Changes

:There is another possibility which seems to me more plausible: building a rock solid and functional desktop is hard. Really hard.

:There is another possibility which seems to me more plausible: building a rock solid and functional desktop is hard. Really hard.

What we are doing is hard. But it is also worthwhile. For those of you wh have never had a chance to visit a Sugar deployment, I urge you to do so. What you will see, despite all of the shortcomings, is children learning. That is why we are doing this.

What we are doing is hard. But it is also worthwhile. For those of you who have never had a chance to visit a Sugar deployment, I urge you to do so. What you will see, despite all of the shortcomings, is children learning. That is why we are doing this.

2. I had an opportunity to visit Caacupé last week. (I was in Paraguay to give the opening keynote at [[User:Walter#CLEI_talk|CLEI 2010]], which was hosted by the National University of Asunción. After my talk, I was approached by the university, which has agreed to offer students course credit for working on Sugar.) The formadores at Paraguay Educa have created Saturday 'clubs' to offer opportunities to explore Scratch, Etoys, and Turtle Art in more informal settings. I got to meet with the [http://formando-artistas.blogspot.com/ Club ¡Formando Artistas con la Tortuga!] and see first hand what the kids were doing with Turtle Art. I introduced to them a new feature: the caparazon de tortuga (turtle shell) block lets them turn the turtle into a sprite. I recruited a volunteer, Pablo, who made a self portrait using Record. We then loaded his image onto the turtle shell. Needless to say, it was a hit with the kids. I did spend some time introducing the concept of the 'box' (variable block) as a place to put a number and subsequently retrieve it. That was less successful. It occurred to me in discussion with Roberto Alcala, the new technical lead for the project, that if the box shows it value, it may help with the abstraction. [http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/downloads/latest/4027/addon-4027-latest.xo?src=addondetail Turtle Blocks v102] has that feature and the formadores have promised me feedback. In the meantime, the kids have been sending me their projects, on display [[http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/TurtleArt#student_work|here]]. And check out [http://miguela-xo.blogspot.com/ Miguela's blog].

2. I had an opportunity to visit Caacupé last week. (I was in Paraguay to give the opening keynote at [[User:Walter#CLEI_talk|CLEI 2010]], which was hosted by the National University of Asunción. After my talk, I was approached by the university, which has agreed to offer students course credit for working on Sugar.) The formadores at Paraguay Educa have created Saturday 'clubs' to offer opportunities to explore Scratch, Etoys, and Turtle Art in more informal settings. I got to meet with the [http://formando-artistas.blogspot.com/ Club ¡Formando Artistas con la Tortuga!] and see first hand what the kids were doing with Turtle Art. I introduced to them a new feature: the caparazon de tortuga (turtle shell) block lets them turn the turtle into a sprite. I recruited a volunteer, Pablo, who made a self portrait using Record. We then loaded his image onto the turtle shell. Needless to say, it was a hit with the kids. I did spend some time introducing the concept of the 'box' (variable block) as a place to put a number and subsequently retrieve it. That was less successful. It occurred to me in discussion with Roberto Alcala, the new technical lead for the project, that if the box shows it value, it may help with the abstraction. [http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/downloads/latest/4027/addon-4027-latest.xo?src=addondetail Turtle Blocks v102] has that feature and the formadores have promised me feedback. In the meantime, the kids have been sending me their projects, on display [[http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/TurtleArt#student_work|here]]. And check out [http://miguela-xo.blogspot.com/ Miguela's blog].