Maybe "Getting Started" might be a better name? Just to complicate things, Nubae and I were discussing collaboration on IRC. It is another theme people may be interested in searching. Activities that a whole class can share, e.g., Browse, and activities that are designed as "duets".
-walter On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 9:10 AM, Sean DALY<sdaly...@gmail.com> wrote: > Bert - many thanks, I understand much better now. > > We're expecting a traffic peaks at the end of the month with our media > push, that's why this work on clarity/simplicity is important. > > I'm afraid "Fructose" as a left-hand category on ASLO is obscure, it > really should be "base" or "core" or "base install", this last I like > best because it's very clear. Note: a search for "Fructose" in ASLO > returns no results! > > I actually don't think it's that hard to set a list; it's really just > a Get Started list which covers online/offline, younger/older > Learners, and super-helpful to have even if off-ring (Terminal...). > > I agree some deployments will want to zap some Activities, but as long > as it's clear that there's no technical barrier to doing so we're > fine. > > The list of 13 Fructose Activities at > http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/fructose/ > does not match the list of 11 Fructose Activities on ASLO > (http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/browse/type:1/cat:112?sort=name). > I imagine Image is off the bus (replaced by Image Viewer), but is the > omission of Write intentional? I couldn't find it on ASLO at all :-( > > (N.B. Write is always the first Activity I choose to demonstrate > classroom collaboration; people understand collaboration instantly > when each of two machines can edit the same document live. My kids' > nanny who is in her early 60s and does not use computers understood > right away the usefulness of XOs in a classroom when she saw that, she > got all excited and started asking me questions!) > > So I think the ASLO Fructose list, plus Write, can certainly be > qualified as 12 "base install" Activities: > > Browse > Calculate > Chat > Etoys > ImageViewer > Jukebox > Log > Pippy > Read > Terminal > TurtleArt > Write > > However I think it would be judicious to add Help to this list. Help > is very reassuring during discovery of the totally unfamiliar > interface. I'm aware there are issues right now building a new Help > from the FLOSS Manuals source, but I believe Help aids teachers and > parents significantly with the Sugar GUI learning curve. > > Are there any other candidates today for the Fructose list we should > consider? Not to open a can of worms - adjusting the pantheon is much > less urgent than the discoverability/usability issues - but a review > before each SoaS version seems judicious to me, especially since a > choice needs to be made about which Activities are in the ring and > which are off. I would suggest: > > Clock > Help > Maze > Memorize > Moon > Read ETexts > Speak > Tux Paint > > I hesitated over: > * Record which kids adore, but which I understand is iffy due to wide > hardware variations, also teachers don't seem to like it much :-) > * the TamTams which would make the list longish... (though my > four-year-old figured out TamTam Mini in ten seconds the other day and > loved every second with it) > * GCompris Chess, since no 2-player yet. > > > Our introduction to Sugar has a page with an attractive smorgasbord of > Activities > (http://www.sugarlabs.org/index.php?template=page&page=about_activities), > and a link to ASLO. We listed the Activities in teacher/parent > interest order: reassuring basics, net stuff, > games/language/multimedia, the TamTams, tech/system utilities. Image > Viewer and Jukebox are missing from this page, I propose to add them > and two others to the matrix so the complete Fructose set (minus > Image) is present. The Journal starts the list due to its special > status, but it really should be broken out as a "special" Activity > that is always there, saves everything automatically, allows resuming > of work, etc. ASLO should have a brief mention of the Journal in the > orientation intro I want to edit; telling inexperienced Sugar > admins/teachers/parents/Learners that it is always in Sugar and can't > be installed or uninstalled. This "super-Activity" distinction is > important because the Journal icon occupies the same spot under the > central XO avatar as the current Activity. Note that each icon links > to the OLPC page (the intro site was published on a tight deadline > just before the March 16th press release :-), I think we can update it > to link to the ASLO pages now. > > Note: we have been doing some "star marketing" of Activities in our > PR: Write, InfoSlicer, Mindmap, Portfolio. We chose these to appeal to > teachers; they are differentiators. Some press articles have mentioned > the star Activities, recognizing that they are interesting and unique > to Sugar. Library for example is an Activity I'm not quite sure does > what, but its name and logo will be irresistible to parents and > teachers. > > OLPC has their list (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activities/All) and we > need to get that page to link to ASLO, the information there is uneven > (contains some stillborn/abandonware). Perhaps the easiest fix would > be to link from each Activity position on that page to that Activity's > ASLO page; people searching the Activity population would quickly > understand the different/parallel nature of the OLPC page and ASLO. As > far as I know, there aren't any issues with the very latest versions > running on XO-1s, would I be correct in assuming this? Or does OLPC > prefer to identify "known good" version, the ones updated through the > XO Control Panel? > > Google search ranks highly this 6-month-old page: > http://www.spitting-image.com/OLPC/ , an indicator of the need for > ASLO's rating system. > > By "Activity Pack" I mean a set of Activities. > * Activity Set: clear and concise, but dullish. > * Activity Pack: implies a "box" containing a bunch of chosen > Activities; my favorite, because it sounds like you're getting > something. > * Activity Group: will be confused with Learners. > * Activity Bundle: bundle clearly means something already, so that's > out. I'm afraid I don't know what a "content bundle" is. > * Activity Hive: fits with honey metaphor, but obscure. > > Activity packs can have a very useful role in promoting Sugar, e.g. > "our updated Multimedia Pack is perfect for budding musicians and > artists" or "our Games Pack has been specially selected for 2 or more > player learning fun". As our Activity offer becomes richer, we > encourage potential installers to jump through the hoops of > downloading an ISO, installing VirtualBox or loading a USB stick, > learning the new interface, etc. > > Echoing James' mail which started the thread, I agree Featured > Activities will ideally be: > > * non- base install > * interesting > * different each month, encouraging return traffic > > In short, the place to go for "extras" beyond what you start out with. > > The "base install" grouping will be very useful to replace an > accidentally deleted Activity or offer further information about an > Activity with a learning curve (link to author's page etc). > > A parent or teacher who successfully installs Sugar and then > successfully upgrades and adds to its Activities will fully understand > the key advantages of the platform's openness and extensibility. > > Does this seem like a good path? > > thanks > > Sean > > > > On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 12:03 PM, Bert Freudenberg<b...@freudenbergs.de> > wrote: >> >> On 11.06.2009, at 09:51, Sean DALY wrote: >> >>> ultimately, the question is: are there (or not) Activities common to >>> every, or nearly every instance of Sugar? >>> >>> Browse >>> Read >>> Write >>> etc. >> >> >> At least the Fructose activities should always be there: >> >> http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/fructose/ >> >> - Bert - >> >> _______________________________________________ >> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) >> i...@lists.sugarlabs.org >> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep >> > _______________________________________________ > Marketing mailing list > market...@lists.sugarlabs.org > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing > -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org _______________________________________________ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel