Archive/Current Events/2015-08-25

Sugar Digest

1. I gave a talk at Aldea Digital — a two-week long public event in Mexico DF that is sponsored by the Carlos Slim Foundation — at the same time that the New Horizons space probe was passing the orbit of Pluto. The path to Pluto was anything but straight. NASA utilized multiple gravitational slingshots to accelerate the spacecraft, and direct and redirect its path. E.g., New Horizons approached Jupiter not to visit Jupiter, but to use the planet’s speed around the sun to increase the spacecraft's velocity (relative to the sun). I used the occasion to make an analogy to Sugar: we have built a FOSS platform that we intend as intellectual slingshots. Our goal is not to simply immerse the student in learning a particular language or toolkit or achieve a particular curriculum goal, but to use the immersion as a means to stimulate them to pursue their own goals and ambitions.

New Horizons, regardless of the success of its science mission, has already succeeded in tapping into a very human trait, the desire to explore the unknown and reach to new heights, hopefully enthusing the next generation of children to push even further. It is my hope that Sugar, in its small way, taps into the same human trait, also enthusing the next generation of children to push their limits.

2. Another Turtle workshop, also at Aldea Digital. I did an impromptu Turtle workshop here last year, using Sugar on a Stick to boot a bunch of Windows computers into Sugar. This year I used the web version of Turtle Blocks. The kids did fun projects and I am hoping because it is web based there may be some follow up this time. Carla Gomez Monroy (and her son Ian) joined me at the workshop, which made it extra fun.

In the community

3. Call for papers for the special issue of RED (Journal of Distance Education):"Skills for coding and pre-coding":

• Deadline for submitting manuscripts: 31 July 2015
• Estimated Publishing Date: 15 September 2015.

Publishing standards and guidelines for authors can be found at [1].

Llamada a contribuciones para el número especial de RED (Revista de Educación a Distancia): "Competencias para la codificación y la precodificación":

• Fecha límite para enviar manuscritos: 31deJuliode 2015
• Fecha estimada para la publicación: 15 de Septiembre de 2015.

Normas de publicación y pautas para los autores [2].

Tech Talk

4. Please help Martin and the Developer Team test Sugar 106. Your feedback is important to us.

Sugar Labs

5. Please visit our planet.