Changes

== What's new ==

== What's new ==

This page is updated every few weeks with notes from the Sugar Labs community. (The digest is also sent to the community-news at sugarlabs.org list, blogged at [http://walterbender.org/ walterbender.org], and [[Archive/Current Events|archived here]].) If you would like to contribute, please send email to [[User:walter|walter]] at sugarlabs.org by the weekend. (Also visit <span class="plainlinks">[http://planet.sugarlabs.org planet.sugarlabs.org].</span>)

This page is updated every few weeks with notes from the Sugar Labs community. (The digest is also sent to the community-news at sugarlabs.org list, blogged at [http://walterbender.org/ walterbender.org], and [[Archive/Current Events|archived here]].) If you would like to contribute, please send email to [[User:walter|walter]] at sugarlabs.org by the weekend. (Also visit <span class="plainlinks">[http://planet.sugarlabs.org planet.sugarlabs.org].</span>)

== Sugar Digest ==

== Sugar Digest ==

1. Will Rico pointed me at a solicitation from Information Week for the "Hottest trends for education IT leaders in 2016 and beyond". I could not resist firing off a rant about Free/Libre Software.

It has been a long time since I last wrote a Sugar Labs community new blog. I got tied up with my day jobs: starting a new design college from scratch and launching a new research center at MIT. (And, frankly, I was a bit depressed following the deaths of Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert.) I have a breather on both fronts and given all of the Sugar activity of late, I am inspired to do some writing.

In a word (actually two words), Free Software. Aside from the obvious economic benefits -- no usurious licensing fees from the likes of Apple, Pearson, Adobe, etc. -- Free Software is a vehicle for changing the culture of learning by directly empowering local communities, teachers, and students.  

1. A footnote from Google Code-in 2015. Ezequiel Pereira, one of the grand-prize recipients from Sugar Labs was recently acknowledged by Google for discovering a security bug. He got some nice press, e.g., [https://thenextweb.com/google/2017/08/10/highschool-security-research-google-data/#.tnw_5BETRGWT][https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/10/schoolboy_google_bug_bounty_http_host/1]. In one article [http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/google-awards-uruguay-high-school-student-10k-finding/story?id=49249604], he was quoted as saying: "Homework is boring. Looking for bugs is fun.” Ezequiel is one of a generation of children in Uruguay who grew up with Sugar. It is nice to hear the occasional word about their accomplishments.

Forty years of observation suggests that engaging children in using computers and in programming software to run on computers is a powerful means to drive learning. The process of writing and then repairing (also known as “debugging”) a program, which Solomon described as “the great educational opportunity of the 21st Century”, provides a basis for active learning through heuristic problem solving. Free Software enables and encourages students and teachers to engage in real science and engineering and to take responsibility for the tools and practice in their classrooms.

2. We just wrapped up Google Code-in and Outreachy 2017. We had 9 interns supported by Google and 1 Outreachy intern. You can read about their accomplishments in their [[Summer_of_Code|blogs] and in the meeting logs [http://meeting.sugarlabs.org/sugar-meeting/meetings] (every Monday from May through August). Highlights from the summer include a new, easy-to-maintain activity portal and a new www.sugarlabs.org, both going live soon. Also of note: a new Sugar image for Raspberry Pi, some new apps, GTK3 ports, a Sugarizer dashboard, and a major overhaul of Music Blocks.

It goes beyond programming, however, because it sends a message to the learner (yes, teachers are learners too) that they do not have to accept the world as it is handed down to them. Rather they can edit the instruments of change in all aspects of their lives.

Tip of the hat to our mentors: Abhijit Patel, Cristina Del Puerto, Devin Ulibarri, Hrishi Patel, Ignacio Rodriguez, José Argüello, Lionel Laské, Matias Baez, Michaël Ohayon, Samson Goddy, Samuel Cantero, and Tony Anderson. Lionel help me administer the program again this year. It is nice to note that many of the mentors are former GCI participants.

Of course, this is not the message that your audience of IT leaders wants to hear because it directly undermines their ability to lock in school districts and since with Free Software the end user has the ability to dictate change, the highly profitable practice of planned obsolescence is not viable.

Cristina, Michaël, and Samson will be representing Sugar Labs at the annual mentor summit at Google in October. (For those of you who have been following the saga of Samson's visa, I am happy to say that he was approved!)

Nonetheless, Free Software in education is on the "long arc" of education reform that will foster a generation of problem solvers and critical thinkers.

3. I was invited to represent Sugar Labs at the Plan Ceibal 10th anniversary in Montevideo a few months ago. It was great to see children still using Sugar 10  years after the first deployment in a small school in the Florida Department. It was also an opportunity to catch up with many old friends and Sugar contributors, including Ignacio, Andres, Alan, Jose Miguel, Guzman, etc. I am not sure if my talk is on line, but I wrote a paper based on the talk which is available for [http://www.um.es/ead/red/54/bender.pdf download].

regards.

4. Lionel just announced a new release of Sugarizer (v0.9). See [http://sugarizer.org] for all of the details.

-walter

5. James Cameron is working towards the release of [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2017-September/054631.html Sugar 0.111], our first new release in nearly one year. It is mostly planned as a maintenance release.

PS: The recent sea change in Washington regarding arts education is further evidence that we are once again respecting open-ended problem solving in our schools. Young minds unleashed.

6. There are only a few more days left (15 Sept.) to register as a candidate for the Sugar Labs oversight board. Please consider joining the board as we need some fresh voices and perspectives. See [[Oversight_Board/2017-2019-candidates]] for details. You also have until 27 Sept. to register as a member in order to be given a vote in the election. See [[Sugar_Labs/Members]] for details.

2. [https://developers.google.com/open-source/gci Google Code-in] has begun. After the first 10 days of competition, 137 tasks have been completed by 61 youths, ranging from a video introduction of Sugar to three seven-year-olds to numerous updates to Sugar activities to a flurry of suggestions for improvement to our website. We have more than 250 open tasks but we welcome more task suggestions. Tip of the hat to our 24 mentors, whom have been very patient answering questions on IRC and reviewing student work.

7. One of the first decisions the new board will be making is whether or not Sugar Labs should apply for GCI 2017. I am hopeful that the board will see the merits of the program and give a green light to apply again this year. If we do apply, I will be looking for mentors, project ideas, and a co-administrator. Please contact me if you are interested.

 

 

 

 

 

== Community News archive ==

== Community News archive ==

==Sugar in the news==

==Sugar in the news==

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|align=right valign=top|28 Aug 2015||'''Musson Foundation''' &ndash; [https://youtu.be/HZtVv2nlP8Y Jamaica Girls Code] (video)

|align=right valign=top|28 Aug 2015||'''Musson Foundation''' &ndash; [https://youtu.be/HZtVv2nlP8Y Jamaica Girls Code] (video)

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|align=right valign=top|06 Feb 2013||'''el Observador''' &ndash; [http://www.elobservador.com.uy/noticia/242936/joven-uruguayo-gana-la-competencia-google-code/ Joven uruguayo gana la competencia Google Code] (Also see [http://people.sugarlabs.org/aguz/gci-press-interviews.html GCI press interviews])

|align=right valign=top|06 Feb 2013||'''el Observador''' &ndash; [http://www.elobservador.com.uy/noticia/242936/joven-uruguayo-gana-la-competencia-google-code/ Joven uruguayo gana la competencia Google Code] (Also see [http://people.sugarlabs.org/aguz/gci-press-interviews.html GCI press interviews])

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|align=right valign=top|07 Sep 2012||'''NDTV''' &ndash; [http://gadgets.ndtv.com/laptops/news/one-laptop-per-child-initiative-a-hit-in-rural-india-263867 One Laptop Per Child initiative a hit in rural India]

|align=right valign=top|07 Sep 2012||'''NDTV''' &ndash; [http://gadgets.ndtv.com/laptops/news/one-laptop-per-child-initiative-a-hit-in-rural-india-263867 One Laptop Per Child initiative a hit in rural India]

|align=right valign=top|06&nbsp;Aug&nbsp;2008||'''OLPC News''' &ndash; [http://www.olpcnews.com/people/leadership/23_questions_on_technology_education.html Twenty-three Questions on Technology and Education]

|align=right valign=top|06&nbsp;Aug&nbsp;2008||'''OLPC News''' &ndash; [http://www.olpcnews.com/people/leadership/23_questions_on_technology_education.html Twenty-three Questions on Technology and Education]

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|align=right valign=top|18&nbsp;Jul&nbsp;2008||'''Bill Kerr''' &ndash; [http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2008/07/evaluating-sugar-in-developed-world.html evaluating Sugar in the developed world]

|align=right valign=top|18&nbsp;Jul&nbsp;2008||'''Bill Kerr''' &ndash; [http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2008/07/evaluating-sugar-in-developed-world.html evaluating Sugar in the developed world]

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==Press releases==

==Press releases==

[http://www.sugarlabs.org/index.php?template=press See our Press Page]

http://www.sugarlabs.org/press

[[Category:General public]]

[[Category:General public]]