How to present Sugar

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How to Present Sugar

Sugar is meant to be explored, but orienting people before they start reduces initial frustration. Here is our current list of Sugar Basics to cover before you have people explore.

Presentations

Some PDFs of presentation slides:

Videos of presentations

Some videos of presentations made under the umbrella of Sugar Labs can be found here:

Hands-on guide

It's great to get people playing around with Sugar themselves. Be sure to cover the basics before you turn people loose, though, otherwise they will get frustrated:

  1. Show the Home view.
  2. Show the XO icon, draw attention to its colors, and how they are used throughout the interface to represent "your work".
  3. Show how one gets to the Frame and its main features.
  4. Show the Neighborhood view. Show that one can get there from the Frame or from the Mesh key f1 small.png key (F1).
  5. Demonstrate connecting to an AP. Explain that more color in the circle means stronger signal (as opposed to how "full" it is).
  6. Show the Group view, and that "friends" will show up there.
  7. Show the Journal, where one's work is saved.
  8. Demonstrate that to do something, one goes to one's Home view and single clicks on any of the icons. They are the Activities. (There is no double clicking in Sugar. Double clicking can launch two instances of an Activity, which confuses the Learner and consumes precious system memory.)
  9. Demonstrate Chat - "This balloon is the Chat Activity" - as it only has a simple toolbar, and it can be easily used to explain activity sharing essentials.
  10. Point out sharing in the Activity toolbar: "This, the "Share with:" combo box, makes your Activity appear in the Neighborhood view. Your friends can connect to it. Enjoy a little chat with your friends and see how important the Sugar colors are to identify you."
  11. Point out Write: "This pen and paper icon is a text editor. Yes, it has the same toolbar as Chat. No, you don't have to use it like a chat."
Here is a version of the 11 points above, ready for copy and paste:
1. Show the Home view.
2. Show the XO icon, draw attention to its colors, and how they are used throughout the interface to represent "your work".
3. Show how one gets to the Frame and its main features.
4. Show the Neighborhood view. Show that one can get there from the Frame or from the Mesh key f1 small.png key (F1).
5. Demonstrate connecting to an AP. Explain that more color in the circle means stronger signal (as opposed to how "full" it is).
6. Show the Group view, and that "friends" will show up there.
7. Show the Journal, where one's work is saved.
8. Demonstrate that to do something, one goes to one's Home view and single clicks on any of the icons. They are the Activities. (There is no double clicking in Sugar. Double clicking can launch two instances of an Activity, which confuses the Learner and consumes precious system memory.)
9. Demonstrate Chat - "This balloon is the Chat Activity" - as it only has a simple toolbar, and it can be easily used to explain activity sharing essentials.
10. Point out sharing in the Activity toolbar: "This, the "Share with:" combo box, makes your Activity appear in the Neighborhood view. Your friends can connect to it. Enjoy a little chat with your friends and see how important the Sugar colors are to identify you."
11. Point out Write: "This pen and paper icon is a text editor. Yes, it has the same toolbar as Chat. No, you don't have to use it like a chat."

Hints

  • Always try to bring an AP. Don't use existing wireless. Collaboration will work on a AP that has no Internet / upstream connection.
What's an AP?
an AP is a Wi-Fi Access Point --Walter 19:31, 10 September 2009 (UTC)
  • Either get USB sticks to boot, OR teach about Sugar; don't try to do both at once.
  • Demo Write and peer editing. This is a big deal for teachers. Do it early in the presentation, before you get (happily) distracted with anything else.
  • I often demo Memorize as a quick way of showing the balance struck between consuming and creating. --Walter 19:31, 10 September 2009 (UTC)
  • I give my talks using the presentation features in Turtle Art... nothing like eating your own dogfood. --Walter 19:31, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Colophon

This guide grew from Caroline Meeks' reflections on presenting Sugar. You can view (NOPE - link rotten!) her giving the presentation. This is a work in progress, based on what we didn't do in past sessions. Please try it with a group of people and update with your experiences.

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