|
|
| Line 5: |
Line 5: |
| | ==Sugar Digest== | | ==Sugar Digest== |
| | | | |
| − | 1. Twitter-style: Hello from [http://www.squeakland.org/squeakfest Squeakfest] in Wilmington, North Carolina. We just had a demonstration of some Etoys projects done by 7th graders; pretty amazing. One student, when asked what she does to keep from getting frustrated said: "Damn computer." But she is an accomplished problem solver. | + | 1. Since the early days of One Laptop per Child I spent a lot of energy combatting the accusations that OLPC's plan is to give childern hardware and expect miracles to happen. The sustained efforts of the Sugar community and the enormous investment in support made by the various deployment teams around the world are tangible evidence that we do not waiting for miracles – rather we are doing the hard work to ensure that the opportunity to learn is made available to every child. It is therefore disheartening to hear Nicholas Negroponte once again say "You can, you actually can" [give a kid a laptop connected to the Internet and walk away]. [http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20012926-56.html 1] While there is much evidence to suggest that the informal time spent with computing is valuable, we have a lot of work ahead of us in order to bridge the gulf between using a computer and using a computer for learning. The much-hyped Whole-in-the-Wall Project demonstrated that children can learn to use computers without any instruction, but if we want them to engage with "powerful ideas", we can and should offer them more and better contexts for learning – on their own, among their peers, and under the guidance of a mentor. |
| | | | |
| − | This is the first conference I have been to in years where the majority of presenters are ''not'' using PowerPoint. Naturally, by-in-large, they are using Etoys for their talks.
| + | 2. I was on a short holiday last week, but I did have time to have some fun reworking the Sugar Home View so that we can better support more Activities (and perhaps eventually content). You can see some sketches [[Features/Spiral_Home_View#Detailed_Description|here]]. While there are many ideas kicking around about how we might improve the Home View, including making it a normal Sugar Activity and further integrating it into the Journal, I am hoping that this one change will be complete in time to meet the looming feature freeze for 0.90. |
| | | | |
| − | It is great to see how teachers have incorporated the tool into their curriculum and the realities of school: even the kids built "quizzes" into their projects. But most of the learning is guided discovery.
| + | 3. Hilaire Fernandes [http://blog.ofset.org/hilaire/index.php?post/drgeo-xo-10.08-release announced] the release 10.08 of the DrGeo Activity. For those of you have never used it, DrGeo is a great tool for exploring advanced concepts in geometry. |
| − | | |
| − | In many cases, kids use Etoys from a USB drive, so they could take their work home and turn in their homework.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Bert Freudenberg showed an eloquent way to make animations in Etoys. I am inspired to finally add animation to my sprite library (the one I use for all of my activities: Turtle Art, Abacus, Visual Match, etc.) "Simply" a matter of adding paths and a timer. Yeah right.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Avigail Snir, a teacher from Illinois, showed a great example of exploring the modeling of gravity based on a simple basketball simulation. A remarkable thing was her use of a "book" to show the progress of her thinking along the path to discovery – the closest to a "lab notebook" as I have seen with Etoys (or any other learning program, for that matter). Lots more at [http://www.etoysillinois.org/].
| |
| − | | |
| − | Mahnaz Moallem talked about the challenges of making a transition from a well-defined, one best answer, discourage making mistakes classroom into an ill-defined, many answers, making mistakes and developing problem-solving skills classroom. She and her colleagues make extensive use of scaffolding and guiding to help kids stay motivated. Etoys "Flaps" are used for documenting what the kids have done. The consensus among North Carolina teachers at the conference is that there is a terrible constraint in the schools in terms of tightly-scheduled problem-based requirements imposed on the teachers.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Chandra Roughton posed a tough question: "Is this a model or is it [just] a visualization?" Etoys teachers think and do and demand a lot of each other and their students. What a breath of fresh air.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ---- | |
| − | | |
| − | 2. Squeakfest Part II: The final day of Squeakfest as was uplifting as my first day at the conference. There were reports from the field using Etoys and many "oh-the-things-you-can-do" presentations by teachers who use Etoys in the classroom. There was a nice mix of projects built by learners – an amazing physics model built by high-school students in North Carolina was a highlight – as well as projects intended to let a learner explore a powerful idea – a beautiful-in-its-simplicity model for estimating the area of a circle; these small projects – "Etoy-lets" – are being shared on line along with an extensive collection of simple guides to using Etoys. Again I was impressed by the extensive use of flaps and books that are created as part of the project generation process and the use of versioning to monitor a learner's progress. These facilities represent a major usability improvement in Etoys in support of pedagogical goals. Etoys is great stuff, well worth the initial investment in time and effort to learn.
| |
| − | | |
| − | 3. I contrast this with the sad state of the computer industry's attempts to sell computers to schools: "[] says teachers need high-end laptops but students will just be accessing content and communication so need basic functionality." While there is nothing fundamentally wrong with giving children access to content, does that really constitute the basic functionality needed by the learner? The good news is that Sugar (and Etoys) can run on these "basic" platforms. We should stop selling teachers and learning short by dumbing down the opportunities to use computation as a thing to think with.
| |
| − | | |
| − | 4. Christoph Derndorfer, who is on another of his world-wide tours of OLPC deployments – this time to Latin America – just reposted a link to Michael Trucano's restating-the-obvious article on 1-to-1 laptop deployment pitfalls on the World Bank's website. (Most of Trucano's well-worn advise applies to any learning initiative; alas, he does not provide much insight for those of us trying to actually solve real problems on the ground.) I will give Christoph the benefit of doubt that with the coincidence of his post that he is not deliberately making a backhanded disparagement of the deployments in Uruguay and Paraguay he has visited. While these deployments have not yet reached the status of perfection, the deployment teams at Ceibal and Paraguay Educa have never strayed into the dangerous waters described by Trucano:
| |
| − | | |
| − | :''1. Dump hardware in schools, hope for magic to happen''
| |
| − | :Far from it, there have been extensive support mechanisms in place in .ur and .py from Day One
| |
| − | | |
| − | :''2. Design for OECD learning environments, implement elsewhere''
| |
| − | :While there is some sharing of content and best practice, it is the local pedagogical team that calls the shots in both deployments.
| |
| − | | |
| − | :''3. Think about educational content only after you have rolled out your hardware''
| |
| − | :Again, pedagogy has driven the pace of deployment. At the same time, the entire deployment has been thought of within the context of a learning platform, which includes laptops, connectivity, servers, training, content development, documentation, support, community outreach, etc.
| |
| − | | |
| − | :''4. Assume you can just import content from somewhere else''
| |
| − | :The key here is "just". Both .uy and .py think deeply about content, but they are also opportunistic – taking advantage of great content developed elsewhere, for example, by the Etoys community.
| |
| − | | |
| − | :''5. Don't monitor, don't evaluate''
| |
| − | :At Ceibal, they have an extensive operation for monitoring the state of the network, servers, and laptops within their deployment. There are numerous ongoing evaluations of the program, both internal and external. Paraguay Educa was the subject of an external evaluation by the IADB, which issued a very positive report.
| |
| − | | |
| − | :''6. Make a big bet on an unproven technology (especially one based on a closed/proprietary standard) or single vendor, don't plan for how to avoid 'lock-in''
| |
| − | :Both programs have used a open bidding process and have some percentage of hardware from multiple vendors. Both programs use Free Software.
| |
| − | | |
| − | :''7. Don't think about (or acknowledge) total cost of ownership/operation issues or calculations''
| |
| − | :.uy has been diligent in publishing their total-cost-of-ownership numbers – these numbers, based upon the costs measured in the field happen to be much less than the inflated numbers fabricated by naysayers.
| |
| − | | |
| − | :''8. Assume away equity issues''
| |
| − | :While no one is claiming that equity issues are no longer a concern, the fact that the per-household penetration of computing in .uy is inversely proportional to household income says a lot. And in every one of these households, the children have free Internet access. Wow.
| |
| − | | |
| − | :''9. Don't train your teachers (nor your school headmasters, for that matter)''
| |
| − | :The biggest investment in the .py program has been in teacher training. As the project scales, finding ways to make this process more efficient will be key. But no one has ever suggested that it was not a vital part of the process.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Trucano leaves #10 as an open exercise for the reader. I'll add:
| |
| − | | |
| − | :''10.Don't involve the community''
| |
| − | :In both .uy and .py community involvement is part of the project by design.
| |
| | | | |
| | ===In the community=== | | ===In the community=== |
| | | | |
| − | 5. There is a new and improved website describing teacher resources (in Spanish) here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Recursos_en_espanol
| + | 4. There was an [http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/LinuxCon_2010 education mini-summit] at LinuxCon in Boston. It was heavily geared towards Sugar with talks about Sugar in RHEL 6 (Sebastian Dziallas) and Sugar on Ubuntu (Ian Daniher). There was a very nice talk about using Inkscape in middle school by Máirín Duffy of Red Hat employee. Alas, I missed both Karlie Robinson talk on her Beginner Guide to FLOSS education and David Trask's update on the Maine 1-to-1 computing initiative. |
| − | | |
| − | 6. There will be a [[Turtle_Art_Day_2010|Turtle Art Day]] at the Arlington Career Center in Arlington Virginia on 7 August. | |
| | | | |
| − | 7. I have some passes for Sugar community members to attend [http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/linuxcon LinuxCon 2010] in Boston on August 10–12 thanks to the [http://www.linuxfoundation.org/ Linux Foundation]. Please let me know if you are interested.
| + | 5. [http://www.aup.fr/news/special_events/constructionism2010.htm Constructionism 2010 - Paris] begins 16 August at the American Univeristy of Paris. |
| | | | |
| | ===Sugar Labs=== | | ===Sugar Labs=== |
| Line 74: |
Line 22: |
| | | | |
| | <gallery> | | <gallery> |
| − | File:2010-July-10-16-som.jpg|2010 July 10th-16th (66 emails) | + | File:2010-July-24-30-som.jpg|2010 July 24th-30th (25 emails) |
| − | File:2010-July-17-23-som.jpg|2010 July 17th-23rd (36 emails) | + | File:2010-Jul-31-Aug-6-som.jpg|2010 July 31st-August 6th (44 emails) |
| | </gallery> | | </gallery> |
| | | | |
| − | Visit our [http://planet.sugarlabs.org planet] for more updates about Sugar and Sugar deployments. | + | Visit our [http://planet.sugarlabs.org plangiet] for more updates about Sugar and Sugar deployments. |
| | | | |
| | == 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. Since the early days of One Laptop per Child I spent a lot of energy combatting the accusations that OLPC's plan is to give childern hardware and expect miracles to happen. The sustained efforts of the Sugar community and the enormous investment in support made by the various deployment teams around the world are tangible evidence that we do not waiting for miracles – rather we are doing the hard work to ensure that the opportunity to learn is made available to every child. It is therefore disheartening to hear Nicholas Negroponte once again say "You can, you actually can" [give a kid a laptop connected to the Internet and walk away]. 1 While there is much evidence to suggest that the informal time spent with computing is valuable, we have a lot of work ahead of us in order to bridge the gulf between using a computer and using a computer for learning. The much-hyped Whole-in-the-Wall Project demonstrated that children can learn to use computers without any instruction, but if we want them to engage with "powerful ideas", we can and should offer them more and better contexts for learning – on their own, among their peers, and under the guidance of a mentor.
2. I was on a short holiday last week, but I did have time to have some fun reworking the Sugar Home View so that we can better support more Activities (and perhaps eventually content). You can see some sketches here. While there are many ideas kicking around about how we might improve the Home View, including making it a normal Sugar Activity and further integrating it into the Journal, I am hoping that this one change will be complete in time to meet the looming feature freeze for 0.90.
3. Hilaire Fernandes announced the release 10.08 of the DrGeo Activity. For those of you have never used it, DrGeo is a great tool for exploring advanced concepts in geometry.
4. There was an education mini-summit at LinuxCon in Boston. It was heavily geared towards Sugar with talks about Sugar in RHEL 6 (Sebastian Dziallas) and Sugar on Ubuntu (Ian Daniher). There was a very nice talk about using Inkscape in middle school by Máirín Duffy of Red Hat employee. Alas, I missed both Karlie Robinson talk on her Beginner Guide to FLOSS education and David Trask's update on the Maine 1-to-1 computing initiative.
5. Constructionism 2010 - Paris begins 16 August at the American Univeristy of Paris.
Sugar Labs
Gary Martin has generated SOMs from the past few weeks of discussion on the IAEP mailing list.
2010 July 24th-30th (25 emails)
2010 July 31st-August 6th (44 emails)
Visit our plangiet for more updates about Sugar and Sugar deployments.
An archive of this digest is available.
Planet
The Sugar Labs Planet is found here.
Sugar in the news
| 09 Aug 2010 |
ABC digital – Indicadores constatan el impacto positivo en el aprendizaje de niños
|
| 23 Jun 2010 |
ABC digital – Xo para todas las escuelas de Caacupé
|
| 21 Jun 2010 |
La Nacion – “Buscamos que los niños no solo usen softwares, sino que puedan crear uno”
|
| 20 Jun 2010 |
UltimaHora.com – La laptop une a padres, alumnos y docentes
|
| 15 Jun 2010 |
The H – OLPC XO-1.5 software updated
|
| 10 Jun 2010 |
engadget – Sugar on a Stick hits 3.0, teaches us about a new kind of fruit
|
| 27 May 2010 |
Pro Linux DE – Sugar on a Stick v3 freigegeben (German)
|
| 27 May 2010 |
NY Times – One Laptop Per Child Project Works With Marvell to Produce a $100 Tablet
|
| 27 May 2010 |
PC World – OLPC Rules out Windows for XO-3
|
| 03 May 2010 |
WXXI: Mixed Media – Interview with Walter Bender (audio)
|
| 03 May 2010 |
Linux Magazine – OLPC Computers for Palestinian Refugee Children
|
| 14 Apr 2010 |
National Science Foundation – XO Laptops Inspire Learning In Birmingham, Alabama (video)
|
| 02 Apr 2010 |
|
| 15 Mar 2010 |
nbc13.com – Birmingham City students opt to spend spring break in class, XO computer camps (video)
|
| 18 Feb 2010 |
LWN – Karma targets easier creation of educational software
|
| 05 Feb 2010 |
iprofesional – La PC barata de Negroponte desembarca en la Argentina para pelear contra Intel
|
| 14 Jan 2010 |
AALF – Open Systems for Broader Change
|
| 03 Jan 2010 |
Educacion 2.0 – PLAN CEIBAL, El Libro
|
| 14 Dec 2009 |
xconomy – Sugar gets sweeter
|
| 10 Dec 2009 |
Ars Technica – Sugar software environment gets sweeter with version 2
|
| 09 Dec 2009 |
Wired – New Sugar on a Stick Brings Much Needed Improvements
|
| 08 Dec 2009 |
engadget – Sugar on a Stick OS goes to 2.0, gets Blueberry coating and creamy Fedora 12 center (video)
|
| 07 Dec 2009 |
Teleread.org – Sugar on a Stick: What it means for e-books and education
|
| 27 Nov 2009 |
CNET Japan – 「コードを見せて、もっと良くなるよ」と言える子どもが生まれる--Sugar Labsが描く未来
|
| 16 Nov 2009 |
zanichelli – software libero a scuola
|
| 12 Nov 2009 |
opensuse.org – openSUSE 11.2 Released
|
| 07 Nov 2009 |
My Broadband News – Mandriva 2010 packs a punch [and Sugar]
|
| 06 Nov 2009 |
GhanaWeb – Open education and an IT-enabled economic growth in Ghana: Musings of a dutiful citizen
|
| 26 Oct 2009 |
Linux Magazine ES – Software Libre como apoyo al aprendizaje
|
| 09 Oct 2009 |
interdisciplines – OLPC and Sugar: mobility through the community
|
| 08 Oct 2009 |
IBM developerWorks – 10 important Linux developments everyone should know about
|
| 01 Oct 2009 |
OLPC France – Interview Walter Bender au SugarCamp
|
| 25 Sep 2009 |
The Inquirer – One Laptop per Child marches on
|
| 18 Sep 2009 |
Groklaw – The Role of Free Software in Education
|
| 18 Sep 2009 |
Reuters – Sugar Labs and Free Software Foundation Celebrate Software Freedom Day
|
| 17 Sep 2009 |
ICTDev.org – Dream Again with One Laptop per Child
|
| 26 Aug 2009 |
Latinux – Azúcar en una memoria USB
|
| 03 Aug 2009 |
Wired: Geek Dad – Inventing a New Paradigm: SugarLabs and the Sugar UI
|
| 30 Jul 2009 |
Zanichelli – Sugar on a Stick: imparare insieme
|
| 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
