[IAEP] turtle art clean request
it would be good to have a tile that only cleaned the graphics and kept the other setting such as current pen thickness, colour, turtle position, heading etc logowriter had a rg reset graphics which acted like the TA clean and a clean which acted like I'm suggesting in my first line, other settings not being reset for example I wanted to write a procedure that showed the number of the colour as the colour changed by changing the heading, for instance I can do that but it would be much easier and initially more understandable for students if there was a clean that kept other settings it would even better still if there was a separate way to erase show while the procedure was running ( I haven't looked at the python yet ) How to do it with the current TA store in box1: 0 repeat 90 setpensize 10 right box1 set color heading show heading forward 100 back 100 wait 10 store in box1: box1 + 1 clean (everything resets) How to do it with a clean that cleans graphics but keeps other settings: setpensize 10 repeat 90 forward 100 back 100 right 1 set color heading show heading wait 10 clean (only the graphics are cleaned) The ability to see how heading works concretely in action and to program this fairly easily would make a difference as to the percentage of students who grasp the concept Actually for a while there I thought that setpensize was broken because I didn't realise that clean was a total reset ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] Project Guidelines posted
On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 10:34, Aleksey Lim alsr...@member.fsf.org wrote: On Wed, Sep 02, 2009 at 03:51:55PM -0500, David Farning wrote: The project guidelines are now on the wiki at http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Project_Guidelines . Please edit as necessary. When it looks like the editing has stopped, I ask the board the ratify the guidelines. Sorry for being late(maybe), but I have one idea in my mind - adding(as option) vote system to Project_Guidelines. The core idea is simple(but powerful) way for getting feedback and getting this feedback keep project ideas in consensus. In some cases poll could be multileveled i.e. not voting for entirely project but step by step elaboration from abstract statements to details of implementations(not unnecessary implementation, it could stop on statement level). So, idea is some kind of community driven process of project evolution. If we have agreement on more abstract level we can step dipper and can avoid situations when someone are disagree because of some points in the middle of entirely idea. Don't know how it could look in implementation details.. maybe wiki plugin, separate activity, utilizing mls and irc. Isn't this related to Brainstorm and Blueprints in Launchpad? http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/ https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ I personally would be more interested in being the users and deployers who suggest new features, rather than developers. Regards, Tomeu -- «Sugar Labs is anyone who participates in improving and using Sugar. What Sugar Labs does is determined by the participants.» - David Farning ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] Electricity and magentism
Thanks Bert, I don't think we'll have the kids up to speed on eToys yet but this was a very powerful example of what can be done across curriculum areas once kids have learned basic skills. On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 3:16 AM, Bert Freudenberg b...@freudenbergs.dewrote: On 10.09.2009, at 02:02, Caroline Meeks wrote: At GPA we will be working with the 4th grade. Their fall science topic is Electricity and magentism. We have the GCompris activity: GCompris Electric 11 Any other suggestions? This is higher-level than electromagnetism, but maybe still relevant (and fun to play with anyway): In Etoys, go to Gallery of Projects, then ComputerLogicGame (3rd item in 3rd row I think). This is simulating wired logic gates in a very simple manner, representing the on/off state by a color. E.g. the yellow rectangle is on, while the piece of wire is off: Moving the wire's red dot over the source switches it on, too: As you can see this does not require a closed circuit so it is not a simulation at the electrical level. The example shows an inverter's (Not gate) script, and this is actually the only code for this object: If the kids had prior experience with Etoys they could build this on their own from scratch pretty easily. - Bert - -- Caroline Meeks Solution Grove carol...@solutiongrove.com 617-500-3488 - Office 505-213-3268 - Fax ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] Where should we put Lesson Plans? Currwiki?
Hi Chris, I think the right answer is to put our materials on both your system and Curriki for now and hopefully an automated interoperable system will emerge. I am very interested in collaborating with OLE and in making materials accessible to schools without internet access. Please talk more about how your system supports these environments. I have not yet reached out to the Curriki people to try to create a partnership. Are you in communication with them? For the Moodle advocates. I am a big Moodle fan. But I don't think its our right now solution for the work we are talking about doing. 1. Our target, elementary school teachers are not currently using either Moodle or Sugar, adding both at once makes the learning curve even harder. 2. We are focusing on lesson plans in the 1 hour and even 20-minute groupwork time frames. Moodle is more focused on longer time frames. 3. We are focusing on what the teacher will do and what the class will do both online and offline during the lesson as well as learning goals, standards, help for the teacher in differentiating the lesson etc. Think the teachers guide for the text book. Moodle is more focused on what the student is doing online. Its not a very natural fit. 4. Moodle has tremendous promise in terms of reducing teacher workload. Here is an example of what I hope that in the future Moodle will be able to: 1. Provide a link that students click and they open a Write document that is a template/scaffolding for a specific assignment, say writing a scientific argument. 2. When the document is saved it is automatically turned in as Homework in Moodle allowing the teacher to review and comment on the document from anywhere, even on days when the class does not see the science teacher. however, these features aren't there yet. Once they are there will be a large payoff for teachers to learn Moodle. However, I still see Moodle as just one format teachers will use. Other lessons and other teachers and other contexts may still want to print out a pdf. Other times a teacher may just be browsing for a sample lesson to be used as inspiration to create a quite different lesson. Thanks, Caroline On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 12:57 PM, Chris Rowe ch...@ole.org wrote: Caroline, We at Open Learning Exchange (OLE) have been working towards a solution for this over the past 2 years and have a working prototype with the most basic functionality we think is needed. You are welcome to try it out at library.ole.org There are several sites on the web that are trying to create a place for curriculum to be shared but none of them that I know of are addressing the needs of developing countries. We have done a lot of work to address the diverse needs of countries with limited internet access and feel we have a solution that will be very powerful in the near future. We are working with our centers around the world to identify the key success factors in making a Global Learning Library as well as several partners like the Siyavula project in South Africa and Connexions at Rice University to leverage existing work done in this area. In addition, we have begun talks with Sugarlabs to use our library as a repository of educational materials that incorporate sugar activities. It would be very helpful for us to get your feedback on what we have and to work with you on integrating it with your work and the work of the Sugarlabs community. Some of my thoughts on other solutions. Sugarlabs wiki: There is too much other content on the sugarlabs wiki that is not relevant to teachers. Just like activities.sugarlabs.org is a place to find and download activities I think we need a place designed specifically for curriculum materials. Moodle: Moodle is a great tool for creating structured, interactive lesson plans and for deploying them in classrooms but it is not designed as a library or repository of materials. Our plan is to start by allowing people to create Moodle courses and share them on our library for others to download and use on their own Moodle servers. We are also working with a developer to integrate work he has done on Moodle import/export into our library in the future. Curriki: Curriki is the closest thing to what we think is needed but it lacks the ability to be deployed on a country by country basis. We feel strongly that a learning library needs to be customizable for each country, each school and even each student. Curriculum alignment: There are many features that we we feel are an integral part of making a library of curriculum materials successful that we have not implemented in our library yet. Curriculum alignment is at the top of that list. Because of the complexity of many of the worlds curriculum standards we want to make sure we do not overload teachers with too much information. Chris Chris Rowe, CTO Open Learning Exchange +1 (512)
Re: [IAEP] Where should we put Lesson Plans? Currwiki?
Caroline, I am copying this to Peter Levy, the Curriki person you need for the purpose of setting up partnerships. He's been very helpful in answering my Curriki questions. Peter, This is a neat project. Beautiful things may happen when you connect. Cheers, Maria Droujkova http://www.naturalmath.com Make math your own, to make your own math. On Sat, Sep 12, 2009 at 10:58 AM, Caroline Meeks carol...@solutiongrove.com wrote: Hi Chris, I think the right answer is to put our materials on both your system and Curriki for now and hopefully an automated interoperable system will emerge. I am very interested in collaborating with OLE and in making materials accessible to schools without internet access. Please talk more about how your system supports these environments. I have not yet reached out to the Curriki people to try to create a partnership. Are you in communication with them? For the Moodle advocates. I am a big Moodle fan. But I don't think its our right now solution for the work we are talking about doing. Our target, elementary school teachers are not currently using either Moodle or Sugar, adding both at once makes the learning curve even harder. We are focusing on lesson plans in the 1 hour and even 20-minute groupwork time frames. Moodle is more focused on longer time frames. We are focusing on what the teacher will do and what the class will do both online and offline during the lesson as well as learning goals, standards, help for the teacher in differentiating the lesson etc. Think the teachers guide for the text book. Moodle is more focused on what the student is doing online. Its not a very natural fit. Moodle has tremendous promise in terms of reducing teacher workload. Here is an example of what I hope that in the future Moodle will be able to: Provide a link that students click and they open a Write document that is a template/scaffolding for a specific assignment, say writing a scientific argument. When the document is saved it is automatically turned in as Homework in Moodle allowing the teacher to review and comment on the document from anywhere, even on days when the class does not see the science teacher. however, these features aren't there yet. Once they are there will be a large payoff for teachers to learn Moodle. However, I still see Moodle as just one format teachers will use. Other lessons and other teachers and other contexts may still want to print out a pdf. Other times a teacher may just be browsing for a sample lesson to be used as inspiration to create a quite different lesson. Thanks, Caroline On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 12:57 PM, Chris Rowe ch...@ole.org wrote: Caroline, We at Open Learning Exchange (OLE) have been working towards a solution for this over the past 2 years and have a working prototype with the most basic functionality we think is needed. You are welcome to try it out at library.ole.org There are several sites on the web that are trying to create a place for curriculum to be shared but none of them that I know of are addressing the needs of developing countries. We have done a lot of work to address the diverse needs of countries with limited internet access and feel we have a solution that will be very powerful in the near future. We are working with our centers around the world to identify the key success factors in making a Global Learning Library as well as several partners like the Siyavula project in South Africa and Connexions at Rice University to leverage existing work done in this area. In addition, we have begun talks with Sugarlabs to use our library as a repository of educational materials that incorporate sugar activities. It would be very helpful for us to get your feedback on what we have and to work with you on integrating it with your work and the work of the Sugarlabs community. Some of my thoughts on other solutions. Sugarlabs wiki: There is too much other content on the sugarlabs wiki that is not relevant to teachers. Just like activities.sugarlabs.org is a place to find and download activities I think we need a place designed specifically for curriculum materials. Moodle: Moodle is a great tool for creating structured, interactive lesson plans and for deploying them in classrooms but it is not designed as a library or repository of materials. Our plan is to start by allowing people to create Moodle courses and share them on our library for others to download and use on their own Moodle servers. We are also working with a developer to integrate work he has done on Moodle import/export into our library in the future. Curriki: Curriki is the closest thing to what we think is needed but it lacks the ability to be deployed on a country by country basis. We feel strongly that a learning library needs to be customizable for each country, each school and even each student. Curriculum alignment: There are many features that we we feel are an
[IAEP] OOO4kids running
Hi all, OpenOffice for Kids (OOO4Kids) is available (http://download.ooo4kids.org/fr ) and can be tested now. So far, I got it running on a SOAS/strawberry and from a Sugar session launched with sugar-emulator. Some screenshots here: http://olpc-france.org/wiki/index.php?title=Image:Ooo4kids1.png http://olpc-france.org/wiki/index.php?title=Image:Ooo4kids2.png However, I didnt manage to launch it on a XO1 or from a standard old PC with damnsmalllinux on it. It complained about a GLIB_2.3.4 and a GLIB_2.4 and a :kbstdc++. Kind regards Samy ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] Sugar on a Stick v2 Release Naming
Martin Dengler wrote: On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 05:30:30PM +0200, Sean DALY wrote: re marketing course: in fact I have accepted Mel's invitation to do a classroom for Fedora. Congratulations. re logos: Strawberry=6, Blueberry=4, and 5 we'll use some other time Very clear - thanks. [Have we agreed on Blueberry as the Name of Record?] Sebastien? So it will be! :) The next release of SoaS will be named Blueberry. Gary, Sean, could any of you give creating a new boot screen with an updated logo for plymouth a try? Thanks, --Sebastian thanks Sean Martin ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] Sugar on a Stick v2 Release Naming
On 12 Sep 2009, at 21:40, Sebastian Dziallas wrote: Martin Dengler wrote: On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 05:30:30PM +0200, Sean DALY wrote: re marketing course: in fact I have accepted Mel's invitation to do a classroom for Fedora. Congratulations. re logos: Strawberry=6, Blueberry=4, and 5 we'll use some other time Very clear - thanks. [Have we agreed on Blueberry as the Name of Record?] Sebastien? So it will be! :) The next release of SoaS will be named Blueberry. Gary, Sean, could any of you give creating a new boot screen with an updated logo for plymouth a try? Sure no problem, have all the artwork already, just need to swap the colours. Regards, --Gary ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] Where should we put Lesson Plans? Currwiki?
On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 9:57 AM, Chris Rowe ch...@ole.org wrote: Caroline, We at Open Learning Exchange (OLE) have been working towards a solution for this over the past 2 years and have a working prototype with the most basic functionality we think is needed. You are welcome to try it out at library.ole.org Interesting, but impossible to evaluate properly with so little content. What is your plan for populating the prototype? There are several sites on the web that are trying to create a place for curriculum to be shared but none of them that I know of are addressing the needs of developing countries. We have done a lot of work to address the diverse needs of countries with limited internet access and feel we have a solution that will be very powerful in the near future. We are working with our centers around the world to identify the key success factors in making a Global Learning Library as well as several partners like the Siyavula project in South Africa and Connexions at Rice University to leverage existing work done in this area. In addition, we have begun talks with Sugarlabs to use our library as a repository of educational materials that incorporate sugar activities. It would be very helpful for us to get your feedback on what we have and to work with you on integrating it with your work and the work of the Sugarlabs community. +1 Some of my thoughts on other solutions. Sugarlabs wiki: There is too much other content on the sugarlabs wiki that is not relevant to teachers. Just like activities.sugarlabs.org is a place to find and download activities I think we need a place designed specifically for curriculum materials. Right. Navigating Wikis and creating the needed community to maintain one in a form suitable for new users are both difficult, in very different ways. Moodle: Moodle is a great tool for creating structured, interactive lesson plans and for deploying them in classrooms but it is not designed as a library or repository of materials. Our plan is to start by allowing people to create Moodle courses and share them on our library for others to download and use on their own Moodle servers. We are also working with a developer to integrate work he has done on Moodle import/export into our library in the future. I used Moodle at Presidio School of Management, and I agree that it is good, it needs work, and it isn't suitable as a library. Curriki: Curriki is the closest thing to what we think is needed but it lacks the ability to be deployed on a country by country basis. We feel strongly that a learning library needs to be customizable for each country, each school and even each student. I'm not clear on this. Curriki is based on XWiki, which can be localized and repurposed. We would need serious librarian and community support to redo it for any particular country, but as far as I can tell that is true for any library software. The hard part seems to be creating content in local languages that meet other local requirements. Existing curriculum standards are one such set of requirements, usually fairly definite. Some topics require much more extensive adaptation to local law, including business and civics education. Culturally appropriate topics, language, color schemes, and illustrations are thornier and less clearcut. Curriculum alignment: There are many features that we we feel are an integral part of making a library of curriculum materials successful that we have not implemented in our library yet. Curriculum alignment is at the top of that list. Because of the complexity of many of the worlds curriculum standards we want to make sure we do not overload teachers with too much information. Has anybody created a library of curriculum standards? Has anybody thought about how to align lessons to all of these curricula at once, at least in a subject like mathematics? Chris Chris Rowe, CTO Open Learning Exchange +1 (512) 553-0852 | skype: eworsirhc http://ole.org Sent from Austin, TX, United States ___ 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://earthtreasury.org/ ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
[IAEP] Unifying the Sugar Labs experience Was: [Sugar-devel] Project Guidelines posted
Isn't this related to Brainstorm and Blueprints in Launchpad? Yes, I agree they are closely related. I would like to take a step back and look at the problems we are trying to solve. Backstory. Over the past couple of months I have spent most of my time working with 'external' people and organizations. I have been looking for ways we can work together. Originally, I though of the problem as how do we Identify, Engage, and Empower potential contributors. That is pretty standard volunteer recruitment strategy. This approach has been creating a dissonance that I did not understand until Mel chewed me out last night. The dissonance is that identifying, engaging, and empowering potential contributors flies in the face of nearly everything Sugar Labs stands for. The correct approach is to focus on creating a community culture where potential contributors can discover what they want to do, discover how to engage with the community, and discover how they can implement their ideas. Identify, Engage, and Empower still holds true. Sugar Labs must be discoverable so new contributors can figure out how they fit in. Consistency and clarity of community. In marketing we often talk about the importance of a clear and consistent message. The release cycle is premised around clear and consistent dates for developers to converge and diverge. The way to make Sugar Labs discoverable is to create a clear and consistent community. Creating this consistency does not depend on long weighty legal tomes. In fact, the opposite is true. This consistency comes from clearly sticking to a few guiding principles. Following are three examples of reoccurring situations that happen across the project. #1 A few months ago we were discussing the the pros and cons of updating Sugar via activities.sugarlabs.org. Initially the discussion were heated and rather handwavey. Then the devteam implemented the 'new feature' process. Engaging in the new feature process shifted _all_ of my energy from _proving_ that update is a good idea to creating a viable implementation. The new feature process provided be a very good template for how to proceed if I wanted my feature to be considered for the next release. I filled out the form and hacked together reasonable proof of concept code. One day a core developer, aslroot, pickup the code and rewrote it. A few days later I got a email from Simon asking me to clean up the release notes because it was going to included in .86. The new process guidelines provided me, the inexperienced developer, a way to align my work flow and expectations with the development team. #2 Last Summer we work we several groups of students. Jameson worked with Mel and Leslie Hawthorn on the GSOC project. Fred worked with Prof. Steve Jacobs and I with the RIT co-op students. Our experiences were very different. At RIT we were flying blind. It was the first time: Anyone taught a course combining community service and technology using open source and Sugar. RIT made an exception to allow unpaid co-ops. RIT allow remote co-op. None of us had clear expectations. Communications suffered. GSOC is now in its 5th iteration. They have very good guidelines for how projects can effectually 'identify, engage, and empower' students. Identify - via the project proposal. Engage - via the mentor. Empower - the student is free to explore, collaborate, and reflect within the limits and expectation of the project. #3 Recently the GSOC team brought in $4500. $2000 in travel money and $2500 in general money. The challenge was determining how to spend it. Rather than push this decision up to the oversight board we appointed the GSOC mentors an ad hoc committee who had authority to spend their money as they see fit. The oversight board is in the process of approving this via lazy consensus. By creating a very light weight decision making body of GSOC mentors we pushed the spending authority out to the people with who were highly engaged in the GSOC project. Themes Life cycle guidelines -- The value of life cycle guidelines show up across the project. The new feature process does a very good job of explaining how to take an idea for a new feature through to becoming part of a release. The process makes no judgment on the value of an idea. Instead it aligns expectations of the new developer and the release team. The GSOC guidelines are another variation on life cycle guidelines. It focuses on best practices to help insure that students, mentors, and projects all have matching expectations. Delegating authority -- The oversight board and the ad hoc GSOC spending committee are are both example of delegating authority through lightweight decision making bodies. It took less than ten minutes to set up the committee and get board approval. The decision are being made by those most knowledgeable about the subject. Future action items. Project guidelines -- Project guidelines are just life cycle guidelines for how top
