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| | === Sugar Digest === | | === Sugar Digest === |
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| − | 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
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| − | 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]).
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| − | 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.
| + | 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. |
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| − | 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.
| + | 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!” |
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| − | 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.
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| − | ===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. |
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| | + | ===Help wanted/help offered=== |
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| | + | 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. |
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| | + | 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? |
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| − | 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.
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| | ===In the community=== | | ===In the community=== |
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| − | 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.
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| − | Joshua Pritikin reports:
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| − | :[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]).
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| − | :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. |
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| − | :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.
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| − | :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.
| + | 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 |
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| − | :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.
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| − | :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.
| + | ===Tech Talk=== |
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| − | 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.
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| − | ===Tech Talk===
| + | 7. As mentioned above, we are testing the Sugar on a Stick v2 Beta Release, based on the Fedora 12 |
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| | + | Alpha as well as the latest Sugar 0.85.3 release. Please download and test your version of this release from here: |
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| − | 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].
| + | http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/releases/soas-2-beta.iso |
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| − | 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.
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| − | 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.
| + | 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. |
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| | ===Sugar Labs=== | | ===Sugar Labs=== |
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| − | 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 === |
What's new
This page is updated each week (usually on Monday morning) with notes from the Sugar Labs community. (The digest is also sent to the community-news at sugarlabs.org list, blogged at walterbender.org, and archived here.) If you would like to contribute, please send email to walter at sugarlabs.org by the weekend. (Also visit planet.sugarlabs.org.)
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!”
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?
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
10. Gary Martin has generated a SOM from the past week of discussion on the IAEP mailing list (Please see SOM).
An archive of this digest is available.
Planet
The Sugar Labs Planet is found here.
Sugar in the news
| 26 Aug 2009 |
Latinux – Azúcar en una memoria USB
|
| 03 Aug 2009 |
Wired: Geek Dad – Inventing a New Paradigm: SugarLabs and the Sugar UI
|
| 23 Jul 2009 |
Everything USB – RecycleUSB.com - Donate your Flash Drives for a Good Cause
|
| 22 Jul 2009 |
OLPC France – Sugar : mauvaise presse et mise au point
|
| 13 Jul 2009 |
Spiegel Online – Das zuckersüße Leichtbau-Linux
|
| 07 Jul 2009 |
ComputerWorldUK – Gran Canaria Desktop Summit: a Study in Contrasts
|
| 06 Jul 2009 |
Windows Forest – USBメモリなどから“OLPC”用のOSを利用できる「Sugar on a Stick」が無償公開
|
| 02 Jul 2009 |
Howard County Library – Sugar on a Stick
|
| 27 Jun 2009 |
Deutschlandfunk – Süßes für die Kleinen: Sugar ist Linux speziell für Kinder (in Deutsch)
|
| 26 Jun 2009 |
EduTech – Sugar on a stick, and other delectables (praise for the lowly USB drive)
|
| 26 Jun 2009 |
Ars Technica – Sugar on a Stick brings sweet taste of Linux to classrooms
|
| 24 Jun 2009 |
BBC – OLPC software to power aging PCs
|
| 24 Jun 2009 |
Technology Review – $100 Laptop Becomes a $5 PC
|
| 15 Jun 2009 |
TechSavvyKids – Episode 10 FOSSVT: Sugar on a Stick (audio)
|
| 10 Jun 2009 |
LWN.net – Sugar moves from the shadow of OLPC
|
| 27 May 2009 |
LWN.net – Activities and the move to context-oriented desktops (subscriber link)
|
| 27 May 2009 |
Business Wire – Dailymotion Launches Support for Open Video Formats and Video HTML Tag
|
| 01 May 2009 |
Guysoft – Nokia N810 Running OLPC Sugar
|
| 29 Apr 2009 |
El Mercurio – Así se vivió la fiesta del software libre
|
| 27 Apr 2009 |
ostatic – Sugar on a Stick: Good for Kids' Minds (and School Budgets)
|
| 25 Apr 2009 |
Free Software Magazine – The Bittersweet Facts about OLPC and Sugar
|
| 24 Apr 2009 |
Ars Technica – First taste: Sugar on a Stick learning platform
|
| 22 Apr 2009 |
Betanews – Beta of Live USB Sugar OS opens
|
| 27 Mar 2009 |
Mass High Tech – Google promotes summer open-source internships
|
| 18 Mar 2009 |
Metropolis – A Good Argument
|
| 16 Mar 2009 |
Laptop Magazine – Sugar Labs’ New Version of Sugar Learning Platform Is Netbook and PC Ready
|
| 16 Mar 2009 |
Market Watch – Sugar Labs Nonprofit Announces New Version of Sugar Learning Platform for Children, Runs on Netbooks and PCs
|
| 14 Feb 2009 |
OLPC Learning Club – DC – Learning Learning on a Stick
|
| 05 Feb 2009 |
xconomy – Sugar Beyond the XO Laptop: Walter Bender on OLPC, Sucrose 0.84, and “Sugar on a Stick”
|
| 26 Jan 2009 |
Linus Magazine – Sugar Defies OLPC Cutbacks
|
| 19 Jan 2009 |
Feeding the Penguins – The status of Sugar, post-OLPC
|
| 16 Jan 2009 |
OLPC News – Sugar on Acer Aspire One & Thin Client via LTSP
|
| 12 Jan 2009 |
Bill Kerr – thoughts about olpc cutbacks
|
| 07 Jan 2009 |
Ars Technica – OLPC downsizes half of its staff, cuts Sugar development
|
| 06 Jan 2009 |
OLPC News – An Inside Look at how Microsoft got XP on the XO
|
| 30 Dec 2008 |
OLPC News – Sugar Labs Status at Six Months
|
| 22 Dec 2008 |
The GNOME Project – Sugar Labs, the nonprofit behind the OLPC software, is joining the GNOME Foundation
|
| 16 Dec 2008 |
Feeding the Penguins – Sugar git repository change
|
| 14 Dec 2008 |
NPR – Laptop Deal Links Rural Peru To Opportunity, Risk (Part 2)
|
| 13 Dec 2008 |
NPR – Laptops May Change The Way Rural Peru Learns (Part 1)
|
| 09 Dec 2008 |
SFC – Sugar Labs joins Conservancy
|
| 31 Oct 2008 |
Linux Devices – An OLPC dilemma: Linux or Windows?
|
| 10 Oct 2008 |
Feeding the Penguin – Sugar on Ubuntu
|
| 21 Sep 2008 |
Groklaw – Interview with Walter Bender of Sugar Labs
|
| 17 Sep 2008 |
Bill Kerr – Sugar Labs
|
| 16 Sep 2008 |
Open Source – Sugar everywhere
|
| 28 Aug 2008 |
OLPC News – An answer to Walter Bender's question 22
|
| 20 Aug 2008 |
OLPC News – Sugarize it: Intel Classmate 2
|
| 08 Aug 2008 |
Investor's Business Daily – 'Learning' Vs. Laptop Was Issue
|
| 06 Aug 2008 |
OLPC News – Twenty-three Questions on Technology and Education
|
| 18 Jul 2008 |
Bill Kerr – evaluating Sugar in the developed world
|
| 28 Jun 2008 |
OLPC News – A Cutting Edge Sugar User Interface Demo
|
| 18 Jun 2008 |
PC World – OLPC Spin-off Developing UI for Intel's Classmate PC
|
| 17 Jun 2008 |
Datamation – If Business Succeeds with GNU/Linux, Why Not OLPC?
|
| 11 Jun 2008 |
LinuxInsider – The Sweetness of Collaborative Learning
|
| 06 Jun 2008 |
Bill Kerr – untangling Free, Sugar, and Constructionism
|
| 06 Jun 2008 |
Open Education – Walter Bender Discusses Sugar Labs Foundation
|
| 06 Jun 2008 |
BusinessWeek – OLPC: The Educational Philosophy Controversy
|
| 05 Jun 2008 |
Code Culture – The Distraction Machine
|
| 05 Jun 2008 |
BusinessWeek – OLPC: The Open-Source Controversy
|
| 27 May 2008 |
The New York Times – Why Walter Bender Left One Laptop Per Child
|
| 26 May 2008 |
Ars Technica – OLPC software maker splits from X0 hardware, goes solo
|
| 22 May 2008 |
BetaNews – Linux start-up Sugar Labs in informal talks with four laptop makers
|
| 16 May 2008 |
OSTATIC – OLPC's Open Source Sugar Platform Aims for New Hardware
|
| 16 May 2008 |
PCWorld – Bender Forms Group to Promote OLPC's Sugar UI
|
| 16 May 2008 |
MHT – Bender jumps from OLPC, founds Sugar Labs
|
| 16 May 2008 |
News.com – Sugar Labs will make OLPC interface available for Eee PC, others
|
| 16 May 2008 |
Feeding the Peguins – The future of Sugar
|
| 16 May 2008 |
Sugar list – A few thoughts on SugarLabs
|
| 16 May 2008 |
xconomy – Bender Creates Sugar Labs—New Foundation to Adapt OLPC’s Laptop Interface for Other Machines
|
| 16 May 2008 |
BBC – '$100 laptop' platform moves on
|
| 15 May 2008 |
OLPC wiki – Dual-boot XO Claim: OLPC will not work to port Sugar to Windows.
|
| 16 May 2008 |
Softpedia – Bender Launches Sugar Labs for Better Development of OLPC's Sugar UI
|
Press releases
See our Press Page
