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| == Sugar Digest == | | == Sugar Digest == |
| | | |
− | 1. Over the weekend, there was a [http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/olpc-sur/2012-February/009989.html discussion of the Yupana]--the Incan abacus--on the Sur mailing list. I was interested because when I originally wrote the [[Activities/Abacus|Abacus]] activity, I did some investigation into the Yupana, but was not able to find any definitive description of how it works. Alan Jhonn Aguiar Schwyn recommended [http://www.que.es/moda/videos/yupana-calculadora-inca-metodo-ensenanza-15039.html], which was helpful. Even more helpful was [http://cursa.ihmc.us/rid=1J2NH8QTM-2912G6-PZ5/Yupana como herramienta pedagogica.pdf], recommended by Fernando Da Rosa. | + | 1. "Papert, of course, is well-known as the proponent of "constructionism," an educational theory which holds that students learn best by doing—often with little guidance from teachers." |
| | | |
− | So I wrote the [[Activities/Yupana|Yupana activity]]. The beads are organized in columns, where the units (1s) column is farthest to the right; tens (10s) is second from the right; hundreds (100s) is third from the right, etc. When you click on a dot, it will reverse its state (color), and either add or subtract value from that column.
| + | Perhaps I overreacted to a recent article about OLPC in which Seymour Papert was cast in the role of "anti-teacher." I've worked with Seymour for more than 30 years and never once heard him disparage teaching or teachers. And nothing in the "Constructionist" doctrine suggests that teachers are not an important part of the learning ecology. That said, Papert is a believer in the human capacity for learning, where the role of a teacher is primarily to guide rather than instruct. And yet the mischaracterization of Constructionism and Papert persists, not only in the press, but in the writing of those who should know better, educator researchers. |
| | | |
− | Digging a bit deeper, I came across [http://www.atlantisbolivia.org/decodingquipumaths.htm], which had alternative interpretations of how the Yupana works. In this version, the base is 20, and rows with multiple dots are counted as 2s.
| + | I apparently pushed the wrong button with an education researcher who "who dismissed Papert's self-learning constructionism largely as a 'myth.'" I have several issues with the characterization, not the least of which is the use of the modifier, "self-learning". The same researcher backpeddled slightly: |
| | | |
− | But none of these explanations were very satisfying. It seems that there is too much information in the structure that is being ignored. I came up with yet another interpretation, where the factor of each bead is based on the number of beads in its containing box, e.g., each bead in the top row, x1; in the second row, x2; in the third row, x3; and in the bottom row, x5.
| + | :I agree that Papert does not generally talk about cutting teachers out of the loop entirely, though he does discuss learning about differential gears on his own and discovering more about mathematics from them than he learned in most of his mathematics classes. So the sentence "Papert, of course, is well-known as the proponent of 'constructionism,' an educational theory which holds that students learn best by doing—often with little guidance from teachers" could be misleading in that it doesn't fully articulate the "teachers as co-learners" aspect that Papert discusses in his writings, although it does convey Papert's view that teachers should take a back seat to children's interests and that some children may be inspired to learn on their own. |
| | | |
− | John Watlington suggested yet another interpretation: x1, x2, x5, and x20.
| + | It is debilitating to all of our efforts that an educational researcher with such a shallow understanding of Papert is being widely quoted as an expert on one-to-one computing. But it gets worse still. The data that are being cited regarding the use of Sugar are terribly flawed. For example, rough estimates of what activities were used most often tells us next to nothing about what is being learned. And those data are interpreted in ways that are blind to the learning that may be happening. For example, to summarily dismiss activities—such as chatting—as "less sophisticated (and presumably less valuable) uses of the computer" is to miss the point entirely. When a primary goal is literacy, engagement in an activity that so directly encourages children to read and write is a plus. Alas, the old saw, "we value what we measure instead of measure what we value", sums up the situation. |
| | | |
− | Finally, I decided that the best thing to do is to challenge the user to come up with their own interpretation.
| + | Meanwhile, the OLPC/Sugar Learning Team takes assessment very serious and has been developing a number of mechanism to dig beneath the surface. In addition to satifying the needs of stakeholders and academics, we are also trying to develop metrics that serve the learner and the teacher. Hopefully our efforts will go some ways to shining a light on what is actually happening in the communities using Sugar—the good and the bad—so that we can learn and improve. In the meantime, we will have to withstand a storm of misinformation and distortion. |
| | | |
− | The [http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4533 Yupana activity] is available for download from the Sugar Activity Library.
| + | 2. [http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2012 Google Summer of Code (GSoC)] is gearing up for 2012. It is a nice opportunity to get some new developers on board. As a community, we need to get ourselves organized: specifically, over the next few weeks, we need to identify potential projects that might attract interns to apply to Sugar Labs. I've set up [[Summer_of_Code/2012|a page in the wiki for aggregating project ideas]]. Anyone in the community is welcome to make suggestions regarding a project that you think would make Sugar a better platform. (Projects that are relatively self-contained tend to be better for GSoC since their is a finite window in which to work on it.) |
| | | |
− | The [http://git.sugarlabs.org/yupana source code] is available on the Sugar Labs Gitorious server.
| + | If you are interesting in being a mentor, please contact me. Also, please encourage any talented university students you may know to apply to the program. Applications are not due until late March, but it is best to start the conversation sooner than later. (Note that applications submitted to Google must be made in English, but mentoring can happen in any language, e.g., Spanish. We will gladly help potential applicants with their proposals even if English is their first language.) |
| | | |
| + | === In the community === |
| | | |
− | 2. Agustin Zubiaga Sanchez, a youthful, up-and-coming developer from Uruguay, has released a very nice graphing utility. You can download SimpleGraph from [http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4534/].
| + | 3. There will be a OLPC/Sugar documentation sprint from April 6-10 at the OLPC headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Please contact Adam Holt if you are interested in participating, either in person or on line. |
| | | |
− | === In the community ===
| |
| | | |
− | 3. There will be an eduJAM! in the week of May 7-12 in Montevideo. Details to follow.
| + | 4. There will be an eduJAM! in the week of May 7-12 in Montevideo. Details to follow. |
| | | |
− | 4. The week following eduJAM! will be a Squeakfest, also in Montevideo (May 16-18).
| + | 5. The week following eduJAM! will be a Squeakfest, also in Montevideo (May 16-18). |
| | | |
| === Tech Talk === | | === Tech Talk === |
| | | |
− | 5. Simon Schampijer announced the release of Sugar 0.95.4 (available from [http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-toolkit-gtk3/sugar-toolkit-gtk3-0.95.3.tar.bz2]). Many of the new features planned for Sugar 0.96 have landed in this release, including GTK-3 support. Developers should please begin testing.
| + | 6. Gonzalo Odiard has gone through the open tickets on bugs.sugarlabs.org and indentified easy tasks for those interested in getting started as a Sugar developer. Bugs and enhancements with an "easy-hack" tag refer to tickets we think can be solved by a "newbie" hacker. The list is [http://bugs.sugarlabs.org/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=new&status=reopened&group=component&order=priority&col=id&col=summary&col=status&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&col=milestone&keywords=~easy-hack here]. |
| | | |
| === Sugar Labs === | | === Sugar Labs === |
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| <gallery> | | <gallery> |
− | File:2012-Jan-28-Feb-3-som.jpg|2012 Jan 28th - Feb 3rd (36 emails) | + | File:2012-Jan-28-Feb-3-som.jpg|2012 Jan 28th - Feb 3rd (36 emails) [4] |
| </gallery> | | </gallery> |
| | | |
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. "Papert, of course, is well-known as the proponent of "constructionism," an educational theory which holds that students learn best by doing—often with little guidance from teachers."
Perhaps I overreacted to a recent article about OLPC in which Seymour Papert was cast in the role of "anti-teacher." I've worked with Seymour for more than 30 years and never once heard him disparage teaching or teachers. And nothing in the "Constructionist" doctrine suggests that teachers are not an important part of the learning ecology. That said, Papert is a believer in the human capacity for learning, where the role of a teacher is primarily to guide rather than instruct. And yet the mischaracterization of Constructionism and Papert persists, not only in the press, but in the writing of those who should know better, educator researchers.
I apparently pushed the wrong button with an education researcher who "who dismissed Papert's self-learning constructionism largely as a 'myth.'" I have several issues with the characterization, not the least of which is the use of the modifier, "self-learning". The same researcher backpeddled slightly:
- I agree that Papert does not generally talk about cutting teachers out of the loop entirely, though he does discuss learning about differential gears on his own and discovering more about mathematics from them than he learned in most of his mathematics classes. So the sentence "Papert, of course, is well-known as the proponent of 'constructionism,' an educational theory which holds that students learn best by doing—often with little guidance from teachers" could be misleading in that it doesn't fully articulate the "teachers as co-learners" aspect that Papert discusses in his writings, although it does convey Papert's view that teachers should take a back seat to children's interests and that some children may be inspired to learn on their own.
It is debilitating to all of our efforts that an educational researcher with such a shallow understanding of Papert is being widely quoted as an expert on one-to-one computing. But it gets worse still. The data that are being cited regarding the use of Sugar are terribly flawed. For example, rough estimates of what activities were used most often tells us next to nothing about what is being learned. And those data are interpreted in ways that are blind to the learning that may be happening. For example, to summarily dismiss activities—such as chatting—as "less sophisticated (and presumably less valuable) uses of the computer" is to miss the point entirely. When a primary goal is literacy, engagement in an activity that so directly encourages children to read and write is a plus. Alas, the old saw, "we value what we measure instead of measure what we value", sums up the situation.
Meanwhile, the OLPC/Sugar Learning Team takes assessment very serious and has been developing a number of mechanism to dig beneath the surface. In addition to satifying the needs of stakeholders and academics, we are also trying to develop metrics that serve the learner and the teacher. Hopefully our efforts will go some ways to shining a light on what is actually happening in the communities using Sugar—the good and the bad—so that we can learn and improve. In the meantime, we will have to withstand a storm of misinformation and distortion.
2. Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is gearing up for 2012. It is a nice opportunity to get some new developers on board. As a community, we need to get ourselves organized: specifically, over the next few weeks, we need to identify potential projects that might attract interns to apply to Sugar Labs. I've set up a page in the wiki for aggregating project ideas. Anyone in the community is welcome to make suggestions regarding a project that you think would make Sugar a better platform. (Projects that are relatively self-contained tend to be better for GSoC since their is a finite window in which to work on it.)
If you are interesting in being a mentor, please contact me. Also, please encourage any talented university students you may know to apply to the program. Applications are not due until late March, but it is best to start the conversation sooner than later. (Note that applications submitted to Google must be made in English, but mentoring can happen in any language, e.g., Spanish. We will gladly help potential applicants with their proposals even if English is their first language.)
3. There will be a OLPC/Sugar documentation sprint from April 6-10 at the OLPC headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Please contact Adam Holt if you are interested in participating, either in person or on line.
4. There will be an eduJAM! in the week of May 7-12 in Montevideo. Details to follow.
5. The week following eduJAM! will be a Squeakfest, also in Montevideo (May 16-18).
Tech Talk
6. Gonzalo Odiard has gone through the open tickets on bugs.sugarlabs.org and indentified easy tasks for those interested in getting started as a Sugar developer. Bugs and enhancements with an "easy-hack" tag refer to tickets we think can be solved by a "newbie" hacker. The list is here.
Sugar Labs
Gary Martin has generated SOMs from the past few weeks of discussion on the IAEP mailing list:
2012 Jan 28th - Feb 3rd (36 emails) [4]
Visit our planet 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
11 Jan 2012 |
Boston Herald – One Laptop Per Child screening $100 tablet
|
10 Jan 2012 |
ars technica – Crank, bicycle, and waterwheel: hands-on with the OLPC XO 3.0 tablet
|
08 Jan 2012 |
The Verge – OLPC XO 3.0 tablet preview: impressions, video, and pictures
|
07 Jan 2012 |
The Verge – OLPC XO 3.0 tablet: an 8-inch tablet for $100, with Android and Sugar options for the children
|
23 Dec 2011 |
Miller-McCune – One Laptop Per Child Redux
|
18 Oct 2011 |
BDU – Robotics in Uruguay (video)
|
11 Aug 2011 |
Berlin.de – Gewinner des Berliner Landeswettbewerbs zu Open Source stehen fest
|
25 Jul 2011 |
CCC Classic – Garmin-sugarlabs development cycling team at Crit starting line
|
25 Jul 2011 |
CCC Classic – Garmin-sugarlabs development cycling team after Crit
|
13 Apr 2011 |
framablog – L'expérience Sugar Labs préfigure-t-elle une révolution éducative du XXIe siècle?
|
05 Apr 2011 |
Businesswire – The Government of Peru Expands the One Laptop Per Child Program with Local Manufacturing
|
31 Jan 2011 |
Sundance – A Day in the Life – Peru
|
01 Dec 2010 |
velonation – Sugar Labs to back Garmin-Cervelo’s development team in unique arrangement
|
28 Oct 2010 |
UCR – Nuevas tecnologías deben estar al alcance de todos los niños y niñas
|
05 Oct 2010 |
xconomy – One Ecosystem per Child
|
08 Sep 2010 |
FLOSS Weekly – Sugar Labs
|
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