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Line 5: − + − The occasion of Tomeu's departure has triggered the voicing of many unrelated frustrations with Sugar and Sugar Labs. Yioryos Asprobounitis posted [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2010-October/028319.html a thoughtful email] to the Sugar Developer list. In it, he reminded us of those things that every successful project needs:+ − * Clearly defined aims+ − * Clearly defined road map − * Clearly defined tools/methods of implementation − * Clearly defined, tangible, milestones and annual _external_ evaluation − While I think that the Sugar Community has worked hard towards providing clarity, there remain deficiencies and disagreements.+ − Personally, my aims for Sugar are unwavering: Sugar is a software platform that is designed for children for learning. Sugar is developed and maintained by Sugar Labs, a global volunteer community of software developers and educators. Our goal is to raise a generation of critical thinkers and problem-solvers by establishing a culture of independent thinking and learning. Through Sugar, we strive to provide every child with the opportunity to learn learning within a context that will allow them both to engage in an on-going critical dialog with others and to develop independent means towards their personal goals.+ − The technical underpinnings of Sugar are deliberately designed to maximize the probability that children will learn. Through the Sugar-platform affordances, we encourage learners to explore by digging deeply into topics for which they are passionate, to express by building upon what they discover, and to reflect by engaging in peer-to-peer and personal criticism. Free Software is fundamental to the project not just as a means to an end, but also because of its culture: it is no coincidence that Free Software developers don't just write code; they talk about Free Software, they criticize it, and they discuss other people's criticisms.+ − Regarding road maps, in my opinion we are quite disciplined in terms of our day-to-day release process. However we are lacking a long-term road map, which I would equate to an architectural specification. Such a document could serve as a metric that would help us with some of our short-term decisions and also help shape the project going forward.+ − Regarding tools and methods of implementation, while there has been lots of heated discussion, I don't think we are so far apart in our opinions. The seemingly endless debate about git vs email vs trac for patch review is winding down. And we are getting better as a community in showing patience with our handling of the influx of patches and questions from newbies. Perhaps the best evidence that we are not so far off track is the great job that has been done packaging Sugar downstream by various organizations and deployments. We are producing a product that they can work with and want to work with. Of course there is always room for improvement and no doubt the debate about tools and process will continue. That said, one legacy of Tomeu is to be uncompromising on quality. I have submitted many patches and have had very few accepted. But I have gotten thoughtful feedback and learned a great deal in the process. My subsequent patches are better for the effort of the Sugar maintainers.+ − Regarding tangible milestones and evaluation, I give us a mixed review. We have a reasonable mechanisms in place for our release process and we are cultivating ever-increasing feedback from the Sugar deployments. However, we are lacking clarity around our long-range technical goals. In terms of evaluation, Sugar in the context of deployments is undergoing some level of scrutiny. There are on-going evaluations underway in all of the major deployments. But with few exceptions it is not clear how Sugar itself is being evaluating in the field. We have some active testing teams, but we have not provided them with very good tool chains; we have almost no automated data collection to inform us as to how children are using Sugar. These deficiencies are mitigated in part by an increasingly vocal community of teachers and mentors and facilitators. Ultimately I think we will learn more from our user community than is typical of other software projects. Indeed, the fact that two teachers are running for positions on our Oversight Board is really encouraging.+ − Dave Neary wrote a blog post about Ubuntu's plans to move to Unity as the default desktop in which he mentions Sugar.+ − + − :There is not one out-and-out success story of a company building a great high-quality custom user interface on the standard Linux stack, except Android, which is hardly a model of collaborative software development. − :[snip] − :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 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].+ − + − 4. I visited with Educ.ar in Buenos Aires on the way back from Asunción. It was a chance to catch up with old friends and to find out more about the government program to give laptops to secondary school children. We talked Sugar and there is a good possibility that it will be part of the offering.+ − + − + + + + + + + − 5. The OLPC/Sugar/Realness summit was held in San Francisco. Adam Holt reports that 130+ enthusiastic OLPC/Sugar community members attended. You can read detailed summaries of the sessions here: [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_SanFranciscoBayArea/Community_Summit_2010#Schedule_of_sessions].+ − 6. http://dev.laptop.org/~pgf/xo-1.75-broughtup.jpg speaks for itself!!+ Line 54:
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Sugar Labs/Current Events (view source)
Revision as of 11:48, 1 November 2010
, 11:48, 1 November 2010→Sugar Digest
==Sugar Digest==
==Sugar Digest==
1. Tomeu's departure from the project has set off a lot of introspection, speculation, 'blunt' emails, and thoughtful responses. There is no doubt that we will miss Tomeu. He has been not just a prolific contributor to the project, but also a steady hand, with the professional's eye. Under his leadership, we have been able to raise the quality of Sugar and we are much better integrated into the work flows both upstream and downstream from Sugar. We must ensure that this level of professionalism is not diminished.
1. I first met Alan Kay in the late 1970s. I was working on a personalized news project – think ''Google News'' meets ''Facebook'' – for which Alan came up with the name ''NewsPeek'' – a play off of George Orwell's ''New Speak''.
It was then that I first heard Alan's definition of technology: "anything invented after you were born." Taking technology down off of its pedestal is never easy for someone at MIT, but over the years I have come back to those words again and again, as they help me to combat the spell that cool engineering casts and thus I am reminded to look at the essence of ''what is being accomplished by the technology''. The words also serve to remind me to take the long view – those to whom technology is just 'stuff' will be the ones who will be best able to wield it to their advantage. It is in this spirit that I have been advocating that computation should be "on the low shelf" of every child – a "thing to think with" readily at hand to every child. I'll return to this theme in a moment.
Another lesson from Alan at the time was his list of five things computers were (or would be) good for: (1) getting and holding our attention; (2) word processing; (3) information retrieval; (4) simulation; and (5) interpersonal communication. A remarkable list, especially considering that he compiled it 40-years ago. Perhaps the only thing missing from the list is reflection: computers, with their ability to capture a record of everything we do, can be a great medium for reflecting upon our work. And arguably, these 5 (or 6) things underly all of the best efforts to use computers in school and as a facility to learning.
Why am I reminiscing about Alan Kay? When I read Christoph Derndorfer's [http://edutechdebate.org/olpc-in-south-america/olpc-in-peru-one-laptop-per-child-problems/ article], Oscar Becerra's response, and the subsequent follow up discussions spread across several threads on the [http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/olpc-sur/ Sur list], I was struck by the dichotomy that seems to exist within the community: those who see and voice problems and those who are trying, despite the challenges, to amplify the things that are good. While criticism is a necessary component of any effort to bring about change, it is important to frame the criticism within a context whereby it can be used in service of our collective goal: to raise a generation of critical thinkers and problem-solvers by establishing a culture of independent thinking and learning.
We can and do argue about how to achieve this goal (and some within the community take issue with the goal itself, e.g., our focus should be on helping children do better on their national exams, as if it were a black-and-white choice), but as we argue and criticize, we need to avoid the temptation to sensationalize (e.g., "it will require a significant overhaul of the whole strategy") or draw premature or out of context conclusions (e.g., A [http://www.columbia.edu/%7Ecp2124/papers/computer.pdf 'Romanian study'] oft-cited by Yamandu proves... [1]).
Christoph made a number of observations on his whirlwind tour of OLPC deployments in South America. While his observations are of anecdotal interest, none of them have any statistical significance and yet he presumes to draw far-reaching conclusions. Even when he relies upon data gathered by others, his conclusions are overstated. For example, he cites from IDB report "that almost 5% of the schools which have already received XOs don’t even have electricity yet." He goes on to assert "that the Ministry of Education’s data on the infrastructure available at schools doesn’t seem to be up to date and accurate enough." I don't know how he can draw that conclusion from the data. (As Oscar points out, the source of the problem was that the solar panels were not available as soon as expected.) Another way of saying the same thing is, "more than 95% of the schools that have already received XOs have electricity." Or he could have used the data as a rallying cry for support for OLPC's efforts to build a more power-efficient, ARM-based machine.
Like Christoph, I too will cherry pick from the IDB report: "it was noted that over 95% of teachers in schools receiving laptops think they help improve education and children's learning and motivate them to go to school. Moreover, between 90 and 94% of teachers indicated that laptops improve the quality of teaching." (From the original Spanish: "se observó que más de 95% de los docentes de escuelas que recibieron los equipos piensa que las computadoras portátiles contribuyen a mejorar la educación y el aprendizaje de los niños y los motivan para ir a la escuela. Por otro lado, entre el 90 y 94% de los docentes indicaron que las computadoras portátiles mejoran la calidad de su enseñanza y la facilitan."
The Peru deployment is necessarily a process of iterative design. The challenges (Internet, electricity, training) are formidable and undoubtedly mistakes have been and will be made. The ministry is neither "waiting for miracles to happen" nor is it ignorant of or ignoring the challenges. By adopting an iterative approach, it is refining its deployment model while trying to provide opportunities for learning to children in the near term – rather than waiting for perfection. We can argue about details, but progress is being made: the ministry, the teachers, the community, and especially the children are learning.
If can keep in mind Alan Kay's axioms as a guide both to not over value technology and to be aware of what is its potential good; and if we work together as a community [2] – not moving blindly without critique, but also not engaging in sensationalism – doing, making, deploying, mentoring, and sharing, we will make a positive difference, in Peru and everywhere else.
:[1] Both [http://tonyforster.blogspot.com/2008/06/home-pcs-lower-education-results.html Tony Forster] and [http://radian.org/notebook/distraction-machine Ivan Krstić] had a nice blogs debunking this study. Since the deployment failed to even get and hold the children's attention, clearly there were some serious deficiencies in the implementation that make me think twice about drawing any conclusions other than it is possible to stifle children's interest in computers.
:OLPC had many teething problems with the Sugar desktop environment. Bugs, stability and performance issues plagued the project for many months, to the point where they abandoned the development of the stack as the primary target platform for the devices. The project lives on in Sugar Labs, thanks to a broad and vibrant developer community.
:[2] One place where Christoph and I are somewhat on the same page is in regard to the level of community involvement in Peru. While there are some fruitful collaborations with some of the local universities, as described by Oscar, and while parents are becoming more involved in their children's learning, as hinted at in the IDB report, there is an untapped potential in the people of Peru to engage in much the same way that Ceibal RAP and Ceilbal JAM contribute to the efforts in Uruguay. How to unleash that potential within Peru remains an unresolved question.
2. A long-standing hole in the Sugar activity collection has been filled by a 14-year-old Sugar hacker. NTT's [http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/downloads/latest/4349/addon-4349-latest.xo?src=addondetail Edit Activity] lets you edit plain text in a simple, collaborative environment. Previously one had to use the rich-text Write activity for plain-text editing, which had the potential of causing formating errors and, unless one was careful, often resulted in the wrong mime-type being associated with your text. So kudos to our young contributor on record for developing such a useful tool.
===In the community===
3. Just before hopping on the plane to Paraguay, I did a video conference with faculty and students from about 1/2 dozen universities in [[User:Walter#Pakistan_talk|Pakistan]] to discuss establishing a Sugar Lab in Pakistan. While the potential for funding from USAID has momentarily fallen through, nonetheless, there is great enthusiasm.
3. We are finalizing the list of candidates for the upcoming election to fill opening in the Sugar Oversight Board. I'm very pleased that we have so many outstanding candidates:
* [http://google.com/search?q=adam+holt+mit Adam Holt] ([[User:Holt|7-point platform]], [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2010-October/011885.html look-reform-in-the-eye proposal])
* [[User:SMParrish|Steven Parrish]]
===In the community===
* [[User:cjb|Chris Ball]]
* Rosamel Norma Ramirez Mendez ([http://www.blogedu-rosamel.blogspot.com/ blog], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDbGHeVblmg "Teorema de Pitágoras"], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNmBzdHi0ws "Ciclo de la esponja vegetal"], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ttrLD4LyPk "Porcentajes"], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eh7EOmo6es "Fracciones equivalentes"])
* Gerald Ardito ([http://web.me.com/geraldar/The_Shape_of_Disruption/Welcome.html/ doctoral work website])
* [[User:Sebastian|Sebastian Silva]]
* [[User:Alsroot/SLOBs_election_platform|Aleksey Lim]], [[User:Alsroot/Sugar_Architecture|"Sugar Architecture"]]
* [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Claudia_Urrea| Claudia Urrea]
* [[User:Pacita|Pacita Peña]] de Paraguay Educa, [http://departamentodeeducacion-pyeduca.blogspot.com/ ver blog!]
4. DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP, an international forum on development and social inclusion through the use of ICT in Uruguay will be held on 29th and 30th November 2010 at the Uruguayan Laboratory of Technology (LATU) in Montevideo, Uruguay.
===Tech Talk===
===Tech Talk===
5. Aleksey Lim has been drafting [[User:Alsroot/How_Development_Team_should_evolve_or_How_to_"architect"_Sugar|some notes]] on re-architecting the Sugar platform team.
===Sugar Labs===
===Sugar Labs===
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File:2010-Oct-16-22-som.jpg|2010 Oct 16th-22th (28 emails)
File:2010-October-23-29-som.jpg|2010 October 23rd-29th (68 emails)
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