Talk:EduJAM/2011

Discussions

Use this space to share your ideas for things you would like to do at the EduSummit

Some fun and crazy ideas for stakeholders participation in the EduSummit from Carolina in California:

The gathering in Montevideo May 5-7 is an excellent opportunity to explore some of the lesser used features of the XO. With so many people in one place having access to the laptops it should be easy and fun to bring people together... teachers, students, and parents... to experiment with using the XO as the powerful science tool it has the potential to be, and to also explore its use in making and learning about music.

I work with small Contributors Program projects in several places, including, among others, inner-city children in Los Angeles, CA, Native American children on the Ojibwe and Northern Cheyanne reservations and a project with children in rural Guatemala. All of the four mentioned are interested in doing science with XOs in their projects. So here are some ideas of things it would be nice to explore:

Participants could do some work with a microscope interfaced with the XO like Cherry Withers was able to do at the Southern California Linux Expo. They could collaborate on creating science and health lessons to coordinate with curriculum. Cherry could probably write up some instructions about how to get the microscope working with the XO.

Participants could also so some experiments with Turtle Art With Sensors or Measure[1] on the XOs, building on what has been done and creating science lessons with it. They would probably need to make the sensors ahead of time. Maybe they could create and test some lesson ideas using the sensors for hands-on real science experiments students could do with their XOs.

Another crazy idea... I wonder if there is a usb telescope that would connect and work with the XOs. How about an XO star party using the Star Chart Activity on the XOs and a telescope hooked up to one. Wonder if the skies are clear at night in May in Montevideo? Actually this could be fun just with the XOs with the Star Chart Activity and a regular telescope!

If some of the stakeholders have experience writing and modifying Sugar Activities, maybe everyone could collaborate to create a science version of Conozco that could be used all over the world... Conozco los planetas. People who know different languages could do versions in those languages. Once more people learn to do this, they can make more versions of Conozco to share later.

I love the TamTam suite! Wouldn't it be fun to spend some time really getting acquainted with all four parts and how they can be used with students? The group might actually do well enough to "perform" for other event participants. Has anyone had any success using an inexpensive usb music keyboard with TamTam? How about a keyboard overlay on sturdy paper showing the standard music keyboard?

Topic	Rationale
Python 'introspection' and GTK3 sprint	"right now we're stuck on deprecated code (pygtk) that no-one wants to maintain any more"
Activity sprint	Bring all of the Sugar activities to a consistent, up-to-date standard (including consideration of ^^)
Collaboration sprint	Update Sugar collaboration to reflect advances made since we developed our model.
Multitouch sprint	Requires GTK3 support.
Your idea here	...