Re: [IAEP] Open source course builder

[Tim McNamara]

Direct link: http://code.google.com/p/course-builder/

On 30 September 2012 20:50, Peter Robinson  wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Google has released an open source course builder that some people
> might be interested in.
>
> http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/11/google-releases-course-builder/
> http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/11/google-launches-open-course-builder
>
> Peter
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Re: [IAEP] SoaS Breakthrough!

[Tim McNamara]

2012/1/13 Iain Brown Douglas :
> On Wed, 2012-01-11 at 03:21 +0100, Rubén Rodríguez wrote:
>
>> The method I think would be a breakthrough for a school is to use a thin
>> client environment. One server is enough to run a typical school, you
>> only need to manage one standard GNU/Linux computer, the clients need
>> no software or configuration, and they can keep whatever they already
>> have in their hard drives untouched and usable. Also all the students
>> data are in an easy to backup spot, installing an activity in the server
>> makes it available for everyone instantly, and you can also combine it
>> with class management software like iTALC.
>
> This sounds useful.
>
> (For reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_client )
>
> So, if an enthusiastic volunteer had demonstrated Sugar on a Stick to a
> school's "IT person" who has no previous sugar or linux experience -
> what would need to be on their learning curve, to set up such a system?

Probably rewardingly tricky.
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Re: [IAEP] OERs and textbook replacement

[Tim McNamara]

Are you able to expand your thoughts once you get to a computer?

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

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?
>
> Sent from my iPhone
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[IAEP] Getting learning content to learners - some questions

[Tim McNamara]

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 would like advice on the best way to
help.

Some questions:

 - Do educators use digital content from non-traditional sources?
 - What is missing for learners and teachers?
 - Are things easy enough for people creating learning material to get it
into the hands of others?

Thanks all

Tim McNamara
Professional \\  paperlessprojects.com
Personal \\  @timClicks <http://twitter.com/timClicks>  |  timmcnamara.co.nz

[0] http://okfn.org
[1] http://www.opentextbook.org/repository/
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Re: [IAEP] [FM Discuss] Fwd: Sugar Lab

[Tim McNamara]

This is excellent work. Well done.

Tim McNamara  |  @timClicks <http://twitter.com/timClicks>  |
timmcnamara.co.nz


On 13 May 2011 04:56, Edward Cherlin  wrote:

> Noy Shoung says he has about a hundred Cambodians ready and willing to
> work on localization and translation projects, for which he will be
> Administrator/Project Manager/Training Manager/whatever. I am blogging
> a bit more information, which will appear shortly on Planet Sugar.
> More news to follow.
>
> -- Forwarded message --
> From: Noy Shoung 
> Date: Thu, May 12, 2011 at 12:35
> Subject: Sugar Lab
> To: "ខ្មែរជុំឡា khmerjoomla.org" ,
> khme...@googlegroups.com, khmerfoss 
> Cc: Edward Cherlin 
>
>
> Dear all members and colleagues
> I am very proud of Edward Cherlin, who is always trying to help
> education tools for children around the world for example
> OLPC,
> Sugar Localization project
> FLOSS Manuals
> Textbook replacing etc
>
> Please help to make it happen by contributing your time here
> http://translate.flossmanuals.net
> http://translate.sugarlabs.org/km/
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
> If you need any help please contact me directly or contact Edward in
> this cc copy email
>
> Your value time and input, hard work will credit forever,
> Best regards
> Noy
> --
> Noy Shoung
> POOR CAN HELP,
> BUT LAZY CAN'T HELP
> Phnom Penh, Cambodia
> skype: noyshoung
> mobile +855-1771-
> email  noysho...@gmail.com
> GOD WILL HELP YOU IF YOU HELP YOURSELF
>
>
>
>
> --
> 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://www.earthtreasury.org/
> ___
> Discuss mailing list
> disc...@lists.flossmanuals.net
> http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net
>
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[IAEP] Pootle video tutorials?

[Tim McNamara]

Are video tutorials of using Pootle available? Failing that, where do people 
think the best guides are?


I would like to be able to have an en_NZ translation completed. It seems like a 
small thing, but it's best for New Zealand children if we use our spelling 
rather than en_US. However I find the interface fairly confusing and am 
slightly worried I am breaking things.



--
Tim McNamara
@timClicks
http://timmcnamara.co.nz
http://people.sugarlabs.org/~tim



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Re: [IAEP] Youtube Downloads on XO??? How to???

[Tim McNamara]

On 28 December 2010 20:11, Caryl Bigenho  wrote:

>  Hi All,
>
>
> I am working with a project that wants to download Kahn Academy's math
> lessons ( http://www.khanacademy.org/  ) and use them offline on the XO-1.
>

Hi Caryl,

As discussed before, distributing YouTube videos is illegal because it
breaches YouTube's terms. However, the videos are actually released under
the CC-BY-NC license from the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org/).
This means that you're free to use those videos, just not the ones from
YouTube itself.

They're slightly harder to search for, but the formats will play on the XO
just fine. Select .ogv files.

Tim
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[IAEP] Kiwi PyCon 2011 - August 26/27 - OLPC / Sugar Labs content would be great!

[Tim McNamara]

Hi all,


Wellington, New Zealand has been selected as the venue for Kiwi PyCon 2011.
PyCon stands for Python conference, kiwi stands for our national bird (that
you probably know as a fruit) I've been given the title "Conference
Director" and would really like to get some OLPC/Sugar Labs
content/speakers.


So, if anyone has thought about taking a trip to New Zealand - here's a good
reason to think about doing so! I'll be posting more details to the
community as they emerge but thought I would spark some interest with a
quick note.


Very best regards



Tim McNamara

  http://www.timmcnamara.co.nz

  http://twitter.com/timClicks
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Re: [IAEP] Dumb Questions... Input Wanted... Please Discuss!

[Tim McNamara]

On 28 October 2010 09:04, Caryl Bigenho  wrote:

>  Hi All...
>
>
> Here are some "dumb questions" for you. In a couple of weeks I will be
> doing a 2-hr hands-on workshop (at the CUELA Tech Fair) about OLPC, Sugar,
> and open source software teachers may want to try with their classes using
> the computers they already have at their schools. I would like to give them
> a CD or DVD with the files they would need to make their own USB sticks. I
> will also be showing them the online sites for Etoys and Scratch.
>
>
> I was thinking of including at least one version of SoaS, a copy of Virtual
> Box for Mac users, Live usb creator for SoaS (with text files telling how to
> use them), and Etoys-to-go.
>
> [...]
>

I don't think these are dumb questions at all. I think the technical side
can be dealt with by others. One thing that's missing is reading material
for people to take away. There may not be enough time for this conference,
but I think we could use booki.cc & Lulu.com to produce some quality
material from our wiki.

I wonder whether IAEP participants can work together to migrate content from
the wiki for such a project.

Some topic areas could include:

 - integrating Sugar into the classroom
 - integrating Sugar into a standardised testing environment
 - where to get help as a teacher (e.g. how to sign up to IAEP!)
 - where to get content (Wikieducator, other open access content resources,
etc)
 - encouraging discovery

Just an idea,

Tim
@timClicks
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Re: [IAEP] stepping down as maintainer

[Tim McNamara]

Please excuse my rash pushing of the 'send' button:

On 26 October 2010 23:42, Tim McNamara  wrote:

> *Issue 2*: veto
>
> We have a small cadre of experienced and highly able contributors.
>

This means that an expectation of very high-quality will become established
as the norm.  This is a hard wall to scale while contributing. However,
there have been many emails on the development list surrounding changes to
the patch acceptance process. I don't feel that anyone is against change if
it will make things more productive.

Tim
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Re: [IAEP] stepping down as maintainer

[Tim McNamara]

On 24 October 2010 17:42, David Farning  wrote:

> Sugar Labs lost its lead developer.  [...]
>

At the risk of angering pretty much everybody Sugar Labs has three
> fundamental problems.  Sugar Labs is optimistic to the point of
> untruthfulness.  Sugar Labs is lead by veto rather than vision.  There
> is a lack of accountability to stakeholders.
>

David,

Thank you for your bravery and frankness with which you have raised these
concerns. My main desire from these discussion is that contributors will
feel like they are contributing to a project with momentum by the end of
them.

I would like to address your three points. However, I would also like to add
some more context to the discussion as I see it:

Sugar faces several up-coming technical challenges that will test the
resolve of Sugar Labs.
 - a move to a touch-based interface
 - change in hardware infrastructure for the XOs (e.g. ARM processors)
 - Move to GNOME 3.0
 - Move to Python 2.7 & eventually to 3.x

>From the pedagogical side, I'm sure that an increased emphasis on
standardised testing (at least in the developed world) means that there will
be an increased expectation for standardised teaching tools.

*Issue 1*: over-promising

This is a tricky problem. Sugar is enticing. I think that we will not be
able to contain people's enthusiasm, nor do I think that Sugar Labs should
stop aspiring to provide the world's best educational platform. Instead, we
should focus on improving the technology.

*Issue 2*: veto

We have a small cadre of experienced and highly able contributors.

*Issue 3*: lack of accountability to stakeholders

I don't agree that Sugar Labs is unresponsive. Nor do I agree that a change
in the leadership structure will be beneficial.  WB has provided excellent
service to the team. We have engaged with OLPC, Fedora and provide support
several deployments. For a volunteer driven organisation, it's highly
responsive.

Here are some of my reflections over the last few days:

The list of challenges does look overwhelming. There is probably a lack of
developer capacity in our community to deal with them. At least, I'm fairly
intimidated. Sugar is a very large project, with hundreds of interdependent
parts. However, we should remember that each of these challenges is
surmountable. They will also present developers with the possibility to
innovate and interesting solutions.

It would be good to quantify the risks that the project faces. Are the list
of challenges I've written up valid things to worry about?

I think Sugar Labs could create an informal mentor system to enable more
contributions from current 'lurkers'. This proposal is  I think the
development teams needs to draw on IAEP & others for support. I think that
once everyone feels like that a degree of momentum has been reached, the
community will grow and our educators will be able to go back to just
educating.

Sugar Labs does lots of its own infrastructure. Is that the best use of
contributors' time? (Why don't we use Canonical's Launchpad?)


Regards,


Tim McNamara
@timClicks
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[IAEP] Sugar Labs & UN Online Volunteering: Potential source of translators & others?

[Tim McNamara]

Sugar Labs appears to be eligible to part of the United Nations Online
Volunteering[1]. There is a pool of about 200,000 registered volunteers, I'm
not sure how many are software developers - most projects are vanity website
development. Sugar would be an interesting

This may be a good way to tap into a wide pool of volunteers, especially
from outside of USA/Europe, but would incur an administration penalty.
Perhaps a discussion to be had at SLOBs level, would there be support for
Sugar Labs to look into joining?

Organizations provide volunteer opportunities in the form of discrete
project briefs. I think this would be best suited to translation tasks, with
an brief per Activity.

Regards, Tim.


[1]
http://www.onlinevolunteering.org/en/org/resources/organization_criteria.html
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Re: [IAEP] Ask! Please! (Re: how to ask a question)

[Tim McNamara]

On 9 October 2010 11:33,  wrote:

> Quoting Edward Cherlin :
>
>> I have a partial draft of a "textbook" on the subject at
>> http://www.booki.cc/discovering-discovery/ It encourages XO owners to
>> explore on their own and find out what questions they have before we
>> give them answers.
>>
>
> I like the idea. It encourages users to jump in and take risks, experiment,
> not worry if they have incomplete understanding.
>

Me too, and have added some feedback to NZ educators on why open source can
aid education in ways that closed source can't[1].

>From [1]:

Here is one way that I can think that that open source benefits
learners, based only on my own experience however. What I've witnessed
from many computer uses is a sense of frustration and helplessness
when something doesn't work as they think it should. People who buy
software are trained to wait for automatic updates, or worse they are
forced onto purchasing the next version. Processes inside
organisations say, "If you're having problems, call the helpdesk."*
The feedback loop might be an automated report that is generated and
sent to an anonymous server.

I would like to think that open source software would enable a sense
of critical analysis, exploration and problem solving. For me, when I
have a problem with a piece of software that I use, I tend to go
through a process of reflection:

  "Is this issue something other people might be having?"
  "Can I reproduce the problem?"
  "Why is the system built like this, there must be a reason? It must
be useful for something."
  "Is the hassle of the computer problem larger than the hassle of my
time to send feedback?"
  "How can I word a report to developers that explains what's going
wrong?"

In short, I have the impression that users of paid software feel like
they don't have the skills to contribute. They don't see themselves as
a participant in a computer system. By computer system, I mean a
system that includes software, hardware and the user to generate some
useful output.
Open source software has helped me by creating a sense of empowerment
and discovery. I use the software that I want to run. When there's a
problem, my involvement forms part of the solution.

[1]
http://groups.google.com/group/mle-reference-group/browse_thread/thread/3caf7421439020d6
(scroll to bottom)
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Re: [IAEP] Suggestions Needed!

[Tim McNamara]

On 9 October 2010 12:14, Caryl Bigenho  wrote:

>  Hi Folks...
>
> I'm working on the abstract for my proposed presentation at CUE 2011 in
> Palm Springs in March.  The filing deadline is Monday, but I was hoping to
> put it in tomorrow morning since we will be traveling Sunday.  They asked
> for an outline of the presentation in the abstract, that is why it is in
> that form.  I want to focus mainly on Sugar and SoaS for this talk but still
> put in stuff about OLPC and volunteering.
>

My main suggestion would be to change the focus from "free educational
software", e.g. no cost, to the benefits of the Sugar Learning Platform and
the other packages you're highlighting as quality educational tools in and
of themselves. I don't know if this makes sense, but I feel that promoting
free software as no cost cheapens it to a degree.

Tim
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[IAEP] OLPC receives USD5.6m from Marvell

[Tim McNamara]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11475335

Tim
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Re: [IAEP] How can we consistantly evalutate CRT monitor quality?

[Tim McNamara]

On 4 October 2010 06:39, Caroline Meeks  wrote:

> Is there a way to have different people repeatably agree on how "good" a
> CRT monitor is?  Is there a quantitive measure that is reasonably easy to
> use?  A test image that can somehow get repeatable results by different
> people?
>

Some things that are quantifiable that may help the project:
  - Number of seconds until warm up.
  - Screen resolution.
  - Date of manufacture.
  - Does it have its packaging?
  - Are its cables intact?
  - Are the connection points (e.g. ends of cables) intact?
  - Is there ghosting?
  - What does it weigh?

I can't think of an easy way to measure lumens and contrast, however. I
can't help thinking that any metric would depend on the perception of the
observer, lighting conditions in the room, etc.

Tim
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Re: [IAEP] [Sur] [Olpc-uruguay] Sugar Labs Oversight Board?

[Tim McNamara]

On 25 September 2010 02:22, Pablo Flores  wrote:

> My support to Rosamel too!
> The translation is not a minor issue and it would be good to challenge
> ourselves to find solutions so we can integrate in discussions people that
> speak different languages. Isn't there some kind of add-on for mailman for
> making automatic translations?
>
> También mi apoto a Rosamel !
> El tema de las traducciones no es algo menor, y estaría bueno que nos
> desafiáramos a nosotros mismos a buscar soluciones que permitan integrar en
> las discusiones a gente que habla en distintos idiomas. No hay algún tipo de
> add-on para mailman que haga traducciones automáticas?
>
> Saludos,
> Pablo Flores
>

Esperanto? ;)
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Re: [IAEP] Etoys, is it difficult or easy?

[Tim McNamara]

The analogy doesn't quite fit, as it's possible to do complex things in all
of those tools and it's easy to do simple things in EToys. Each Activity can
be used in this learning model, e.g. training wheels to motorbike.

Tim

On 25 September 2010 05:48, Cherry Withers  wrote:

> And Scratch? ... don't remember where I read it,  but it sounded logical to
> me.
>
> Use progressively difficult tools for progressively difficult tasks.
>
> To confirm this statement,  I add the phrase: "Visible learning, invisible
> technology".
>
> Children would first learn TurtleArt.
>
> When they outgrow it switch to Scratch.
>
> When all its possibilities are exhausted, continue with eToys.
>
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Re: [IAEP] Text to Speech in other Activities (was Re: FW: [Olpc-uruguay] MiguelEstudia (Version 1))

[Tim McNamara]

On 17 September 2010 02:19, James Simmons  wrote:

> Tim,
>
> Do I have documentation?  Surely your jest!
>
> http://en.flossmanuals.net/ActivitiesGuideSugar/TextToSpeech
>
> This is a chapter of "Make Your Own Sugar Activities!", a FLOSS Manual
> I wrote (with much help from the folks on the Sugar-Devel mailing
> list).  There's a Spanish version in progress, and we hope to have
> printed versions available from Lulu in time for Christmas.
>
>
James,

Thanks for this! I was sure that I had read through the guide all the way
through. This book is an amazing resource. Thank you.

Tim
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Re: [IAEP] Child in charge of FOSS or Sugar

[Tim McNamara]

Søren,

You raise some concerns that I have had. Over of time, I have come to
slightly different conclusions.

On 18 September 2010 01:27, Søren Hougesen  wrote:

> For about a month ago, I asked as a curious outsider, if kids were actually
> hacking sugar.
>

It is almost certainly the case that learners are hacking while using Sugar.
I see less evidence that learners are hacking Sugar itself, but there is a
lot of it: We often receive feedback through teachers. From my experience,
Activity developers are more than willing to incorporate feedback from
learners.

My personal feeling is that Sugar Labs needs to have systems that are clear
and consistent.. But responsibility for teaching those systems to learners
should be pushed onto teachers.

In my search for bugging/debugging in Sugar I found the
> ‘BugSquard/Bugreport’ on wiki.sugarlabs and it says:
>
> “If you're using Sugar on a 
> Stickor another distribution
> of Sugar  and find
> something
> specific you think could be improved—maybe something isn't working the way
> you think
> it should work, or you have an idea for how something could be better—you
> can file a *ticket. *
> A ticket is a way for anyone to suggest to the software or project
> developers that *they should work*
> on something […]".
>
> “[The tickets]” is the *most* important part—because reading the title of
> a ticket *is how a developer decides*
> if he or she is going to work on it”.
>
> I thought it was the child/sugar-user that should *decide on working on
> bugs/improvements*.
>

I agree with the force of your argument. Interesting, I think that this
process facilitates lots of involvement.

I feel that our approach is reasonable, because it balances several forces.
For example, some learners do not want to develop software. Making it easy
to receive feedback is important. This explains the emphasis on tickets.
Tickets also centralise the feedback, which helps to avoid duplication.
Also, this quote does not imply that learners are not entitled to become
developers, just that developers do development. Lastly, we operate under a
volunteer model. This means that it's important to recognise that developers
do decide which tickets to fix.

There are other forces at play. I recall one thread on the development list
that said there should not be in-code documentation in order to maintain the
quality of the contributions of prospective developers. The reasoning was
that if individuals are not  able to understand the code by reading the
source, then they are not qualified to contribute to Sugar's core.

As Papert says on debugging: “Errors benefit us because they lead us to
> study what happen,
> to understand what went wrong, and, through understanding, to fix it”
> (Mindstorms - 1980 (1993): 114),
> which is essential for learning learning.
>
> I have trouble seeing the correspondence between the child/sugar-user
> taking charge, debugging
> in Sugar-FOSS as a computational environment and a distant Sugar-developer
> deciding on
> debugging or making improvements. To me the ticket doesn’t look like the
> child is taking charge.
>

"taking charge" is part of the story. Tickets do allow people to participate
at the level that they wish to. If learners would like to learn how to fix
the problems that, I think their teachers should guide them. I'm not
convinced that Sugar Labs should be in charge of educating learners. I think
we need clear, consistent instructions that can be taught to learners who
wish to contribute.



>  I have 4 assumptions about this:
>
> 1.  The BugSquard doesn’t mean that the sugar-user/child can’t be in
> charge and taking control
> and doing own improvements and bug-fixing in Sugar-FOSS- environment. If a
> child wants to release
> Sugar 6.1 then by all means. The BugSquard is just there to help and assist
> the child/sugar-user who
> doesn’t have the technical know-how to do improvements.
>
> 2.  Not everyone can release Sugar 6.1, 6.2 etc. That’s the mission of
> the Development Team. They…
> “build and maintain the core Sugar environment. This includes specifying
> and implementing new features
> in conjunction with the Design Team,
> fixing bugs as they are found by the Testing team and the Sugar community
> […]”
> (wiki.sugarlabs.org.).
>
> 3.  Debugging and improving Sugar-OS is different from debugging and
> programming as a learning-process
>  *in* a Sugar-activity like “Turtle Blocks”, which is the reason why..
>
> 4.  …it is possible to run Sugar-activities on Windows. It’s not
> possible to debug, improve, program and
> hack Windows (not legally anyway). But you can still debug and program
> Turtle as a Sugar-activity that
> runs on Windows.
>
> If I’m right about assumption 2,3,4 then children doesn’t benefit from
> Sugar as a FOSS. That’s mainly
> for Sugar-developers and the benefit of changing

[IAEP] Text to Speech in other Activities (was Re: FW: [Olpc-uruguay] MiguelEstudia (Version 1))

[Tim McNamara]

[adding Sugar devel]

On 16 September 2010 07:14, James Simmons  wrote:

> Caryl,
>
> I haven't tried this out yet but I think it's a great idea.  Text to
> speech is underutilized in Activities, in my opinion.  It isn't that
> difficult to add TTS to an Activity, and every kid I've ever shown my
> XO to has been delighted to hear it speak!
>
> James Simmons
>

Hi James,

I agree - we always have Speak open at demos. Do you have any documentation
on how to get the speech engine running in other activities? I wasn't quite
sure how to access (engine) & Alice when I spent a few hours a few months
ago looking into a language flash cards[1]

Tim

[1] Such as http://remembersaurus.com/
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Re: [IAEP] [SoaS] [MARKETING] Get Sugar landing page

[Tim McNamara]

On 16 September 2010 09:00, Tabitha Roder  wrote:

> If we support VIrtualBox we
>> should probably also support VMWare, Hyper-V, KVM and Xen. Who's going
>> to do all that testing when we have barely the resources to do a
>> single image.
>>
>> Peter
>>
>>
> I am a teacher of sorts and have been into loads of education institutes
> from pre school through to tertiary. Apple is everywhere so we have to solve
> this problem.
>

Apple designs vertically integrated systems. If schools & teachers decide to
adopt this philosophy, they take the risk that they can't use external
stuff. I don't know if Sugar Labs have the capacity to remedy this. I think
that Sugar Labs should focus on making quality software, and push
responsibility for adoption downstream to distributions and companies/orgs
that want to promote Sugar's adoption.

I'm sorry for my lack of sympathy, but I don't see Sugar running natively on
a Mac platform as a priority for Sugar Labs. It's a priority, but we have
many priorities and few resources.


> I use Virtualbox and have a geek master to turn to for help when I need it.
> I have not heard of those other virtual machine things and all the teachers
> I know that have tried a virtual machine have done so with Virtualbox or
> something called bootcamp (which might not even be a virtual machine, who
> knows?)


You're right there, Boot Camp[1] is not virtualisation. It is more like an
installer to make things easier for people to install a second operating
system. It assists people with repartitioning their hard drives and so
forth.

I think that Boot Camp is a good route to investigate if someone has the
energy. Perhaps some intrepid Mac users could adapt current tutorials[3] for
Sugar.

Tim

[1] http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BootCamp
[2]
http://www.helium.com/items/421906-how-to-install-linux-on-an-intel-mac-with-boot-camp

[note: marketing list removed from discussion]
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Re: [IAEP] Looking for suggestions

[Tim McNamara]

Brett

On 2 August 2010 16:33, Christoph Derndorfer
wrote:

> Given that you seem to have some UX experience it might also be a good
> idea to sit down and sketch some of the ideas you have in terms of the
> UI. That would (a) be good material for your blog and (b) would give
> people a better idea of what you have in mind when saying "the Sugar
> user experience is in no way optimized for the high school learner".
>

+1

I'm really interested in what you think a Sugar for high school aged youth
would look like.

One thing that OLPC spent a lot of time on was the Human Interface
Guidelines. Some things have slipped, Sugar is moving away from integer
activity numbers & only using verbs to describe activities, but on the whole
it's a very good read.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Human_Interface_Guidelines
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[IAEP] Sugar Labs potentially a trade mark infringer

[Tim McNamara]

Compare "Breakout"[1] with "Break Out"[2]

I haven't checked the USPTO's database, but I'm fairly certain that Atari
would have registered it.

Tim

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakout_(video_game)
[2] http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4235
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[IAEP] Suggested change to Arithmetic blurb on http://activities.sugarlabs.org

[Tim McNamara]

>From http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4204, we currently
have:

"Arithmetic is a game that tries to show all the participants the same
questions at the same time, gives an ongoing scoreboard of how many
questions each participant has answered correctly, and measures the amount
of time it takes everyone to answer each question. It also lets the group
choose which of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division their
game should use, and how hard the questions should be."

I feel we should replace that text with:

"Arithmetic is an activity that allows learners to compete in maths
challenges. Learners choose their a difficulty level and whether to do
addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. Challenges work by
Arithmetic providing questions to every learner sharing the activity.
Responses to those questions are checked and timed. The results are
presented on a scoreboard."

I thought it was more appropriate to send this message to this mailing list,
rather than the developer list, because it's centred around the language,
not the technology. Do let me know if there's a better location for these
suggestions. If there is support, I will create a ticket in the bug tracker.

Regards,


Tim
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Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS] Sugar Labs 2010 Goals Review

[Tim McNamara]

On 15 July 2010 07:04, C. Scott Ananian  wrote:

> >> Are developers using Sugar as their day-to-day development
> >> environment yet?
> >
> > Certainly not me... I'm not even sure it will ever happen. Even
> [...]
> > However, I've seen many teachers using Sugar. Not just Browse. They also
> > use Write and Record.
> [...]
> > Given a choice, many teachers started using Gnome. Some of them messed
> > up their systems, just like children.
>
> So consider this a mild suggestion that the "dogfooding" goal has some
> way yet to go.  Major developers can't use Sugar for day-to-day work,
> and even teachers who try this have difficulty.  Since Gnome is (in
> your admission) not a good alternative either, it seems like there's
> something left to be done here, if only for the teachers' use case.
> (Perhaps the task is just to refine the Gnome image distributed with
> Sugar to be more appropriate for naive users.)
>
>
I think it's highly inappropriate to say that eating your own dogfood means
that software developers, or even teachers, should use Sugar. Sugar is an
environment that is used by teachers to create learning environments for
children. Therefore, it's impossible that we as adults will ever be able to
do experience the software as it was intended. We shouldn't set ourselves
impossible goals.

Sugar is not a general computing environment. Sugar is for learners. It's a
highly structured place where details like filesystems & even files
themselves are hidden. Software devs care about files. Teachers care about
applications that are for school administration. Software developers go to
extensive lengths to customise their development environment. People are
highly specific about what maximises their own productivity.

Looking at Bernie's original list, it seems that Sugar Labs has done
exceptionally well with its available resources.

Tim
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Re: [IAEP] FW: Feedback request for my Python tutorial

[Tim McNamara]

On 9 July 2010 19:52, Kevin Kirton  wrote:

> Thanks for that Caryl. I'm using Gmail and it seems I have to click
> "Reply to all" instead of "Reply," which I keep forgetting. But even
> now, the IAEP address only comes up as CC. Hmmm


Kevin -

I'm not an administrator of IAEP, but that's often a setting that is
intentionally set. Mailman is putting the sender's email address as the from
address, and has not set a reply-to address. While it can cause fustration,
it makes messages to the mailing list deliberate. This can lead to fewer
throw away posts.

BR

Tim
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Re: [IAEP] Feedback request for my Python tutorial

[Tim McNamara]

On 8 July 2010 06:19, Caryl Bigenho  wrote:

>  Hi Dinko,
>
> A quick note on my way out the door.  Since you are writing the tutorial in
> the first person singular (rather than first person plural  "editorial we",
> you probably will want to have it be the computer (or Python) talking.  So
> in the first paragraph of the Intro, you might want to give the speaker a
> name and start something like this:
>
> "Hello there, and welcome to . I'm Pippy Man (or what ever
> you pick for a name) and I will be your guide to this adventure in
> programming.  I "speak" Python so we will need an interpreter for you to be
> able to give me commands (tell me what to do).
> [snip]
> An interpreter is a special computer program that changes your commands
> from Python to a language I can understand so that I can do what you tell me
> to do. And, by the way, I always do exactly what you tell me to do... which
> may not always be what you thought you told me to do.  Programming is full
> of lots of surprises!
>
> Now, before we continue, please tell me your name etc>"
>

Consistency with Speak would be for the bot to speak out the XO's name.

Mine says, "Hello Olly, type something".

Tim
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Re: [IAEP] Tonight's Question: Read vs Read ETexts?

[Tim McNamara]

On 25 June 2010 14:39, Caryl Bigenho  wrote:

>  Saturday I need to show someone via Skype how to use the XO as a book
> reader.  So far no luck with it.  I have tried both the Read Activity and
> the Read E Texts Activity and can't seem to get either to work well.  Are
> there any really good instructions anywhere for these?  I have been telling
> folks everywhere how the XO makes a great book reader, but haven't tried it
> in ages!  Am I lying to them?
>

Here are some pointers that may assist:


   - With Read, open downloaded documents from the Journal, not directly
   from the Activity itself. [1]
   - ebook formats can be tricky - some ebook formats are designed to be
   read by a particular type of device. XOs are highly unlikely to high up on
   the supported device list.
   - From memory, those Activities (possibly just Read E Texts) are derived
   from FBReader[1]. FBReader can open many several formats, but only a few are
   supported "fully".[2] This means that it will display text, but that display
   may not be pretty.

Also, does "No luck with it" mean that nothing opens at all, or does it mean
that files open but they are poorly rendered? If things are opening but they
look ugly, it's probably a software issue. If things are not opening at all,
you are probably trying to open ebooks in a way Sugar doesn't understand.

Best of luck!

Tim


[1] http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Read#How_to_use
[2] http://www.fbreader.org/
[3] http://www.fbreader.org/docs/formats.php



Sometimes it depends on the type of
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Re: [IAEP] [Marketing] OLPC rules out Windows for XO-3

[Tim McNamara]

On 4 June 2010 09:07, Chris Ball  wrote:

> Hi Tim,
>
>   > As soon as I heard that OLPC was moving to ARM, I winced
>   > slightly. This is going to make life much more difficult, because
>   > of our longstanding Linux, Python and recent GNOME heritage. What
>   > is Sugar Labs' role with the XO-3+?
>
> I don't understand -- the XO-3 (and XO-1.5) will run Linux, Python and
> Sugar, as described in Ed's e-mail at the start of this thread.  What
> has become much more difficult?
>
>
Opps. I was fairly certain that it was a real pain to have an ARM computer
run Linux[1]. I guess life is slightly different when you can talk to a
manufacturer and avoid Windows CE altogether.

Also, given that Android doesn't use many GNU libraries in userland, e.g.
gcc, I didn't really consider it to be Linux. Therefore, as far as the Sugar
stack went, I didn't realise that Android's API would be as flexible to
support GTK+ libraries.

Thanks for the corrections!

Tim.

[1]
http://ask.slashdot.org/story/10/05/21/2335257/Installing-Linux-On-ARM-Based-Netbooks
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Re: [IAEP] [Marketing] OLPC rules out Windows for XO-3

[Tim McNamara]

On 4 June 2010 06:21, Benjamin M. Schwartz  wrote:

> On 06/03/2010 01:45 PM, C. Scott Ananian wrote:
>
> > My suggestion would be to first convene a "ground up rethink" of what
> > a touch-based Sugar could be.
> ...
> >  The result should be a
> > *book*, which describes the ideal UI.  That will be the long term
> > (think, next decade!) goals for Sugar.
>
> That's a nice idea, but we have a deadline.  In a year or less, OLPC needs
> a release-quality OS build for touch-screen tablet.  People can also
> engage in some long-term dreaming, but OLPC cannot wait for it.
>
> Getting to something _good_ in a year is going to happen by incremental
> improvement, even if there were real money available for development (and
> I haven't heard of any big $$ so far).  The immediate interesting question
> to me is whether that incremental improvement is best started from current
> Sugar, or whether there is something to be gained by starting from Meego,
> or some other effort.
>
> --Ben
>

Meego does look like a highly attractive option from my external
perspective. For one, there are significant dollars behind that project.
I've also been very curious as Moblin has always appeared to me to be very
Sugar-ish: mainly greyscale interface with coloured highlights that is
highly icon driven.

As soon as I heard that OLPC was moving to ARM, I winced slightly. This is
going to make life much more difficult, because of our longstanding Linux,
Python and recent GNOME heritage. What is Sugar Labs' role with the XO-3+?
Will we become simply maintainers of what will be the legacy operating
system for the XO-1.x?

ARM chip architecture makes a lot of sense from a power perspective, but
that was also the case when x86 was chosen for the XO-1. Perhaps even more
so, as Intel has been steadily increasing the power friendliness of its x86
chips, with Atom & so forth.

Still, if the decision has been made, then the decision has been made. I'm
guessing Prof Abelson et al wouldn't have supported a introductory (?)
class[1] and repeat it[2] in Android programming if it was successful.

I guess I'm going to need to learn to love curly braces :/


Tim.


[1] http://people.csail.mit.edu/hal/mobile-apps-spring-08
[2] http://people.csail.mit.edu/hal/mobile-apps-fall-08
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Re: [IAEP] Books and educational achievement

[Tim McNamara]

On 26 May 2010 09:26, Chris Leonard  wrote:
>
> This study seems to make a powerful argument in favor of ramping up the
> quantity of e-book content on school servers.
>
> Books in the home as important as parents’ education level
> http://www.unr.edu/nevadanews/templates/details.aspx?articleid=5450&zoneid=8
>
> cjl
>
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Does IAEP have an effort to create repositories of text books? If so,
is it tied together with http://www.opentextbook.org/?

Tim McNamara
http://people.sugarlabs.org/~tim/
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Re: [IAEP] OLPC Oceana: New Solomon Islands Study Puts Hard Evidence of OLPC's Positive Impact

[Tim McNamara]

The original of this report is in OLPC Oceania's web storage:
http://box.net/keydox

-Tim.

On 21 April 2010 03:58, Sean DALY  wrote:

>
> http://olpcoceania.blogspot.com/2010/04/new-solomons-study-puts-hard-evidence.html
>
> http://www.solomonstarnews.com/news/national/4831-one-child-laptop-project-makes-positive-impact-on-children
>
> this follows the NSF study of Birmingham:
> http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116638
>
> Sean
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[IAEP] Sugar Labs Accepted as GSoC 2010 Organisation

[Tim McNamara]

Chris -

You must have known something! Sugar Labs is part of the fold. [1]

Thanks all for helping me along. Now the real fun starts :)

Tim
@timClicks

[1] http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/program/accepted_orgs/google/gsoc2010

On 13 March 2010 12:11, Chris Ball  wrote:

> Hi Tim,
>
>   > Sugar Labs application for Google Summer of Code 2010 has been
>   > accepted.
>
> Wow, that was quick.  Many congrats and thanks!
>
>   > I'm not sure exactly on the politics of the situation, but my
>   > personal feeling is that we should be quite encouraging of
>   > supporting OLPC projects.
>
> That sounds great; I'd be happy to chat more about this.
>
> - Chris.
> --
> Chris Ball   
> One Laptop Per Child
>
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Re: [IAEP] US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praises OLPC in South America

[Tim McNamara]

On 18 March 2010 08:45, Yama Ploskonka  wrote:

> Panama?  No mention of Haiti itself, alas.
>
>
Politicians are only as good as their advisers. This is a really positive
development, even if some facts are missed.

Tim
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[IAEP] Sugar Labs GSoC 2010 Flyer - please review

[Tim McNamara]

Hi all,

If you have 30 seconds free, please review
http://issuu.com/timclicks/docs/sugarlabs_gsoc_2010. I've gone for
simplicity over . My main consideration was tying together growth &
children's learning. I think you'll smile when you see the result.

If people are relatively happy with it, we can start forwarding it around.
I've used a web-based solution to avoid clogging up people's inboxes. If you
would like the PDF or raw SVG, do let me know.


Tim
@timClicks
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[IAEP] Sugar Labs GSoC 2010 Application In

[Tim McNamara]

Hi all,

Sugar Labs application for Google Summer of Code 2010 has been accepted.
Over the course of the weekend, I'll be sending out email flyers for you to
send to potential students. I'm not sure exactly on the politics of the
situation, but my personal feeling is that we should be quite encouraging of
supporting OLPC projects.

Two requests:

   1. Self-nominate yourself as a potential mentor. This involves a few
   hours a week & could reap huge benefits for the project.
   2. Please promote http://idea.sugarlabs.org/ . This means encouraging
   students to submit ideas & then visiting back a few times over the course of
   the next few weeks.

Please feel to contact me off the list at paperl...@timmcnamara.co.nz if you
have any questions.

Very best regards,


Tim McNamara
@timClicks
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Re: [IAEP] [Systems] wiki design

[Tim McNamara]

On 11 March 2010 16:58, Chris Leonard  wrote:

> On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 9:55 PM, Bernie Innocenti wrote:
>
>>
>> We have a lot of choice of different styles:
>>
>>  http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/
>>  http://people.sugarlabs.org/
>>  http://download.sugarlabs.org/
>>  http://bugs.sugarlabs.org/
>>  http://activities.sugarlabs.org/
>>  http://www.sugarlabs.org/
>>  http://git.sugarlabs.org/
>>  http://planet.sugarlabs.org/
>>  http://translate.sugarlabs.org/
>>  http://buildbot.sugarlabs.org/
>>  http://lists.sugarlabs.org/ (missing the linkbar)
>>  http://api.sugarlabs.org/ (missing the linkbar)
>>  (forgot anything?)
>>
>>
>
http://idea.sugarlabs.org is also active.

Tim.
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[IAEP] Have 2 minutes to help Sugar Labs?

[Tim McNamara]

Hi all,

If you have a minute or so to spare, please help by answering a question or
to this year's Sugar Labs' Google Summer of Code application:
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Summer_of_Code/2010/Organization_Application

Please forward on to interested parties.

Many thanks!

Tim.
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[IAEP] Copy writing assistance request

[Tim McNamara]

Hello everyone -

Sorry for cross posting. Tomeu & I thought this opportunity may be of
interest to individuals on this list. Looking forward to hearing from you.

-- Forwarded message --
From: Tim McNamara 
Date: 10 March 2010 10:07
Subject: Copy writing assistance request
To: Sugar Labs Marketing 


Hi all,

Is anyone willing and able to spend a while over the next 2-3 days on some
small projects?

   1. Help tidy up the of the Sugar Labs GSoC
section<http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Summer_of_Code> of
   the wiki?
   2. Help create copy for an A4 PDF to prospective students & mentors.
   Looking to generate a viral email campaign.

Thoughts & assistance always welcome,

Tim McNamara
@timClicks
Sugar Labs GSoc 2010 Coordinator
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Re: [IAEP] SoaS & rlt8102e problems

[Tim McNamara]

On 1 March 2010 13:00, Cherry Withers  wrote:

> Hi Tim,
>
> Thanks. But I can't do "yum" because it relies on a network connection
> which I don't have in the first place. At least
> that's how I thought it works.
>
>
Yes, that's correct. Your best bet is to find an ethernet cable & plug it
into the router. A slightly more tedious route is to download the specific
.rpm files, but I don't know where to look for those, unfortunately.
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Re: [IAEP] SoaS & rlt8102e problems

[Tim McNamara]

On 1 March 2010 12:11, Cherry Withers  wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I've been trying to run SoaS on both my Windows XP and Vista netbooks and
> ran into the problem of not being able get a wifi access. So I went through
> these exercise:
> 1) downloaded the linux driver support for the chipset
> 2) untar the file in my SoaS root directory
> 3) but on the step where I had to run "make".. no dice.
>
> I am a newbie Linux user. I'm using the blueberry version of SoaS. Is there
> supposed to be a developer version that I have to be using instead which has
> make and C compiler installed? Please advice thank you!  Please don't send
> me into the wiki labyrinth.
>
> Thanks,
> Cherry


Cherry,

I'm not a Fedora user, but this should lead you on the right way. Try going
into terminal then typing *yum groupinstall "Development Tools"*. The quotes
are important.

Once you've done that, try these commands. Omit square brackets.

cd /path/to/extracted/tar/file [go to right place]
./configure [tell compiler about your system]
make [generate instructions for compiler]
sudu su [change to root user]
make install [compile software]
exit [return to normal user]

-Tim.
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Re: [IAEP] [DESIGN] Fwd: SIGDOC'10 - Call For Papers

[Tim McNamara]

On 12 February 2010 23:25, Tomeu Vizoso  wrote:

> Would someone be interested to present something about Sugar here?
>
> Regards,
>
> Tomeu
>

Looking at some of the subject areas, the papers committee are likely to
look very favourably on a paper from Sugar Labs. Areas include: "Design of
communications: participatory, user-centered and organic design", "Cultural
and Social issues in Digital Age" , "Design of Communication for Learning".

Tim
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Re: [IAEP] planet

[Tim McNamara]

2010/1/28 Gerald Ardito 

> Tomeu,
>
> This seems like a really good resource, and one I did not know about
> before.
> As with any blog, it is only useful if updated regularly, so that would be
> my only reservation about promoting it.
>
> My two cents.
> Gerald
>
>
That's the advantage of a "planet" blog - it gets updated all the time!

Tim
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Re: [IAEP] Why #sugar should be logged - a plug for transparency and ease of use.

[Tim McNamara]

2010/1/13 Jeff Elkner j...@elkner.net

>  It would like to make most of these conversations available to the
> rest of the community, but I don't have the time to log and publish
> them myself.
>
> +1 for a log bot


> Is there a good reason why we don't auto log the channel?
>
> jeff elkner
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Re: [IAEP] [SoaS] Please help suggest illustrated eBooks for Sugar on a Stick v2 Blueberry launch

[Tim McNamara]

Max & Moritz is in the public domain. It would be a wonderful addition to
the collection, if possible. Does anyone know whether it is available?

2009/11/26 Sean DALY 

> Sugar on a Stick v2 Blueberry will be launched at the Netbook World
> Summit in Paris on December 8th and Walter will open the summit with
> the keynote presentation!
>
> Sebastian and other members of the SoaS team are working hard on
> finalizing the master this weekend.
>
> In this holiday season with $250 Kindles and $299 Nooks and $$$
> eBooks, we want to talk about Sugar's great eBook tools as well as
> open access eBooks - that eBooks shouldn't be only pricey DRM'd
> downloads for pricey gadgets.
>
> To do this, we want to "populate" Blueberry's Journal with a small
> number of eBooks. Small, so the Journal is not overstuffed; eBooks
> there will help new Sugar users to understand the Journal.
>
> We do feel though that it is important that of the handful of eBooks,
> not all should be in English. We won't have room for every language
> (that needs to wait for a later version of Sugar or SoaS which could
> have filter logic by language). But an eBook in half a dozen
> languages, with instructions for parents and teachers where to find
> others, will effectively demonstrate Sugar's potential as an eBook
> reader solution. Books written in the native language will be
> preferable to translations of books originally written in English -
> we'd like to show that Sugar content can be localized and not merely
> translated.
>
> Please suggest eBooks! ideally, an illustrated eBook in EPUB format
> (although we may be able to convert from other formats by hand since
> there will only be a few). Send links!
>
> If it's possible before Sunday, it would be fabulous if we could
> include an eBook created by children in the classroom! Even a
> collection of scans could be fairly easily "bound" into an eBook file.
>
> Thanks for your help!
>
> Sean
> Sugar Labs Marketing Coordinator
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Re: [IAEP] Fwd: [Tie2010] FW: Continuity of Learning - iTunes K12 content

[Tim McNamara]

2009/11/21 Caroline Meeks 

>
>  Is there a way for Sugar users to access these resources?
>
>
Highly unlikely, iTunes is a well manicured walled garden.




> -- Forwarded message --
> From: Irene Pak 
> Date: Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 9:07 AM
> Subject: [Tie2010] FW: Continuity of Learning
> To: TIE 2010 list 
>
>
>  FYI!
>
>
>
> Irene
>
>
>
> Irene Pak
>
> Program Coordinator
>
> Learning and Teaching  Program
>
> Technology, Innovation, and Education Program
>
> Harvard Graduate School of Education
>
> irene_...@gse.harvard.edu
>
> Ph: 617.495.3543 / Fax: 617.495.9268
>
> Longfellow 326
>
> www.gse.harvard.edu/lt
>
> www.gse.harvard.edu/tie
>
>
>
> *From:* pavi...@gmail.com [mailto:pavi...@gmail.com] *On Behalf Of *Paviter
> Singh
> *Sent:* Friday, November 20, 2009 8:55 AM
> *To:* Irene Pak
> *Subject:* Continuity of Learning
>
>
>
> Hi Irene,
>
> Could you send this to the technology people in TIE. They may be interested
> in this.
>
> Tonight, in cooperation with the US Dept of Education, Apple launched a new
> iTunes U site called Continuity of Learning.  This site links to
> educator-selcted content from across all public iTunes U sites.  These
> collections can be used by K12 students and teachers to help ensure
> continuity of learning in the case of a pandemic or natural disaster.  (It
> is also really great content for sunny, healthy days inside and outside the
> classroom.)
>
> You can visit this new iTunes U site here:
>
> http://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/col.gov
>
> Thanks!
>
> Pav
>
> Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise.
> Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is
> possible. (my philosophy, taken from a quote by Claude Bissell)
>
> ___
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> tie2...@list.gse.harvard.edu
> http://list.gse.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/tie2010
>
>
>
> --
> Caroline Meeks
> Solution Grove
> carol...@solutiongrove.com
>
> 617-500-3488 - Office
> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>
>
>
> --
> Caroline Meeks
> Solution Grove
> carol...@solutiongrove.com
>
> 617-500-3488 - Office
> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>
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Re: [IAEP] scratch gone missing

[Tim McNamara]

2009/11/19 Tomeu Vizoso 

>
> Btw, if anyone would like to work on improving the Scratch experience
> for Sugar users (including making its installation easier) I will be
> happy to provide pointers, help and contact the Scratch maintainers
> and other people who want to see this happen.
>
> I have heard that Scratch is quite used by Sugar users, and I'm
> surprised at the little work that has gone into making their
> experience better.
>
> Regards,
>
> Tomeu
>
> --
> «Sugar Labs is anyone who participates in improving and using Sugar.
> What Sugar Labs does is determined by the participants.» - David
> Farning
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Tomeu -

Would this mean diff/patching Squeak?
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Re: [IAEP] A Couple of Comments/Questions

[Tim McNamara]

2009/11/18 Bert Freudenberg 

> On 18.11.2009, at 07:38, Tim McNamara wrote:
> > I'm a FLOSS manuals contributor. If someone with the know-how adds it to
> the wiki, I'll port it to the FLOSS Manuals site :)
> >
> > @timClicks
>
> Can't do. FLOSS Manuals inexplicably uses GPL for everything, which is more
> restrictive than Creative Commons.
>
> - Bert -
>
>
Restrictive or more free, depending on one's perspective. Viral vs non-viral
licencing seems to be quite philosophical and usually quite destructively
debated.

I note the objection however. Therefore, if anyone is happy releasing their
content under the GPL, by all means email it to me. I'll submit it to FLOSS
manuals for worldwide publication.

@timClicks
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Re: [IAEP] A Couple of Comments/Questions

[Tim McNamara]

2009/11/18 Caryl Bigenho 

>  Hi All,
>
> Just reading through all your interesting posts from the past couple of
> days. I have a couple of ideas to share...
>
> Re:
> From Walter...
> "5. The Spanish-language version of Sdenka Z. Salas Pilco's guide to
> using Sugar in the classroom is available on the wiki (Please see
> [http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/File:La_Laptop_XO_en_el_Aula.pdf])
> ."
>
> This is a wonderful resource.   Is it available for localizing into other
> languages? Are there any special permissions we would need to get?
>
> From Sean...
> "At launch time we can have a wiki page explaining how to find and load an
> eBook."
>
> Could we also add it to the Help Activity included with Sugar and the
> online FLOSS Manual?
>
>
I'm a FLOSS manuals contributor. If someone with the know-how adds it to the
wiki, I'll port it to the FLOSS Manuals site :)

@timClicks
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[IAEP] Further sources of public domain books for children

[Tim McNamara]

Here is a quick list of epub libraries targeted at children / youth.

http://www.snee.com/epubkidsbooks/
http://www.feedbooks.com/type/Young%20Readers/books/top

@timClicks
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Re: [IAEP] SoaS meetings?

[Tim McNamara]

2009/10/19 Edward Cherlin 

> I would like to get together with others at some prearranged time to
> work on collaboration in SoaS. I have some ideas about lesson plans
> that need to be tried out, and I need to see whether it will be
> possible to arrange demos for others. If this interests you, we can
> get together on IRC or on the Chat within SoaS.
>
>
Because of timezone issues (I'm UTC+13), I'll almost certainly be unable to
attend. However, one of the schools I've visited is indeed looking for
guidance on how to introduce Sugar into the classroom. E.g., the dicussion
has moved from whether the product is capable or reliable, to "how to we
include this into a learning pathway for our kids" (11-12 year olds).

I've also scheduled a meeting with another small school of 5-9year olds. It
would be great to say there's an international push to guide Sugar into a
teaching environment.

My impression is that detailed lesson plans per se arn't required. What
seems to be required is slightly more structure than starting up and
being confronted with the home view. It's a little intimidating to adults,
because the favourites circle is completely new to them and nothing looks
like an obvious place to click first.

Edward, if this comes to anything - please share any findings :)

timClicks
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Re: [IAEP] sugar live cd for windows

[Tim McNamara]

2009/10/17 Kevin Cole 

> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 13:59, Manusheel Gupta  wrote:
> > Dear all,
> >
> > Wish to ask you for pointers to improve the performance of SocialCalc
> > activity while running it on Sugar Live CD for Windows. SocialCalc works
> > very well on the native installation of Sugar. Please suggest.
>
> Hi,
>
> I just wanted to clarify a possible source of confusion in your choice
> of wording.
>
> A "Live" CD doesn't run "on" anything, generally speaking.  It implies
> a CD which you boot the entire operating system from.  To the best of
> my knowledge there are no Live Windows Sugar CD's.
>

This perception that the SoaS or a LiveCD runs on or for Windows is not an
isolated case: https://answers.launchpad.net/soas/+question/85331


timClicks
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[IAEP] Talk at New Zealand PyCon : Support Appreciated

[Tim McNamara]

Hi all,
I've been asked by the organisers of the Kiwi PyCon
2009 to
give a 45m interactive presentation. There will be about 150 expert python
programmers & interested people there, including Weta
Digital(have you head of those movies, the
Lord of the Rings, King Kong & District
9?). At this stage, I'll probably have about 6 XOs there - but can take up
to a dozen. I would like your thoughts on what kind of messages, if any,
that you would be interested in sending through to the New Zealand python
community.

There are a number of academic (tertiary level) staff, but there wont be
much representation from the education sector.

Cheers,

timClicks
  http://timmcnamara.co.nz/
  http://twitter.com/timClicks
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Re: [IAEP] Paint and Transparent Backgrounds

[Tim McNamara]

2009/10/5 Caroline Meeks 

> Could we set Paint to have a transparent background on images as a default
> rather then white? That would make it easier to layer different drawings and
> have them interact. Is that difficult programatically?  Can people think of
> places where having a transparent background will be a problem?


What format does Tux Paint save in? If it can save in PNG, then setting the
alpha layer to #00 (or is it #ff - must check!) should be fairly
straight forward. If we wanted this functionality by default, it may need
cooperation from the upstream developers.
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