: be sure to remove any owner keys in the .sugar/default directory before copying. And we experimented with a number of different workflows regarding how to prepare for a class: use USB extension cables if possible; preload helper boot CDs; have the children turn on their computers and then gather for a discussion of the lesson plan while the machines are booting; have a cache of hot spares since some keys inevitably will not boot (more on this in a moment); have the children shutdown the computers and then gather for a wrap-up discussion while the machines power off; etc. And we uncovered some bugs in our sharing logic (See my post from last week); and experienced some issues regarding robustness of the USB images.  

We learned a great deal, e.g., replication of custom keys: be sure to remove any owner keys in the .sugar/default directory before copying. And we experimented with a number of different workflows regarding how to prepare for a class: use USB extension cables if possible; preload helper boot CDs; have the children turn on their computers and then gather for a discussion of the lesson plan while the machines are booting; have a cache of hot spares since some keys inevitably will not boot (more on this in a moment); have the children shutdown the computers and then gather for a wrap-up discussion while the machines power off; etc. And we uncovered some bugs in our sharing logic (See my post from last week); and experienced some issues regarding robustness of the USB images.  

* What was the history of use prior to failure?

* What was the history of use prior to failure?

Let's get a plan together and take avantage of this generous offer from the Fedora community.

Let's get a plan together and take advantage of this generous offer from the Fedora community.

2. Jeff Elkner reports that Jamie Boisture completed his summer project: using GASP with 15 middle-school summer-enrichment students, and it worked wonderfully! Jamie also submitted a merge request with Pippy to have GASP included in Pippy. (Jamie was sponsored by Jeff in a program modeled after Google Summer of Code. We should try to do more such programs.

2. Jeff Elkner reports that Jamie Boisture completed his summer project: using GASP with 15 middle-school summer-enrichment students, and it worked wonderfully! Jamie also submitted a merge request with Pippy to have GASP included in Pippy. (Jamie was sponsored by Jeff in a program modeled after Google Summer of Code. We should try to do more such programs.