Changes

I had written an NSF grant a while back: "Adding depth to and building community within informal education", which was rejected, but is worth pursing nonetheless.

I had written an NSF grant a while back: "Adding depth to and building community within informal education", which was rejected, but is worth pursing nonetheless.

I'd proposed to explore how children's activities at informal learning venues can be extended by providing learners with inexpensive, ubiquitous access to learning software (Sugar on a Stick). By designing, developing, and testing a proof of concept that combines informal learning activities with in-depth follow up at home or in the classroom we still hope to demonstrate a learning ecology that "increases public interest in, understanding of, and engagement with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics."

I'd proposed to explore how children's activities at informal learning venues can be extended by providing learners with inexpensive, ubiquitous access to learning software (Sugar on a Stick). By designing, developing, and testing a proof of concept that combines informal learning activities with in-depth follow up at home or in the classroom, we still hope to demonstrate a learning ecology that "increases public interest in, understanding of, and engagement with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics."

Specifically, I proposed to leverage Sugar on a Stick to promote the use of Sugar in informal learning settings: prototyping Sugar-based exhibit kiosks in museums and libraries that will facilitate visitor interactions. Visitors will be given a Sugar-on-a-Stick USB storage device with which they can make bookmarks of exhibits that they visited, found interesting, or saved data from. Exhibit designers can use kiosks to collect visitor information and offer additional activities and data that visitors can work with when back at school or home. Activities can be downloaded to the Sugar-on-a-Stick device from the kiosk. The work done by visitors can be incorporated into the exhibit itself and featured on line, with the potential to reach a broader audience.

Specifically, I proposed to leverage Sugar on a Stick to promote the use of Sugar in informal learning settings: prototyping Sugar-based exhibit kiosks in museums and libraries that will facilitate visitor interactions. Visitors will be given a Sugar-on-a-Stick USB storage device with which they can make bookmarks of exhibits that they visited, found interesting, or saved data from. Exhibit designers can use kiosks to collect visitor information and offer additional activities and data that visitors can work with when back at school or home. Activities can be downloaded to the Sugar-on-a-Stick device from the kiosk. The work done by visitors can be incorporated into the exhibit itself and featured on line, with the potential to reach a broader audience.

===In the community===

===In the community===

3. The dates for Squeakfest USA in Wilmington NC are July 26, 27, 28. See http://squeakfest.org for more details.

3. The dates for Squeakfest USA in Wilmington, NC are July 26, 27, 28. See http://squeakfest.org for more details.

=== Tech talk ===

=== Tech talk ===

5. We are very close to having the final production builds of Fedora 11/Sugar 0.84 available for both the OLPC XO-1 and OLPC XO-1.5 machines. Many 0.88 patches have been backported, making this version of Sugar quite robust.

5. We are very close to having the final production builds of Fedora 11/Sugar 0.84 available for both the OLPC XO-1 and OLPC XO-1.5 machines. Many 0.88 patches have been backported, making this version of Sugar quite robust.

6. With help from Reuben Caron, Paul Fox, Bernie Innocenti, and Chris Ball, I managed to add [[Features/Touchpad_control_panel_section|a new control panel section]] for switching between the capacitive and resistive touchpads on the OLPC XO-1 CL1 hardware. The motivation for this work is to give the children who have been struggling with the jumpy capacitive touchpad on the first-generation XO-1 hardware access to the stylus. We'll be testing the patch in Peru, Paraguay, and Nigeria.

6. With help from Reuben Caron, Paul Fox, Bernie Innocenti, and Chris Ball, I managed to add [[Features/Touchpad_control_panel_section|a new control panel section]] for switching between the capacitive and resistive touchpads on the OLPC XO-1 CL1 hardware. The motivation for this work is to give access to the stylus to the children who have been struggling with the jumpy capacitive touchpad on the first-generation XO-1 hardware. We'll be testing the patch in Peru, Paraguay, and Nigeria.

===Sugar Labs===

===Sugar Labs===