Re: [IAEP] Education freedom day

2013-12-01 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
I suggested that they add us in a comment on that page.

On Wed, November 27, 2013 8:21 am, Daniel Narvaez wrote:
> http://pockey.dao2.com/2013/11/education-freedom-day-celebrations-18-january-2014/
>
> Sad that Sugar is not even mentioned.
>
>
> --
> Daniel Narvaez

-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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[IAEP] Computation for thinking with (was IAEP] Sugar Digest 2013-10-05)

2013-10-05 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
On Oct. 5 Walter Bender wrote:
> In the early 1960s, while studying with Jean Piaget, Seymour Papert
> had the insight that computation was a "thing to think with".

Ken Iverson's Turing Award lecture was titled Notation as a Tool of Thought.

http://www.jsoftware.com/papers/tot.htm

He, of course, used examples from his own language, APL (A Programming
Language), which inspired the creation of Backus's functional
programming languages (described in his Turing Award lecture), and
many others.

He quoted

Concerning language, George Boole in his Laws of Thought [1, p.24]
asserted “That language is an instrument of human reason, and not
merely a medium for the expression of thought, is a truth generally
admitted.”

Mathematical notation provides perhaps the best-known and
best-developed example of language used consciously as a tool of
thought. Recognition of the important role of notation in mathematics
is clear from the quotations from mathematicians given in Cajori’s A
History of Mathematical Notations [2, pp.332,331]. They are well worth
reading in full, but the following excerpts suggest the tone:

  By relieving the brain of all unnecessary work, a good
notation sets it free to concentrate on more advanced problems, and in
effect increases the mental power of the race.
 A.N. Whitehead

Ken's son Eric organized the annual Tool of Thought Conference to
follow up on that idea. You can see an example applied to our work
with Sugar, in Iverson's algebra textbook, which I have updated at

http://booki.treehouse.su/algebra-an-algorithmic-treatment/

as part of the Sugar Labs program for Replacing Textbooks (with Open
Educational Resources). Of course it would help if we could get the
language concerned, J, packaged for Fedora and Sugar.

In mathematics, the otherwise contentious Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, that
the structure of language sets limits on what is readily thought, is
simply understood as a given. Of course, it does not mean that we
cannot go beyond those limits, just that it is very, very hard, and
that in some cases we have to invent more language so that more people
can do it. Historically, the clearest example is the difference
between the Newton dot and Leibniz d notations for calculus. Due to
the nationalist furore over precedence between Britain and Germany,
British mathematicians refused to use the Leibniz d notation until
Charles Babbage founded the Analytical Society to "replace the dot-age
of England with the d-ism of the Continent".

Thus the proliferation of mathematical notations and of programming
languages and paradigms ever since.

There is a good deal more to this story, including the fact that
Turtle Art tree-structured programming is superior in Computer Science
terms and for children's use to textual programming, but I will leave
that unless somebody asks me.

-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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[IAEP] Fwd: [Womeninfreesoftware] 9/21 Cambridge area software freedom event

2013-09-12 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
Is anybody goint to this event to talk about education in and with
Free Software for girls?

-- Forwarded message --
From: Deb Nicholson 
Date: Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 2:29 PM
Subject: [Womeninfreesoftware] 9/21 Cambridge area software freedom event
To: "Discussion re: increasing women's participation in free software"



Hi all,
I'm going to be speaking about Technology and Dystopia at Software
Freedom Day in Cambridge on Sept. 21st at Cambridge College.
(http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Boston_Software_Freedom_Day)  You'll hear
updates from local groups and voices from the wider free software
movement.

Expect learning, celebrating and plenty of networking. This event is
free and open to the public! Everyone is welcome: old FOSS friends
reconnecting, new people being introduced to free software for the
first time, and everyone in between. I hope you'll join me if you're
local!
Cheers,
Deb

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Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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Re: [IAEP] Astrology at Spirituality for Kids

2013-08-25 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
On Sun, August 25, 2013 8:14 pm, James Simmons wrote:

> Between Get Books and Read Etexts and the Browse Activities a child
> wishing
> to study his own religion or others has a wealth of material to look at.
>  Personally I'd leave it at that.  Sword is OK, and if there is something
> for studying the Koran that's OK too. If I could figure out how a Python
> program could make studying the Gita easier or more enjoyable I'd write
> one.

You don't need to. We can use existing software such as Sword with any
text in English. Sword also deals with Unicode, so we should be able
to put in the Sanskrit Devanagari as well. There is also software for
creating concordances, and there are dictionaries in the Public
Domain. Let me know if you would like a set of links for all of that,
and I will ask around to see who else would like to work on it. I have
contacts with organizations doing electronic versions of Buddhist,
Muslim, Sikh, and Daoist texts, would expect to be able to find many
others without trouble. Some of them have their own software. If you
would be willing to Sugarize some of it, we can talk.

http://www.crosswire.org/sword/index.jsp

The SWORD Project is the CrossWire Bible Society's free Bible software
project. Its purpose is to create cross-platform open-source tools--
covered by the GNU General Public License-- that allow programmers and
Bible societies to write new Bible software more quickly and easily.
We also create Bible study software for all readers, students,
scholars, and translators of the Bible, and have a growing collection
of over 200 texts in over 50 languages.

For example, they have a Bible in Hindi. I have not looked to see
whether it is in Devanagari or Romanization. But I know that they do
full pointed Hebrew and polytonic Greek, and that they offer Strong's
Bible dictionaries in both.

> James Simmons

-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
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[IAEP] Astrology at Spirituality for Kids (was Re: Sugar Digest 2013-08-22)

2013-08-25 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
A simple site search in Google turns this and other items up.

http://www.spiritualityforkids.com/parenting-and-astrology
08 07 2012, Written by Michal Berg

I’ve often mentioned the importance of connecting with our kids, which
means really getting to know who they are.  So how do we find that
out?  There are many ways; and one of the best spiritual tools for
this job is astrology.  Conventional astrology has much to offer, but
it becomes even more helpful with the addition of a kabbalistic
perspective.

http://www.myeverlastinglight.com/michael-berg-spiritual-development-books/

http://www.michaelberg.net/
The Kabbalah Center

and on the home page, http://www.spiritualityforkids.com/

It’s that time again, the bittersweet transition from a long summer
vacation to starting another school year.  It’s no coincidence that
this time falls in the month of Virgo...

This comes from an essay by _Michal_ Berg, President and CEO of
Spirituality for Kids

 http://www.spiritualityforkids.com/back-school

Michael Berg is a frequent writer on the site. I do not know whether
they have a family connection, but it seems likely.

Madonna got in trouble trying to found a charity in Africa in
partnership with Michael Berg.

http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2013/04/madonnas-dumps-kabbalah-involvement-charity-raising-malawi-guy-oseary/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_Malawi

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/04/03/madonna-s-malawi-disaster.html

On Fri, August 23, 2013 5:50 pm, Walter Bender wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 23, 2013 at 4:35 PM, James Simmons  wrote:
>> Finally, the whole Spirituality For Kids thing.  I suppose people have
>> different ideas on what Spirituality is.  The website promotes
>> astrology, which I find kind of dubious.
>
> Maybe I haven't looked carefully enough, but I didn't see anything
> about astrology. Thought it was pretty much a humanist approach.

Definitely Kabbalah and astrology. They mostly try to hide it, but
then here and there they flaunt it. The Kabbalistic doctrine of Divine
Light within each person permeates some of the lessons.

I don't think we should have anything to do with this site. All else
being equal, I would be perfectly happy giving the Kabbalistic
tradition of both Orthodox Judaism and Hasidism equal status with
traditional Judaism and Christianity, say by expanding the Sword Bible
reader to include scriptures of other traditions. We _need_ a Qur'an,
a Bhagavad Gita, Confucius, Buddhist sutras, and other materials so
that students can know where others in their world are coming from.

However, the Orthodox teaching about Kabbalah is that one may not
study it before the age of 50. Doing so without a sufficient grounding
is held to be dangerous, and in fact we see all kinds of superstition
and supposed black magic founded on all sorts of misunderstandings of
what it was originally for. We looked into it a bit in my seminary
training, but I would never hand it to children.

> -walter

-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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[IAEP] Classroom research project in Indiana

2013-05-22 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
I have been offered funding for a research project on XOs, Sugar, and
OERs, and I would like to get information on similar projects.

The funding would cover XOs and other equipment (power, WiFi, server),
teacher training, and testing, at least, for one classroom, preferably
in an inner-city school in Indiana. We would also try out some OERs
from the Sugar Labs Replacing Textbooks program and from FLOSS
Manuals, and write some more. I have asked the Indiana University
eLearning Center and the Indiana DOEd eLearning people for their views
and possibilities for collaboration.

Indiana has a law allowing computers to be purchased from the textbook
budget. So if we could get a statewide OER project to replace all of
the textbooks, we could afford computers for all students at a net
savings.

The first question is how to get the hardware for this project, since
the usual minimum purchase is 10,000 units. Obviously there are
projects at education schools that have gotten past that obstacle.

I would like to gather data on all existing classroom projects in the
US in order to write a report on them for prospective partners. I
would share it with this community, of course. Perhaps there are
opportunities for collaboration between projects, as well.

I assume that many such projects have developed materials that would
be of use in this project, whether software, teacher training
materials, lesson plans, or any other.

The question of testing is a vexed one, as any of you know who have
seen the nonsense published about the Peru study. Opponents of our
work ignore improvements in cognitive skills, among other issues. More
broadly, none of us entirely know what else we should be measuring. In
general, in scientific inquiries, a good question is worth thousands
of ordinary answers.

I have also been approached for a very different OLPC project in
another country which I will write about when I know something more
definite. Well, I can say that there is involvement from an
international foundation, and possibly UNESCO, and that there is talk
of an international conference. But so far it is just talk.

-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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Re: [IAEP] Fwd: Fwd: [squeakland] The Dynabook and modern computing

2013-04-10 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
[I'm sorry, this got lost in cyberspace for a week.]

I'll give the same answer here.

Actually, it was agriculture that led to the idea of government as a
protection racket and to kneecapping or worse of those who refused to pay
their taxes. Hunter-gatherer cultures are tribal, not national, and far
more cooperative. I have historical and archaeological data on this if
anybody needs it. Or you could watch The Gods Must Be Crazy and its sequel
for humorous examples.

"Run and tell everybody to come and help us eat this elephant." (Killed by
poachers, who took the tusks and left the body.)


On Tue, April 2, 2013 10:27 pm, Yoshiki Ohshima wrote:
> It took me while to realize that I forwarded it to a wrong list...
>
>
> -- Forwarded message --
> From: Alan Kay 
> Date: Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 11:57 AM
> Subject: Re: Fwd: [squeakland] The Dynabook and modern computing
> To: Yoshiki Ohshima 
> Cc: Bert Freudenberg 
>
>
> Ask him: how did the invention of agriculture influence "civilization"?
>
> Or: what is ultimately more powerful, competition or cooperation?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alan
>
> 
> From: Yoshiki Ohshima 
> To: Alan Kay 
> Cc: Bert Freudenberg 
> Sent: Tuesday, April 2, 2013 11:47 AM
> Subject: Fwd: [squeakland] The Dynabook and modern computing
>
> Benoit is asking this.
>
> -- Forwarded message --
> From: Benoît Fleury 
> Date: Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 11:36 AM
> Subject: Re: [squeakland] The Dynabook and modern computing
> To: Bert Freudenberg 
> Cc: IAEP SugarLabs , squeakland list
> 
>
>
> Thank you Bert for the link.
>
> I am not sure to understand this metaphor with agriculture.
>
> "One way to think of all of these organizations is to realize that if
> they require a charismatic leader who will shoot people in the knees
> when needed, then the corporate organization and process is a failure.
> It means no group can come up with a good decision and make it stick
> just because it is a good idea. All the companies I’ve worked for have
> this deep problem of devolving to something like the hunting and
> gathering cultures of 100,000 years ago. If businesses could find a
> way to invent “agriculture” we could put the world back together and
> all would prosper."
>
> If someone could explain me what it means.
>
> Thanks,
> Benoit.
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 1:38 PM, Bert Freudenberg 
> wrote:
>> Time interviews Alan Kay:
>>
>> http://techland.time.com/2013/04/02/an-interview-with-computing-pioneer-alan-kay/
>>
>> - Bert -
>>
>>
>> ___
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>> squeakl...@squeakland.org
>> http://lists.squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland
> ___
> squeakland mailing list
> squeakl...@squeakland.org
> http://lists.squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland
>
>
> --
> -- Yoshiki
>
>
>
>
> --
> -- Yoshiki
> ___
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>


--
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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[IAEP] XO Help and open source docs conference

2013-04-10 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
If there is sufficient interest to get a team together, I can probably
attend. I can drive over from Indiana. I see that our Janet Swisher
will be speaking. So we could definitely organize a sprint.

On Wed, April 10, 2013 8:39 am, Christoph Derndorfer wrote:
> Hi Gonzalo,
>
> thanks a lot for forwarding that invitation.
>
> Both the conference and the sprints sound like a great opportunity to
> update Sugar documentation (especially looking towards 1.00 / 0.100) and
> connect with others working in that area!
>
> Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to attend myself as the prices
> for
> flights from Europe are very close to reaching their summer-high in
> mid-June (e.g. the absolutely cheapest option which I could find for
> Vienna-Cincinnati-Vienna would cost ~€830).
>
> Plus after the outcome of the documentation sprint in Boston last April
> (which left much to be desired) and our failure to be accepted at the
> Google DocSprint at the end of the year I think it might be a good idea to
> have new blood lead any such efforts. Daniel Francis has repeatedly
> expressed his interest in documentation lately, maybe someone can support
> him in putting together a team of kick-ass documentation ninjas for the
> event. :-)
>
> Cheers,
> Christoph
>
> On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 1:15 PM, Gonzalo Odiard  wrote:
>
>> Forward information about OpenHelpConference invitation.
>>
>> Gonzalo
>>
>> -- Forwarded message --
>> From: Shaun McCance 
>> Date: Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 11:18 AM
>> Subject: XO Help and open source docs conference
>> To: Gonzalo Odiard , Brian Jordan ,
>> David Farning , Bastien Guerry 
>>
>>
>> Hi guys,
>>
>> I'm the team lead for the GNOME documentation team, and the developer
>> of the documentation viewer and tools used in GNOME. I'm emailing you
>> because you're all listed as the developers of the XO Help activity.
>>
>> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4051
>>
>> For the last two years, I've been running a conference that focuses
>> on documentation and support in open source and open communities.
>> The third Open Help Conference is this June.
>>
>> http://openhelpconference.com/
>>
>> We regularly get contributors to projects like Mozilla, OpenStack,
>> FreeBSD, and of course GNOME. The two-day conference portion has a
>> heavy emphasis on open, attendee-led discussions, with only a few
>> presentations to spark the conversation.
>>
>> We also host a number of teams for doc sprints for three days after
>> the conference. Sprint attendance is not mandatory, and each team
>> runs its own sprint. The teams do get together to share thoughts
>> and hang out.
>>
>> Do you think anybody within the Sugar and OLPC communities would
>> be interested in attending? I think it's a shame that Sugar and
>> GNOME people don't talk more often, and I'd love to meet anyone
>> interested in documentation.
>>
>> Let me know if you have any questions.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Shaun
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Gonzalo Odiard
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Christoph Derndorfer
>
> volunteer, OLPC (Austria) [www.olpc.at]
> editor, OLPC News [www.olpcnews.com]
> contributor, TechnikBasteln [www.technikbasteln.net]
>
> e-mail: christ...@derndorfer.eu
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


--
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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Re: [IAEP] Suggestions needed for Learning(Teaching) reading

2013-02-28 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
On Wed, February 27, 2013 8:09 pm, Steve Thomas wrote:
> I will be heading to Haiti next month and the teachers are requesting
> feedback and ideas on teaching English at the school I will be visiting.
>
> I am looking for good resources on methods of teaching/lessons, software
> suggestions and non computer games and methods of learning.

One of the best methods for teaching foreign languages is the
microwave technique created by Earl Stevick of the US Foreign Service
Institute, one of the top language schools in the world. It consists
of short, carefully sequenced lessons that introduce single points of
grammar, which are then reinforced in dialogs where students are
encouraged to explore the possible range of variation in using the
expressions they have just learned. Microwave was adopted by the Peace
Corps for all of its language materials and courses in something like
80 languages. I was taught a little bit of the technique as an English
teacher with the Peace Corps in South Korea in the 1960s.

There is A Microwave Course in English as a Second Language (For
Spanish Speakers) available for free download from the US government
Educational Resources Information Center Web site.

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED035876&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED035876

A teacher's manual exists, but I have not seen it offered for download.

Obviously, this is not quite what the Haitian teachers want. It would
require significant work to adapt it to the requirements of speakers
of standard French or of Kreyòl Ayisyen, and to make it usable at
other than the adult level.

I can assist. I have been working on the similar Microwave Course in
Spanish (for English speakers), and trying to get a Creative Commons
license to permit wider use, adaptation, and republishing. We do not
know who owns the copyright at present, since the original publisher,
Lingoco, has gone out of business. I could do with some assistance in
such issues of licensing.

> I have ordered "Proust and the Squid" and am looking at Maryanne Wolf
> video's suggested by Mike Lee.
>
> Thanks,
> Stephen

-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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Re: [IAEP] video of XOs in the Amazon

2013-01-31 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
I added a paragraph on the documentary and the YouTube excerpt, with
references, to the English-language version of the page. Can somebody
let the children know so that they can translate it for the
Spanish-language page?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestina,_Peru

I have wanted to suggest this practice of having students write
Wikipedia pages as a regular part of the curriculum for every OLPC
deployment, starting with pages in the local languages on every local
subject, and expanding to translations by students of various other
languages as they become sufficiently capable. I will write this up
for my blog, http://replacingtextbooks.wordpress.com/

This page mentions caywa, evidently a local crop for which there is no
Wikipedia page in either Spanish or English. I do not find it in
Spanish Wiktionary, either. Here is another page that mentions caywa
without explanation.

http://sachamama.livingroutes.org/2011/07/28/shukshuyaku/

Apparently the standard spelling is caigua, and the name is derived
from Quechua kaywa.

http://www.yanuq.com/buscador.asp?idreceta=1095

http://es.wiktionary.org/wiki/caigua

So I added a link to

Cyclanthera pedata
«Caigua» redirige aquí

Please thank the students for me, and let them know that I was
delighted to have the opportunity for a collaboration with them. No
hablo español realmente, pero sé leer. Qué los niños me escriben, por
favor. Muchas gracias.

On Thu, January 31, 2013 12:35 am, Alan Jhonn Aguiar Schwyn wrote:
> A great story!
>
>> From: w...@laptop.org
>> Subject: video of XOs in the Amazon
>> Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:07:14 -0500
>> To: de...@lists.laptop.org
>>
>>
>> Wikipedia pointed me to this excerpt from an upcoming film, "web".
>> It shows kids with XOs in the Peruvian Amazon creating on Wikipedia:
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XPnH_rF9ks&feature=youtu.be
>>
>> Cheers,
>> wad

-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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[IAEP] Linux Foundation seeks video tutorials

2013-01-30 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
Would anybody care to submit a tutorial about Linux on an XO or Sugar
on a Stick? They are asking specifically about spreading Linux around
the world. I have some ideas about what we could show.

http://video.linux.com/100-linux-tutorials
100 Linux Tutorials Video Campaign

Join us in building a collective knowledge base for Linux! The Linux
Foundation is inviting you to share your knowledge of Linux with
people who are just getting started. Help us remove barriers to
learning Linux and transfer expertise around the globe.
-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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Re: [IAEP] Factorisation visualisation was Sugar Digest 2013-01-25

2013-01-27 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
You can't do functions with arguments in Turtle Art, and so obviously
you can't do full recursion with stacked and shadowed arguments
directly in Turtle Art, but you can implement much of recursion in any
of the usual ways using the push and pop stack blocks or other dodges.
Have a look at the fractal examples in the library. Or you could call
Python to create a list to store partial results in.

The case of tail recursion, where none of the recursive calls have to
return because the recursive call is the last statement in the
function, is easy. In pseudocode, with handwaving of some details that
I leave as exercises,

Set count to 0

Give variable n a positive integer value.

Factorize
If n=1, end
ElseIf n is prime, push n; increment count
Else find a factor m of n, and push that factor; increment count
Factorize n/m

ShowResult
while count>0
  print pop m
  decrement count

Of course in Logo you have full recursion. In the Etoys version of
Turtle Art, you can use recursion in Smalltalk.

On Sun, January 27, 2013 3:14 am, Alan Jhonn Aguiar Schwyn wrote:
>> To: sthom...@gosargon.com
>> From: fors...@ozonline.com.au
>> Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2013 16:44:51 +1100
>> CC: iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org; sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org
>> Subject: [IAEP] Factorisation visualisation was Sugar Digest 2013-01-25
>>
>> > > http://www.datapointed.net/visualizations/math/factorization/animated-diagrams/
>> >
>> >
>> > Beautiful, thanks for sharing. If anyone does code this up, please
>> allow
>> > for stepping (rather than playing) and allow kids to enter numbers and
>> > factors, so they can guess and look for patterns.  Or kids could
>> create
>> > their own versions in Turtle Art or Etoys as part of a lesson.
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> Clunky but working in Turtle Art at
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/File:Turtle_Art_factors.ta
>>
>> Its limited to 3 factors, I couldn't see any way to have an arbitary
>> number of factors without recursion and I couldn't see any way to get
>> recursion in Turtle Art
> Good!
> I change the .ta to this "automatic version" that begins in 1 and
> continues.. see .ta attached..
>>
>> Tony

-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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[IAEP] Classroom of the Future (was Re: Looking for a school to see technology in education in action in Orlando or Miami area)

2013-01-10 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
On Thu, January 10, 2013 11:35 am, Rita Freudenberg wrote:
> Hi,
>
> on behalf of my colleagues I'm looking for a school they can visit while
> they are attending FETC conference in Orlando at the end of this month.
> Here in Magdeburg, Germany, we are working in a project "classroom of the
> future", dealing with the technological and educational challenges when
> using laptops in the classroom.

Would your project be interested in discussing OERs and digital
learning materials technologies, such as Etoys, EPUB3, and HTML5? We
have established that computers with Free Software and OERs cost much
less than printed textbooks, and we know in principle that OERs can be
used to integrate Free Software into the curriculum in every school
subject, including gym/PE.

If the answer to the above question is yes, then consider this an
application for me, as head of Replacing Textbooks at Sugar Labs, and
a contributor to FLOSS Manuals and so on, to join your project.

Columbus, Indiana, where I now live, has started to put computers in
the classroom. California has a Free Digital Textbooks Initiative.
Bangladesh and South Korea are well along in developing free digital
textbooks and classroom computers. Indonesia has made a public
commitment to do so, and has made a strong start on digitizing
existing textbooks. India is sort of thinking about it with the
underpowered Aakash computer. This is in addition to countries
committed to OLPC projects, and other projects using other computers,
other software, and other OERs. Creative Commons, UNESCO, and UNDP are
all very active in OERs, although UNESCO needs some help to get
started on K-12 materials. UNHWR would also be interested, for example
in putting OERs into its school deployments in Palestinian refugee
camp schools in Gaza and elsewhere.

There will be an international conference on OERs in Bali, Indonesia
this year. I expect that school tours can be arranged.

http://conference.ocwconsortium.org/index.php/2013/2013
OCWC Global Conference 2013
Bali Ayodya Resort
May 8, 2013 – May 10, 2013

OCWC Global 2013, hosted by APTIKOM Indonesia, will be held in Bali,
Indonesia May 8-10. Partnering with the OCWC and APTIKOM for the
realization of conference goals is a local organizing team which
includes the National ICT Council of Indonesia, Ministry of Education
and Culture, Ministry of Information and Communication, and the
Indonesian Open University.

Held annually, OCWC Global reunites the OCW/OER community for three
days of showcasing new projects, debating issues of common concern,
and exchanging useful practices in matters such as pedagogy, policy
and technology.

> They are very much interested to see how
> these things work in other countries.
> If you know a school they could visit or a person they could talk to,
> please let me know. They are not only interested to see best practice, but
> also, what kind of problems arise. Since we are at the beginning of this
> here in our area, we want to learn what works and what to anticipate.
>
> For plan b, do you think I could just approach schools in the area and ask
> if they can visit? They are both computer scientists, but their first
> training was to become teachers. Now they work here at the university in
> Magdeburg in the teacher training group.
>
> Thank you for your help!
>
> Greetings,
> Rita
>
> Rita Freudenberg
> rita.freudenb...@ovgu.de

-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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Re: [IAEP] [Olpc-open] Healthcare - Potential Opportunity

2012-12-17 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
For images of the eye under CC-BY-SA,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Eye

On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 12:47 AM, Alan Jhonn Aguiar Schwyn
 wrote:
> I'm not sure why, but I not like much Etoys (with all my respect to my
> namesake Alan Kay :-)
>
> I prefer a pure-python activity. For example, a first activity could be: "I
> know the Eye" and use a
> similar image to this: (search: eye anatomy)
>
> External: (muscleds, etc)
>
> http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-x4oGiQWiUA/TMP2dRqClBI/AGY/PuehgCY8WJM/s1600/eye+anatomy+2.jpg
>
> And internal:
>
> http://www.floridaeyeclinic.com/images/aao-G04-large.jpg
>
> The first problem is obtain a good image (CC creative commons or similiar
> free license).
>
>
> 
> Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:31:15 -0500
> From: sthom...@gosargon.com
> To: andry...@gmail.com
> CC: olpc-o...@lists.laptop.org; alan...@hotmail.com;
> sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org; iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org
> Subject: Re: [IAEP] [Olpc-open] Healthcare - Potential Opportunity
>
> Alan,
>
> If you have the materials (images, test, knowledge, etc.) I would be happy
> to work with you to create some materials in Etoys that could help educate
> folks about the eye and more importantly detect vision problems and provide
> suggestions and resources on how to deal with them.  If you send me some
> materials I can put something together in Etoys fairly quickly.  It would be
> available to all OLPC XO's and because its Etoys, it can also run on
> Windows, Mac and Linux (with no code changes).  If it works for both of us,
> we could put together some quick prototypes to help build a "more robust
> case".
>
> Stephen
>
> On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 12:09 AM, Chris Leonard 
> wrote:
>
>> From: andry...@gmail.com
>> To: olpc-o...@lists.laptop.org
>> Subject: [Olpc-open] Healthcare - Potential Opportunity
>>
>> Hello, I'm new to this venue but am looking to contribute and/or determine
>> if I might have some material that would benefit the community.  I work
>> for
>> a healthcare company that specializes in vision and was wondering if there
>> was any need for material on healthy vision or perhaps an interactive eye
>> model to teach children about the different parts of the eye.  It could be
>> anything in this realm really - the sky is the limit.
>>
>> My company is constantly looking for ways to give back and if there was
>> some
>> interest in this I'd look to build a more robust case and inquire more
>> deeply into whether the company would be willing to put some resources
>> behind this.
>>
>> Is there anyone on this distribution list that would be able to point me
>> in
>> the right direction?
>
>
> I would suggest taking a look at the accumulated notes and links on these
> pages.
>
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Vision_screening
>
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Visual_Acuity
>
> cjl
> ___
>
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> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>
>
>
> ___ IAEP -- It's An Education
> Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
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>
> ___
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>



-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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[IAEP] Fwd: With AdWords Express we manage your ads - get started with 2 months free* advertising

2012-11-28 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
t is applied.
Use of the offer may be restricted to automatic payments billing options.
If you create your Google AdWords Express account in a different currency
than the one in which your promotional credit has been awarded, the actual
amount of the promotional credit may be subject to foreign currency
fluctuations. Offer valid only for sign ups through the URL provided for
the promotion by customers with billing address in the United States. Offer
expires 3 months after the media containing your voucher was first issued
or on the expiration date provided on the voucher (if any). Your use of
this voucher and/or the promotional credit constitutes your acceptance of
these terms and conditions. Offer void where prohibited by law. Sorry we
put you through all this legal jargon!



-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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[IAEP] SoaS in Fargo (was Re: IAEP Digest, Vol 56, Issue 23)

2012-11-22 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
Tony Forster and I have been creating Turtle Art tutorials on various
art, math, programming, and Computer Science subjects, which you can
find at

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/TurtleArt/Tutorials

Please let us know whether any of this would be useful in your
curriculum, and whether there are any other materials you would like
us to help develop. Our topics range from preschool (You Be the
Turtle) to a Turtle Art Turing Machine.

On Mon, November 19, 2012 12:34 pm, Brooks, Kevin wrote:
> John,
>
> we run a SoaS after school program at two K-6 schools in Fargo.  We have a
> computer science undergraduate making the sticks, and I'll warn you--our
> failure rate on sticks is often about 20%.  We haven't been able to
> identify all the problems: sometimes them simply won't boot, other times
> they will boot and work for a session or two and then fail.  Sometimes the
> kids just yank them out--we are pretty sure that isn't a good idea.  ; )
>
> We have a 14 week curriculum posted on our website, but we have modified
> it for this year. We haven't posted the new stuff.  We just meet once a
> week for about 45 minutes a session.  After a single day overview of Sugar
> we have focused on Turtle ARt for 5 weeks (going on 6).  We are very happy
> with this curriculum.  Last year we split our spring curriculum between
> Physics (which the kids love) and Etoys (which they don't).  You'd think
> we would stick with Physics this year, but we might give Etoys another
> run.  : )
>
> Oh, I noticed you are aiming for 5-7 year olds; we work with the upper
> range: 10-12.  We can still talk technical stuff and I could guess at some
> pedagogical issues with 5-7 years.  I've had my own kids use Sugar.
>
> Feel free to call or Skype, John, if you want more details.
>
> Kevin
> http://fargoxo.wordpress.com
> Skype: kabbie13
>
>
> On Nov 19, 2012, at 11:00 AM,
> mailto:iaep-requ...@lists.sugarlabs.org>>
>  wrote:
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2012 19:10:09 -0500
> From: John Landis mailto:j...@johnlandis.net>>
> To: iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org<mailto:iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org>
> Subject: [IAEP] Introduction: teacher interested in SOAS
> Message-ID:
> mailto:CACSFgESFW8Ogb5B+vbtjzFfwwat-eRPsLCVh8PCTvhC=bqn...@mail.gmail.com>>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Hi there,
>
> Not sure if this email list is the proper place to post, but I wanted
> to introduce myself to the community.
>
> I work in Philadelphia, teaching technology and media literacy at a
> K-6 (ages about 4-12) charter school.
>
> I'm interested in using Sugar on a Stick with my 5-7 year old
> students.  I need a bit of guidance as I explore this new territory,
> both on the technical and the pedagogical side of things.
>
> So, first question: have I got the right community or should I be
> posting elsewhere?
>
> -John Landis
>
>
>
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
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-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
___
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Re: [IAEP] Learnable Programming

2012-09-30 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
On Thu, September 27, 2012 6:24 am, Bert Freudenberg wrote:
> Great new essay by Bret Victor on "Designing a programming system for
> understanding programs":
>
>   http://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/

I plan to follow up on this in detail after I finish the work I am
doing on the Etoys Reference Manual. We need an Etoys By Example book,
at least.

> - Bert -


-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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[IAEP] Sugar Digest 2012-09-18

2012-09-19 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
I would go further. Can we invite the children to give us their
stories? They should be wikified, blogged, made the subject of
articles in the geek and education press, and spread even more widely
than that. Better still, can we invite the schools where this children
are learning and sharing to celebrate them using Sugar tools to create
interactive presentations?

On Wed, September 19, 2012 10:52 am, James Simmons wrote:
> Walter,
>
> First, congrats on the grandchild.
>
> Second, I am intrigued by the statement that 10% of Sugar Activities were
> written by children who grew up with Sugar.  That is an incredible
> accomplishment, and it makes me wish that the ASLO website had a
> Collection
> of those Activities.  If something like that existed I could see what
> kinds
> of Activities they were doing, how many were programs written for other
> environments using a Sugar wrapper, how many are purely Sugar Activities,
> who the developers are, what Sugar features are they using and not using,
> how popular the Activities are, etc.
>
> It would also give our younger developers a way to stand up and be
> counted.
>
> James Simmons


--
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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Re: [IAEP] My problem with your OUI is that I can't see what problem it is solving.

2012-09-16 Thread mokurai
> >
>> > > style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">> style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">there
>> are
>> two strategies for that: evolution (by working with school systems) or
>> revolution (by working against them).
>> >
>> > > style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">> style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">perhaps
>> i
>> am wrong, but it looks to me that sugar has followed the latter route.
>>  Papert's marvellous insights were seminal - and i seem to recall that
>> there was talk of a revolution in the classroom - but perhaps that was
>> just
>> the heady language of the 1960s at work?  the electronic spreadsheet was
>> another seminal development - and even more far-reaching, for it was the
>> one that sparked the personal computer revolution in the first place,
>> and
>> one that has stood the test of time so far.
>> >
>> > > style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">> style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">economic/social
>> revolution worked in France, but its ideals never made it into USA
>> political consciousness, except in the mouths of a few sanguine
>> commentators like Noam Chomsky and less sanguine ones like Michael
>> Moore. 
>> >
>> > > style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">> style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">yet
>> the
>> computer revolution still hasn't made a major impact on education - a
>> minor
>> one, to be sure, but the promise has yet to be fully realised.  it is
>> possible that the people who like making software, being computer
>> enthusiasts, forget that the average Joe child in whatever country has
>> other, more urgent, more visceral, more real-world needs than making
>> machines dance?  like knowing how to prevent/stem infection.  like
>> knowing
>> how to manage money.  etc etc.  computers could help them learn these
>> vital
>> things, if only that was where the technocrats' motivations lay...
>> >
>> > > style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">> style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">in the
>> long run, evolution is more persistent than revolution.  empires, having
>> risen, eventually and fall.  but technology marches on and drags
>> humankind
>> (sometimes kicking and screaming) into new ways of thinking about
>> things.
>> >
>> > > style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">> style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">an
>> interface, like a human language, is a means to an end, but
>> (particularly
>> in a monopoly market) there is always the risk of it becoming political
>> territory, as with the Academie Francaise for example, fighting off the
>> linguistic invasion of "l'Anglish".
>> >
>> > > style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">> style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">but if
>> evolution is truly inevitable, might it not be better to go with it than
>> stick one's heels in against it?
>> >
>> > > style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">> style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">aside
>> from the surface interface issues of whether one should point with a
>> finger
>> or a mouse, or type on a screen or a keyboard (typing isn't going to go
>> away anytime soon as reliable AI aural comprehension is still a long way
>> off) - there are deeper issues; issues about the "deep interface" -
>> issues
>> about how the interface provides access to function.  Google has found a
>> pretty good way of providing access to data - now users need one for
>> providing obvious access pathways to function too, to make machines
>> truly
>> "user-friendly".
>> >
>> > > style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">> style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">and a
>> means of facilitating collaboration:  if there is one still green field
>> waiting to be ploughed, it is the field of synchronous real-time
>> collaborative creative activity extending beyond mere chat.  user
>> collaboration takes place inside an application, but the screen
>> management
>> and filesystem support engineering needs to provide the props for that
>> to
>> occur smoothly, to assure data integrity, etc.  this is one of the
>> stated
>> design goals of sugar; i don't know whether it is also a design goal of
>> android.
>> >
>> > > style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">> style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">below
>> is
>> one suggestion on how desktop and playground metaphors of android/linux
>> and
>> sugar respectively could coalesce and evolve, so that the user interface
>> gets out of the user's way and becomes merely a means to the end of
>> facilitating interaction with the real educational (or other functional)
>> content instead of (as in the case of sugar) shouting about itself in
>> the
>> user's face or (as in the case of linux) being awkwardly troublesome for
>> the non-geek:
>> >
>> > > style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">> style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;border:0px;padding:0px">> href="
>> https://sites.google.com/site/djhbrown2/oui.pdf";
>> style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(102,17,204)"
>> target="_blank">https://sites.google.com/site/djhbrown2/oui.pdf
>> >
>> >
>> > 
>> > ___
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>> > IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>> > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> website <http://sites.google.com/site/djhbrown2/home>
> +61(0)266537638
> +61(0)488471949
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(默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج)
Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


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[IAEP] Fwd: [Womeninfreesoftware] AdaCamp July 10 - 11 in DC, Applications are open

2012-04-27 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
Anybody want to go and talk about all of our girls?


-- Forwarded message --
From: Deb Nicholson 
Date: Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 10:46
Subject: [Womeninfreesoftware] AdaCamp July 10 - 11 in DC, Applications are open
To: "Discussion re: increasing women's participation in free software"



Applications for AdaCamp DC are now open - apply now!

http://dc.adacamp.org/apply/

AdaCamp DC will be July 10 - 11, 2012, in Washington DC, co-located
with Wikimania 2012. We are likely to have more applications than
available slots, so apply now to have the best chance of attending.
Applications close June 15 (May 11 for those requesting travel
assistance).

Who should apply

AdaCamp DC will bring together a wide variety of people from open
technology and culture, all of whom are working to support women in
open tech/culture. We're looking for people who:

* Participate in open technology and culture: any field involving
open/grassroots/community participation and sharing the results of
your work for free: open data, open source software, wikis, open
government, open libraries, remix/fan culture, open video, and more
* Can share information about women's experiences in that field,
including talking about women's achievements and the challenges they
face
* Want to work together and share strategies to support and promote
women in the field
* Share the Ada Initiative's feminist approach to supporting and
promoting women in open technology and culture
* Are young and old; students, professionals and hobbyists; from a
diverse range of backgrounds; and reflect the breadth of the open
technology and culture field

AdaCamp is open to people of all genders. However, since AdaCamp and
the Ada Initiative exist to support and promote women in open
technology and culture, prospective attendees who are not themselves
women will need to demonstrate a high level of prior engagement and
experience with the issues faced by women in those fields in order to
be invited.

Find out more about AdaCamp DC at the event webpage: http://dc.adacamp.org/
__
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-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
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Re: [IAEP] Teaching kids to program - how to train your robot

2012-04-26 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
On Mon, April 16, 2012 2:04 am, Martin Dengler wrote:
> Nice hack for holding kids' attention while teaching them
> "programming": use the parents as the computer.
>
> http://drtechniko.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/how-to-train-your-robot/
>
> I wonder if there is any direct tie-in to Sugar activities?

See my tutorial, You Be the Turtle.

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/TurtleArt/Tutorials/You_be_the_Turtle

> Martin

-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
___
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[IAEP] Fwd: Linux Foundation Announces 2012 Collaboration Summit Keynotes & Program

2012-03-09 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
Anybody attending? Anybody going to tell them about our collaboration tools?

-- Forwarded message --
From: Linux Foundation Events 
Date: Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 16:07
Subject: Linux Foundation Announces 2012 Collaboration Summit Keynotes & Program
To: echer...@gmail.com


Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit
April 3 - 5, 2012
Hotel Nikko - San Francisco, CA

Taking place annually since 2007, the Linux Foundation’s Collaboration
Summit is an exclusive, invitation-only gathering of the brightest
minds in Linux, including core kernel developers, distribution
maintainers, ISVs, end users, system vendors and other community
organizations. It is the only conference designed to accelerate
collaboration and encourage solutions by bringing together a true
cross-section of leaders to meet face-to-face to tackle and solve the
most pressing issues facing Linux today.

Interested in attending the Collaboration Summit?  Space is limited at
this event, and runs out every year, so request an invitation to
attend today.

The Collaboration Summit 2012 Keynote Line-up Includes:

Frank Frankovsky, Facebook’s Director of Hardware Design and Supply
Chain talking about Open Compute
Imad Sousou, director of Intel’s OSTC, discussing the importance of
Linux at Intel
Feargal O'Sullivan, Global Head of Alliances at NYSE Technologies,
Inc. talking about how they open sourced the OpenMAMA middleware
system for the Financial Services industry at the Linux Foundation
Linux Kernel Developer Panel featuring James Bottomley, Parallels;
Keith Packard, Intel; John Linville, Red Hat and moderated by Greg
Kroah-Hartman, The Linux Foundation
Timo Jokiaho, CTO, System Software at Huawei Technologies discussing
how Network Traffic Growth in the mobile industry is driving Linux and
Open Source Innovation
IBM’s Gerrit Huizenga will give a reality check on the state of Linux
and the cloud in a presentation titled “The Clouds Are Coming: Are We
Ready?"
Getting the Kinks out of the Software Supply Chain Panel featuring
panelists Mark Gisi, Wind River Systems; Scott Lamons,
Hewlett-Packard; Jack Manbeck, Texas Instruments and moderated by Phil
Odence, Black Duck Software

View the Schedule and Program

Collaboration Summit 2012 Workgroups & Conference Sessions will cover
the following topics:

Virtualization/Cloud Computing
HPC/HA
Tracing
Legal
Kernel
OpenMAMA
Tizen
Yocto Project
LSB
Desktop
SPDX
Community Best Practices
Filesystems
UEFI
Tools

If you would like to attend this exclusive event, request an invitation today:

Co-Located Events & Linux Training

Alongside the Collaboration Summit this year, we are please to offer
the following Linux Foundation Linux Training Courses:

LF384 Overview of Open Source Compliance End-to-End Process
(Hotel Nikko, San Francisco) April 1, 2012
Enroll Now

LF271 Practical Guide to Open Source Development
(Hotel Nikko, San Francisco) April 2, 2012
Enroll Now

LF326 Advanced Linux Performance Tuning
(Hotel Nikko, San Francisco) April 2, 2012
Enroll Now



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--
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
___
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Re: [IAEP] RFC:Simple Help widget for activities

2012-03-07 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
On Wed, March 7, 2012 7:37 am, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
> We receive many times request about adding help in the activities,
> and if is true Sugar propose a exploratory approach,
> not all the people learn in the same way,
> and there are people who prefer a little guidance.

I yield to nobody in my preference for letting students discover as
much as possible about Sugar, or anything else, but as I noted in The
Undiscoverable on the Wiki, it is not always possible, particularly
when dealing with named functions in math and programming, and
sometimes in other areas. There are times when hints are required, and
times when outright explanation is required. You will find many
examples of both in The Undiscoverable, and in the draft Discovering
Discovery at http://booki.treehouse.su.

On the other hand, Donald Norman famously complained, in The
Psychology of Everyday Things/The Design of Everyday Things, about
doors that require a user manual, even of one word, whether Push or
Pull. One should apply his design principles, and others like them, to
every item that appears to require a help entry.

> For the development we need a simple api, and easy i18n,
> and a non obtrusive experience for the user.

None of which is easy to replicate when reinventing the training wheel. ^_^

> Inspired by the DescriptionItem, I was experimenting with a widget to add
> simple help to activities.
> This is not:
> * A manual
> * Lessons
> * Tips
> Is a short startup help for the activity.
>
> Use only text and the icons already used by the activity.
>
> A example can be seen here:
> http://dev.laptop.org/~gonzalo/images/simple_graph_help.png
>
> In the activity we only need do:
>
> helpitem = HelpButton()
> toolbar.insert(helpitem, -1)
> helpitem.show()
> helpitem.add_section(_('Basic usage'))
> helpitem.add_paragraph(_('First you need add data to create the
> graphic'))
> helpitem.add_paragraph(_('You can add data with this button'),
> 'row-insert')
> helpitem.add_paragraph(_('...or remove data with this button'),
> 'row-remove')
> helpitem.add_paragraph(_('To change the graphic title, just change the
> activity title'))
> 

We should get the result of your work, when it stabilizes, added to
Making Your Own Sugar Activities.

> This proposal is late for sugar 0.96, but may be we can try it in one or
> two activities,
> and start thinking about this topic.
> I really like the help in the Implode activity, but have the following
> problems:
> * I don't know if apply to other type of activities.
> * Is modal
> * need a lot of code to implement it.
>
> Comments?

Thank you.

> Gonzalo

-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
___
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Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS] meeting announcement

2012-02-25 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
On Sat, February 25, 2012 8:46 pm, Chris Leonard wrote:
> +1

Or, in the J terminology I am using in updating Ken Iverson's book,
Algebra: An Algorithmic Treatment, >:

I sent Walter a note that Google is now offering grants to US 501c3s.
I will see if I can get more detail for the meeting. There are other
grant opportunities that we could pursue.

> cjl
>
> On Sat, Feb 25, 2012 at 6:56 PM, Walter Bender 
> wrote:
>> Robert Fadel has got a great handle on the SL finances and is ready
>> bring SLOBs and the community up to speed. Would Tuesday at 5:30PM EST
>> (22:30 UTC) work?
>>
>> Usual place: irc.freenode.net #sugar-meeting.
>>
>> regards.
>>
>> -walter
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>> ___
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
___
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Re: [IAEP] Google Summer of Code

2012-02-12 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
On Wed, February 8, 2012 6:15 pm, Walter Bender wrote:
> It is that time of year again. We need to start soliciting
> participants in Google Summer of Code [1, 2]. We also need to organize
> our application to the program as a mentoring organization. Please
> contact me if you are interested in participating as a coder, a
> mentor, or administrator.

Can we propose projects to integrate free software into Open Education
Resources and thus into curricula? I would be delighted to mentor or
administer such projects, and to coordinate between GSoC projects and
FLOSS Manuals (for software manuals) and Sugar Labs (for Replacing
Textbooks). I have several lined up in math and can come up with
others in a variety of subjects.

I have recently been doing the coding for Algebra: An Algorithmic
Treatment, by Turing Award winner Kenneth E. Iverson. He wrote it for
APL on printing terminals in the early 1970s, and I have translated it
to his last language, J, on Linux, Mac, and Windows.

> regards.
>
> -walter
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>
> [1] http://code.google.com/soc/
> [2] http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2012
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
___
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[IAEP] [OLPC library] OLPC/Sugar Doc Sprint Apr 6-10 @ OLPC HQ in Boston

2012-02-09 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
Can any of us arrange to stay with somebody in the area while we work together?

On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 03:55, Holt  wrote:
> Plz read all the wiki details & RSVP here if you will contribute+attend, as
> we will very shortly reach capacity:
>
>     http://j.mp/xomanual
>
> 20 People Expected in Person, from 4+ continents: Sameer Verma, Mike Lee,
> Walter Bender, Claudia Urrea, Richard Smith, Christoph Derndorfer, Reuben
> Caron, Mark Battley, Paul Fox, George Hunt, Chris Ball, Nancie Severs,
> CScott Ananian, Craig Perue, Saadia Baloch, Bill Stelzer, Bernie Innocenti,
> Dogi Unterhauser, Laura de Reynal, Adam Holt, etc -- even Sugar Labs' new
> finance officer Robert Fadel, and Pablo Flores if we are lucky!
>
> BONUS PREGAME: Apr 2-6 video tutorials sprint proposed for our favorite
> Sugar activities, thanks to Bill Stelzer, Mark Battley, Laura de Reynal,
> Christoph Derndorfer and a growing list of talented mediamakers.
>
> VIRTUAL ROMANCE AIN'T: Please talk to Caryl Bigenho  and
> our public list  if you are motivated to write a
> particular chapter, but cannot attend in person, thanks!!
>
> A huge thanks to Master of Ceremonies Laura de Reynal who will be organizing
> nightly social events for all.  She'll be working with Chris Ball (though he
> doesn't know it yet!) to organize several actual soccer/frisbee/etc matches
> too, get you limbered up, DO bring your April windbreaker & sneakers, as
> I/she/we WILL be bouncing you out of the office on REGULAR occasions to fire
> up yr adrenaline =)
>
> --
> Help kids everywhere map their world, at http://olpcMAP.net !
>
>
> ___
> Library mailing list
> libr...@lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/library
>



--
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
___
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IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
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[IAEP] (no subject)

2012-02-04 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
Please pass this on to

 OLPC Australia ,
 OLPC New Zealand ,
 OLPC Oceania ,
 Grassroots 

On Fri, February 3, 2012 7:41 am, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> You may be interested in a review I have written of the OLPC Australia
> education programme:
>
> http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2012/02/01/creating-an-education-programme/

Thank you for this. Is Australia planning for the necessary conversion
from printed textbooks to all-digital Open Education Resources? I say
that it is necessary in part because the computers cost less than the
printed textbooks, and also because we cannot integrate computer
software into the curriculum until we go to digital OERs. Bangladesh
has done so, and both Uruguay and South Korea have announced plans to
do so.

There are OERs on almost every subject at all levels, but outside
Bangladesh there are no complete integrated suites covering all of the
requirements, including teacher training. We need governments and
school authorities to take this problem seriously, to plan for what is
needed, and to think about how to organize and fund the conversion.

> It contains the video of a talk I gave at the linux.conf.au conference
> in January, and a more detailed explanation of that talk.
>
> Some of the key points:
>
>   * We have a com­pre­hens­ive edu­ca­tion pro­gramme that highly
> val­ues teacher empower­ment and com­munity engagement, with a focus
> on building sustainability.
>   * The invest­ment to provide a con­nec­ted learn­ing device to every
> one of the 300 000 chil­dren in remote Aus­tralia is less than 0.1% of
> the annual edu­ca­tion and con­nectiv­ity budgets.
>   * For low socio-economic status schools, the cost is only $80 AUD
> per child.
>   * Our pro­gramme is avail­able to any school in Aus­tralia, for $380
> AUD per child.
>   * Our programme is schools-centric, with a strong focus on the teacher.
>   * A teacher must undergo training and earn a certification to
> qualify to receive XOs for their class.
>   * Training is conducted online, and hence scales very well.
>   * We have an online community to provide peer-driven support,
> assisted by OLPC Australia personnel.
>   * Technology development and deployment is guided by the principle
> that it must be manageable by non-technical personnel.
>   * Our technology platform is open and not locked-down, providing
> maximum opportunity for children to learn and empowering
> schools/communities to own the deployment for themselves.
>   * We are seeing real educational results from our efforts, and are
> engaged in longitudinal and detailed evaluation.
>   * Our supporters include corporations and members of parliament at
> state and federal levels, but we can always use more help :)
>
> Please have a read if you are interested, and contact us if you would
> like to take part in our mission.
>
> We will be releasing more information on this educational programme in
> the coming months.
>
>
> Sridhar
>
>
> Sridhar Dhanapalan
> Engineering Manager
> One Laptop per Child Australia
> _______
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
___
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[IAEP] Replacing Textbooks server working again

2012-02-02 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
The Replacing Textbooks server, http://booki.treehouse.org/ is back up
on its new hardware. Everything is functioning as before, as far as I
can tell.

-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
___
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[IAEP] Moving the Replacing Textbooks Server

2012-02-01 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
The Replacing Textbooks server at booki.treehouse.su is going down for
transfer to a new host, which I will announce when it becomes
available.

-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
___
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[IAEP] Fwd: What Sugar documentation do deployments need?

2012-01-29 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
On Fri, January 27, 2012 12:07 pm, Pablo Flores wrote:
> This question is meant for people working on OLPC/Sugar deployment teams:
> What documentation do you think is important to have about Sugar and to
> keep updated?

Thank you for this question. I would particularly like to hear from
teachers and students on this. Have you asked on the OLPC-Sur list?

> This arises from the idea that's being discussed in the mailing lists
> about making a documentation sprint on April in Boston.

Have you asked on the FLOSS Manuals FM-Discuss list?

> Initially we talked about
> updating http://laptop.org/manual/, as it got outdated with the recent
> changes to Sugar interface. After that, some ideas arose about developing
> solutions for making the manual's translations to other languages easier,
> of packaging it in different ways and of creating a pedagogic-oriented
> guide, among others.

I am nearing completion of an algebra textbook with software that I
plan to get Sugarized. Every math expression in the book can be
executed via simple copy and paste, and the text suggests explorations
going much further.

> I would like to know what deployments do think that would be useful for
> them.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Saludos,
> Pablo Flores
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

--
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
___
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IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
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Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] 3 Questions From A New Sugar User Age 21

2012-01-26 Thread Edward Mokurai Cherlin
On Thu, January 26, 2012 5:07 pm, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:
> On 27 January 2012 08:55, Thomas C Gilliard 
> wrote:
>>
>> On 01/26/2012 01:40 PM, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:
>>>
>>> On 25 January 2012 03:13, Thomas C Gilliard
>>>  wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On 01/24/2012 07:49 AM, Ma Xiaojun wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> 1. Can I install SoaS to hard disk?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> enter "liveinst" from the sugar-terminal
>>>
>>> Is there a reason why this isn't exposed in the GUI? Maybe it can be a
>>> CP applet?
>>>
>>> I think this is a valuable feature.
>>>
>>
>> Take a look at this new tutorial:
>>
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Creation_Kit/sck/liveinst
>>
>> It is listed here also along with some other tutorials:
>>
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Creation_Kit#F16_Sugar_install_from_a_booted_Live_CD.2FUSB_with_liveinst
>
> Thanks.
>
> The problem, however, is that this is not easily discoverable. A
> newcomer shouldn't have to go searching through the wiki to find a way
> to install SoaS.

I have added a link to these instructions on the page
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick/Downloads, which is
transcluded on the page http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick/
so that it will be easy to find in future. I also added a note about
what computers SoaS runs on, including Intel Macs.

> And using the terminal is not exactly a friendly
> introduction to the platform

But see Introduction to the Command Line (which I helped to write) at

http://en.flossmanuals.net/command-line/

It is, as far as I know, the first and only shell command line manual
for end users who do not plan to become sysadmins, and by far the
friendliest. We had a non-programmer editor make sure that we never
assumed too much, and that we kept to the proper tone and language. I
assembled a glossary of the unavoidable jargon.

> :S
>
> Cheers,
> Sridhar


-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
___
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Re: [IAEP] Teachers ask programmers / Maestros preguntan a Programadores

2011-12-02 Thread mokurai
The Replacing Textbooks program would like to contact countries and states
or provinces within larger countries about the possibility of paid
contracts to get subject-matter and curriculum experts, among others to
create digital textbooks integrating Sugar and other powerful software
into every aspect of the curriculum, including the development of
appropriate teacher-training materials, in the primary international
languages, and in the languages of any country concerned.

In fact, we would like to create an international program in which
countries could share such work and the resulting materials. I have
started to talk with international agencies that could support such a
program, and will be talking with countries when I finish digitizing and
translating the first draft of Turing Award winner Ken Iverson's 1972
textbook, Algebra: An Algorithmic Treatment. It is in a 40-year old
dialect of APL, and I am reworking it in J, Iverson's last language before
he died.

On Fri, December 2, 2011 8:23 pm, Sameer Verma wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 3:52 PM, Iain Brown Douglas
>  wrote:
>> On Tue, 2011-11-29 at 05:55 -0200, Carlos Rabassa wrote:
>>
>>> This could open the competition to write applications to every
>>> programmer in the world who has the required knowledge.
>>>
>>>
>>> Teachers with ideas for good educational applications could write them
>>> themselves or find a programmer willing to do it.  The teacher could
>>> select the programmer without restricting the choice to those willing
>>> to work as unpaid volunteers under the rules of SugarLabs.
>>>
>> How can Sugar address this point and its misapprehension that Sugar
>> looks like a closed shop? It was good to see a reply from Bert
>> Freudenberg, that paid contributors are welcome.
>>
>> It would be good to hear it shouted loud that (for example) if a school
>> were to commission someone to produce work suitable for the Sugar
>> Activity Library, both the school and the writer would be credited.
>>
>> Carlos writes eloquently and with nice metaphor about the world in which
>> he works.
>>
>> I think part of the content of his message tries to address the lack of
>> response to his earlier message, Subject - Where may developers meet
>> educators?
>>
>> As a generous community Sugar does well at harnessing individuals who
>> can do some of their best work alone at 3am. How does Sugar go about
>> giving support to service users?
>>
>> One small idea, could Sugar provide teachers with an area to upload and
>> share lesson plans? This is a major chore, and in a subject anywhere
>> near the edge of ones experience, harder still. When a lesson plan has
>> been copied from elsewhere, it does not mean the children will hear it
>> twice!
>>
>
> This is something a bunch of us are working on (cc'ing them). In OLPC
> Jamaica, we started to build a forms-based interface where the lesson
> plans could be uploaded not as Word documents, but as text, etc.
> filled out in forms so that someone else may come by and "clone" an
> existing lesson plan and modify as needed. Unfortunately our main
> driving force behind this is no longer in Jamaica (she moved) so
> things have become a bit slow.
>
> This also came up at the recent OLPC San Francisco Community Summit as
> well. There are a few challenges, but nothing unsurmountable. I agree
> that lesson plans are a major challenge in any school environment.
>
> cheers,
> Sameer
>
>> To Carlos I would say ask again:
>> Where may developers meet educators?
>>
>> The education of an individual is a massive undertaking, it is built
>> with small blocks, like the cat which I too enjoyed, and with other
>> blocks with which it is sometimes difficult to work.
>>
>> Iain Brown Douglas
>> Parent and Grandparent.
>>
>>>
>>> Carlos Rabassa
>>> Volunteer
>>> Plan Ceibal Support Network
>>> Montevideo, Uruguay
>>> www.tiny.cc/AprendoILearn
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ___
>>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>>> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
>>
>>
>> ___
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
> Professor, Information Systems
> San F

Re: [IAEP] Where may developers meet educators ? / ¿Donde pueden los desarrolladores encontrar a los educadores ?

2011-11-28 Thread mokurai
, 2011, at 11:10 AM, Walter Bender escribió:
>
>> ¿Hay alguna red social en tu pais donde los maestros se reúnen?  Si asi
>> fuese,  podríamos frecuentarla . (He hecho esta pregunta muchas veces en
>> el pasado sin recibir respuesta. Tal vez Carlos o tu podrían
>> investigar?)
>
> Lo continuó Carlos Rabassa, el 27 de Noviembre, respondiendo
>
> Walter,
>
> La red social por la que estás preguntando,  parece ser la lista IAEP,
> ubicada en
>
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>
>
>
> El 28 de Noviembre Sridhar Dhanapalan,  contestó,  desde Australia:
>
> Las listas de correo resultan demasiado incómodas a la mayoría de los
> maestros.  Hemos estado encontrando que Yammer funciona mejor para
> aquellos que no son técnicos.  Su interfaz similar a la de Facebook,  se
> siente menos amenazante y ofrece muchas otras características que las
> listas de correo no pueden ofrecer.
>
>
> Hoy, 28 de Noviembre, Carlos Rabassa respondió:
>
> Sridhar,
>
> Tus opiniones me parecen muy interesantes.
>
> Sin embargo,  no estamos discutiendo un problema científico universal.
>
> No me cabe ninguna duda de que tus comentarios se aplican a algunos de los
> maestros que conoces;  los míos se aplican a maestros que conozco,  un
> grupo diferente,  y probablemente muy lejano del que tu conoces.
>
> Estamos discutiendo las razones individuales por las que un gran número de
> maestros,  en diferentes localidades en todo el mundo,  no se están
> comunicando con los desarrolladores de las aplicaciones que se crearon
> para ellos.
>
> Walter inició esta discusión,  pidiendo ayuda para encontrar un buen sitio
> donde desarrolladores y maestros puedan reunirse.
>
> Los maestros escriben bien por su profesión y por su entrenamiento.
>
> Las interfaces typo Facebook,  Yammer y SalesForce,  son adecuadas para
> consultar un problema específico,  alcanzando a muchos individuos que
> pueden ser capaces de contestar,  ofreciendo respuestas casi inmediatas.
>
> El usar un sistema como estos,  implica saber cómo explicar el problema
> claramente en un idioma entendido por otros en el grupo.  Frecuentemente
> tiende a crear muchas respuestas inmediatas de personas con muy buenas
> intenciones pero que ofrecen respuestas que confunden más de lo que
> ayudan.
>
> Mi experiencia de leer las listas apunta a estos problemas principales con
> algunas listas,  tales como IAEP:
>
> - Idioma - Los maestros en los despliegues más grandes de OLPC,  hablan
> Español,  no Inglés.  Por los menos las instrucciones para suscribirse y
> para ver los archivos deberían ofrecer Español además de Inglés y Alemán
> como se ofrece actualmente.  La lista OLPC-Sur,  parece llegar a más
> maestros.  Ofrece instrucciones en Inglés y en Español.
>
> - La mayoría de los sistemas más rápidos que las listas de correo,  tales
> como la mensajería instantánea,  suelen generar mensajes con lenguaje
> desprolijo.  Todos tendemos a hablar en esta forma cuando estamos entre
> amigos y apurados.  Estos mensajes están fuera del alcance de cualquiera
> que no tenga un dominio extraordinario del idioma.  Frecuentemente a los
> extranjeros les resulta imposible entenderlos o traducirlos para otros.
>
> - Insultos:  Cualquiera que haga una pregunta,  tiene que estar preparado
> para recibir respuestas que ,  algunas personas sensibles y bien educadas
> podrían interpretar como ofensivas.  No todos insultan a los novatos pero,
>  cuando alguien escribe un insulto,  los demás usualmente callan,  como
> implicando que está bien ser grosero.
>
> A mi no logran ofenderme con insultos.  Simplemente me dejan muy triste,
> pensando lo desafortunados que son los que nos insultan,  lo estrecho que
> es el mundo en que viven.  Uno de los insultos más directos que he
> recibido en las listas,  provino de una buena persona que no parece
> conocer otro mundo que el de escribir aplicaciones para Sugar.  Hay muchas
> otras cosas para disfrutar en esta vida.  Hay muchas otras cosas útiles a
> la educación,  los educadores y los estudiantes.
>
> - Respuestas rápidas incorrectas,  de individuos que parecen más ansiosos
> por hacer alarde de sus conocimientos que de testear las respuestas antes
> de ofrecerlas a otros.
>
> - No soy capaz de traducir conversaciones rápidas como las que ocurren en
> las listas pero,  me ofrezco con gusto a traducir textos bien pensados,
> escritos con cuidado,  en Español o en Inglés,  al otro idioma.
>
> Esta oferta la hago a cualquiera en cualquiera de las listas que sigo.
> Los textos bien escritos,  usualmente los traductores automáticos los
> procesan bastante bien,  permitiendo a cualquier persona en el mundo,
> leerlos y entenderlos.
>
> Carlos Rabassa
> Voluntario
> Red de Apoyo al Plan Ceibal
> Montevideo, Uruguay
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


Re: [IAEP] First TamTamMini Lesson & Resources

2011-09-22 Thread mokurai
On Thu, September 22, 2011 10:56 pm, Caryl Bigenho wrote:
>
> Hi Folks,
> We had our first Tam Tam Mini lesson with the XOs at the new Contributors
> Program project at Arrowhead School in Pray Montana.  I have written it up
> on our blog and have added a "Resources" section where you can get and use
> any of the resources I prepared for the lesson.  You will find it all
> here:
> http://arrowheadxoexplorers.wordpress.com/
> Enjoy!

Would you consider putting this material on the Replacing Textbooks
server, http://booki.treehouse.su/ ? We mostly have math and science
materials so far, and need to branch out.

> Caryl   
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
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Re: [IAEP] food for thought...

2011-08-27 Thread mokurai
value (I have
>> learned a lot from attempting to learn smalltalk).
>>
>>
>>My fear in what the authors suggest is that the "real world" problems
>> will be like what I saw in 1902 textbook Algebra Text by Milne  which I
>> found in an ice cream shop on Cape Cod (I only go to the best ice cream
>> shoppes ;)  The book was filled with "real world" problems (and little
>> visualizations or age appropriate concrete tasks/objects kids could
>> relate to) for ex:
>>
>>
>>I look forward to your response, the destruction of my existing beliefs
>> and being freed to learn :)
>>
>>
>>Stephen
>>
>>
>>On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 4:38 PM, Alan Kay  wrote:
>>Hi Walter
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>As with a number of other issues in education, I strongly disagree with
> both of the main opposing sides. Both the standard curriculum, and these
> guys, are way off IMO.
>>>
>>>
>>>Cheers,
>>>
>>>Alan
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>From: Walter Bender 
>>>>To: iaep 
>>>>Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 9:47 AM
>>>>Subject: [IAEP] food for thought...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/opinion/how-to-fix-our-math-education.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
>>>>
>>>>-walter
>>>>
>>>>--
>>>>Walter Bender
>>>>Sugar Labs
>>>>http://www.sugarlabs.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>___
>>>>IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>>>>IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>>>>http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>>>
>>>>
>>>___
>>>IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>>>IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>>>http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>>
>>
>>
>>___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


Re: [IAEP] food for thought...

2011-08-27 Thread mokurai
/2011/08/25/opinion/how-to-fix-our-math-education.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
>>>
>>> -walter
>>>
>>> --
>>> Walter Bender
>>> Sugar Labs
>>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>>>
>>>
>>> ___
>>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>>> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>>
>>>
>>> ___
>>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>>> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>>
>>
>>
>> ___
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


Re: [IAEP] food for thought...

2011-08-25 Thread mokurai
On Thu, August 25, 2011 4:38 pm, Alan Kay wrote:
> Hi Walter
>
>
> As with a number of other issues in education, I strongly disagree with
> both of the main opposing sides.

I just looked at the linked article.

AH!! NO, MAKE IT STOP!!

> Both the standard curriculum, and these
> guys, are way off IMO.

In the epistemology of Wolfgang Pauli, "Not even wrong".

Here is part of my idea.

* http://replacingtextbooks.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/define-textbooks/

*
http://replacingtextbooks.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/what-do-mathematicians-and-scientists-do-all-day/

> Cheers,
> Alan

So when are we going to get together, Alan, and make something useful for
our millions of children?

>>
>>From: Walter Bender 
>>To: iaep 
>>Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 9:47 AM
>>Subject: [IAEP] food for thought...
>>
>>
>>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/opinion/how-to-fix-our-math-education.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
>>
>>-walter
>>
>>--
>>Walter Bender
>>Sugar Labs
>>http://www.sugarlabs.org
>>
>>
>>___
>>IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>>IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>>http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


Re: [IAEP] [Systems] Sugar Labs+OpenQwaq VM

2011-08-21 Thread mokurai
On Tue, August 16, 2011 3:19 pm, Helsene, Adam wrote:
> John, Stefan, and myself had a meeting today on IRC in which we came up
> with a plan to deploy OpenQwaq.

Thank you. I took a look, and I see vast potential for enhancing learning
and global intelligence. Has anybody talked to governments running OLPC
deployments about letting children use OpenQwaq? I believe that we need
their input on security design before we deploy anything.

See http://replacingtextbooks.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/one-censor-per-child/

> We will be using a VM provided by Sugar Labs Infrastructure to have
> OpenQwaq installed on. Our hope is to have the OpenQwaq service properly
> in place before Sept 12th so it can connected to and used.
>
> Meeting minutes can be found at:
> http://meeting.treehouse.su/treehouse/meetings/2011-08-16T18:17:53.html
>
> ---
> Adam Helsene
> NDSU CS Systems Administrator
>
>
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Bernie Innocenti [mailto:ber...@sugarlabs.org]
> Sent: Friday, August 12, 2011 5:42 AM
> To: John Tierney
> Cc: Stefan Unterhauser; Helsene, Adam; Sugar Labs Systems; Chris Lindgren;
> Brooks, Kevin; Walter Bender; Brian Slator
> Subject: Re: [Systems] Sugar Labs+OpenQwaq VM
>
> On Wed, 2011-08-10 at 16:01 -0400, John Tierney wrote:
>> I had a Skype call today with Adam, and Dr. Kevin Brooks Chair of
>> English at NDSU and  there is the need to meet and discuss the
>> technical needs and how Adam can work with Sugar Labs infrastructure
>> to put this platform in place so we can test with Educators.
>> (Sugar Labs providing a virtual server to build on? Adam supplying a
>> virtual appliance that Sugar Labs can run on it's infrastructure?)
>
> Greetings from Athens! As John said, I'll be traveling through Aug 17.
> (Then, I'll be even busier catching up with things at work).
>
> Usually Local Labs get a Mediawiki instance and email addresses. The
> latter can be in the form of a Google Apps instance or simply
> @sugarlabs.org aliases forwarding to personal email addresses.
>
> For anything else you may need, the Sugar Labs Infrastructure Team can
> provide virtual machines and managed hosting for common web applications,
> such as Drupal and Wordpress. If you don't intend to spend too much time
> on web presence, I recommend building a home page within our wiki and
> simply point nsdu.sugarlabs.org to it.
>
> For more information:
>
>  http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Infrastructure_Team/Resources
>
> --
> Bernie Innocenti
> Sugar Labs Infrastructure Team
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Infrastructure_Team
>
>
>
> ___
> Systems mailing list
> syst...@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/systems
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


Re: [IAEP] Funding team?

2011-08-12 Thread mokurai
On Fri, August 12, 2011 9:41 pm, Sebastian Silva wrote:
> Earlier this year there was discussion about forming a "Financial Team".
> I'm not sure exactly if a team is required, but formalizing mechanisms
> for projects like translations and content, research or development, to
> look for funds - sounds like an excellent idea. We (local labs) have
> been thinking and talking for a long time about a "project bank" where
> projects could be tracked in a platform for funding, as well as
> requirements and funding could be gathered in bounties or calls for
> proposals (the other way around).

Exactly.

> I'm cc'in Laura who has been thinking about the design of such a system
> for a long time.

¡Hola! Laura. Por favor, ver

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai/Funding

y díganos lo que piensas. Hay muchas oportunidades.

> What do you think? Maybe funding for developing such a platform is one
> of the first things to consider?

It is hard to get funding to look for funding. Grantmakers want to see in
advance what the proposed result of their grant for those in need is
intended to be. I have in mind grants for Sugar development, for creating
Open Education Resources to replace textbooks, for developing teacher
training, and for localization and translation. In each of those cases we
can state how many students will benefit now and can project the
possibilities for the future. Translation to Spanish is one of the top
priorities, in terms of numbers of children to be served. Replacing
textbooks in Uruguay (starting to happen now) and Perú may rate as an even
higher priority.

I am planning to write to Software Freedom Conservancy, which handles
donations to Sugar Labs, about how they handle fundraising projects. Their
policy is to take care of administrivia and let the projects focus on
development and rollout. It may be that it is more appropriate to build
the platform there so that it can coordinate among all of the SFC
projects.

However, nothing will happen unless we get volunteers to seek out
opportunities, and write the grant applications. I am assuming that given
workers, we can get the board to hash out the policies.

> Regards,
> Sebastian
>
> El 12/08/11 08:30, moku...@earthtreasury.org escribió:
>> I would like to propose that we create a funding team to pursue grant
>> opportunities and partnerships for Sugar Labs, including Activity
>> development, translation, documentation, teacher training materials, and
>> digital content integrating software into lessons and explorations. To
>> get
>> things started, I have created a temporary page with some suggestions.
>> There are lots more.
>>
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai/Funding
>>
>> We need people to gather and document opportunities; grant writers; and
>> proposals for what to fund.
>>
>> Some people think that this is still a bad time to ask for money, but I
>> hear that corporations are sitting on trillions of dollars of cash
>> equivalents.
>
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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Re: [IAEP] define "textbooks"

2011-08-12 Thread mokurai
d rock can't move around, but became obviously true when
mid-ocean volcanic spreading was discovered.)

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you
know for sure that just ain't so.

Frequently attributed to Mark Twain, and often to Will Rogers, Satchel
Paige, Artemus Ward, as well as others.

-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


Re: [IAEP] Funding team?

2011-08-12 Thread mokurai
On Fri, August 12, 2011 12:49 am, Chris Leonard wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 11:30 PM,   wrote:
>> I would like to propose that we create a funding team to pursue grant
>> opportunities and partnerships for Sugar Labs, including Activity
>> development, translation, documentation, teacher training materials, and
>> digital content integrating software into lessons and explorations. To
>> get
>> things started, I have created a temporary page with some suggestions.
>> There are lots more.
>>
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai/Funding
>>
>> We need people to gather and document opportunities; grant writers; and
>> proposals for what to fund.
>>
>> Some people think that this is still a bad time to ask for money, but I
>> hear that corporations are sitting on trillions of dollars of cash
>> equivalents.
>
> Edward,
>
> The question I have is whether it is necessary to instantiate a new
> "Team" or whether to add this as a function / focus area within the
> Marketing Team.
>
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Marketing_Team
>
> It is my impression that one of the major expenditures of a FOSS
> project is funding travel to events.  The Marketing Team is already
> engaged in tracking Sugar relevant events as well as being centrally
> involved in the production of the sorts of materials that a
> fundraising group would require for applications and presentations to
> potential funders (e.g. media kits, etc.)

That would be fine with me, if Marketing wants it. Anybody here from
Marketing? However, I am concerned with funding Development, Localization,
Translation, and possible contracts with governments for e-learning
content, curriculum development, teacher training,...

I am more concerned that we get people willing to follow up on commitments
rather than with formal organization. So far, nobody has stepped up in
reply to my suggestion, so this discussion is premature.

> On the theory that ten teams of nine people are better and more stable
> to turnover than thirty teams of three people, as well as being better
> equipped for "surge capacity" when needed, what would you think of the
> idea of developing your initiative(s) within the context of the
> Marketing Team umbrella instead as a separate effort.
>
> Obviously any effort representing Sugar Labs to funding sources (and
> committing Sugar Labs to the contractual conditions of such funding
> such as financial and other progress reporting and tracking
> requirements) would need close coordination with the Oversight Board
> and the SFC which would most likely act as the conduit through which
> funding would be channeled.

Again, this is premature. Of course we will liaise with our partners as
required, but right now there is nothing to liaise over.

> cjl
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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[IAEP] Funding team?

2011-08-11 Thread mokurai
I would like to propose that we create a funding team to pursue grant
opportunities and partnerships for Sugar Labs, including Activity
development, translation, documentation, teacher training materials, and
digital content integrating software into lessons and explorations. To get
things started, I have created a temporary page with some suggestions.
There are lots more.

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai/Funding

We need people to gather and document opportunities; grant writers; and
proposals for what to fund.

Some people think that this is still a bad time to ask for money, but I
hear that corporations are sitting on trillions of dollars of cash
equivalents.
-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


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[IAEP] [Fwd: Invitation to participate - Open Learning Exchange]

2011-08-09 Thread mokurai
FYI.

 Original Message 
Subject: Invitation to participate - Open Learning Exchange
From:"Richard R. Rowe, PhD" 
Date:Tue, August 9, 2011 7:17 pm
To:  moku...@earthtreasury.org
--


A special invitation to participate in the 3rd Annual General Assembly of
the Open Learning Exchange: "Persuading to Scale: growing billions of great
learners with powerful innovations"

Dear friends of the Open Learning Exchange:

It is with great pleasure that I invite you to join us for our 3rd annual
General Assembly entitled "Persuading to Scale: growing billions of great
learners with powerful innovations," from September 26th to the 29th, 2011
at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.

The evidence is clear that traditional education systems around the world
are failing to meet the basic learning requirements of our children.
Although thousands of learning innovations are being promoted across the
globe today, even the most effective can be permanently sidelined by
cultural differences, financial, technical, and political barriers. Our
challenge then is to help public, private and community leaders bring to
scale a mix of cost-effective learning innovations so all of our children
can learn to create healthier and more sustainable societies in the 21st
Century.

OLE's 2011 General Assembly will tackle this challenge during an intensive,
4-day experience centered on the question of how to bring great learning
innovations to scale. Brief "trailers" by accomplished educational
innovators will stimulate focused round-table discussions along with
informative poster sessions, skill-based workshops and self-organized
meetings. Participants will emerge from the General Assembly with a greater
understanding of what it takes to scale learning innovations, leaving with
more skills to make those things happen.

For additional information about the OLE General Assembly program and to
register, please visit the following link: www.amiando.com/ole2011
<http://www.amiando.com/ole2011> . You can also contact Peter Slate,
Director of Program Development and Operations, at pe...@ole.org
<mailto:pe...@ole.org>  for more information.

We are eager for you to share your skills and ideas with us and look
forward to seeing you in Mexico City.

Richard R. Rowe, Ph.D., Chair and CEO
Open Learning Exchange, Inc.  www.ole.org <http://www.ole.org/>
--
Persuading to Scale: growing billions of great learners with powerful
innovations uses amiando - the no. 1 tool for online ticketing and online
event registration.
Sign up for free at
http://www.amiando.com/index.html?viralRefId=ole2011&utm_campaign=ev-ole2011&utm_medium=viral&utm_source=campaignEmailText&utm_content=footerLink


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
Title: Persuading to Scale: growing billions of great learners with powerful innovations






	
		
	
		
		
  A special invitation to participate in the 3rd Annual General Assembly of the Open Learning Exchange: "Persuading to Scale: growing billions of great learners with powerful innovations"   Dear friends of the Open Learning Exchange:   It is with great pleasure that I invite you to join us for our 3rd annual General Assembly entitled "Persuading to Scale: growing billions of great learners with powerful innovations," from September 26th to the 29th, 2011 at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.   The evidence is clear that traditional education systems around the world are failing to meet the basic learning requirements of our children. Although thousands of learning innovations are being promoted across the globe today, even the most effective can be permanently sidelined by cultural differences, financial, technical, and political barriers. Our challenge then is to help public, private and community leaders bring to scale a mix of cost-effective learning innovations so all of our children can learn to create healthier and more sustainable societies in the 21st Century.   OLE's 2011 General Assembly will tackle this challenge during an intensive, 4-day experience centered on the question of how to bring great learning innovations to scale. Brief "trailers" by accomplished educational innovators will stimulate focused round-table discussions along with informative poster sessions, skill-based workshops and self-organized meetings. Participants will emerge from the General Assembly with a greater understanding of what it takes to scale learning innovations, leaving with more skills to make those things happen.   For additional information about the OL

Re: [IAEP] DrGeo user manual

2011-07-28 Thread mokurai
On Wed, July 27, 2011 5:47 am, Hilaire Fernandes wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have seen many use cases of DrGeo in Spanish speaking countries, in
> the South American continent, mainly for teachers training and Sugar
> based XO laptop.
>
> But still the new DrGeo user manual[1] is not yet translated to this
> language. In fact both English and Spanish are lacking. I wrote the
> manual first in French because I know how to write it right in this
> language, I do not want to write an average version in another language
> teachers and kids may refer to, it will give a bad perception of the
> quality of the software.

I can do French to English, because I want to read and understand this
material regardless.

> The new user manual explains several aspects of the new DrGeoII paradigm
> of living objects and the way to interact in live with the DrGeo model
> to write programmed sketch or to add script in a living sktech. Even if
> new, these paradigms are old Smalltalk model found in the '70. Some
> other geometry software are implementing slowly these paradigms, but
> given their background language it is not as simple, clean and lean.
>
> Anyway I am looking for volunteers to translate the user manual. The
> sources is in LaTeX forms[2]. I have not planed to move it to a wiki, as
> I want the source of the manual to stick to LaTeX for optimal quality in
> both PDF and HTML[3].

I can handle TeX and LaTeX.

> Hilaire
>
>
> [1] http://documentation.ofset.org/drgeo2/fr
> [2] https://gforge.inria.fr/scm/viewvc.php/drgeo2/doc/?root=istoa
> [3] Or does someone knows reliable solution for online editing with
> LaTeX quality rendering to PDF or HTML?

Please look at the booki servers at http://booki.flossmanuals.net/
(Manuals for Free Software) and http://booki.treehouse.su/ (Sugar Labs
program for Replacing Textbooks). The booki software was designed to
produce high quality PDF and HTML output, among others, with collaborative
online editing and support for translation work. I have participated in
several book sprints with FLOSS Manuals, producing a book in a week or
less.

We would have to run some tests, I think, on formulas and graphic formats.
You would also be welcome to join that discussion on the FLOSS Manuals
FM-Discuss mailing list at http://lists.flossmanuals.net/ . I'm copying
this message there.

> --
> Education 0.2 -- http://blog.ofset.org/hilaire
>
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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Re: [IAEP] Dr. Geo user manual

2011-07-28 Thread mokurai
On Thu, July 28, 2011 6:50 am, Hilaire Fernandes wrote:
> Hello Paolo,
[snip]
> By the way, you did not tell me about
> my initial post: I am still looking for volunteers to help translating
> the DrGeo user manual.

Into which languages?

For Spanish, we (Sugar Labs and FLOSS Manuals) have just the people.
Hilaire, meet Ana Cichero, our lead Spanish translator. Ana, here is
another manual for your team. And don't tell me you aren't a programmer.
After you read this book and do what it tells you, you will be.

We can also help with other languages.

> Hilaire


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks



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Re: [IAEP] [bytesforall_readers] Computing power to every home

2011-07-28 Thread mokurai
r (includes keyboard and mouse)
and $184 with a monitor. The device works like any conventional
computer except it has no hard disk (a hard disk option can be availed
of at an additional cost). The device is connected to a central server
from where users can access regular Windows and Office software
packages. The basic price for a Windows package starts from $11 a
month, while for the Linux suite, the price starts at $9 a month. The
other offerings include Nova Neon (a laptop like device with the same
service model) and Nova cNergy (a pendrive like device which lets any
regular desktop or laptop gain access to Nova Computing Services). The
broadband charges have to be paid separately.
>>>
>>> Scalable model. The service has been able to reach a customer base of
40,000 users in the first half of 2010, from a user base of 150 in
2007. The service has delivered 1.2 million domestic usage days.
>>>
>>> Easy and convenient solution There are USB ports for peripherals and
there is no need for a UPS system. In case of a power failure, there
will be no data loss, since everything will be safe on the server. The
device provided by Nova uses 5 watts of power. It doesn’t have any
moving parts, and is very rugged.
>>>
>>> Driving innovation in utility-based cloud computing solutions.
Novatium has a total of 10 global patents. Two of the patents are
titled ‘Providing Utility Computing in a Cloud Computing Environment’
and ‘DUDM’ (Desktop Utility Delivery Model).
>>>
>>> Currently ,the service is present in over 100 cities in India and it
also has a presence in Mauritius and Thailand. On the anvil are plans
to expand the service to other global markets as well.
>>>
>>> ____
>>>
>>> Reprinted with permission from IBEF (www.ibef.org)
>>>
>>> http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/computing-power-to-every-home/442197/
>>> FN +91-832-2409490 or +91-9822122436 (after 2pm)
>>> #784 Nr Lourdes Convent, Saligao 403511 Goa India
>>> http://fn.goa-india.org http://goa1556.goa-india.org
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
>> Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
>> The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
>
>
>
> --
> Satish Jha
> T: 301 841 7422
> F: 301 560 4909
> 



-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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Re: [IAEP] Proposed New K-12 Science Framework

2011-07-28 Thread mokurai
On Tue, July 26, 2011 9:15 pm, Jameson Quinn wrote:
>>
>>
>> Now I am going to skip over to Chapter 10 where the nitty-gritty stuff
>> seems to be.  I'm talking about things like teacher training and student
>> assessment.  I hope they addressed the inadequacy of the "standardized"
>> multiple choice test where students regurgitate memorized facts which
>> they
>> will promptly forget. We shall see!
>>
>>
>> They couldn't go beyond the research, and research in better methods of
> evaluation is not as strong as it should be. Still, they clearly left a
> mandate for those who follow them to avoid purely fact-based testing, as
> that would undermine the whole point of their "three-dimensional"
> standards.

I seem to know about research that they did not make use of. But I can't
say for sure until I read more. The problem is very similar to the Turing
test (modified to ask whether we are talking to a scientist in the making,
rather than whether we are talking to a person), or to Wittgenstein's
question in the Philosophical Investigations: How can you tell whether
another person understands you? In the language of Foundations of
Mathematics, the answer is that this is a fundamentally undecidable
question in general. So we have to find tractable subsets of the general
question. This can unfortunately leave us in the position of the man in
the joke who lost his wallet in a dark part of a street, and was looking
for it under a distant lamppost because he could see better there.

Of course, all of science and engineering has this problem of looking in
the few areas where we have lampposts for solutions to the mysteries of
the darkness, and only occasionally putting up new lampposts.

> I think they did the best they could.

Given that it was not their job to be the next Maria Montessori or Caleb
Gattegno or Jaime Escalante of science, etc., teaching. But then, who is,
other than themselves? ^_^

> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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Re: [IAEP] Proposed New K-12 Science Framework

2011-07-28 Thread mokurai
On Tue, July 26, 2011 1:21 am, Chris Leonard wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 1:07 AM, Caryl Bigenho 
> wrote:
>
>> Since it has a total of 270 pages, and I just finished downloading it
>> (chapter by chapter), I can't comment on the contents. But, this should
>> be
>> fuel for some interesting discussions in the next few weeks if the rest
>> of
>> you take the time to download and take an in depth look at what is
>> there.
>
> You may need to create a login, but the full book as a single PDF is
> at this link.
>
> http://download.nap.edu/cart/download.cgi?&record_id=13165&free=1

Got it. Thanks. I was able to access it as a guest.

I have only read the first few chapters of the report. It has a number of
excellent features, such as

* insistence on teaching how science is actually done

* recognition that "Children Are Born Investigators"

* the importance of connecting to children's prior experience and capacity
for deep thought

However, what I have read so far suggests important lacks in understanding
of these very principles, along with other matters dealing with the nature
of science, engineering, and technology. The greatest deficiency seems to
be in treating of these topics in isolation from mathematics on one side
and from social semisciences, particularly anthropology, economics, and
politics, on the other.

I will have more to say about this when I have gone through the whole
document.

> cjl
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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Re: [IAEP] [squeakland] Alan's Talk on "Programming and Scaling" at HPI now available online

2011-07-27 Thread mokurai
On Wed, July 27, 2011 2:55 pm, Carlos Rabassa wrote:
> Rita, Steve,
>
> thanks for calling this talk and link to our attention,  we found it
> extremely interesting.

Wonderful stuff.

> All the concepts Alan explains left us thinking.  His clear explanations
> add to the shock of thinking of these ideas for the first time.
>
> It is like when we learn about a good new invention,  we think "this is a
> great idea but,  how come I never thought of this before?"

“’Of course!’ I [Watson] cried. ‘How obvious!’”

“”Everything is obvious when once it has been _explained_ to you,’
returned Holmes, a trace of asperity in his voice.” [Emphasis added.]

> We thought it was very nice to thank all those individuals that helped him
> in developing his ideas.  I guess it is true there are many potential
> geniuses who are missing the cooperation of those developers and never see
> their great ideas materialize. We found it a nice and generous gesture on
> the part of Alan.  Needless to say it was nice to see people we know and
> appreciate like Bert and Yoshiki,  receive this well deserved recognition.

If I have seen farther than others, it is because I have stood on the
shoulders of giants.--Isaac Newton

Of course, this does not work for everyone. One must at least be able to
climb the giant.

If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of
giants.--Possibly from Usenet, source unknown.

> Another point that stuck to our mind was the idea of erasing the present
> to plan for the future.  This, Alan claims, forces us to look all over the
> past to find ideas to develop the future.  Last November,  at Plan
> Ceibal´s year end conference,  one of the speakers shocked us bringing
> examples of teaching in the past,  like the artisans and their pupils a
> few hundreds of years ago,  as examples of good education that we can
> implement today thanks to computers.

We do not have to look only to the past.

The Maasai of Kenya have a traditional education system that turns their
boys into experts on soils, weather, native plants and animals, their
traditional hunting and fighting weapons, strategies, and tactics, and
much more, and also into Olympic-level athletes. Girls learn in equal
detail building, animal "husbandry" and other subjects important to their
traditional cultural roles. There are also problems within this system,
but one cannot simply impose a European education on people who need to
understand their environment much more directly and in great detail, and
do not need training as shop clerks and industrial workers.

The Andaman Islanders were the only ones in the coastal areas around the
Indian Ocean who reportedly lost nobody in the Indonesian tsunami, because
they were the only ones who passed down the story that when the ocean went
away, everybody was to run for high ground before it came roaring back.
All of the colonial education systems and their post-colonial successors
around the Indian Ocean have gone to a great deal of trouble to root out
such "old wives' tales".

> Most ideas we hear today about how
> to use computers in schools are the same teaching systems we already have
> in place,  just scaled up to handle large numbers of students.

It has been much worse than that. Suppose we had "print literacy" labs,
where we kept all of the books, pencils, and paper, and allowed children
in once a week, but never allowed them to apply what they learned there to
either classwork or homework, and suppose in addition that most of them
had none of these things at home.

In Uruguay, Peru, and other countries that are planning to give a computer
to every child, education will be transformed far beyond any of the plans
of the governments, school administrations, teachers' unions, or anyone
else. Nobody saw in Gutenberg's first press the proliferation of editions
of the classics, Bible translations into hundreds of languages (now more
than 2,000, in whole or in part), novels, scholarly journals, newspapers,
magazines, and all the rest. Hardly anybody foresaw the Web until it
happened. Likewise with e-commerce, social networks, Wikipedia, and all of
the rest.

If you want to make God laugh, tell Her your plans.--Modern proverb

Life is what happens while you were making other plans.--Another modern
proverb

> Carlos Rabassa
> Volunteer
> Plan Ceibal Support Network
> Montevideo, Uruguay
>
>
>
> On Jul 25, 2011, at 11:04 PM, Steve Thomas wrote:
>
>> Alan Kay's Talks "Programming and Scaling" is now available online at:
>> http://www.tele-task.de/de/archive/lecture/overview/5819/
>> ___
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>
> __

Re: [IAEP] Advertising Sugar

2011-07-26 Thread mokurai
On Tue, July 26, 2011 11:05 am, Rita Freudenberg wrote:
> Hi,
>
> if I want to advertize Sugar, is there any material that can be used? I've
> translated the Sugar Manual into German, and there are some nice text
> passages. But maybe there is more? Would it be ok to translate this into
> German, too?
>
> It will be used to impress decision makers ...:)

You can use the Replacing Textbooks page,

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

the OLPC Deployments page,

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployments

some of the study results that the OLPC Research page points to. Ethiopia
is one of the best for this purpose. There should be some good results
from Uruguay and Peru, too, but I haven't been following them.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_research

> Greetings,
> Rita
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
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>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


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Re: [IAEP] Wiki tutorial translation (was Re: Material for XO math+literacy project in Kenya)

2011-07-23 Thread mokurai
On Thu, July 21, 2011 11:50 pm, Chris Leonard wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 11:25 PM, ana.cichero 
> wrote:
>> a) Yes.  I can help translating your tutorials for Turtle. When I don't
understand I ask.
>
> Ana,
>
> There are Mathematics tutorials using eToys that have been developed
> by Waveplace that need translation into Spanish.

Second the motion. These are excellent materials, the best I have seen for
Smalltalk/Etoys.

> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Translation_Team/Pootle_Projects#Waveplace_Lessons
>
> PO files are here:
> http://translate.sugarlabs.org/es/Waveplace/
>
> http://wiki.waveplace.org/display/wp/Geometry+%28*%29
>
> eToys is itself a wonderful introduction to programming concepts, you
> might find it interesting and you can work through the Basic eToys
> tutorial to get oriented.

I would go further, and recommend these tutorials to everyone involved
with OLPC and Sugar. I am experienced in a number of programming
languages, but was having trouble with Etoys until I viewed some of these
tutorials.

Smalltalk was designed for children to be able to use, but with sufficient
power to be useful lifelong. It is at the heart of our mission. However,
it was not designed to be learned with no help at all. ^_^ (See The
Undiscoverable on the Sugar Labs Wiki.)

> cjl
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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Re: [IAEP] Wiki tutorial translation

2011-07-22 Thread mokurai
On Thu, July 21, 2011 11:25 pm, ana.cichero wrote:
> Hello Mokurai
>
> Would you take a look at
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art/Tutorials, and talk
>> with us, the Spanish translators, and the teachers about
>>
>> a) translating these pages into Spanish
>> b) what is needed so that teachers can use these ideas in class
>
> I find the link empty...

I'm sorry. It should have been

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/TurtleArt/Tutorials

> a) Yes.  I can help translating your tutorials for Turtle  (please send me
> the exact link) . When I don t understand I ask.

Thank you.

> b) No.  Unfortunately I cannot make class planifications on the subject.

I did not make myself clear then. I meant that I would like someone to ask
teachers who do work on teaching Turtle Art and other subjects whether my
tutorials make sense to them, and whether they can assist us in making
lesson plans on these subjects.

> My offer for fitting in uruguayan secondary school curricular structure
> planifications of classes using Abacus.xo still stands.

Thank you. I will create a TA program to draw an abacus and demonstrate
its operations, and then move from there to Abacus.xo.

> --I ve studied maths and learning for 4 full years exclusively and been
> working on highschools for the last 10 years,  teaching from negative
> numbers to matrixes and integrals, but I am just an newbie when going into
> programming languages... sorry.--

Perfect. Please look at You Be the Turtle and at Mathematics and Art, an
introduction to TA. These assume no knowledge of Turtle Art whatsoever. Do
they make sense to you? Then we can talk about lessons in the basics of
Turtle Art that I need to write.

>> My tutorials combine a high-level look at a topic, ideas for introducing
>> some part of it to children as early as possible, and a Turtle Art
>> demonstration of some part of the idea. Each idea needs expansion to
>> lesson plans, with feedback from classrooms and individual tutoring on
>> how
>> they work and how they need to be improved. Each idea also needs
>> implementation in Logo (which we can get by automatic translation from
>> TA), Python, Smalltalk/Etoys, GeoGebra, and other software.
>>
>> On top of all that, we need to create a usable sequence of ideas and
>> examples leading from no computer (You Be the Turtle tutorial), through
>> introducing TA (Mathematics and Art tutorial), through the essential
>> concepts and techniques of programming and Computer Science, to
>> competence
>> in Python, Logo, Smalltalk, and any other language of interest.
>>
>> > Ana.

-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


Re: [IAEP] [bytesforall_readers] Computing power to every home

2011-07-22 Thread mokurai
chi.com, khoj and khel.com to his repertoire), and sold to
Satyam Infoway in 1999 for $115 million — one of Asia’s largest
internet deals at the time. Today, Jain is the managing director of
Netcore Solutions.

Novatium was set up with the efforts of Ray Stata (chairman of Analog
Devices, which designs, produces and markets analogue, mixed-signal
and digital signal processing equipment) and Rajesh Jain. Both Stata
and Jain made an investment, which together was worth $20 million, to
set up Novatium.

The key drivers that led Novatium to develop the innovative service
were to provide consumers with simple computing, coupled with an
obsolescence-proof service. Novatium eventually set out to solve three
problems concerning PC adoption in emerging markets and those are: (a)
Affordability: Use the business model of the mobile industry, and also
reduce the power consumption; (b) Desirability: Develop on the concept
of computing as a utility and provide a desktop-like experience; (c)
Manageability: Eliminate the issues pertaining to desktop management,
eliminate viruses and spyware and enable instant turn on/off of the
service based on individual needs.

An easy, practical service
Novatium incorporated the following key features into its computing
utility service:

Computing as utility. The organisation developed a model whereby the
computing capability of personal computers can be provided as a
utility service, similar to water and power supplies. The model is
based on the concept of thin client application. Generally, the
software on which a PC depends (such as the operating system) resides
in the machine. In a thin client solution, the software actually
resides in a remote location (such as the server of the service
provider). The user sees only an interface (a window similar to a
website’s). The user’s commands and requirements are executed by the
remote server. Connectivity is required for a thin client solution to
work, and this can be achieved through the internet or other private
networks.

Simple and innovative service interface. The user gets only a screen,
a keyboard and a mouse. All the computing is done at the server level.
The software, hardware and connectivity are all on the server, which
are managed by Novatium. The product has no storage, no hardware, no
software, and hence no maintenance and no upgradation issues. The most
interesting innovation here is that the heart and brain of the machine
run on mobile phone chip technology.

Versatile technology. Compared to other thin clients, Novatium has
certain advantages. Its thin client solution can run on multiple
operating systems such as Linux, Windows, Solaris and Mac.

Value-driven innovation
Based on the results that the service has been able to achieve, the
impact of this service is very encouraging, for instance:

Computing at a reasonable price. Novatium’s offering include Nova
Navigator (earlier known as Nova Net PC) and Navigator Plus. The
prices start at $108 without a monitor (includes keyboard and mouse)
and $184 with a monitor. The device works like any conventional
computer except it has no hard disk (a hard disk option can be availed
of at an additional cost). The device is connected to a central server
from where users can access regular Windows and Office software
packages. The basic price for a Windows package starts from $11 a
month, while for the Linux suite, the price starts at $9 a month. The
other offerings include Nova Neon (a laptop like device with the same
service model) and Nova cNergy (a pendrive like device which lets any
regular desktop or laptop gain access to Nova Computing Services). The
broadband charges have to be paid separately.

Scalable model. The service has been able to reach a customer base of
40,000 users in the first half of 2010, from a user base of 150 in
2007. The service has delivered 1.2 million domestic usage days.

Easy and convenient solution There are USB ports for peripherals and
there is no need for a UPS system. In case of a power failure, there
will be no data loss, since everything will be safe on the server. The
device provided by Nova uses 5 watts of power. It doesn’t have any
moving parts, and is very rugged.

Driving innovation in utility-based cloud computing solutions.
Novatium has a total of 10 global patents. Two of the patents are
titled ‘Providing Utility Computing in a Cloud Computing Environment’
and ‘DUDM’ (Desktop Utility Delivery Model).

Currently ,the service is present in over 100 cities in India and it
also has a presence in Mauritius and Thailand. On the anvil are plans
to expand the service to other global markets as well.

Reprinted with permission from IBEF (www.ibef.org)


http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/computing-power-to-every-home/442197/
FN +91-832-2409490 or +91-9822122436 (after 2pm)
#784 Nr Lourdes Convent, Saligao 403511 Goa India
http://fn.goa-india.org http://goa1556.goa-ind

[IAEP] Wiki tutorial translation (was Re: Material for XO math+literacy project in Kenya)

2011-07-21 Thread mokurai

On Thu, July 21, 2011 12:52 am, ana.cichero wrote:
[praise of Abacus activity snipped]
> Count me in for translating the wiki or for making some class
> planification
> that fits with schooling structure, it can be for 1st year of secondary as
> I worked with in 2010 for example.

Would you take a look at
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art/Tutorials, and talk
with us, the Spanish translators, and the teachers about

a) translating these pages into Spanish
b) what is needed so that teachers can use these ideas in class

My tutorials combine a high-level look at a topic, ideas for introducing
some part of it to children as early as possible, and a Turtle Art
demonstration of some part of the idea. Each idea needs expansion to
lesson plans, with feedback from classrooms and individual tutoring on how
they work and how they need to be improved. Each idea also needs
implementation in Logo (which we can get by automatic translation from
TA), Python, Smalltalk/Etoys, GeoGebra, and other software.

On top of all that, we need to create a usable sequence of ideas and
examples leading from no computer (You Be the Turtle tutorial), through
introducing TA (Mathematics and Art tutorial), through the essential
concepts and techniques of programming and Computer Science, to competence
in Python, Logo, Smalltalk, and any other language of interest.

> Ana.
>
> ps.
> Working among early grades students is harder and it less payed-- because
> traditionally upper grade studying needed society stimulation.
> In uruguay 2ndary teachers is a strictly ordered set ( 19 lists, one for
> each region) , and in that order is invited to choose --every year--- the
> grade and the school to work. Nobody wants to work with early years of
> public highschool having other choice...
> (system could help education a lot with some really little changes, but as
> little changes don t make political issues, nobody promotes them)

In computer programming, making many little improvements is known as
refactoring.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44936.Refactoring

"Each refactoring step is simple-seemingly too simple to be worth doing.
Refactoring may involve moving a field from one class to another, or
pulling some code out of a method to turn it into its own method, or even
pushing some code up or down a hierarchy. While these individual steps may
seem elementary, the cumulative effect of such small changes can radically
improve the design. Refactoring is a proven way to prevent software
decay."

The payoff is huge. We must find incentives to work on it. Perhaps for
some teachers, being able to affect the design of the teaching may be a
useful incentive. I know that in the profession generally, the biggest
incentive available is the possibility of teaching effectively.

> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
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Re: [IAEP] Looking for Concrete "Fraction Experiences"

2011-07-14 Thread mokurai
On Thu, July 14, 2011 8:40 am, Maria Droujkova wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 3:38 AM,  wrote:
>>
>> > Special bonus points for anyone who can come up with an example of
>> > division with fractions (ex: 1/3 divided by 1/2)
[Mokurai wrote]
>> 1/2 goes into 1 twice.
>
>
> When the divisor OR the quotient are whole, people do use fraction
> division
> in life. Many people will conceptualize "How many halves are there in
> three
> pizzas?" or even "How many quarters are there in three halves?" (the last
> one is a stretch) as division.
>
> However, after messing with fraction division for about a year (see
> http://naturalmath.wikispaces.com/Divide+a+fraction+by+a+fraction ) I
> believe people who don't have PURE MATH purposes avoid conceptualizing
> division of a fraction by a fraction, when it's not immediately clear the
> result is a whole number. Instead, they conceptualize it as TWO operations
> (multiplication and division) where at least one number is whole.
>
> The pure math purposes have to do with extensions of operations.

and providing consistent rules for them, maintaining algebraic identities
such as commutativity, associativity and distributivity.

ab = ba
(ab)c = a(bc)
a(b + c) = ab + ac

etc.

> In
> mathematics, figuring out how

to make (a matter of definition, not discovery)

> operations work for all types of numbers and
> even non-number entities is a very strong value.

Although non-commutative (matrices) and even non-associative (octonions)
structures are of great importance.

> As such, we want to
> subtract greater numbers from smaller ones, take square roots of
> negatives,
> and multiply anything whatsoever (zeros, ordered arrays, transformations,
> etc.) This extension value definitely trumps any muggle values such as
> cognitive accessibility or ease of calculation. There are strong
> mathematical reasons for holding the extension value dear. We just have to
> realize these reasons don't necessarily apply to eating pizzas, or even to
> math-rich professional practices such as nursing (let me know if you want
> "Proportional Reasoning in Nursing Practice" study).
>
[Mokurai again]
>> In fact it goes into any whole number N by dividing
>> N objects into 2 pieces each, giving 2N pieces. Similarly, it goes into
>> 1/3 twice 1/3
>
>
> There - you conceptualize it through whole-number steps.

in order to arrive at the general rule, which we can then extend to
fractions.

> These steps are
> entirely sufficient for dividing pizzas.

Fractions are completely equivalent to whole numbers of equal-sized
pieces. It makes no difference to the result whether we use 3/8 or talk
about 3 pieces of 1/8 each. But I would like to lead children through the
two-step process to the algebraic rules, particularly

(a/b)/(c/d) = ad/bc

without going through (a/b)/(c/d) = (ad/b)/c in between.

> You only need to re-conceptualize these steps (at a significant cognitive
> cost, as my teaching experiments indicate, if you go beyond the example of
> 1/2) as division by a fraction if you are going for the mathematical value
> of figuring how fraction division works.

Well, that's what I want to find out. Are we making the individual steps
sufficiently simple so that they can become obvious? What kind of practice
is required to make them obvious? The most complicated mathematics is made
up from steps so simple and obvious that even an utterly stupid computer
can cope with them. Children can actually understand them, and put them
together into more complicated ideas that become equally obvious over
time. It's just like learning language, which starts with memorization of
words and patterns, and soon becomes habit with sufficient practice. Only
the children can tell us how much practice is sufficient, and what kinds.

> There are no utilitarian or artistic purposes, that I could find in more
> than a year of looking for them, in conceptualizing the separate steps as
> division by a fraction.

Not in most of ordinary daily life, as opposed to work in engineering,
science, statistics, and such. But it does turn up occasionally in
cooking, sewing, carpentry and a few other areas.

* If my pancake recipe calls for 1 3/4 cups of flour, and I only have 1
1/4 cups on hand, how much egg, milk, blueberries, and so on should I add
to make a partial batch? Well, obviously I should multiply every
measurement in the recipe by (1 1/4)/(1 3/4). Multiplying top and bottom
by the denominator of the two fractions (4) gives 5/7.

* If it takes 2 3/4 yards of cloth to make this item, how many can I make
from a bolt of cloth 20 yards long?

> In practice, nurses, pizza cooks, carpenters and so
> on don't "really" divide by fractions - they work with numerators and
> den

[IAEP] Complex arithmetic (was Re: Looking for Concrete "Fraction Experiences")

2011-07-14 Thread mokurai
On Thu, July 14, 2011 9:46 am, David Corking wrote:

> (Aspiring electrical technicians will probably also want to extend the
> concept to complex numbers.)

Addition and subtraction of complex numbers are easier in rectangular
coordinates than polar coordinates. Multiplication and division are the
opposite.

a + bi + c +di = (a + c) + (b + d)i

1/(r,theta) = (1/r, -theta)

But it can be done, of course.

1/(a + bi) = (a - bi)/(a^2 + b^2)

(a + bi)/(c + di)

  = (a + bi)(c - di)/(c^2 + d^2)

  = ((ac + bd) +(bc - ad)i/(c^2 + d^2)

I should do these up in Turtle Art, both as illustrations of coordinate
systems and as arithmetic, and add them to my Tutorials.

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/TurtleArt/Tutorials#Mokurai.27s_Tutorials

> Thanks for your patience. David

-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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Re: [IAEP] Looking for Concrete "Fraction Experiences"

2011-07-13 Thread mokurai
On Tue, July 12, 2011 11:23 pm, Steve Thomas wrote:
> Looking for ideas on how we can give kids (and adults) concrete
> experiences with the concept of fraction.

You do not have to *give* them such experiences. You need to draw
attention to the experiences they have had all their lives.

You do eat slices of pie, cake, and pizza, and chocolate bars marked for
breaking, I trust. You use coins, and can get dollar coins, half dollars,
quarters, tenths, twentieths, and hundredths. You can talk about the
divisions of hours, minutes, seconds, yards, feet, inches, meters,
decimeters, centimeters, gallons, quarts, pints, cups, fluid ounces,
tablespoons, teaspoons, liters, milliliters, pounds, ounces, kilograms,
grams...

> Special bonus points for anyone who can come up with an example of
> division with fractions (ex: 1/3 divided by 1/2)

1/2 goes into 1 twice. In fact it goes into any whole number N by dividing
N objects into 2 pieces each, giving 2N pieces. Similarly, it goes into
1/3 twice 1/3, or 2/3. If you divide a circle into sixths, you can easily
see that a third of the circle (two pieces) is two-thirds of half the
circle (three pieces), in just the same way that, for example, two beads
is 1/4 of eight beads.

It has been done in detail, and is available on various OER sites, some of
which are given at

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Open_Education_Resources

I have written about this on other mailing lists. I will do a Turtle Art
version of this some time soon, after I do a bit more on the concept I
have been working on most recently, figurate numbers. I have several such
lessons at

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/TurtleArt/Tutorials#Mokurai.27s_Tutorials

Tony Forster did a TA visualization for fractions that I plan to carry
further.

http://tonyforster.blogspot.com/2009/12/turtle-fractions.html

Others are welcome to join with Tony and me.

So here is the outline. You will have to take this more slowly with
children, of course.

* Cut a pie in pieces, and color some of the pieces, as Tony did. That
gives the basic idea of a fraction. Point out that when you cut a pie in,
say, 8 pieces, you are doing 1 divided by 1/8.

* Cut more than one pie in the same number of pieces each. This lets us
talk about "improper" fractions and mixed fractions (integer plus
fraction), and converting between them. We can also introduce rational
numbers at some stage of child development.

* Cut a pie in pieces, and cut the pieces into smaller pieces
(multiplication of the simplest fractions, such as 1/2 times 1/3). Some
fractions can be described using the bigger pieces, and some require the
smaller pieces. Talk about reducing fractions to lowest terms. (You will
need other materials in order to talk about Greatest Common Divisors. I'll
do something on that.) Take some time on multiplying fractions. Then
notice that, for example, if you divide a pie into sixths, three of the
pieces make a half. 3 times 1/6 is 1/2, so 1/2 divided by 3 is 1/6, and
1/2 (= 3/6) divided by 1/6 is 3. (Assuming prior understanding that if the
product of, say, 2 and 3 is 6, then 6/3 = 2 and 6/2 = 3.)

* Cut several pies. For example, cut two pies into three pieces each, and
then color pairs of pieces. How many groups of two pieces make two pies?
Congratulations, you have just divided 2 by 2/3.

* Work other examples, dividing whole numbers by fractions, then fractions
by other fractions, choosing cases that come out even to start with.

* Now look at examples where one fraction does not go evenly into the
other. What do you have to do to make sense of the remainder? Say you have
a pizza cut into 8 pieces, and you have hungry pizza eaters who want three
slices each. How many can you accommodate? Well, two, with two slices left
over. Two slices is 2/3 of three slices, so that comes to 2 2/3 portions.

None of this requires Turtle Art. You can cut pies or cakes, or pieces of
construction paper to do all of this. Oh, yes. How many pieces do the
local pizza parlors cut pizzas into? What fractions can you make from
those pieces? Can you find pictures of pizzas from directly above, so that
they appear as circles? (Yes.) What else? Craters on the moon? The whole
moon? Circular swimming pools, fountains, ponds?

It remains an open question whether the children will discover the
invert-and-multiply rule for dividing fractions by themselves, whether
they will need broad hints, or whether they will have to be told. It would
be interesting to me to hear how they would explain these ideas to each
other. I will be interested to hear your results.

> Thanks,
> Stephen
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the 

[IAEP] Thailand to revive 1-1 computing

2011-07-12 Thread mokurai
Has anybody heard about this, or have any idea what hardware they might be
talking about?

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1765816.html

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra tried to put in an OLPC program for
Thailand before he was ousted in a coup. His sister Yingluck Shinawatra
and their political party have recently won a landslide election victory
in Thailand, and this article lists some of her promises. This one is
directly relevant to us.

FREE TABLET PCS

- The new government has promised free tablet computers for about 800,000
new school children each year for six years beginning in January. Puea
Thai says these would cost between 3,000 and 5,000 baht ($100 to $160)
each and operate with open-source software, possibly from India or China.

NOTE: Olarn Chaipravat, a senior figure in Puea Thai's economic team, told
Reuters the project would cost about 4 billion baht ($131 million) a year.
The idea has divided educators with some saying it will do more harm than
good.

The project is a continuation of the One Laptop Per Child project (OLPC)
adopted by Yingluck's brother, Thaksin, but scrapped when he was ousted in
a 2006 coup.
-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


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Re: [IAEP] Licitación Ceibal

2011-07-08 Thread mokurai
On Tue, July 5, 2011 11:37 am, Martin Langhoff wrote:
> Hola Yama,
>
> me parece muy interesante que busques formar empresas u otras formas
> organizativas para presentarte a una licitación.
>
> Te tengo que pedir un favor -- éstas cosas, ponlas bajo tu
> "directorio" personal en el wiki (ej:
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Yamaplos/Licitacion ) , o en otro sitio
> no asociado con OLPC que es un non-profit que... se presenta a algunas
> licitaciones.
>
> Las licitaciones son temas legales, y si OLPC fuera a presentarse a
> una licitación como ésta, los abogados (de todas las partes) estarían
> más que preocupados por una página que parece una declaración de OLPC.

¿Cómo se dice "LOL" en español?

> El espacio "principal" del wiki es para temas claramente técnicos o
> educativos...

¿Y esa Licitación es educativo o no? Claro que sí, Martin.

> gracias -
>
>
>
> m
>
> 2011/7/3 Yamandu Ploskonka :
>> Puse unas cuantas ideas respecto a la licitación en el wiki.
>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/LLSCeibal_2011
>>
>> Por favor, métanle mano.
>>
>> Plazos corren!
>>
>> SI armamos algo o si nos ponemos como para apoyara a alguien, es hasta
>> el 29
>> de julio
>>
>> Yamandú
>>
>>
>> ___
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
>
>
>
> --
>  martin.langh...@gmail.com
>  mar...@laptop.org -- Software Architect - OLPC
>  - ask interesting questions
>  - don't get distracted with shiny stuff  - working code first
>  - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
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Re: [IAEP] Licitación Ceibal

2011-07-08 Thread mokurai
On Tue, July 5, 2011 10:47 am, Gabriel Eirea wrote:
> Yamandú:
>
> (English tl;dr: don't bother with this call for bids, it's not for us.)

The sections of the RFP quoted below refer to the national education
management system, which requires professional management to meet the
stated reliability requirements. Digital e-learning resources do not come
under these same requirements.

> Entiendo y aplaudo tu empuje para tratar de entrar en esta licitación.
> Sin embargo, en mi opinión es un esfuerzo inútil porque no hay forma
> que en este momento un colectivo como el nuestro pueda siquiera
> presentarse a este llamado.
>
> En la página 22 dice:
>
> """
> Criterios de Calificación
> Criterios de cumplimiento obligatorio
> Empresas que acrediten tres (3) años de actividad económica y
> demuestren fehacientemente la comercialización del
> producto ofrecido. A estos efectos aportarán las referencias que
> avalen esta condición, pudiendo el solicitante recabar,
> cuando lo creyere necesario, información adicional a este respecto.
> Contar con experiencias de implementación de los productos
> presentados, debiendo presentar la información de la siguiente
> manera:
> (i) nivel de masividad del despliegue
> (ii) países en donde se ha implementado
> (ii) tiempo de desarrollo que tiene el mismo
> """
>
> y en la página 58 dice:
>
> """
> El valor del pliego es de U$S 2000.
> """
>
> En otras palabras, una vez más el liderazgo de Ceibal demuestra que no
> le interesa incluir desarrollos comunitarios, ni siquiera de pequeñas
> empresas locales, asumiendo que la compra de soluciones "llave en
> mano" es la mejor estrategia cuando en realidad está comprometiendo la
> sustentabilidad del proyecto. Pero mientras exista la plata dulce del
> BID que paga el pueblo uruguayo, estas cosas seguirán pasando.
>
> Saludos,
>
> Gabriel
>
>
> 2011/7/3 Yamandu Ploskonka :
>> Puse unas cuantas ideas respecto a la licitación en el wiki.
>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/LLSCeibal_2011
>>
>> Por favor, métanle mano.
>>
>> Plazos corren!
>>
>> SI armamos algo o si nos ponemos como para apoyara a alguien, es hasta
>> el 29
>> de julio
>>
>> Yamandú
>>
>>
>> ___
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


[IAEP] St. Vincent and the Grenadines

2011-07-07 Thread mokurai
Does anybody know what this announcement means? Did they merely put the
page up before it was ready?

http://education.gov.vc/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=125&Itemid=107

Intorduction [sic]

Welcome to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Initiative of the Ministry of
Education, Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. We are pleased to
present you with important information to get you started in the
programme.

=

There is a link for it on the main title bar of the site, indicating that
it is considered to be very important, but none of the subjects on the
page has a link, and neither a site search nor a more general Google
search turned up anything else.

-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


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Re: [IAEP] Samsung Windfall: All of South Korea's Textbooks to Go Digital by 2015

2011-07-03 Thread mokurai

On Sun, July 3, 2011 9:26 am, Christoph Derndorfer wrote:
> "By 2014, all of South Korea's elementary-level educational materials
> will be digitized, and by 2015, the entire school-age curriculum will be
> delivered on an array of computers, smart phones and tablets. While the
> country's education ministry is yet to announce the make or model of the
> devices it will purchase, it has revealed it will spend $2.4 billion
> buying the requisite tablets and digitizing material for them."
>
> http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/26960/?ref=rss
>
> Does OLPC South Korea exist already? :-)

물론있찌! (I was in the Peace Corps in South Korea.)

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Korea (mostly in Korean)

There has been strong individual interest, but I haven't heard of the
government doing anything with OLPC.

> Christoph
>
> --
> Christoph Derndorfer
> co-editor, www.olpcnews.com
> e-mail: christ...@olpcnews.com
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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Re: [IAEP] [Edu-sig] Python and pre-algebra

2011-07-01 Thread mokurai
rica.
>
>>> > Are lesson plans and small programs available, for example,
>>>
>>> Probably. There are well over 100,000 digital learning resources on the
>>> Net. You can find some of them on pages linked from
>>>
>>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Open_Education_Resources
>>>
>>> We will need a substantial number of teachers to review them, compare
>>> them, and select those that do the best job making concepts clear in
>>> ways that will stay with students.
>>
>> The South African model was shaping up to serve auto-didacts.
>>
>> Kids who could self teach would stand the best chance.
>
> I would like to see how much of that we can help children learn, given
> that they learn languages and cultures, among other things, with no formal
> instruction.
>
>> The teachers were proving hopeless. Adult teachers could not be
>> expected adapt to these technologies in sufficient time in sufficient
>> number. Those were the facts on the ground.
>
> I don't think that that is necessarily so, and I intend to have our
> Replacing Textbooks project create a sufficient set of teacher training
> materials also. On some points, however, we might have to wait until some
> of our XO students enter teachers colleges.
>
>> It's not like anyone wanted it to be this way. One had to make the
>> best of a bad situation.
>>
>>>
>>> > where students could write and
>>> > "drop in" a script that includes integers and the output would not
>>> only
>>> > calculate it, but see the relevance of it in a real world situation?
>>>
>>> There are many ways to do that. One of the weirder ones is my Turtle
>>> Art
>>> Turing Machine for addition. ^_^
>>>
>>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/TurtleArt/Tutorials/Turtle_Art_Turing_Machine
>>>
>>> More directly to your needs, Pippy is a Sugar activity that shows a
>>> number of Python examples that students can edit. For example,
>>>
>>> Fibonacci
>>> a, b = 0, 1
>>> while b< 1001:
>>> print b,
>>> a, b = b, a+b
>>>
>>> Changing the 0, 1 in the first line changes this from a generator of
>>> Fibonacci numbers to a generator of the related Lucas numbers. There is
>>> a Pascal's Triangle program. Plotted mod 2, it reveals a Sierpinski
>>> fractal.
>>
>> "Generator" also has a technical meaning in Python, such that one
>> might actually write a Fibonacci generator (of the GeneratorType).
>>
>>>
>>> Relevant Python resources include NumPy and PyGame.
>>>
>>> > Or, perhaps, the program controls a "wheelchair" robot and students
>>> would
>>> > write scripts to drive the robot at a certain speed considering the
>>> slope
>>> > of a ramp?
>>>
>>> See the Etoys tutorial challenge for programming a "car", and the robot
>>> program in Uruguay with robots controlled by Sugar software.
>>
>> Alan Kay was at that Shuttleworth meeting in Kensington. I'm sure
>> there've been many follow-up meetings which I've not been privy to, plus
>> I've continued to meet with Oregon-based colleagues.
>
> I met Alan Kay at the 40th anniversary of Doug Engelbart's Mother of All
> Demos at Stanford. I had met Doug previously, and was apparently the first
> to show him an XO.
>
>> I also work with an outfit in Sonoma County, where Python is concerned.
>>
>>>
>>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/christophd/4827926508/
>>> XO turned into a robot thanks to the Butiá project
>>>
>>> > As you can see, I am a novice, but I see great potential and am
>>> > willing to learn.
>>>
>>> Delighted to meet you.
>>>
>>
>> Ed writes a lot of good posts on many a math-related list. I recommend
>> paying attention to his thinking (I know I do).
>
> Thanks, Kirby.
>
>> Kirby
>> ___
>> Edu-sig mailing list
>> edu-...@python.org
>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
>>
>
>
> --
> Edward Mokurai
> (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
> ج) Cherlin
> Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
> The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
>
>
> ___
> Edu-sig mailing list
> edu-...@python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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Re: [IAEP] [squeakland] Expresándonos con Etoys / Expressing ourselves with Etoy s

2011-06-30 Thread mokurai
teer
> Plan Ceibal Support Network
> Montevideo, Uruguay
>
>
>
> On Jun 30, 2011, at 8:11 AM, karl ramberg wrote:
>
>> Really cool :-)
>>
>> Karl
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 11:51 PM, Carlos Rabassa  wrote:
>> English text follows Spanish text
>>
>> Hace unos pocos días leímos sobre vehículos con ruedas cuadradas.
>>
>> Funcionan suavemente sin inclinarse.
>>
>> Usamos Etoys para entender y explicar como funcionan estas ruedas
>> cuadradas.
>>
>> El secreto está en hacerlas rodar sobre caminos ondulados.
>>
>> Este proyecto Etoys muestra cómo construir un camino ondulado adecuado,
>> agregando material,  que se muestra en púrpura,  sobre la superficie
>> lisa del camino original:
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gDMPYPrxmY
>>
>> El video también muestra los únicos guiones requeridos para hacer que la
>> rueda cuadrada ruede sobre el camino mientras que el vehículo,
>> representado por la línea verde, se mantiene horizontal y a altura
>> constante.
>>
>> Estos son algunos vehículos con ruedas cuadradas:
>>
>> Auto de 4 ruedas
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwgvjTDgFxM
>>
>> Bicicleta de 2 ruedas
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hs1wcvhguM
>>
>> Triciclo con 3 ruedas de tamaños diferentes
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjUbkzfJGp4&NR=1
>>
>> English text starts here
>>
>> A few days ago we read about square-wheeled vehicles.
>>
>> They offer smooth rides,  without tilting.
>>
>> We used Etoys to understand and explain how this square wheels work.
>>
>> The secret is to roll them on undulated roads.
>>
>> This Etoys project shows how to build a road with the adequate
>> undulation,  by adding material,  shown in purple, on the flat origianl
>> surface of the road:
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gDMPYPrxmY
>>
>> The video also shows all the scripts required to make the square wheel
>> roll over the road while the vehicle´s body,  represented by the green
>> line, stays horizontal and always at the same height.
>>
>> These are some square wheeled vehicles:
>>
>> 4-wheel car
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwgvjTDgFxM
>>
>> 2-wheel bicycle model
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hs1wcvhguM
>>
>> 3-wheel tricycles
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjUbkzfJGp4&NR=1
>>
>>
>> Carlos Rabassa
>> Voluntario
>> Red de Apoyo al Plan Ceibal
>> Montevideo, Uruguay


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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[IAEP] [Fwd: Daily updates in Group Teachers Without Borders]

2011-06-30 Thread mokurai
FYI. I will see whether these are suitable for the Replacing Textbooks
program.

 Original Message 
Subject: Daily updates in Group Teachers Without Borders
From:"Teachers Without Borders" 
Date:Tue, June 28, 2011 7:42 am
To:  moku...@earthtreasury.org
--

 Teachers Without Borders   3 new
Items See More »   
Peace and Non-Violence Curriculum -
MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse 
 peace_education 
 
shared by stephknox24 27 Jun 11 09:32:12 
- Comment  - Like
 
 
 
 
   
stephknox24 27 Jun 11 09:32:12   

Peace and Nonviolence Curriculum for Grades 1-6 from the
Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse  
 
 
 
Promoting
Tolerance and Peace in Children  
peace_education  
 
   shared by stephknox24 27 Jun 11 09:26:45  
   - Comment  - Like 
 
 
 
 
  
stephknox24 27 Jun 11 09:26:45   

National Association of School Psychologists' resources for
promoting peace and tolerance and children, at home, at school,
and in life  
 
 
 
Zinn Education Project   
  
resources,history,peace_education
 
 shared by stephknox24 27 Jun 11 04:40:12
 - Comment  - Like   
 
 
 
 
 stephknox24 27 Jun
11 04:40:12  
  history resources
from Howard Zinn
You received this message because you are a member of the group Teachers
Without Borders at Diigo.com.
Your alert setting indicates that new additions to this group should be
sent to you Daily.
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-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


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Re: [IAEP] Sugar Labs: account confirmation

2011-06-30 Thread mokurai
On Wed, June 29, 2011 9:01 pm, Walter Bender wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 8:56 PM, Valerie Taylor  wrote:
>> Hi Walter
>>
>> Can you log into Moodle? If you are an administrator, you can make
>> other teachers and/or administrators.
>
> I can log in and I am an administrator, so I should be able to hand
> out credentials to others.
>
>>
>> What is the objective of these Moodle courses? Were they created for
>> specific audiences? Would it be ok if others who are interested in
>> Sugar access them?
>
> I'll bring it up with the oversight board, but I think we should only
> host projects that are available to anyone. I was a bit mystified by
> the language on the home page. But I suppose we better ask each author
> if that was their intention.

I would like to copy resources under suitable Creative Commons licenses to
the Replacing Textbooks server.

>> I have some experience with Moodle. I would be happy to help.
>
> Much appreciated.
>
> -walter
>
>>
>> ..Valerie
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 8:12 PM, Walter Bender 
>> wrote:
>>> On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 7:23 PM, Tabitha Roder 
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> The welcome discussion post was added by David Farning and edited by
>>>> Walter
>>>> Bender so you could try talking to them about who is managing the
>>>> http://schools.sugarlabs.org/ Moodle site.
>>>>
>>>> I think this resource is probably under utilised and probably not well
>>>> publicised.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I think I have admin privileges, so I am happy to help. I don't know
>>> much about how Moodle works, so I'll need some guidance.
>>>
>>> -walter
>>>
>>> --
>>> Walter Bender
>>> Sugar Labs
>>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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Re: [IAEP] Sugar minimum set

2011-06-30 Thread mokurai
On Wed, June 29, 2011 2:29 pm, Valerie Taylor wrote:
> Is there a minimum set of Sugar teacher/tutor training, hardware and
> software that could be implemented by a community supported remedial
> program that works with kids outside regular elementary school? Is
> this something that could be considered and/or suggested?

That is a whole set of questions bundled up into one. XOs and their Sugar
distributions are the minimum standard set. The maximum is whatever is
currently on Activities.sugarlabs.org.

You can buy individual used XOs on eBay for about $150 each. If some NGO
would be willing to buy 10,000 units and make them available in smaller
quantities to other NGOs, we could talk about all sorts of programs.
Prices would likely be in the $200-$250 range. The initial investment
would be about $2 million up front, with delivery date to be determined
later. Nobody has so far been willing to operate on those terms.

> A local program provides small group time as their primary learning
> activities and has some computers that they use already. Most of the
> software is the usual proprietary kids educational products. Their
> regular program would lend itself to including basic Sugar Labs
> Activities.

Sugar on a Stick

> Are there guidelines for when Sugar Labs Activities can be beneficial
> even if it isn't possible or practical to provide the all-inclusive
> OLPC environment?

Always. ^_^

> In this case, the computers could probably loaded with Linux and
> Sugar, and would be stand-alone (without a classroom or school
> server). I don't know if the machines are networked so that groups and
> neighborhoods could be available.

Any of the above.

> Is anyone doing this now? Does Sugar Labs encourage this? What is a
> minimum setup that could be considered? What are the "gotcha's" for
> doing something like this?

Various NGOs have various programs around XOs and Sugar in other forms.

Sugar Labs encourages this.

Sugar on a Stick

There are some technical issues. SoaS is not easy enough to create. It
does not work on every computer. Therefore preplanning and testing is
necessary. Mostly, the issue is that prospective teachers do not have
enough guidance on how to use Sugar effectively. That is one of the
targets for the Replacing Textbooks program. Of course, you can buy
pre-recorded SoaS USB units, although I don't know which versions of SoaS
are available.

> To replace textbooks, is there a strategy for moving to wider use of
> Sugar as part of the process?

Of course. The idea is to integrate Sugar into every topic where it is
practical in every subject. That is the equivalent of more than 100
textbooks, with more than 10,000 topics.

> Thanks
> ..Valerie
 ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
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Re: [IAEP] Update on the Sugar Labs website refresh

2011-06-30 Thread mokurai
On Thu, June 30, 2011 7:11 am, Sean DALY wrote:
> Many thanks Christian for this update
>
> Yes I too saw that although Walter (the Sugar Digest [1]), myself (on
> the lists [2] plus the olpcnews piece [3]), John (on the lists [4]),
> JT & Mike (on the lists [5]) all asked for content, there was little
> or no reaction. I believe we need to ask more concretely, i.e. "for
> the X page we need a Y visual" - even if this means a list of
> requests.

As described at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requested_pictures

> I can't help but feel that the day the new site goes live
> there will be complaints, while assistance now will make the site the
> best it can be!

I have reached a point where I can start posting content to the Wiki
regularly, starting with educational topics in Turtle Art. My list is
below Tony Forster's at

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/TurtleArt/Tutorials

I have begun at opposite ends of the spectrum, with preschool Turtle Art
(You Be the Turtle) and a Turtle Art Turing Machine with Logo translation.

We need the same kind of information here on Smalltalk/Etoys resources.

As part of the Sugar Labs Replacing Textbooks program, various of us are
working on responses to the Plain Ceibal RFP for up to 1,000 digital
educational resources. English translation of requirements section of
Licitación linked at

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks#Plan_Ceibal_project

We will post on whatever we decide to propose.

Replacing Textbooks has a list of sources of free educational resources,
with well over 100,000 items in pages it links to.

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Open_Education_Resources

We will be recruiting teachers, subject-matter experts, and translators
for all of this.

> Another next step is to assemble a teacher panel to assess the site
> usability.

And for many other purposes. We need teachers from all target countries,
too, and in addition we should ask children what issues they have in using
our site and our documentation.

> The Marketlab study [6] clearly showed that teachers are
> not finding the information they need on our current sites, and
> coupled with the high technical barriers to installing and configuring
> Sugar means we discourage too many teachers from even trying
> Activities. Teachers, contact us please to participate in the panel!

As a former professional technical writer, I can point out a number of
ways to improve the site, in terms of navigation, accessibility,
audiences, and more.

> thanks
>
> Sean
>
> 1. http://walterbender.org/?p=431
> 2. http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2011-March/012783.html
> 3.
> http://www.olpcnews.com/software/sugar/teachers_help_us_improve_the_sugarlabs_website.html
> 4. http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2011-April/012959.html
> 5. http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2011-April/012843.html,
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/dextrose/2011-April/001234.html
> 6. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Marketing_Team#MIT_Sloan_MarketLab_Study
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 11:22 PM, Christian Marc Schmidt
>  wrote:
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> John and I wanted to give you a brief update on the status of the
>> website. For the last few months we had the benefit of working with
>> two RIT students, JT and Mike, who helped us take initial steps in
>> launching a new and improved public-facing website. With their help,
>> we identified the shortcomings of the current site and the
>> opportunities for (a) better articulating the Sugar value proposition
>> and (b) keeping the site current with events and progress made by the
>> developer community.
>>
>> There were a few learnings along the way: While JT and Mike were able
>> to gather and produce a fair number of assets, it was far more
>> difficult to get all the content we had hoped for and which we know
>> does exist. This means that we will be reaching out to the community
>> again in a short while to help us fill in the missing pieces. In the
>> meantime, thank you to all of you who helped to provide content in the
>> first round!
>>
>> Next steps are to make further traction on the UI design in order to
>> give us a scaffold to populate with content as it comes in. This will
>> be happening over the next few weeks, and we'll keep all of you
>> updated when there are opportunities for feedback.
>>
>> Thanks, and more to come,
>>
>>
>> Christian
>>
>> --
>> anyth...@christianmarcschmidt.com
>> 917/ 575 0013
>>
>> http://www.christianmarcschmidt.com
>> http://www.facebook.com/christianmarcschmidt
>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/christianmarcschmidt
>> http://twitter.com/cms_
>> Skype: christianmarc

Re: [IAEP] [Fwd: Re: Call for bids, Educational platform, curricular content for CEIBAL]

2011-06-27 Thread mokurai
stoph Derndorfer wrote:
>>>>>>> vi que Plan Ceibal anunció una licitación para "Plataforma
>>>>>>Educativa on line...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -/
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Hola, Christoph:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>No soy experto en Licitaciones, ni tampoco en Plataformas
>>>>>>Educativas, en lo único que te puedo ayudar es en pasarte un
>>>>>>pequeño resumen de lo que pide dicha licitación.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>De las 59 páginas de la Licitación
>>>>>>
>>>>>> <http://ceibal.org.uy/docs/Licitacion-152-2011-Pliego-%20Condiciones-Plataforma.pdf>
>>>>>>te lo acorté a 12 páginas (es el pdf que puse como attach a
>>>>>> éste
>>>>>>e-mail). Le borré 47 páginas que estaban llenas de bla bla de
>>>>>>agogados.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Paolo,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> te agradezco mucho para esta version, ahora fue mucho más facil
>>>>>> encontrar los aspectos relevantes.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Tampoco sé mucho de este tipo de licitaciones pero lo que si me
>>>>>> parece
>>>>>> interesante - en especial en comparación con la licitación de
>>>>>> Rwanda
>>>>>> que parece haber sido parecido en su enfoque - que la describción
>>>>>> en
>>>>>> la sección de los contenidos educativos esta bastante amplio. Si lo
>>>>>> entiendo bien en Rwanda habían requisitos de certificación segun
>>>>>> un
>>>>>> estandard educativo pero no veo nada de esto en esta licitación
>>>>>> uruguaya.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> En todo caso será interesante ver los resultados de este proceso...
>>>>>> :-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Saludos,
>>>>>> Christoph
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Christoph Derndorfer
>>>>>> co-editor, olpcnews
>>>>>> url: www.olpcnews.com <http://www.olpcnews.com>
>>>>>> e-mail: christ...@olpcnews.com <mailto:christ...@olpcnews.com>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ___
>>>>>> Lista olpc-Sur
>>>>>> olpc-...@lists.laptop.org
>>>>>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sur
>>>>> ___
>>>>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>>>>> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>>>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>
>
> --
> Edward Mokurai
> (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
> ج) Cherlin
> Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
> The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
>
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


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[IAEP] [Fwd: Re: Call for bids, Educational platform, curricular content for CEIBAL]

2011-06-27 Thread mokurai
gt;> <http://ceibal.org.uy/docs/Licitacion-152-2011-Pliego-%20Condiciones-Plataforma.pdf>
>>>>>te lo acorté a 12 páginas (es el pdf que puse como attach a
>>>>> éste
>>>>>e-mail). Le borré 47 páginas que estaban llenas de bla bla de
>>>>>agogados.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Paolo,
>>>>>
>>>>> te agradezco mucho para esta version, ahora fue mucho más facil
>>>>> encontrar los aspectos relevantes.
>>>>>
>>>>> Tampoco sé mucho de este tipo de licitaciones pero lo que si me
>>>>> parece
>>>>> interesante - en especial en comparación con la licitación de
>>>>> Rwanda
>>>>> que parece haber sido parecido en su enfoque - que la describción en
>>>>> la sección de los contenidos educativos esta bastante amplio. Si lo
>>>>> entiendo bien en Rwanda habían requisitos de certificación segun un
>>>>> estandard educativo pero no veo nada de esto en esta licitación
>>>>> uruguaya.
>>>>>
>>>>> En todo caso será interesante ver los resultados de este proceso...
>>>>> :-)
>>>>>
>>>>> Saludos,
>>>>> Christoph
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Christoph Derndorfer
>>>>> co-editor, olpcnews
>>>>> url: www.olpcnews.com <http://www.olpcnews.com>
>>>>> e-mail: christ...@olpcnews.com <mailto:christ...@olpcnews.com>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ___
>>>>> Lista olpc-Sur
>>>>> olpc-...@lists.laptop.org
>>>>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sur
>>>> ___
>>>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>>>> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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Re: [IAEP] Call for bids, Educational platform, curricular content for CEIBAL

2011-06-25 Thread mokurai
On Fri, June 24, 2011 10:03 am, Yamandu Ploskonka wrote:
> $48 G in IADB funds, $114 G total

Where is the information on funding? I didn't see it in the PDF or on the
Plan Ceibal site.

> page 18 has the abstract, and pp. 34-37 details on the actual stuff they
> are looking for.  The rest is lawyerly fluff, so beware...

Got it, thanks.

> On 06/16/2011 04:53 PM, Christoph Derndorfer wrote:
>> 2011/6/16 mailto:nanon...@mediagala.com>>
>>
>> />Christoph Derndorfer wrote:
>> >vi que Plan Ceibal anunció una licitación para "Plataforma
>> Educativa on line...
>> 
>> -/
>>
>>
>>
>> Hola, Christoph:
>>
>> No soy experto en Licitaciones, ni tampoco en Plataformas
>> Educativas, en lo único que te puedo ayudar es en pasarte un
>> pequeño resumen de lo que pide dicha licitación.
>>
>> De las 59 páginas de la Licitación
>> 
>> <http://ceibal.org.uy/docs/Licitacion-152-2011-Pliego-%20Condiciones-Plataforma.pdf>
>> te lo acorté a 12 páginas (es el pdf que puse como attach a éste
>> e-mail). Le borré 47 páginas que estaban llenas de bla bla de
>> agogados.
>>
>>
>> Paolo,
>>
>> te agradezco mucho para esta version, ahora fue mucho más facil
>> encontrar los aspectos relevantes.
>>
>> Tampoco sé mucho de este tipo de licitaciones pero lo que si me parece
>> interesante - en especial en comparación con la licitación de Rwanda
>> que parece haber sido parecido en su enfoque - que la describción en
>> la sección de los contenidos educativos esta bastante amplio. Si lo
>> entiendo bien en Rwanda habían requisitos de certificación segun un
>> estandard educativo pero no veo nada de esto en esta licitación
>> uruguaya.
>>
>> En todo caso será interesante ver los resultados de este proceso... :-)
>>
>> Saludos,
>> Christoph
>>
>> --
>> Christoph Derndorfer
>> co-editor, olpcnews
>> url: www.olpcnews.com <http://www.olpcnews.com>
>> e-mail: christ...@olpcnews.com <mailto:christ...@olpcnews.com>
>>
>>
>> ___
>> Lista olpc-Sur
>> olpc-...@lists.laptop.org
>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sur
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


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Re: [IAEP] Call for bids, Educational platform, curricular content for CEIBAL

2011-06-25 Thread mokurai
On Fri, June 24, 2011 10:22 am, Caryl Bigenho wrote:
>
> Hummm  Sugar Labs could use $48G.  Maybe folks in charge of
> development should take a good look at this one.

I'm in charge of the Replacing Textbooks program, and I am taking a good
hard look at it. We would need a number of partners, and I have a good
idea whom to ask. Would you like to join in, Caryl?

If we can get paid to develop a set of interactive education materials in
Spanish, we can then translate to the several dozen other languages of
OLPC deplopments. The bottom line, apart from getting paid to do what we
want to do anyway, is that with Free Software and Free Open Education
Resources, netbooks are far less expensive than decent printed textbooks,
and can be of much higher quality. We can then talk to politicians
anywhere about improving education while saving money, an offer they
cannot easily refuse. ^_^

> Caryl
>
> Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 09:03:21 -0500
> From: yamap...@gmail.com
> To: IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> Subject: [IAEP] Call for bids, Educational platform,  curricular content
> for CEIBAL
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> $48 G in IADB funds, $114 G total
>
>
>
> page 18 has the abstract, and pp. 34-37 details on the actual stuff
> they are looking for.  The rest is lawyerly fluff, so beware...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 06/16/2011 04:53 PM, Christoph Derndorfer wrote:
>
>   2011/6/16 
>
>
>
> >Christoph Derndorfer wrote:
>
> >vi que Plan Ceibal anunció una licitación para
> "Plataforma
> Educativa on line...
>
> -
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hola, Christoph:
>
>
>
> No soy experto en Licitaciones, ni tampoco en Plataformas
> Educativas,
> en lo único que te puedo ayudar es en pasarte un pequeño
> resumen de lo
> que pide dicha licitación.
>
>
>
> De las 59
>   páginas de la Licitación te lo acorté a 12 páginas (es
> el pdf que
> puse como attach a éste e-mail). Le borré 47 páginas que
> estaban llenas
> de bla bla de agogados.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Paolo,
>
>
>
> te agradezco mucho para esta version, ahora fue mucho más
>   facil encontrar los aspectos relevantes.
>
>
>
>
>   Tampoco sé mucho de este tipo de licitaciones pero lo que si
>   me parece interesante - en especial en comparación con la
>   licitación de Rwanda que parece haber sido parecido en su
>   enfoque - que la describción en la sección de los contenidos
>   educativos esta bastante amplio. Si lo entiendo bien en Rwanda
>   habían requisitos de certificación segun un estandard
>   educativo pero no veo nada de esto en esta licitación
>   uruguaya.
>
>
>
> En todo caso será interesante ver los resultados de este
>   proceso... :-)
>
>
>
> Saludos,
>
>   Christoph
>
>
>
>
>   --
>
>   Christoph Derndorfer
>
>   co-editor, olpcnews
>
>   url: www.olpcnews.com
>
>   e-mail: christ...@olpcnews.com
>
>
> ___
> Lista olpc-Sur
> olpc-...@lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sur
>
>
>
>
>
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


___
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Re: [IAEP] Call for bids, Educational platform, curricular content for CEIBAL

2011-06-25 Thread mokurai
On Fri, June 24, 2011 10:03 am, Yamandu Ploskonka wrote:
> $48 G in IADB funds, $114 G total
>
> page 18 has the abstract, and pp. 34-37 details on the actual stuff they
> are looking for.  The rest is lawyerly fluff, so beware...

This is exactly what the Sugar Labs Replacing Textbooks program is about.
Obviously Sugar Labs cannot do it alone, but if we can find appropriate
partners, would you two, Yama and Christoph, want to work on it?

Anybody else?

Esto es exactamente lo que el programa de Remplazando los libros de texto
de Sugar Labs se trata. Obviamente Sugar Labs no puede hacerlo solo, pero
si podemos encontrar los socios adecuados, lo haría con dos, Yama y
Christoph, quiere trabajar en él?

¿Alguien más?

> On 06/16/2011 04:53 PM, Christoph Derndorfer wrote:
>> 2011/6/16 mailto:nanon...@mediagala.com>>
>>
>> />Christoph Derndorfer wrote:
>> >vi que Plan Ceibal anunció una licitación para "Plataforma
>> Educativa on line...
>> 
>> -/
>>
>>
>>
>> Hola, Christoph:
>>
>> No soy experto en Licitaciones, ni tampoco en Plataformas
>> Educativas, en lo único que te puedo ayudar es en pasarte un
>> pequeño resumen de lo que pide dicha licitación.
>>
>> De las 59 páginas de la Licitación
>> 
>> <http://ceibal.org.uy/docs/Licitacion-152-2011-Pliego-%20Condiciones-Plataforma.pdf>
>> te lo acorté a 12 páginas (es el pdf que puse como attach a éste
>> e-mail). Le borré 47 páginas que estaban llenas de bla bla de
>> agogados.
>>
>>
>> Paolo,
>>
>> te agradezco mucho para esta version, ahora fue mucho más facil
>> encontrar los aspectos relevantes.
>>
>> Tampoco sé mucho de este tipo de licitaciones pero lo que si me parece
>> interesante - en especial en comparación con la licitación de Rwanda
>> que parece haber sido parecido en su enfoque - que la describción en
>> la sección de los contenidos educativos esta bastante amplio. Si lo
>> entiendo bien en Rwanda habían requisitos de certificación segun un
>> estandard educativo pero no veo nada de esto en esta licitación
>> uruguaya.
>>
>> En todo caso será interesante ver los resultados de este proceso... :-)
>>
>> Saludos,
>> Christoph
>>
>> --
>> Christoph Derndorfer
>> co-editor, olpcnews
>> url: www.olpcnews.com <http://www.olpcnews.com>
>> e-mail: christ...@olpcnews.com <mailto:christ...@olpcnews.com>
>>
>>
>> ___
>> Lista olpc-Sur
>> olpc-...@lists.laptop.org
>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sur
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


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Re: [IAEP] project status

2011-06-22 Thread mokurai
On Mon, June 20, 2011 6:55 am, Valerie Taylor wrote:
> Is there a single place where all active projects / initiatives are
> listed with information about current status, priorities, links to
> other important information and a contact?

No. That would be a lot of work to do manually, but well worth it if it
could be automated. At the highest level, contacts are provided on

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Getting_Involved

You can find translators and administrators listed in Pootle, bug owners
in Trac, and authors in Replacing Textbooks. I assume that there are other
resources in areas where I don't have as much involvement.

> There are pages for each project but I haven't found one place where I
> can see the current big picture - not too many words, lots of links
> and maybe some status / urgency indicators in a simple table?

Sounds useful.
-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


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Re: [IAEP] ??

2011-06-19 Thread mokurai
On Sun, Jun 19, 2011 at 08:55, Donald Cohen 
wrote:
> Ed,
> You have asked me to put my book Calculus By and For Young
People-Worksheets
> under a CC license-which I've done.

Thank you.

> Why not use my methods/lessons on the
> computer?  Someone could make it work on the computer.

Exactly. See the Nepalese Epaati software described at

http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/nepal/epaati__educational_software.html

>  If you send me your
> address I will send each of you a CD with my worksheet book.

Edward Cherlin
2212 Home Ave.
Columbus IN 47201

Didn't you send me one?

> In the meantime you could check out my A Map to Calculus
>
> http://www.mathman.biz/html/map.html
>
> and see all the
> "lessons" I do involving fractions.(a sample- infinite series, cookie
> sharing, solving equations, graphing linear equations to slope and area
> under curves, probability, continued fractions, infinite sequence of ratios
> of consecutive Fibonacci #s, Binomial expansion (Pascal's triangle), c/d of
> a circle, similar triangles, scale factors... ).

Well done.

> On Monday I will be able to see my A Map to Calculus on a smart phone as an
> APP!

Congratulations. Who did the programming? Have you seen

http://booki.flossmanuals.net/make-your-own-sugar-activities/edit/

> Why do you want to use the old wheel and make textbooks?

Not at all. The program is Replacing Textbooks by integrating software
into the curriculum, as in

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/images/0/0e/Gravity.odt

> Remember Feynman!
> Couldn't problems be put on the computer after children work on the
> "lessons"? NO.

No?

> Couldn't the kids make up the questions? When that happens
> they really learn what they are doing, and the problems they make up are
> usually harder that those I make up. So the kids would make the textbook on
> the computer! They could even rate the questions- too easy, easy, harder,
> most difficult.

Exactly. Kids could at some point write programs to set themselves
problems, although that doesn't cover the really creative questions that
are children's best contributions. The more interesting part is when
children are able to act like scientists who understand that the
importance of a new discovery is measured by the number and variety of new
questions that it opens up, and the number of old ideas that it knocks
down. Really good examples include non-Euclidean geometry, non-standard
arithmetic and analysis, quantum theory, relativity, and evolution.

> I am making a list of activities I use with kids which involve fractions
and
> will send this. I am a little slow, and with my kid-sessions/week (about
60)
> and two students coming from CA and LA for 5 days each, the end of June and
> the first week in July, please be patient.

I consider it well worth the wait.

> Don
>
> --
> "Learning, Living and Loving mathematics.."- the core of Don's teaching and
> books, observed by Seth Nielson.
> The Math Program
> Don Cohen -The Mathman
> 809 Stratford Dr.
> Champaign, IL 61821-4140
> Tel. 217-356-4555
> Fax: 1 217 356 4593
> Email: doncohenmath...@gmail.com
> Don's Mathman website URL: http://www.mathman.biz
> See Don's new clickable  A Map to Calculus with student works and sample
> problems from Don's books at every node
> Our Shaklee website:
> http://marilynanddoncohen.myshaklee.com

-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


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Re: [IAEP] Journal files

2011-06-19 Thread mokurai
On Sun, June 19, 2011 11:22 am, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:
> On 20 June 2011 00:30, Kevin Gordon  wrote:
>> I presume this doesn't do what you are looking for?  Doesn't scale
>> particulary elegantly, but I find it useful
>>
>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Copy_to_and_from_the_Journal
>
> It does the basic job of copying to/from the Journal.
>
> However, it needs to be an easy GUI feature. Anything that requires a
> terminal is far beyond what we can expect a teacher or child to do.

I have recommended the Midnight Commander file manager for this purpose.

sudo yum install mc

It is a full-screen character-mode program that runs in Terminal, so it
needs no Sugarizing. Among its features are sorting, filtering, selecting
multiple items or groups of items, and two-click copying or moving of
selections, whether files or whole directories. We would need to write
some lesson plans in order to give this to children.

MC is not suitable for copying to and from the Journal, but it handles
everything in plain files, and simplifies using the scripts given on the
page you referenced.

See also

http://booki.flossmanuals.net/command-line/edit/

written for the Free Software Foundation. (I am one of the authors.)
Unlike conventional command-line textbooks and manuals for those planning
to be developers or sysadmins, this describes only what users need to
know. It is not directly suitable for young children, but again we could
use it as the basis for lesson plans.

> Sridhar
> ___
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>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks


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[IAEP] Unity desktop in Ubuntu (was Re: [Sugar-devel] Is Apple's New OS X Copying Sugar???)

2011-06-17 Thread mokurai
On Fri, June 17, 2011 6:51 pm, Caryl Bigenho wrote:
>
> Hi folks,
> Maybe what seem to be problems with Sugar aren't so bad after all.  In
> fact, it looks like Apple is using some of our stuff!

So is Ubuntu's new default desktop, Unity. Instead of a menu of
applications, it has a display of icons for frequently-used apps,
installed apps, and installable apps, with an option to select a subset
such as Office, Accessories, System and so on, and a search box for typing
any part of the app name or description.

But these ideas are in the air. The search field in our journal or in
Unity is very much like the Firefox Awesome Bar for searching by URL or
title among Web pages that you have visited.

Unity also has a bar on the left for active apps and some other icons,
which relates to the Apple dock and also to the Sugar frame. Like the
frame, it slides out when you put the mouse pointer into the corner or
along the edge, according to a preference setting. One of the icons allows
you to search for a document by icon or with the search box, rather like
the Journal except that it also searches for folders.

> The most striking is the new "Air Drop" feature which is, essentially, our
> mesh network!  It uses wi-fi and even has a view that I swear is is a copy
> of our Neighborhood View!
>
> Also, while you are all worrying about reducing the number of saves to the
> Journal, Apple's has made it's new "Lion" version of OS X have an autosave
> feature that constantly saves multiple versions of your projects.  Of
> course, a lot of software already has this feature, but now it seems to
> apply to everything you might be running on the Apple.
>
> I found all this by watching Apple's video of their presentation at the
> WWDC last week.  It's a long video (about 2 hours). Unless you are an
> Apple aficionado, I wouldn't recommend it.
>
> Caryl   
> ___
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> sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

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[IAEP] Replacing textbooks server problem

2011-06-17 Thread mokurai
I have just learned from dogi (Stefan Unterhauser) that the Django
software on the Replacing Textbooks server at booki.treehouse.su needs
occasional restarting, and that I am assigned to doing that as the
principal user and manager of that server.

Acabo de enterarme de dogi (Stefan Unterhauser) que el software de Django
en el servidor Sustitución de Libros de Texto en booki.treehouse.su
necesidades ocasionales de reiniciar, y que estoy asignado a hacerlo, como
usuario principal y administrador de ese servidor.

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Machine/treehouse/booki#known_problems

So if you can't get a Web page from the server, let me know.

Por lo tanto, si usted no puede conseguir una página Web desde el
servidor, hágamelo saber.
-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

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Re: [IAEP] [support-gang] Journal prompts (was: Re: FW: [OLPC Bolivia] No logro aprender Sugar / I cannot learn Sugar)

2011-06-17 Thread mokurai
t; >
>> > What we try to do with Sugar is to skew the odds that certain (good)
>> > things would happen, regardless of the details of the deployment. (In
>> > a similar vain, the 5 principles of OLPC are meant to skew the odds
>> > that a 1-to-1 deployment will have maximum impact.) But we cannot and
>> > don't want to force these ideas on deployments; rather we want them to
>> > be appropriated and transformed locally as fit the needs -- a tough
>> > balance to achieve. More and better documentation is certainly in
>> > order. Even better would be real examples of best practice from the
>> > deployments themselves.
>>
>> Hence Replacing Textbooks, for students, teachers, parents...
>
> I know that the OLPC XO is suppose to replace the need for text books (and
> note
> books) for students and that the parents can view the child's work and
> that some
> laptops would also be used by parents for learning or adult work. But I am
> missing what that last sentence means about Sugar.

See the Replacing Textbooks page on the Wiki (URL in sig). It is not that
the XO replaces textbooks, but that we create the free digital
replacements for expensive printed textbooks. Not just PDFs of existing
textbooks, but interactive materials that integrate Sugar activities with
subject matter, as Alan Kay has explained for teaching gravity. Here is my
extended version of his lessons, using Turtle Art, Record, and Scratch.

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/images/0/0e/Gravity.odt

We have to cover every school subject and more for students, with a full
course of teacher training and materials to explain what we are doing to
parents, administrators, politicians...

> 
>
> --
> |  .''`.  == Debian GNU/Linux ==.| http://kevix.myopenid.com..|
> | : :' : The Universal OS| mysite.verizon.net/kevin.mark/.|,
> | `. `'   http://www.debian.org/.| http://counter.li.org [#238656]|
> |___`-Unless I ask to be CCd,.assume I am subscribed._|
>
>  uh oh, what have I started :)
>  rofl... distro nick wars.
> * Slackware just waits for /nick Gnome, /nick KDE, and then world war 4
>to break out
>  :oP
>  
>  :)
>  no'one would dare /nick RedHat
>  mew.
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

___
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IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
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Re: [IAEP] [support-gang] Journal prompts (was: Re: FW: [OLPC Bolivia] No logro aprender Sugar / I cannot learn Sugar)

2011-06-16 Thread mokurai
ocess as entries can be incorporated into a
> collection of artifacts that the learner can periodically amass and
> present. (There is some good literature on portfolio assessment,
> including Stefanakis Evangeline's book --
> http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/features/mi08012002.html -- which I
> find a nice balance between theory and practice.)
>
> Not every deployment has leveraged this aspect of Sugar yet, but as we
> continue to improve the underlying tools, I think we'll see more use.
> (By chance, when I was visiting the Caacupé deployment last year, I
> happened upon a meeting at one of the schools where the parents were
> being taught how to use the Journal so that they could talk with their
> children about their work, so I know that at least in some places, the
> Journal is being used in ways that we envisioned.) It was in response
> to feedback I got at the OLPC-sponsered assessment summit a few months
> back that I wrote the Portfolio activity --
> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4437 -- which I am
> hoping will lower the barrier to using portfolios as a routine part of
> the Sugar experience.
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
>>
>> --
>> |  .''`.  == Debian GNU/Linux ==.| http://kevix.myopenid.com..|
>> | : :' :     The Universal OS| mysite.verizon.net/kevin.mark/.|
>> | `. `'   http://www.debian.org/.| http://counter.li.org [#238656]|
>> |___`-Unless I ask to be CCd,.assume I am subscribed._|
>> ___
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
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Re: [IAEP] FW: [OLPC Bolivia] No logro aprender Sugar / I cannot learn Sugar why would YOU want to?

2011-06-15 Thread mokurai
gt;> water long under the bridge.  Those of us who were around at that time
>> remember it as a time of high passions and recriminations, some were
>> even moved to express themselves in outrageous forms
>> (http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Cjl/Random_musings) just to
>> exorcise those demons and move forward with the important work at
>> hand.
>>
>> "Thanks to Sugar and to many other organizations and persons,  Plan
>> Ceibal started,  it accomplished tremendous progress and it is where
>> it is today.  Let´s congratulate all those who helped bring it to this
>> point,  from those who made the big decisions,  to OLPC and each and
>> all teachers, students, relatives and volunteers."
>>
>>cjl - An acknowledgement that OLPC and Sugar have changed the
>> nature of the discourse around ICT and learning.
>>
>> "Wouldn´t this be the time to recognize Sugar is what is currently
>> preventing us to move ahead,  and to dedicate all our tremendous
>> collective intelligence and energy to continue moving ahead?  Anyone
>> may trip on a roadblock.  We have to get up and continue on our way.
>> We cannot let a program that has problems stop everything."
>>
>> cjl - Sounds like a call to "throw the baby out with the
>> bathwater", I can't say I agree with this conclusion, but Carlos is
>> certainly not the first to make this point.  This is an opportunity to
>> engage Carlos in a discussion about the core principles behind Sugar
>> and to examine our own efforts to see how we may be falling short of
>> achieving those principles.
>>
>> "I am happy to see Plan Ceibal is not sleeping and every day is
>> introducing or considering very interesting ideas.  I see Portal
>> Ceibal shows information on Khan Academy and Sugata Mitra,  among
>> other education ideas that are calling the attention of many people
>> around the world today."
>>
>>cjl - Here Carlos is suggesting that Sugar and an XO laptop alone
>> are not the solution to all problems, a conclusion I heartily agree
>> with.  It fails to acknowledge what Sugar and XOs make possible, but I
>> will not quibble there, I will join him in celebrating the ingenuity
>> of local deployments and even children in appropriating the tools they
>> have adopted and reworking them to meet their own needs and desires.
>> At this point I am tempted to shout "Hallelujah" or less aptly
>> "Mission Accomplished".  The appropriation of the tools and technology
>> by local communities is the end-game we all seek (I think).
>>
>>cjl - What this leaves out is the sincere desire of Sugar Labs to
>> gather that creative energy back from the deployments and share it
>> with other deployments around the world.  Let's be honest in admitting
>> we just don't do this well enough (yet).  I myself would like to see
>> OLE Nepal's materials translated into English and hosted on Pootle for
>> anyone to localize into their language of choice (just as an example).
>>  This returns us to the need for deeper and more meaningful engagement
>> to harvest both the good and the bad from deployments.
>>
>> cjl - Kenneth, that is how I read Carlos's message.  It may not
>> be what he really meant to say and he may not like how I characterize
>> some of his points, but this is just my opinion, which you *did* ask
>> for,  You just didn't realize that I would actually give it to you :-)
>>
>> cjl
>> ___
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
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Re: [IAEP] FW: [OLPC Bolivia] No logro aprender Sugar / I cannot learn Sugar why would YOU want to?

2011-06-15 Thread mokurai
On Wed, June 15, 2011 3:25 pm, Valerie Taylor wrote:
> The concerns are much more technical that I was imagining.
>
> I'm really out there on the fringe. I took the liberty of going
> through the Sugar manual and leaving out anything that was too
> technical for a general overview. There is still a lot of useful and
> interesting information about Sugar, Activities and how these fit into
> teaching and learning, although there is lots more that could be said
> along these lines. This should help people who want to know about
> Sugar but aren't particularly interested in running it (yet) -
> educators, parents.  My apologies to all the contributors of the great
> information - others appreciate it.
>
> http://wikieducator.org/User:Vtaylor/Sugar_manual

Please put that up on the Replacing Textbooks server. Remixing is one of
the points of the program.

> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


Re: [IAEP] [support-gang] FW: [OLPC Bolivia] No logro

2011-06-15 Thread mokurai
On Wed, June 15, 2011 2:40 pm, Valerie Taylor wrote:
> As a new independent learner, there is no question that it is
> difficult to "learn Sugar" but why would someone want to? I want to
> because OLPC is on the right track toward the education that should
> have been researched, implemented and supported for the last 20 years.

At least 50. The great innovators and experimenters in computer education
worked in the late 1950s and the 1960s. I include Omar Khayyam [sic]
Moore, Ken Iverson, Doug Engelbart, Alan Kay, Seymour Papert, and the
rest. Everything since is commentary, and waiting for Moore's Law to catch
up.

> What is amazing is that those empowered to provide education to
> millions of the world's most needed children actually get this.

Some of us, anyway, ^_^ although the idea is definitely spreading.

> It is about priorities, passions and limited resources.

It is about doing something as soon as possible, not as soon as convenient.

> Most of the
> people who have contributed to date have been comfortable with the
> technology and wrote documentation for themselves and other
> like-minded users, and this has worked well to satisfy the needs of
> the primary audience - those implementing whole school XO adoptions.
> However, developing training and documentation for other audiences has
> not been provided for whatever reason.

There is documentation for teachers, and teacher training material, in
Spanish and Nepali that I would like to see translated to English and then
to dozens of other languages. I have been working on Discovering Discovery
at FLOSS Manuals and now in the Sugar Labs Replacing Textbooks program, on
our test server at

http://booki.treehouse.su/

FLOSS Manuals is in the process of translating its Sugar and OLPC manuals.
We could use more help.

> I doubt that this is the first time someone has indicated that they
> had a problem learning Sugar. Apparently little if anything has been
> done in the past to address these specific concerns. The interest in
> the current situation is encouraging. It is never too late to provide
> additional information for those who are interested enough to point
> out a need that is un-met.

There has been a substantial amount of grumbling without providing
specifics so that we can either change the software or the documentation,
as appropriate. Please send me your issues.

> Good start on a dialog to discover what is needed and what can be done
> / provided to make it easier for other interested audiences to "learn
> Sugar" as they understand it.

Thank you.

> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
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Re: [IAEP] [support-gang] FW: [OLPC Bolivia] No logro aprender Sugar / I cannot learn Sugar

2011-06-15 Thread mokurai

On Wed, June 15, 2011 12:12 pm, Walter Bender wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 12:04 PM, Mikus Grinbergs  wrote:
>>> I Am talking about the problem about the incompatibility between the
>>> Sugarized programs vs the normal linux programs , like the games that
>>> the children wants.  There are thousands of programs in Linux that
>>> don't uses the "Journal", so there are useless.
>>
>> This seems to be the common thread between here and earlier posts:
>>
>>  "I know how to run program ZZZ on a non-Sugar system.  Why can't I
>>   (easily/simply) put it on a Sugar system (for a kid who wants it)?"
>>
>>> I don't have to be Einstein to know that if the same problem continues
>>> after more 3 or four years, it is not only  technical problem.
>>
>> This is true.  My personal comment is that I haven't noticed "to run
>> programs like ZZZ" as among the goals of the OLPC.
>>
>> [I might *want* to marry a particular celebrity - but that doesn't mean
>> that
>> that celebrity would have "to marry Mikus" as one of her goals.]
>>
>> Does it mean the end of the world if the kid can't run ZZZ inside Sugar?
>>
>> Paolo - if you do not see other people planning to implement a goal of
>> "to
>> run programs like ZZZ inside Sugar" - being upset at the existing
>> situation
>> does not help - try to figure out where in this situation changes might
>> be
>> feasible - then start beating on doors.
>>
>> mikus
>
> Mikus,
>
> Thanks for your summary. FWIW, I actually think it is important that
> Sugar plays well with the non-Sugar world, but it certainly wasn't an
> initial priority. There are a number of initiatives underway that will
> improve the situation; I mentioned a few in an early post, such as the
> ability to access and edit non-Sugar files directly from within the
> Sugar UI. Also, many, but not every, Sugar activities will run within
> both Sugar and the GNOME desktop.
>
> The eventual transition to GNOME 3.0 and PYGI will make a big
> difference in our ability to support more interoperability as well.
>
> All of that said, let me repeat an argument I made regarding the Sugar
> Journal during the EduJam summit last month: we developed the Journal
> not because we wanted to be incompatible with the rest of the world
> but because we wanted to address some pedagogical needs. Specifically,
> we want the children to have a place to reflect upon their work. The
> Journal is their portfolio. Reflection requires effort and some
> developers consider the prompts to write in the Journal as an
> annoyance. But when I ask those same developers if they think adding a
> commit message to their commits in git, they immediately understand
> the value. So some of the annoyance of the Journal is because we have
> not completely solved the UI issues (the good news is that Simon has
> some patches landing that fix some of these issues) but some of the
> annoyance is because we want to make the path of least resistance be
> one where the children are prompted to be reflective-- to write in
> their "lab notebooks" about what they are doing and why

This is the approach I take in Discovering Discovery, to an even greater
extent.

http://booki.treehouse.su/discovering-discovery/

> and to make
> presentations to their teachers, parents, and fellow students about
> their work. (The latter is facilitated by the new Portfolio activity.)

I would like to receive Portfolios of whatever people don't understand or
think works wrong, with detailed comments. We will incorporate them into
Sugar documentation and into the Replacing Textbooks curriculum.

> In any case, concrete feedback and criticism is welcome. Thanks.
>
> -walter
>>
>> _______
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

___
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Re: [IAEP] [Sur] No logro aprender Sugar / I cannot learn Sugar

2011-06-15 Thread mokurai
SO ya
>>> que... bueno, era un juego.
>>> La pregunta, es, que tan diferente es el abiword de sugar al Google
>>> Docs o
>>> OpenOffice.org como dice mi amgio Carlos? y tambien si ya probo la
>>> alternativa de OOo4Kids en la XO?
>>>
>>> 2011/6/14 
>>>>
>>>> >Carlos Rabassa wrote:
>>>> >No logro aprender Sugar
>>>>
>>>> > >https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1eot88jPUrJgo2MWR7KNyHa8UqZjdTUOun6JH9A_7KBg
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Concuerdo contigo, Carlos.  NO tengo nada que agregar, tu artículo lo
>>>> dice todo. El problema es que nadie se anima a ponerle el cascabel al
>>>> gato..
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Paolo Benini
>>>> Montevideo
>>>>
>>>> ___
>>>> Lista olpc-Sur
>>>> olpc-...@lists.laptop.org
>>>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sur
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Alexandro Colorado
>>> OpenOffice.org Español
>>> http://es.openoffice.org
>>>
>>>
>>> ___
>>> Lista olpc-Sur
>>> olpc-...@lists.laptop.org
>>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sur
>>>
>>
>>
>> ___
>> Lista olpc-Sur
>> olpc-...@lists.laptop.org
>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sur
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> ___
> Lista olpc-Sur
> olpc-...@lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sur
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

___
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Re: [IAEP] [support-gang] FW: [OLPC Bolivia] No logro aprender Sugar / I cannot learn Sugar

2011-06-15 Thread mokurai
ng the community and developers
> that the Journal needs some serious love. Walter also spent a large part
> of one of his eduJAM! presentations on that topic. The coding sprint
> after the summit itself also dedicated quite a bit of time on the
> Journal and I pointed Paolo to the relevant notes on the wiki.
>
> More than the actual complaints itself I think this clearly shows that
> we absolutely need to improve our communication channels to enable this
> kind of vital feedback from people close to deployments to reach the
> wider community. As C Scott mentioned in a different context many months
> ago it's not just about just hearing these types of comments but
> actually listening to and subsequently acting on them.

I am actually delighted that he complained. Finally, somebody asked us
something that allows  us to begin the process to help with the problems.
I think we need to remember that in many cultures and under many regimes
of the fairly recent past, the old Polish joke applies:

American in Poland to cousin: So how is everything with you?
Cousin: Oh, you know, I can't complain.
American: What are you talking about? With the Russians in charge,
everything here in Poland is wrong! Don't you see it?
Cousin: No, no, that's not the problem at all. I didn't say that there is
nothing to complain about, I said I _can't_ complain.

> As a global community the frustration evident in the messages by Carlos
> and Paolo, undoubtably two of the most dedicated volunteers we have,
> should really give us something to think about. Particularly because at
> the end of the day it's their local work - more than anything we do
> thousands of kilometers away - which will decide what kind of impact
> Plan Ceibal will have in Uruguay over the long run.

It is indeed vital that locals take responsibility for the local version
of their program, and take full charge of it, but that does not make our
global collaboration less important. The global collaboration, still to be
realized, of the children in OLPC and other one-to-one computing programs
is as important as any other effect of our work. The work that we are all
doing will be the foundation for the work of the children, which will
become the realization of Doug Engelbart's vision of Enhancing Global
Intelligence so that we can tackle global problems as a global community,
not as the current fracturing of humanity into innumerable splinters.

> Cheers,
> Christoph
>
> --
> Christoph Derndorfer
> co-editor, www.olpcnews.com
> e-mail: christ...@olpcnews.com
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

I would be grateful for a Spanish translation of this message.

-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

___
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Re: [IAEP] [Sur] No logro aprender Sugar / I cannot learn Sugar

2011-06-14 Thread mokurai
On Tue, June 14, 2011 8:31 pm, Carlos Rabassa wrote:
> No logro aprender Sugar
>
> https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1eot88jPUrJgo2MWR7KNyHa8UqZjdTUOun6JH9A_7KBg
>
>
> I cannot learn Sugar
>
> https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1yBr2G7FF5Jr46ixt_THm1xQh08cyNJXx8KUy-WDZ1Xs

You ask interesting and important questions. I appreciate the difficulties
that you are having (some of which I share), and I would like to assist,
but these documents do not say, either in Spanish or English, what you
have failed to learn, nor which parts of Sugar do not work for you.

Let us see whether we can make the record we need as a basis for a fully
productive discussion. I am not on most of the lists that you sent your
plea to, so I have to ask you to copy this to them, and invite others to
join our conversation here.

Have you been directed to these resources?

Here is what I and others had trouble with at first, but mostly found
answers for:

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/The_Undiscoverable

There are Sugar manuals at

http://booki.flossmanuals.net/

There are Wiki pages on individual Sugar Activities, linked from

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities#Native_Sugar_Activities

Do these answer any of your questions or solve any of your problems?

Please give us a list of the remaining problems. We will add them to the
page on The Undiscoverable, and to various Sugar manuals at FLOSS Manuals
and in the Sugar Labs Replacing Textbooks project.

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

We will do our best to get answers, file bugs, and do whatever else is
appropriate. This will not only help us to help you, but to help all who
come after.

I would ask any translators reading this to prioritize these materials,
particularly for translation to Spanish, but to other languages as well.
FLOSS Manuals is publishing a Spanish translation of Make Your Own Sugar
Activities.

http://translate.flossmanuals.net/ActivitiesGuideSugar_es/Introduction

We intend to translate the rest of the existing Sugar manuals into Spanish
and other languages, and to write more.

> Carlos Rabassa
> Voluntario
> Red de Apoyo al Plan Ceibal
> Montevideo, Uruguay
>
> ___
> Lista olpc-Sur
> olpc-...@lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sur

-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

___
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Re: [IAEP] calibre + OPDS for offline book catalogs.

2011-06-13 Thread mokurai
On Mon, June 13, 2011 2:30 pm, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
> Any of them using OPDS servers?

I have no idea. I can't even keep up with the content they list, and know
nothing about the software they use.

> Gonzalo
>
> On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 3:20 PM,  wrote:
>
>> On Mon, June 13, 2011 8:30 am, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Valerie Taylor and I are both very much interested in using such a
>> >> solution for the Replacing Textbooks project. We already know of
>> sites
>> >> with 100,000 Open Education resources, and the rate of development is
>> >> accelerating. I just learned earlier today that Bangladesh has put
>> more
>> >> than 100 of its existing K-12 textbooks online for free downloading,
>> >> covering its entire curriculum.
>> >>
>> >>
>> > Would be great have a wiki page with information about book sources,
>> > licenses, etc.
>>
>> Sources:
>>
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Open_Education_Resources
>>
>> Just one of these sources lists over 100,000 OERs. You will have to
>> consult their listings for licenses. Or do you mean a page explaining
>> the
>> licensing possibilities? Can do, but not right now.
>>
>> > Gonzalo
>>
>> --
>> Edward Mokurai
>>
>> (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
>> ج) Cherlin
>> Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
>> The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
>>
>>
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

___
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Re: [IAEP] calibre + OPDS for offline book catalogs.

2011-06-13 Thread mokurai
On Mon, June 13, 2011 8:30 am, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
>>
>> Valerie Taylor and I are both very much interested in using such a
>> solution for the Replacing Textbooks project. We already know of sites
>> with 100,000 Open Education resources, and the rate of development is
>> accelerating. I just learned earlier today that Bangladesh has put more
>> than 100 of its existing K-12 textbooks online for free downloading,
>> covering its entire curriculum.
>>
>>
> Would be great have a wiki page with information about book sources,
> licenses, etc.

Sources:

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Open_Education_Resources

Just one of these sources lists over 100,000 OERs. You will have to
consult their listings for licenses. Or do you mean a page explaining the
licensing possibilities? Can do, but not right now.

> Gonzalo

-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

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Re: [IAEP] Is there a new geek anti-intellectualism?

2011-06-12 Thread mokurai
On Sat, June 11, 2011 7:32 pm, Christoph Derndorfer wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> thanks to Twitter I stumbled across a very interesting blog post called
> "Is there a new geek anti-intellectualism?"
> (http://larrysanger.org/2011/06/is-there-a-new-geek-anti-intellectualism/).
>
> Particularly in combination with the author's replies
> (http://larrysanger.org/2011/06/geek-anti-intellectualism-replies/) to
> many of the comments his original story received after being widely
> spread via Slashdot, Twitter, blogs, etc. this make for fascinating
> weekend read.

The Two Cultures (C. P. Snow) strikes again. To me, this smacks of sour
grapes. It's too hard for me, therefore it isn't worth doing.

There is a lot of wasted space in academic publications, particularly in
those branches of philosophy and theology that waste efforts on proving
what everybody knows that turns out not to be the case. One of the best
parts of my time in college was digging through many of the most famous
examples to understand why, and to pick out the gems amid the trash. Part
of the problem has been that it was illegal, and considered immoral, to
publish the truth on almost anything to do with the secular and religious
ruling classes in ages past. The history of restrictions on speech
gradually giving way, and the establishment of a considerable degree of
freedom of speech (beginning in Holland during its 90 Years War with the
Spanish Empire and Inquisition) is one of the greatest adventures in human
development.

I align myself with John Alexander Smith (1863–1939), who said,

Gentlemen, you are now about to embark on a course of studies which
will occupy you for two years. Together, they form a noble adventure.
But I would like to remind you of an important point. Nothing that you
will learn in the course of your studies will be of the slightest
possible use to you in after life, save only this, that if you work
hard and intelligently you should be able to detect when a man is
talking rot, and that, in my view, is the main, if not the sole,
purpose of education.

Smith was Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford University. Statement
recorded in 1914.

It was certainly the main point that Socrates taught, according to the
early Platonic dialogues. Plato himself put out some of the rottenest rot
in history later on, especially in The Republic.

> I definitely haven't managed to wrap my head around all of it but as a
> geek-dominated community working on education projects I feel some the
> things being discussed there potentially also apply to our own efforts.

We are taking pretty much the opposite point of view in the Replacing
Textbooks program. Save the baby, and use the bathwater to water the lawn.

> Cheers,
> Christoph
>
> --
> Christoph Derndorfer
> co-editor, www.olpcnews.com
> e-mail: christ...@olpcnews.com
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

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Re: [IAEP] Turtles All The Way Out

2011-06-09 Thread mokurai
 mechanism to define blocks and palettes, but the
>> disconnect
>> is that I don't (generally) edit them in line; rather, I leave that to
>> other
>> tools. This was a design decision; in part my goal was to give incentive
>> to
>> using Pippy and Edit rather than recreate Pippy and Edit in Turtle Art
>> itself. But I suppose that making it possible to change them directly in
>> Turtle Art as well maybe necessary. I can do it easily enough, but it
>> adds
>> more complexity.
>>
>>
>>> If you can implement more blocks in such bits of Python, do it, so
>>> they'll have more blocks they can open up and examine and modify from
>>> the GUI.
>>>
>>> How to get them beyond the TurtleArt GUI into the actual Python source
>>> code of the body of TurtleArt is a challenge that nobody seems to have
>>> insight on.  The "View Source" concept seems to have been much harder
>>> to implement than we all expected.
>>>
>>
>> I am hoping that the recent work I have been doing on View Source -- you
>> can use it to make copies of the source -- may help.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Don Hopkins worked on a PostScript-based window system (HyperLook)
>>> that would let you "flip over" an object on the screen to see "behind
>>> it" a control panel with the guts of its implementation visible.  You
>>> could modify those, then "flip it back" and it would resume running.
>>> See: http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/hyperlook/index.html and
>>> http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/simcity/hyperlook-demo.html .
>>>
>>> Looking back at HyperLook, it looks a lot like the etoys environment,
>>> full of object oriented code with direct manipulation gui editor
>>> interfaces.  It's dead now; a historical curiosity of interest only to
>>>
>>> prior-art searchers defeating too-obvious software patents.  It's hard
>>> to keep such self-contained and self-referential environments alive
>>> and relevant in the world at large.  I think one problem is that the
>>> state of the environment doesn't get kept in simple text "files" -- a
>>> concept of enduring value.  My old APL programs are all dead too; they
>>>
>>> were "objects" in "workspaces" and weren't usually stored in small,
>>> persistent, portable, named, modular textual representations, the way
>>> C or Python programs are.
>>>
>>
>> This is why I am trying to get kids to leave Turtle Art behind. It is
>> there
>> as a hook to get them started, but not intended to be more than a
>> stepping
>> stone.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Perhaps the key is to keep these immersive environments sufficiently
>>> tiny that you don't mind them dying when you turn your attention to
>>> something else.  Tininess also helps to make one understandable and
>>> modifiable by others in case they DO want to keep it going after you
>>> move on.
>>>
>>>John
>>>
>>>
>> It is worth pointing out that there are some math teachers in .UY who
>> are
>> using the export SVG capabilities of Turtle Art to launch their students
>> into more sophisticated graphing and data visualization. Not what I had
>> expected, but quite a good outcome nonetheless.
>>
>> -walter
>>
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>>
>>
>> ___
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
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-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

___
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Re: [IAEP] calibre + OPDS for offline book catalogs.

2011-06-09 Thread mokurai

On Tue, June 7, 2011 2:30 pm, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
> I will download Calibre and try it. If this not works, we can use code
> from Pathagar to create a catalog
> or use python to create the catalog.xml file with the data in the csv
> file, or use another
> simpler format (like json) to create local catalogs.
> I only need a little of time. This week si packed.
>
> Gonzalo

Valerie Taylor and I are both very much interested in using such a
solution for the Replacing Textbooks project. We already know of sites
with 100,000 Open Education resources, and the rate of development is
accelerating. I just learned earlier today that Bangladesh has put more
than 100 of its existing K-12 textbooks online for free downloading,
covering its entire curriculum.

> On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 5:54 PM, James Simmons  wrote:
>
>> Gonzalo,
>>
>> I've been investigating OPDS with calibre as a way of distributing
>> books with an offline catalog.  As you know, there has always been an
>> interest in doing this in areas where Internet access is unavailable.
>>
>> With the help of calibre-OPDS I was able to create both a website and
>> an OPDS catalog that can easily live in an Apache webroot, a thumb
>> drive, or a Dropbox folder.  In this way you can easily create a
>> static website that does NOT require calibre to be running.
>>
>> Now the bad news: the OPDS catalog seems to be more complex that what
>> GetBooks can deal with.  It is organized as a hierarchy of XML files,
>> with lists by Author, Title, Rating, etc.  Instead of having just one
>> XML file with the whole catalog you have a bunch of them.
>>
>> The software is described here:
>>
>>
>> http://dearauthor.com/ebooks/create-your-own-cloud-of-ebooks-with-calibre-calibre-opds-dropbox/
>>
>> You might try this yourself.  The software is in Java and is really
>> simple to set up, so you can generate a test OPDS index in no time
>> from data in a calibre database.
>>
>> The static website is actually quite useful, and could be used from
>> the Browse Activity if the website was stored on a thumb drive.  That
>> might be an alternative to recommend to those who need to distribute
>> books without Internet access.
>>
>> James Simmons
>>
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

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Re: [IAEP] 40 maths shapes challenges

2011-06-09 Thread mokurai
On Wed, June 8, 2011 12:22 pm, Alan Kay wrote:
> And the arc primitive shouldn't be there 

You have said too much or too little, Alan. Why not?

> Cheers,
>
> Alan
>
>
>
>
> 
> From: Rita Freudenberg 
> To: IAEP SugarLabs 
> Sent: Wed, June 8, 2011 9:27:49 AM
> Subject: Re: [IAEP] 40 maths shapes challenges
>
> Does anyone know about the license of the "turtle confusion" book? Would
> it be
> ok to translate it?
>
> Greetings,
> Rita
>
>
>
> On Sep 9, 2009, at 11:33 AM, Bill Kerr wrote:
>
> introduced turtle art and barry newell's 40 shapes to my students today
>>
>>
>>about half way through the lesson someone asked, "how do you do the
>> circle?"
>>
>>
>>before I could say anything another student replied, "that's easy - just
>> use
>>arc"
>>
>>
>>you've gotta laugh
>>(an arc primitive wasn't there for the original logo, nor is it in
>> scratch)
>>
>>
>>On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 2:12 AM, Maria Droujkova 
>> wrote:
>>
>>Circle is one of the hardest in Scratch. Unless I am missing a command.
>>>
>>>Cheers,
>>>Maria Droujkova
>>>http://www.naturalmath.com/
>>>
>>>Make math your own, to make your own math.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 7:19 AM, Bill Kerr  wrote:
>>>
>>>Image attached
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Forty shapes to make in Scratch or some other version of logo, such as
>>>> Turtle
>>>>Art. It's hard to see the thumbnail but click on it for a larger view.
>>>>
>>>>This is one of the best sheets ever for teaching maths (designed by
>>>> Barry
>>>>Newell):
>>>>
>>>>* the logo turtle or scratch cat acts as a transitional object between
>>>> the
>>>>concrete maths shape and the abstraction of the script that makes the
>>>> shape
>>>>* the sheet includes both simple and complex shapes, increasing in
>>>> order of
>>>>complexity, there is a challenge there for everyone
>>>>* many of the more complex shapes are made up of combinations of the
>>>> simpler
>>>>shapes
>>>>Source: Barry Newell's Turtle Confusion (1988)
>>>>
>>>>___
>>>>IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>>>>IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>>>>http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>>>
>>>
>>
> ___
>>IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>>IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>>http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

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Re: [IAEP] Turtles All The Way Out

2011-06-06 Thread mokurai
 but you can give them meaningful names. You can write and
display Python code in Write and Pippy, and with Terminal you have access
to nano and pico.

We need to provide hints to budding programmers at the appropriate points
in the process. Once they are used to working with blocks of Python code,
we can show them where to find the TA and other activity code, and how to
experiment with it. On my Ubuntu system, that would be in

/usr/share/sugar/activities
~/Activities

Motivated students can do quite a lot with that information and a text
editor in Terminal, and we can do much more for them than that.

> Don Hopkins worked on a PostScript-based window system (HyperLook)
> that would let you "flip over" an object on the screen to see "behind
> it" a control panel with the guts of its implementation visible.  You
> could modify those, then "flip it back" and it would resume running.
> See: http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/hyperlook/index.html and
> http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/simcity/hyperlook-demo.html .
>
> Looking back at HyperLook, it looks a lot like the etoys environment,
> full of object oriented code with direct manipulation gui editor
> interfaces.

The underlying Smalltalk language allows users to view the source of every
object, down to the virtual machine. We can use the Etoys turtle graphics
functions to do what you are asking for here.

> It's dead now; a historical curiosity of interest only to
> prior-art searchers defeating too-obvious software patents.  It's hard
> to keep such self-contained and self-referential environments alive
> and relevant in the world at large.  I think one problem is that the
> state of the environment doesn't get kept in simple text "files" -- a
> concept of enduring value.  My old APL programs are all dead too;

Mine aren't.

> they
> were "objects" in "workspaces" and weren't usually stored in small,
> persistent, portable, named, modular textual representations, the way
> C or Python programs are.

But I helped create the first ISO/ANSI standard APL system, and I tended
to stay with standard features. There is a WorkSpace Interchange Standard
that will let you get code from working programs into files, and then into
other APL systems. However, J uses external code files in ASCII.

> Perhaps the key is to keep these immersive environments sufficiently
> tiny that you don't mind them dying when you turn your attention to
> something else.  Tininess also helps to make one understandable and
> modifiable by others in case they DO want to keep it going after you
> move on.

Smalltalk/Etoys seems to be a counterexample to your claim.

>   John
>
> ___
> Devel mailing list
> de...@lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

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Re: [IAEP] OERs and textbook replacement

2011-06-02 Thread mokurai
On Thu, June 2, 2011 4:58 pm, Tim McNamara wrote:
> Are you able to expand your thoughts once you get to a computer?

I can, and no doubt Valerie can also.

> I recently started a discussion around making OERs easier to use. Sugar
> Labs have quite an opportunity to make a large impact here.

One goal of the Sugar Labs Replacing Textbooks project is to integrate
Sugar into the curriculum in all subjects at all levels, and to research
what concepts can be taught in earlier grades than is done today so that
children can learn more effectively and with much greater understanding.
This includes finding out which explanations in current textbooks do not
explain their topics adequately to children, and where the children need
assistance, or more practice than they get from a textbook. We propose to
begin with fairly conventional materials and work our way toward that goal
as we see how to do it.

The first example I like to cite of what we are trying to do comes from
OLE Nepal. Bryan Berry explained to an OLPC meeting at headquarters that
children in Nepal in the XO program were mostly several years behind the
official curriculum in arithmetic, and that teachers and OLE workers
determined that this was because they could not tell how many things were
in a small group without counting. So OLE Nepal created a counting
practice program (screenshot attached). Children reportedly practiced for
as long as several hours at a time, throughout the following weeks and
months. Most  of them advanced several years in their arithmetic classes
during that time.

We cannot expect such astonishing results every time, but we know that we
can deepen and extend children's understanding of almost anything
complicated and confusing in school.

Peter Hewitt/mulawa1 has been programming a variety of games for Sugar
that teach some concept of mathematics or programming, or the art of
exploring and discovery, among other things.

http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/user/2246

We also intend to create teacher training materials that make use of the
best practices that we know of for integrating XOs and Sugar into existing
curricula for use with existing textbooks, in addition to the use of our
(we hope) vastly improved materials.

> On 3 June 2011 01:11, Valerie Taylor  wrote:
>
>> There are so many OERs and so little time that most educators who would
>> use them don't. Cross reference with curriculum is a huge opportunity but
>> slow to start. Are you working on something like this?

We intend to develop modular materials keyed to curriculum standards, and
we are thinking about how to index them so that teachers can find what is
most relevant to their needs. We will also produce materials _not_ keyed
to curricula where we find a better approach, or we find topics not
currently taught that we believe are essential for children to learn. Don
Cohen's Calculus By and For Young People, for example, or how to tackle
corruption in developing country governments.

It's a bit like reinventing the library catalog. You can see a great many
approaches being taken by organizations listed at
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/OER and by organizations that they link to.

Another piece of the puzzle is to create lesson plans around specific
software and OER documents, and key them to standard or alternative
curricula also

>> Sent from my iPhone
>> ___
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

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Re: [IAEP] Getting learning content to learners - some questions

2011-06-01 Thread mokurai
On Wed, June 1, 2011 4:57 pm, James Simmons wrote:
> Tim,
>
> I am working on a FLOSS Manual which may be relevant:
>
> http://en.flossmanuals.net/e-book-enlightenment/
>
> James Simmons

I and others are working on Free digital textbook replacements

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

at

http://booki.treehouse.su

a temporary test server that we plan to move to a Sugar Labs subdomain. It
uses the FLOSS Manuals booki software for collaborative book writing,
editing, and publishing.

> On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 3:29 PM, Tim McNamara
>  wrote:
>> I was wondering how open educational resources (OER) find their way into
>> the
>> minds of learners. I have some capacity to be able to help, but I would
>> like to learn more.
>> As background, I've recently begun contracting full time to the Open
>> Knowledge Foundation[0]. One of the projects that the organisation runs
>> is Open Text Book[1].
>> The project is mostly dormant. I would like to awaken it. However, there
>> are many ebook repositories in existence.

I am collecting links to them, and other such directories, on the Open
Education Resources page of the Sugar Labs Wiki. Please add your projects
to it. There are over a hundred thousand Free resources listed on just one
site, and I keep finding out about more and more sites.

>> I would like advice on the best way to help.

I have a suggestion for your consideration. Sugar education software is
currently in the hands of about two million children, a number which we
expect to grow rapidly as more countries fund the OLPC program for all of
their children. OER development based on Sugar software thus has the
opportunity for the largest deployments in the world, eventually about a
billion children at a time.

>> Some questions:
>>  - Do educators use digital content from non-traditional sources?

Big question. The short answer is, Yes, some teachers do.

>>  - What is missing for learners and teachers?

We need a set of materials under Free license covering every subject at
every level for every country in every language needed. They must
integrate the use of XOs and Sugar software into every topic, both in the
classroom and in homework assignments.

>>  - Are things easy enough for people creating learning material to get
>> it into the hands of others?

It varies enormously. However, it is expected to become much easier, now
that computers with Free Software and OERs cost much less than printed
textbooks in many countries. Countries that have not been able to afford
adequate textbooks will still need outside help.

Our strategy will be in part to distribute OERs based on Sugar along with
Sugar on XOs and on XS School Servers. We also propose to create OERs to
meet national requirements, for example with local content in health,
history, geography, agriculture, literature, and so on. We have localizers
for Sugar software in about a hundred languages, and we expect to be able
to recruit translators from each of those language groups

>> Thanks all
>> Tim McNamara
>> Professional \\  paperlessprojects.com
>> Personal \\  @timClicks  |  timmcnamara.co.nz
>> [0] http://okfn.org
>> [1] http://www.opentextbook.org/repository/
>> _______
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
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-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

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Re: [IAEP] I am so excited I can hardly stand it - how about a Daisy Reader too?

2011-05-30 Thread mokurai
On Mon, May 30, 2011 2:38 pm, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
> On Mon, May 30, 2011 at 2:36 PM,  wrote:
>
>>  Hi!
>>
>> Oh my goodness . . . you can read EPUBs?  That is great!! Even the book
>> reader people say they can't speak EPUB - I am thinking about KNO and
>> the
>> reader that Barnes and Noble is pushing.  They say they can't do it.
>>
> Well, the support of epub files in Read activity was done more than a year
> ago, I think by Sayamindu Dasgupta.

Good to know. I must go test it.

>> Can you also include a Daisy Reader or something that works with the
>> RFB&D
>> (Recording For the Blind & Dyslexic) books?

We have been discussing that for years, and some work in that direction
was done using the text-to-speech engine in Speak, and following the model
of Same Language Subtitling of Bollywood films with coloring of the text
as it is spoken or sung. (The most effective literacy campaign in India
ever.) If you can drum up some volunteer developers or financial support
for the project we can probably complete it for English and Spanish, and
then offer it to other language communities for adaptation to their speech
and writing systems.

Accessibility is one of the critical targets for the Replacing Textbooks
project that I manage, to get rid of print and go to digital Open
Education Resources.

>> Now they call themselves
>> Learning Ally (http://learningally.org).  There is something open source
>> that works with Firefox for Windows called DDReader.  I am not techy
>> enough
>> to know if it is adaptable.  The Learning Ally files are audio.
>> Formerly
>> they have been encrypted mp3s or wmas, but now they are in a push to
>> make
>> everything more accessible.  They have a huge collection and most
>> current textbooks.
>>
>
> I think the DDReader works only in Windows.

Correct.

> About the books in learningally.org, are these books free?

Some can be downloaded by registered users at no charge, but thy are not
generally under free licenses.

Important Copyright Notice
The contents of all Learning Ally books are protected under copyright law.
Learning Ally regulates the distribution of materials within a qualified
member population of individuals who have a learning disability, visual
impairment or other physical disability, and who have provided documented
evidence of a print disability

>> I am also a big fan of Librivox.  Last semester I was at an elementary
>> school and had what I called an audio book server.  I just used the
>> Gutenberg html versions with embedded audio of Librivox recordings.
>> Using
>> the web browser, the child clicked on the book and it started reading
>> when the text and pictures came up.  Kids liked it.
>
> Probably is a good online solution. I don't know how do this offline,
> because the recorded books a huge.

This is one of the intended uses of School Servers.

>> Can there be some sort of Sugar on a Stick version for dyslexic kids?  I
>> would definitely promote it and distribute it in Texas.

We would probably not do a separate version, but would include
accessibility in the base system.

> Probably is a good project, but need people with knowledge about dyslexic
> and time to create and maintain it.

Nicholas Negroponte is dyslexic. We could talk to him about it.

>> Thanks to all of you who are contributing.  It's great!
>>
>
> Thanks! I am only putting together the different pieces :)
> We know there are a lot of work to do. but I think we can create a
> solution in par or better than the commercialy offered.
>
> Gonzalo
>
>
>> Marilyn

[Irrelevant messages snipped.]
-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

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[IAEP] Upstreaming (was Re: [Sugar-devel] [ASLO] Release Turtle Blocks-108)

2011-05-26 Thread mokurai
Yay, Turtle Art 108 installs and runs on Ubuntu Natty! 107 didn't. This
will make it much easier for me to work on my preschool math project in
Replacing Textbooks.

I expanded the Upstreaming bugs Wiki page from just Fedora to cover ten
distros, including links to the various bug trackers and bug howtos, and
listed all of the Ubuntu activity bugs. I will be delighted to be able to
recommend packaging TA 108 for Ubuntu (Bug #731133).

I can't possibly keep up with all of these distros, so if anybody else
wants to take one, please add a section to the page.

On Thu, May 26, 2011 6:32 pm, Sugar Labs Activities wrote:
> Activity Homepage:
> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/addon/4027
>
> Sugar Platform:
> 0.82 - 0.92
>
> Download Now:
> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/downloads/file/27385/turtle_art-108.xo
>
> Release notes:
> 108
>
> ENHANCEMENTS
>
> * vspace, hspace run stack on mouse click (#2790)
> * added clear all button to Trash Palette
> * added language support to speak.py sample code
> * added 'scratch' and 'hoops' examples
>
> BUG FIXES
>
> * Save to SVG was not working for setxy
> * Save to SVG was not working for fill
> * Save to SVG was broken for arc
>
>
> Sugar Labs Activities
> http://activities.sugarlabs.org
>
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> sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

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Re: [IAEP] Filesystems for kids

2011-05-22 Thread mokurai
nal entries are in

~/.sugar/default/datastore

> For simple stuff like creating notes with a text editors

No text editors for pre-schoolers.

> & making
> drawings with image-editing apps, they should be good with that.

I have heard that two-year-olds take to Record like ducks to water.

> (teach them directories to make their workspace tidy from all the
> icons/files)

Most of the older adults whom I have taught computing never got that idea.
They leave everything on the desktop, or they put things away as you
recommend and forget where, so they can never find them again.

Basically, you are asking the entire population to think like programmers,
and to be motivated like programmers. They aren't.

If you want, you can start over again. Go and talk to a preliterate
preschooler, and show him or her an XO. Let the child explore freely, but
answer questions. What does your research subject ask? (Take notes, or
record the session.) Does the filesystem ever come up?

Second session. Demonstrate the file system to a preschooler, using only
built-in XO software. Ask them to find something. What is the frustration
level, on both sides?

OK, I cheated on that last one. Now you are allowed to install Fedora
packages. Do

yum install mc

to get the Midnight Commander. Use it to demonstrate the filesystem. Did
that work better? Oh, wait, your preschool subject can't read filenames,
commands, permissions, and all that. How much can your subject grasp?

That is why we use the Journal and graphics for preschoolers. They can
find their last Turtle Blocks or Record session by looking at the picture.
If they use my experimental block set in TB, with icons instead of names,
they may be able to program without knowing how to read.

Again, where would you have them start?
> --
> carlos nazareno
> http://twitter.com/object404
> http://www.object404.com
> --
> core team member
> phlashers: philippine flash actionscripters
> http://www.phlashers.com
> --
> poverty is violence
>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

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Re: [IAEP] Turtles All The Way Down

2011-05-22 Thread mokurai
On Sun, May 22, 2011 11:09 am, Hilaire Fernandes wrote:
> Le 21/05/2011 03:17,
> moku...@earthtreasury.org a écrit :
>> Seymour Papert also proposed creating an environment in which learning
>> math would be as easy as learning ordinary language. Smalltalk has a
>> number of kinds of number and shape objects, but I have not seen much
>> else
>> in the way of mathematical objects. I am trying to go through various
>> subjects to extract the ideas that preschoolers can absorb, and create
>> materials to encourage them to explore those ideas.

We also need symmetries (group theory and algebra more generally), Venn
diagrams (Boolean algebra and set theory), "rubber-sheet" geometry
(topology), probability, knot theory (topology), infinities and
infinitesimals, graphing (analytic geometry), and conic sections, among
other topics easy to visualize and make tactile. (It is trivial to
generate the conic sections using a flashlight in a darkened room.)

> DrGeo provides those extensions to Smalltalk for the Euclidean geometry
> field. This opens large use case in teaching programming related to
> history of math, largely based on Euclidean geometry.

It works also for non-Euclidean and projective geometry using well-known
models.

History of math needs to be mined for its moments of adventure, discovery,
and controversy. It is widely assumed that math is perfect and
unchangeable in its nature. For example, that a theorem once proved stays
proved forever. This turns out not to be the case. Lambert thinking he had
disproved non-Euclidean geometry, and Peano thinking he had proved that
all models of the natural numbers are isomorphic are historically the two
most important instances that I know of. Gauss, Lobachevsky, Bolyai, and
Riemann realized that Lambert was wrong, and Beltrami finished off the
case by demonstrating a surface in Euclidean space with Lobachkevskian
geometry. Abraham Robinson ran with non-standard arithmetic, creating
non-standard analysis as an easier way to do calculus, and disposing of
Bishop Berkeley's ghosts of departed quantities.

> http://www.reunion.iufm.fr/recherche/irem/spip.php?article493
> http://fr.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programmation_objet_et_g%C3%A9om%C3%A9trie
> http://revue.sesamath.net/spip.php?article330
>
> Sorry those references are only in French, a lot of teachers exploring
> programming for math seems to come from that place.

Pas de difficulté pour moi. Merci.

> Hilaire
>
> --
> Education 0.2 -- http://blog.ofset.org/hilaire
>
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>


-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks

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