Changes

This is for http://dmlcompetition.net.

This is for http://dmlcompetition.net.

==Anywhere, anytime learning with Sugar on a Stick==

==Anywhere, anytime learning for children with Sugar on a Stick==

===Summary===

===Summary===

Sugar is...

Sugar is...

:...a learning platform designed for children.

...a hardware-agnostic learning platform designed for children.

:...used more than 1500000 learners in Peru, Rwanda, Nepal, US, and 50 other countries.

...used by more than 1500000 learners: Peru, Rwanda, Nepal, the USA, and 50 other countries.

:...Free Software.

...Free Software.

:...learning through rich-media expression, collaboration, and reflection.

...learning through rich-media expression, collaboration, and reflection.

We propose to refine, promote, and distribute Sugar-on-a-Stick USB devices in order to enable learners and educators everywhere access to the Sugar learning platform.

Our objective is refining and distributing Sugar-on-a-Stick USB devices to give learners and educators everywhere access to the Sugar Learning Platform.

===Description===

===Description===

Sugar is a graphical user interface and a collection of software applications—activities—that gives children a rich environment for learning. It has three attributes that together make it unique: simplicity, collaboration, and reflection.

Sugar is a graphical user interface and a growing collection of software applications—Activities—that give children a rich environment for learning. Sugar combines three attributes that make it unique: simplicity, collaboration, and reflection.

The Sugar interface is very simple. It has a “low floor” so that even children as young as 2- and 3-years old can start to use it. At the same time, it puts no limit to what they can achieve: children can use Sugar to reach to very complex ideas. They are not bound by its simplicity; rather they use its simplicity as a catalyst for growth. Sugar presents no “ceiling” to the learner.

The Sugar interface is simple, setting aside the "office-desktop" metaphor ill-suited for children. Its “low floor” offers a starting-point for children as young as three. Yet it imposes “no ceiling” on what learners can achieve: children can reach to complex ideas using Sugar's simplicity as their catalyst for growth.

Sugar has built-in mechanisms for collaboration that make it very easy for children and teachers to work together on projects, to share ideas, and to engage in critical dialogs. With Sugar, learners balance the exploration of knowledge with expression of their own ideas.

The heart of Sugar is its Activities, including E-book readers, writing tools, fun games with colors, sounds, music and math, geography, a talking face, building-block-based programming languages, and dozens of others. Children love to explore and to express themselves in the Sugar environment.

Sugar maintains a portfolio of everything a child does; it is a record of both what learners make and how they made them. A child, parent, or teacher can monitor progress as a means of assessment.

Sugar has collaboration built-in, making it very easy for children and teachers to work together on projects, to share ideas, and to engage in critical dialogs.

Sugar-on-a-Stick is a LiveUSB image of Sugar. Learners are provided with a bootable USB-device, ensuing access to Sugar in their homes, school and after-school environments, and community.

Sugar maintains a Journal, a portfolio of everything a child does; it is a record of both what learners made and how they made them. The child, classroom teacher, or parent can reflect upon and assess progress. Children don't have to worry about finding documents; everything is in the Journal.

Students work with Sugar whenever and wherever they have access to computers. Sugar-on-a-Stick turns any computer into each child's own personal computer, with a continuity of software, collaborative connections to their peers, and work in progress.

With Sugar-on-a-Stick, each learner has a bootable USB-device, ensuring access to Sugar in their homes, school, library, and community. Any PC, Mac, or netbook becomes a child's own "Sugar computer" with a continuity of software, collaborative connections to their peers, and work in progress. The existing installation on the host computer is not touched.

We propose:

We propose:

# to make Sugar-on-a-Stick available in sufficient quantities to enable running pilots as we move from bet to a production-quality distribution; and distributing Sugar to educators;

# To make Sugar-on-a-Stick available in sufficient quantities to enable running pilots and for distributing Sugar to educators;

# to promote Sugar-on-a-Stick while continuing to focus efforts on development, maintenance, support, and deployment.

# To promote Sugar-on-a-Stick while continuing to focus efforts on development, maintenance, support, and deployment;

# to develop a teacher-training program to complement Sugar-on-a-Stick distributions.

# To develop a teacher-training program to complement Sugar-on-a-Stick distributions.

To learn more, please visit http://sugarlabs.org

For more information, please visit www.sugarlabs.org.

 

 

:Collaborator #5. Name, Institution Mel Chua, Fedora/Red Hat

:Collaborator #6. Name, Institution Rafael Ortiz, Sugar Labs