Changes

;How do you think interactive technologies affect the learning process in primary education? Will these form of technologies help to expand the horizon of a child growing up in practically a virtual world?: Well, somewhat in contradiction to my previous answer, touch does make a difference to very young children, for whom hand-eye coordination is still an issue. As far as learning, I am skeptical of the premise that the virtual world is particularly relevant. I think the character of the tasks the children engage in is far more important than the technology. The advantage of some small subset of the technology is that facilitates engaging children in authentic open-ended problem solving. Making worksheets electronic games is a complete waste of time (although it may help the children pass an exam to measure how quickly they can do worksheets.)

;How do you think interactive technologies affect the learning process in primary education? Will these form of technologies help to expand the horizon of a child growing up in practically a virtual world?: Well, somewhat in contradiction to my previous answer, touch does make a difference to very young children, for whom hand-eye coordination is still an issue. As far as learning, I am skeptical of the premise that the virtual world is particularly relevant. I think the character of the tasks the children engage in is far more important than the technology. The advantage of some small subset of the technology is that facilitates engaging children in authentic open-ended problem solving. Making worksheets electronic games is a complete waste of time (although it may help the children pass an exam to measure how quickly they can do worksheets.)

;As a part of the Sugar Labs community, I would like to ask you where does it stand in the future?: Sugar, the learning platform developed and maintained by the Sugar Labs community, is about giving children an opportunity to use technologies to engage in authentic open-ended problem solving. We'll continue down this path, trying to reach more children in more contexts (laptops, desktops, phones, tablets, etc.)

;As a part of the Sugar Labs community, I would like to ask you where does it stand in the future?: Sugar, the learning platform developed and maintained by the Sugar Labs community, is about giving children an opportunity to use technologies to engage in authentic open-ended problem solving. We'll continue down this path, trying to reach more children in more contexts (laptops, desktops, phones, tablets, etc.)

;SugarLabs and the OLPC projects are primarily targeted towards developing nations and their education system, do you think the education system in a country like America should also be put under consideration and be directed more towards a student’s own creative thought process?: Sugar Labs is trying reach children everywhere: north or south, rich or poor. We have programs in every corner of the globe.

;Sugar Labs and the OLPC projects are primarily targeted towards developing nations and their education system, do you think the education system in a country like America should also be put under consideration and be directed more towards a student’s own creative thought process?: Sugar Labs is trying to reach children everywhere: north or south, rich or poor. We have programs in every corner of the globe.

;Every time while discussing OLPC, one hears about Constructionism. Is the Constructionist approach a guiding or necessary aspect of distributing laptops to children for learning? For designing an interface for them? Why or why not?: Constructionism is completely orthogonal to the problem of distributing laptops. But not to the problem of using laptops for learning. (This is where Mr. Negroponte and I differed in our approach.) You can give a child a laptop and they will learn to use it (See my answer to the first question), but will they learn to use it for learning? Not likely unless we craft an environment in which they are encouraged to “imagine and realize, critique and reflect, and iterate.” That is a constructionist environment.

;Every time while discussing OLPC, one hears about Constructionism. Is the Constructionist approach a guiding or necessary aspect of distributing laptops to children for learning? For designing an interface for them? Why or why not?: Constructionism is completely orthogonal to the problem of distributing laptops. But not to the problem of using laptops for learning. (This is where Mr. Negroponte and I differed in our approach.) You can give a child a laptop and they will learn to use it (See my answer to the first question), but will they learn to use it for learning? Not likely unless we craft an environment in which they are encouraged to “imagine and realize, critique and reflect, and iterate.” That is a constructionist environment.

;How do you think Seymour Papert’s theory of constructionism should be applied in the today’s time? Should people be involved in developing tangible objects in the real world to understand concepts or follow experiential learning processes to gain insight into the world around them?: Not sure what you mean by “tangible objects”. I think more in terms of authentic problems. Some of those problems may be tangible.

;How do you think Seymour Papert’s theory of constructionism should be applied in today’s time? Should people be involved in developing tangible objects in the real world to understand concepts or follow experiential learning processes to gain insight into the world around them?: Not sure what you mean by “tangible objects”. I think more in terms of authentic problems. Some of those problems may be tangible.

;How do you think Electronic Publishing is evolving with the rapid development of reading devices like iPad, NOOK, Kindle and the major use of ebooks?: To me, the interesting questions are more along the lines of: Who will write books? What will be the relationship between reading and writing? What is the future of copyright and the commercialization of writing.

;How do you think Electronic Publishing is evolving with the rapid development of reading devices like iPad, NOOK, Kindle and the major use of ebooks?: To me, the interesting questions are more along the lines of: Who will write books? What will be the relationship between reading and writing? What is the future of copyright and the commercialization of writing.

;Do you think in the near future this kind of electronic publishing will hamper the growth of children as they will be devoid of physically reading a book and understand the values that come along with it?: I think that the difference is not so much paper vs plastic; but rather, to what extent does an electronic interface afford the freedom to write and share margin notes (or the books themselves) to engage in personal expression, etc. The physicality of electronic media is not the issue.

;Do you think in the near future this kind of electronic publishing will hamper the growth of children as they will be devoid of physically reading a book and understand the values that come along with it?: I think that the difference is not so much paper vs plastic; but rather, to what extent does an electronic interface afford the freedom to write and share margin notes (or the books themselves) to engage in personal expression, etc. The physicality of electronic media is not the issue.

Learn more about [http://www.google-melange.com/gci/document/show/gci_program/google/gci2012/help_page GCI]. [[Google_Code-In_2012|The SL GCI page]]

Learn more about [http://www.google-melange.com/gci/document/show/gci_program/google/gci2012/help_page GCI]. [[Google_Code-In_2012|The SL GCI page]]

3. Agustin Zubiaga Sanchez noted that last week we passed the threshold of more than eight million activities downloaded from the [http://activities.sugarlabs.org Sugar Labs activity portal]. I echo his sentiment that "I'm very glad to be a sugarlabs developer. Congratulations to all the team :)"

3. Agustin Zubiaga Sanchez noted that last week we passed the threshold of more than eight million activities downloaded from the [http://activities.sugarlabs.org Sugar Labs activity library]. I echo his sentiment that "I'm very glad to be a Sugar Labs developer. Congratulations to all the team :)"

=== In the community ===

=== In the community ===