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| | === Sugar Digest === | | === Sugar Digest === |
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| − | 1. Daniel Drake started a [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-August/007651.html deployment-centric thread] about Sugar's direction and goals and the role that Sugar Labs should be playing. Much of the discussion is a rehash of issues we have been discussing since we began Sugar Labs one-year ago: how best should we engage deployments and how best to allocate our limited resources. And while it would be easy to simply refer to the list archives, it is better to revisit the discussion because (1) we (and the Sugar deployments) are in a very different place than we were a year ago; and (2) there is some apparent confusion regarding roles and goals for the Sugar Labs community.
| + | "He was guided by what he saw rather than what he wanted to believe." – Vernor Vinge |
| | | | |
| − | What has changed? (1) we have demonstrated an adherence to a set of core values that embrace freedom and openness; (2) we are to a large extend hardware and distribution agnostic; (3) we are much farther along the path towards a stable 1.0 release; (4) we have participation from a much broader community, which includes many (vocal) teachers.
| + | 1. While I am not chasing down Turtle Art bugs, I am catching up with my summer reading. The quote from ''A Fire in the Deep'' seems a nice summary of the discussion about teaching physics on the [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-August/007722.html IAEP list]. It is worthwhile reading the whole thread. |
| | | | |
| − | What has remained the same? (1) we still have inadequate feedback from the field; (2) we have no funds to dedicate to remedying (1); (3) we have more iterations on our design to go before it reaches maturity; and (4) we have insufficient materials for teachers to help them through these immature stages of our design.
| + | 2. Some other summer reading includes a short article on behavioral economics published by the [New Economics Foundation neweconomics.org] that discusses some principles of behavior that we may want to consider was we consider how to maximize the impact of our efforts as a community. (I am unaware of any serious study of Free Software by behavioral economists. This particular summary is more useful in regard to understanding the motivation of teachers whom we'd like to consider adopting Sugar and perhaps become more observant about what they are doing with the platform in their classrooms. |
| | | | |
| − | One topic raised by Daniel is the role Sugar Labs should play in the existing OLPC/Sugar deployments. These deployments represent the vast majority of Sugar users. But there is a real disconnection between these deployments and the Sugar Labs developer community. (IMHO, this disconnect is not unique to Sugar.) Daniel recommends that we send developers into the field, which sounds great, but has some practical implications as well: it takes time and money. Alas, so far I have been unsuccessful in raising money for building such bridges—my biggest personal disappointment over the past 12 months—but I plan to keep trying. I will put some of the onus on the deployments as well. While some have invited in developers from the community, others are not yet to the point where they see this as a priority. I sense a change, but it is going to take time. Perhaps if we draw more attention to efforts such as Paraguay Educa, which is very active in directly discussing issues with the broader community, then others will follow their example. I remain of the opinion that in order to scale, community engagement has to be a pull from the deployments as oppose to a push from Sugar Labs (or OLPC). Of course, we need to be responsive to the pull—I think we have a good track record in that regard. And our being more aggressive (pushy) may help as a catalyst.
| + | I am thinkig about each of their principles as a vehicle for asking questions that I am hoping community members may be able to discuss. |
| | | | |
| − | In a related topic, it was questioned the degree to which we should be investing energy into small deployments, e.g., the Sugar-on-a-Stick pilot that Caroline Meeks and I had been running this summer. Should we be exclusively concentrating on the large deployments? Obviously, I am personally invested in supporting small deployments because I am of the belief that we will be able to grow our community and user base more robustly by opening Sugar up to anyone who wants to use it, regardless of the scale of their efforts. My engagement in small deployments has been primarily in order to focus on discovering the various aspects of the current workflows that impede adoption in a classroom scenario. Caroline has been focusing on those aspects of workflow specific to Sugar on a Stick. Greg Smith has been doing a great of job of documenting our trials. And as Dennis Daniels has pointed out, we need to have more tutorial-like resources available to teachers if we want more than the most patient to try it. These many small efforts will pay off in the long term and much of what we have learned this summer will impact the large deployments as well.
| + | * "Other people’s behaviour matters." |
| | + | :This would suggest that we need to expose teachers to Sugar best practices that they can then emulate. Can we identify the "mavens", "connectors", and "salespeople" in our target communities? What resources can we apply to influence their adoption of Sugar? For example, I am working with a small school district in the Boston metropolitan area that other, larger districts follow closely. If we can have an influence with a "maven" district, we may get broad leverage. It also suggests that we need to be viligant as a community to make sure that our examples for emulation are pedagogically sound. |
| | | | |
| − | Another topic was in regard to the degree to which Sugar Labs should be doing OS work. We are an upstream project and we are getting more proficient at working with downstream efforts: the Fedora community (which has taken on much of the heavy lifting associated with supporting the OLPC hardware); the Debian community (thanks to the patient tutelage of Jonas Smedegaard); openSUSE, etc. At the same time, we need to take a leadership role on occasion, such as when we embraced the fledgling efforts to create a Live USB image. (While Sugar Labs has played a role in these efforts and tracks bugs related to them, the work has been done downstream.) We simply cannot afford to do the OS work ourselves and it would be counterproductive even if we had the resources to do so.
| + | * "Habits are important." |
| | + | :This would suggest that we raise awareness about some of the habits that are part and parcel with the status quo. What incentives can we provide that would encourage change? What actions can we take to sustain and reenforce changes in behavior? |
| | | | |
| − | It was asserted in the discussion that Sugar Labs is not focused on the needs of teachers. It is certainly not true that Sugar Labs is uninterested in the needs of teachers—we have had numerous discussions about how to solicit their feedback. Some efforts, such as the Sur list, have been productive. And one glorious example of our success is the fact that teachers are beginning to make their own modifications to Sugar and Sugar activities. Regarding modifications to the Sugar workflow that facilitate its use in the classroom, the vector is pointing in the right direction. It will take time.
| + | * "People are motivated to ‘do the right thing’." |
| | + | :We need to engage teachers in a discussion about what is "the right thing" and remind them that the right thing is often hard work: "Sire, there is no Royal Road to Geometry" – Euclid. |
| | | | |
| − | Daniel questions our commitment to simplicity. That is a matter of constance vigilance. Every project suffers from feature bloat over time. Beyond simplicity, we need to be disciplined about asking ourselves, "how does this impact learning?"
| + | * "People’s self-expectations influence how they behave: they want their actions to be in line with their values and their commitments." |
| | + | :This is a tough one for us, because much of what we are doing is not inline with expectations. However, we as long as we are on a sound footing in terms of values, we are in a position of influence. |
| | | | |
| − | There are some circumstances where there might be an appearance of indifference—when a problem is pushed downstream. For example, in the recent discussion about making our Live USB images more robust in light of the device being removed without shutdown, it is not clear, other than trying to influence workflow, that there is much that Sugar Labs can do about this problem. However, Sugar Labs developers have been in discussions with the various distros about how they might address the problem. Sugar is part of a ecosystem and one role our community can play is to raise awareness throughout the ecosystem of the needs of teachers.
| + | * "People are loss-averse and hang on to what they consider ‘theirs’." |
| | + | :Sugar need not be an either-or proposition. (Sugar on a Stick means there is nothing to give up in taking up Sugar.) And as Minsky has pointed out, until you understand something from more than one way, you don't understand it. Sugar can be offer another perspective on their status quo. |
| | | | |
| − | There has also been a discussion about the merits of local labs. Daniel argues that "by requiring deployments to do technical work, you're *really* challenging them (and sometimes, excluding them)." But I think this is a somewhat distorted view of what we mean by a local lab. Local labs provide a local sense of ownership. Sugar Labs "central" is the community itself, which would be responsible for setting clear goals and maintaining any necessary infrastructure needed by the project as a whole, while the regional labs would use their own means to make Sugar relevant to their local communities, including creating for-profit enterprises, which Sugar Labs central cannot do. A local lab may:
| + | * "People are bad at computation when making decisions." |
| − | * Adapt the technology and pedagogy to an area's culture and resources (e.g, developing activities and content specific to a region);
| + | :Further, they are often intimidated by the prospects of learning new things (until they are actually doing it). "Immediate losses are stronger incentives than long-term rewards." This would imply that we really need to keep the "pain" associated with getting started to an absolute minimum. |
| − | * Help translate Sugar to the local language(s);
| |
| − | * Support Sugar deployments in area schools;
| |
| − | * Create a local community devoted to the Sugar Labs principles, making Sugar more open and sustainable;
| |
| − | * Provide for communication,between the local communities and the global Sugar Labs community;
| |
| − | * Develop Local content and software that can be used not only for local purposes but also for the overall community; and
| |
| − | * Host, co-host or partner in the organization of conferences, workshops, talks and meetings related to the use or development of Sugar.
| |
| | | | |
| − | But it need not be doing technical work. Of course, it would be great if over time, some of the technical load is picked up in the deployments.
| + | * "People need to feel involved and effective to make a change." |
| − | | + | :We have a community with a potential for great discourse that welcomes contributions. This is one of our real strengths." |
| − | Thanks do Daniel for calling us out on these topics.
| |
| | | | |
| | ===Help wanted=== | | ===Help wanted=== |
| | | | |
| − | 2. Chris Ball, Ben Schwartz, and Michael Stone have been working on a collaborative [http://activities.sugarlabs.org/addon/4204 arithmetic quiz]. It makes extensive uses Ben's "groupthink" collaboration module. They are soliciting feedback.
| + | 3. Last week's discussion about feedback led to the suggestion that I highlight feedback from the field in the ''Sugar Digest''. Please send me reports that I can include each week. |
| | | | |
| | ===In the community=== | | ===In the community=== |
| | | | |
| − | 3. Gonzalo Odiard reported on a successful [http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/olpc-sur/2009-August/004099.html Sugar Day Argentina on the Sur list.] Gonzalo also describes three new activities: [http://190.0.162.1/godiard/sugar/Domino/6/Domino.xo Domino.xo], a game where the pieces may have different mathematical operations or concepts which need to match; [http://190.0.162.1/godiard/sugar/Ecomundo.xo Ecomundo.xo], an ecosystem in which there is grass, rabbits and foxes that are born, eat, reproduce and die; and [http://190.0.162.1/godiard/sugar/Elements/2/Elements.xo Elements.xo], a proof-pof-concept of a Javascript activity.
| + | 4. There has been a lot of activity on our [http://getsatisfaction.com/sugarlabs "community-powered" support portal]. The interface is a bit clumsy, but much more friendly to non-developers than the [dev.sugarlabs.org trac] system. Check it out. (Dennis Daniels has been including links to screencasts with most of his posts.) |
| | + | |
| | + | ===tech talk=== |
| | + | |
| | + | 5. In the run up to string freeze for Release 0.86, Simon Schampijer led a triage session (See [http://dev.sugarlabs.org/milestone/0.86 Milestone 0.86]). |
| | + | |
| | + | 6. Tom Gilliard (satellit) continues to experiment with alternative formats for Sugar LiveUSB images (See [http://people.sugarlabs.org/Tgillard/]). |
| | | | |
| | ===Sugar Labs=== | | ===Sugar Labs=== |
| | | | |
| − | 4. Gary Martin has generated a SOM from the past week of discussion on the IAEP mailing list (Please see [[:File:2009-August-1-7-som.jpg|SOM]]). Gary has made a number of modifications to his algorithm. Please give him feedback as well.
| + | 7. Gary Martin has generated a SOM from the past week of discussion on the IAEP mailing list (Please see [[:File:2009-August-8-14-som.jpg|SOM]]). |
| | + | |
| | + | ===Just for fun== |
| | + | |
| | + | Another quote from ''A Fire Upon the Deep'': "Finally they pulled the big, floppy ears simultaneously: the dataset popped open." Sounds like he was describing an OLPC XO-1. |
| | | | |
| | === 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 and blogged at walterbender.org.) If you would like to contribute, please send email to walter at sugarlabs.org by the weekend. (Also visit planet.sugarlabs.org.)
Sugar Digest
"He was guided by what he saw rather than what he wanted to believe." – Vernor Vinge
1. While I am not chasing down Turtle Art bugs, I am catching up with my summer reading. The quote from A Fire in the Deep seems a nice summary of the discussion about teaching physics on the IAEP list. It is worthwhile reading the whole thread.
2. Some other summer reading includes a short article on behavioral economics published by the [New Economics Foundation neweconomics.org] that discusses some principles of behavior that we may want to consider was we consider how to maximize the impact of our efforts as a community. (I am unaware of any serious study of Free Software by behavioral economists. This particular summary is more useful in regard to understanding the motivation of teachers whom we'd like to consider adopting Sugar and perhaps become more observant about what they are doing with the platform in their classrooms.
I am thinkig about each of their principles as a vehicle for asking questions that I am hoping community members may be able to discuss.
- "Other people’s behaviour matters."
- This would suggest that we need to expose teachers to Sugar best practices that they can then emulate. Can we identify the "mavens", "connectors", and "salespeople" in our target communities? What resources can we apply to influence their adoption of Sugar? For example, I am working with a small school district in the Boston metropolitan area that other, larger districts follow closely. If we can have an influence with a "maven" district, we may get broad leverage. It also suggests that we need to be viligant as a community to make sure that our examples for emulation are pedagogically sound.
- This would suggest that we raise awareness about some of the habits that are part and parcel with the status quo. What incentives can we provide that would encourage change? What actions can we take to sustain and reenforce changes in behavior?
- "People are motivated to ‘do the right thing’."
- We need to engage teachers in a discussion about what is "the right thing" and remind them that the right thing is often hard work: "Sire, there is no Royal Road to Geometry" – Euclid.
- "People’s self-expectations influence how they behave: they want their actions to be in line with their values and their commitments."
- This is a tough one for us, because much of what we are doing is not inline with expectations. However, we as long as we are on a sound footing in terms of values, we are in a position of influence.
- "People are loss-averse and hang on to what they consider ‘theirs’."
- Sugar need not be an either-or proposition. (Sugar on a Stick means there is nothing to give up in taking up Sugar.) And as Minsky has pointed out, until you understand something from more than one way, you don't understand it. Sugar can be offer another perspective on their status quo.
- "People are bad at computation when making decisions."
- Further, they are often intimidated by the prospects of learning new things (until they are actually doing it). "Immediate losses are stronger incentives than long-term rewards." This would imply that we really need to keep the "pain" associated with getting started to an absolute minimum.
- "People need to feel involved and effective to make a change."
- We have a community with a potential for great discourse that welcomes contributions. This is one of our real strengths."
Help wanted
3. Last week's discussion about feedback led to the suggestion that I highlight feedback from the field in the Sugar Digest. Please send me reports that I can include each week.
4. There has been a lot of activity on our "community-powered" support portal. The interface is a bit clumsy, but much more friendly to non-developers than the [dev.sugarlabs.org trac] system. Check it out. (Dennis Daniels has been including links to screencasts with most of his posts.)
tech talk
5. In the run up to string freeze for Release 0.86, Simon Schampijer led a triage session (See Milestone 0.86).
6. Tom Gilliard (satellit) continues to experiment with alternative formats for Sugar LiveUSB images (See [1]).
Sugar Labs
7. Gary Martin has generated a SOM from the past week of discussion on the IAEP mailing list (Please see SOM).
=Just for fun
Another quote from A Fire Upon the Deep: "Finally they pulled the big, floppy ears simultaneously: the dataset popped open." Sounds like he was describing an OLPC XO-1.
An archive of this digest is available.
Planet
The Sugar Labs Planet is found here.
Sugar in the news
| 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
