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Line 7: − You are very right that if a person doesn't have firmly in mind just what science is really about, they can confuse a representation of ideas gotten by scientific means with science itself. – Alan Kay − 1. The discussion about the merits and pitfalls of the use of simulation in science education continued this week (See [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-August/007722.html]). − 2. María del Pilar Sáenz led a deployment meeting this week (See [http://meeting.sugarlabs.org/sugar-meeting.log.20090819_1008.html]). We reviewed the status of Sugar deployments, discussed the most pressing needs from deployments, and alternative communication channels that might result in more feedback from the field. [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-August/007842.html Another discussion on the IAEP list] is an indication of just how passionate the community is about being responsive to the needs of deployments.+ − 3. Bernie Innocenti and I spent a day in Barre VT with Paul Flint, Kevin Cole, Nicco Eneidi, Colin Applegate, et al. to discuss the role Sugar might play in various education initiatives in the region. Despite too much driving in pouring rain, it was a fun, productive session. (Bernie helped Colin get up to speed on packaging for Ubuntu (Colin has subsequently built Sugar 0.86 for Jaunty) and did some debugging of Turtle Art while engaging in discussion with some teachers. One provocative question that was raised: What is the advantage of a "platform" as opposed to a bunch of cool applications? There are many cool applications out there and commercial (e.g., kidzui, which caters to parents who want someone else to worry about what Internet content is appropriate for their children) and non-commercial (e.g., Curriki, a place where teachers can pick and choose applications and content that meet specific curricula demands) collections. What is the advantage of the Sugar approach? We can sing the praises of many aspects of the Sugar platform—the Journal, the collaboration model, integrated view source, etc.—but I think it ultimately comes down to the way in which these features enhance the ability to bring multiple learners together around a collection of activities to engage in authentic investigations. This is a potential that is not yet fully realized, but having spent time this summer watching children move fluidly across multiple activities to, for example, build a memory game, is seeing Sugar at its best.+ − 4. The recent FSF campaign condemning the use of Windows 7 in education (See http://windows7sins.org/) imputes OLPC in complicity with Microsoft. It is disappointing that the FSF is not making any constructive arguments in favor of free software alternatives to Windows such as Sugar on GNU/Linux, which is currently shipped on every machine distributed by OLPC. − + + + + + + + + + + − 5. Google Summer of Code 2009 has officially come to a close. We were fortunate to have five intern/mentor pairs, each of whom had a productive two months. Congratulations to Lucian Branescu, Felipe López Toledo, Sacha Silbe, Ben Schwartz, Vamsi Krishna Davuluri, Bryan Berry, Andres Ambrois, and Assim Deodia. Special thanks to Jameson Quinn for organizing the program for Sugar Labs and to Google for their generosity. − 6. One result of Pilar's revitalization of the Deployment Team is that we are being more explicit in our targeting of feedback from deployments. − Joshua Pritikin reports: − :[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_India/Nashik Our school] has some 200 students. Counter to OLPC best practices, we have 33 XO laptops using the "computer lab" model. We would like to move to child ownership, but we haven't found enough funding to do that (See photos from the Nashik school [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_India/Nashik here]). − + − :The teachers are mainly impressed by Moodle. To teachers who had never used a computer, being able to create an online quiz is something of a revelation. I would like to place more emphasis on Turtle Art and Etoys, but teachers don't see the point yet. Children are mostly left to explore the laptops on their own when they have free time. − :I have no idea how much the students are learning with the laptops. At this point, everything is about appearances. For example, we convinced parents to pay double what they paid last year by withholding access to the laptops until they paid up. In many cases, the kids begged the parents to use the laptops. We managed to raise our fee to $100 per year.+ + − :Indian electrical wiring is notorious. I am particularly proud of our power distribution solution (see attached photos). Early on, there was talk of an [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Peripherals/XOctoPlug XOctoplug]. We made something similar. − :The lack of child ownership has an upside. It is fairly easy to test new SoaS builds without worrying about backups or deleting a child's work. We are working closely with Martin Dengler to test the latest builds. NANDblaster is a dream come true.+ − Christoph Derndorfer has been further organizing [[Deployment_Team/Places|a framework in the wiki]] for maintaining an overview of where and how Sugar is used. Please help us maintain it. − ===Tech Talk===+ + + + − 7. Sebastian Dziallas and the Sugar on a Stick team are making progress towards a new release that incorporates Fedora 12 and a number of features that are the result of feedback from "Strawberry". They are producing new builds for testing (not ready for deployment). Please test [http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/snapshots/3/SoaS3-200908182110.iso beta.iso].+ − 8. Bert Freudenberg and the Etoys team released [http://etoys.laptop.org/rpms/Etoys-103.xo Etoys-103.xo] this week. Try it, you'll like it. − 9. Simon Schampijer and the Release Team have been busy preparing for 0.86. We had feature freeze last week; the next step is to chase down outstanding bugs. You can help by testing the new Glucose bits that have been released by Simon and Tomeu Vizoso.+ − +
Sugar Labs/Current Events (view source)
Revision as of 12:19, 3 September 2009
, 12:19, 3 September 2009→What's new
=== Sugar Digest ===
=== Sugar Digest ===
1. The car allowance rebate system (CARS), more commonly known as the “Cash for Clunkers” program, was used to bail out the US auto industry. People who had purchased gas guzzlers were rewarded with $4500 towards the purchase of a more fuel-efficient car. Of course there was no subsidy for those of us who commute by bicycle—I could use some new panniers.
Maybe it is time to bail out the US education industry. When will the US government announce the "Sugar for Clunkers"? It would work a bit differently than the car program in that with Sugar, there is no need to subsidize the purchase of replacement hardware—we'll have to find another program to bail out the computer industry. Simply replace the clunker software that most schools are using—Windows 2000 or Windows XP—with Sugar. Sugar is, of course, free—as in speech and as in beer. Any government subsidy could go towards teacher workshops. “Yes we can!”
===Help wanted/help received===
2. I had the opportunity to present to Sugar to HRH Princess Ubolratana Mahidol at an MIT Symposium, “Miracle of Life”, which focused on her youth development program in Thailand. John (J5) Palmieri and I demoed Sugar on a Stick to the princess (See http://picasaweb.google.com/somponnat/MiracleOfLifeSymposium?authkey=Gv1sRgCLib8uPkpqzjoAE&feat=email#5377118272203559266). We had an animated discussion and I will be following up with Khun Paron, a leading pedagogist in Thailand regarding next steps.
===Help wanted/help offered===
3. Today is Fedora Testing Day. Sebastian Dziallas is leading an effort to test the latest Sugar on a Stick beta (based on Fedora 12). Please join us in #fedora-test-day on irc.freenode.net. See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2009-09-03_SoaS for details.
4. Caroline Meeks has found a volunteer in NYC who has offered to help us make videos for Sugar Labs. Is there someone who could help him get up to speed on Sugar?
===In the community===
===In the community===
:This year we issued USB keys to the students. USB keys are not as easy to use as the integrated journal, but at least some kids are successful saving their work.
5. Simon Schampijer has posted notes about his Sugar pilot in Berlin. See http://erikos.sweettimez.de/ or read about it in the Sugar Labs planet.
6. Rafael Enrique Ortiz Guerrero reports that there is documentation about the Sugar pilots in Colombia at http://co.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_con_fedora11_sobre_un_desktop and
http://co.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_con_fedora11_sobre_el_classmate
===Tech Talk===
7. As mentioned above, we are testing the Sugar on a Stick v2 Beta Release, based on the Fedora 12
Alpha as well as the latest Sugar 0.85.3 release. Please download and test your version of this release from here:
http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/releases/soas-2-beta.iso
8. Tomeu Vizoso has pushed new Sugar Base and Sugar Toolkit releases with many of the fixes and features we expect to land in 0.86. Please help us with testing.
===Sugar Labs===
===Sugar Labs===
10. Gary Martin has generated a SOM from the past week of discussion on the IAEP mailing list (Please see [[:File:2009-August-15-21-som.jpg|SOM]]).
10. Gary Martin has generated a SOM from the past week of discussion on the IAEP mailing list (Please see [[:File:2009-August-22-28-som.jpg|SOM]]).
=== Community News archive ===
=== Community News archive ===