On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 15:25, Eduardo H. Silva<hoboprim...@gmail.com> wrote: > My humble opinions on what Sugar could learn from this report are bellow.
I agree, that's quite good feedback, could someone check we have tickets for all these issues? Thanks, Tomeu > 2009/7/15 Greg Smith <gregsmit...@gmail.com>: >> Hi All, >> >> Here are my notes from today's class. Anurag will send out notes on >> what we did in class so I will focus on UI and usability comments. I >> also recorded the post class warm/cold comments. >> >> Sorry I didn't get a chance to get on IRC after the class as planned. >> We got "local" collaboration working well so we will go with that and >> stop debugging Jabber issues for now. >> >> About 10 x 3rd graders were in the class today. This was their second >> time with Sugar. Caroline led the class as Walter is travelling and >> several kids asked "where is the other guy?". >> >> The main activity was to get pictures of states of wikipedia, then put >> those in Memorize and create games (e.g. picture of Texas, word >> "Texas" makes a match) and share the memorize so two kids can play >> together. >> >> Warm/cold post class comments: >> Anurag >> Warm: >> Collaboration worked well. Kids were able to join each others games >> and reload games as needed. They could change partners easily too. The >> importing map from Wikipedia worked well. They quickly understood how >> to switch from browse to memorize and how to save and access things >> from the journal. They retained a lot fo what they learned before. >> >> Cold: >> 3 person collaboration didn't always work. >> >> Caroline >> Warm: >> Collaboration added to the kids engagement. They learned a lot about >> state names and the drilling aspects seemed to help them remember. >> There were multiple steps but they seemed to handle it well. It would >> have been harder with fewer adults to help each kid but every kid got >> it. Went great overall. >> >> Cold: >> 3 or person collaboration worked sometimes but not always. May have >> been a work flow thing (e.g. if two already playing third has to wait >> until end of game to join). The loading and customization of USB >> sticks was labor intensive. >> >> Greg >> Warm: >> Fun time and impressive production by the kids in terms of creating games. >> >> Cold: >> Some tasks were hard and kids needed help (see below). >> >> Jennifer >> Warm: >> kids were enthusiastic. They learned how to spell state names. Kids >> helped each other out. >> >> Cold: >> Sometimes when switching partners, some kids were left out. >> >> Usability comments from me. >> >> Educational Context >> The kids really wanted to know what to do next. If they didn't know >> where to click to download an image they would just sit and wait or >> get distracted or ask a teacher or me. With several kids asking you >> something at the same time and poking you for your attention, its a >> little overwhelming: what do I do now?, how do you spell Louisiana?, >> how do I go back to memorize?, etc. >> >> I asked the teacher how he handles that and he said he spends extra >> time preparing them. Gives exact steps, goes over them several times, >> and ask the kids to repeat back what they will do. He can handle a few >> kids asking follow up questions but if more than 2 - 3 need help then >> it probably wasn't explained well enough in advance. >> >> That was not what I expected. My inclination is to say" go ahead and >> do whatever you want. You can do this, but anything you create will be >> original and interesting. Of course, to a kid, do what every you want >> turns in to run around in the sun and tickle my class mates. >> >> If you constrain it to: in the class using the computer, they want to >> know what to do next. They want to do the right thing, finish the >> assignment and accomplish their task. So structure and direction is >> important. Probably obvious to any teacher but kind of a surprise to >> me. >> >> Steps to accomplish the assigned task. >> We setup the collaboration and had connected computers in pairs with >> Memorize open when we started. >> >> Their task with steps as we intended was as follows: >> - Open browse >> - Go to WIkipedia.org >> - Type in a state name in the search field >> - Right click on the picture of the state and choose download >> - Click "continue" count down timer ot just wait for download to complete. >> - Click OK or Show in Journal >> - Open frame >> - Choose Memorize >> - Choose create tab as needed >> - Choose eye icon to upload state image >> - Find and select state image on journal >> - Type state name in matching tile >> - Click Add pair >> - Repeat as needed >> >> - Save Game >> - Click Play tab >> - Open game >> >> Play with friend or variant of choose SHare with my Neighborhood and >> have friend find you. >> >> Everybody got it eventually but most needed help somewhere. Examples >> of things they needed help with, from kids I worked with: >> - Couldn't remember how to start "world" AKA browse. >> - Needed help spelling Wikipedia. >> - Couldn't find search field on wikipedia because frame was covering half of >> it >> - Needed help spelling state names >> - Didn't remember Right click on image to download in browse. > > This is one place where palettes aren't opened by hovering. The > thinking that eben told me, was that in websites with many images, > lots of palettes appearing would get in the way. I think it should be > tested on first hand to see if indeed it would make browsing be a > nuisance. > >> - Clicked on drop down instead of icon (e.g. clicking stop they put >> the cursor over the stop sign then saw the drop down text saying >> "Stop" then clicked on that and nothing happens. They should click >> directly on the stop sign itself. > Stop is probably the first toolbar button a user/kid uses, so I think > it is normal that they don't yet know how it works. > >> - Couldn't remember how to get back to Memorize (aka task switch using >> the frame). >> - Didn't know how to find a game they could join (aka go to network >> neighborhood). >> - Found a person's icon in network neighborhood and clicked on it >> instead of the Memorize icon just below the name. >> - Didn't wait for popup/hover text when moving cursor around network >> neighborhood so couldn't find anyone. > The hovering of palettes was delayed a bit in comparison with the > initial versions of sugar. Could this be fine-tuned to be faster? > >> - Wanted to load their own game and share that instead of playing the >> other kids game. >> - Weren't sure which item in journal was the state image they just >> downloaded. >> - Loaded a picture in Memorize by accident and couldn't figure out how >> to get rid of it >> >> Just observations. Any one of these issues would bring the kid to a >> complete halt. If they didn't know what to do next they would just >> look at the screen or ask for help. >> >> After going through the whole thing a few times they became more >> independent.Perhaps these are just things they acquire over time, we >> will see next class. >> >> One thing was clear, they are still acquiring the concept of tasks, >> applications, activities, and files. Before that, it's just ordered >> steps to get to a final goal. e.g. looking at the wikipedia page for >> Louisiana is just seeing stuff on the screen. Its not clear that you >> are in the browse application that the picture is a file and browse is >> a tool to find and download that picture so you can use it later in >> Memorize. That innocence is almost gone already. Very soon they will >> develop a mental model which is some transformation of how programmers >> think a computer/OS is supposed to work. >> >> FYI I came across one alternative interface recently. See the end of >> the first paragraph in this post (the rest is irrelevant): >> http://blog.vlingo.com/2009/05/why-freemium.html >> >> The idea is that you say: "send an e-mail to Joe saying, 'Hi Joe, meet >> me for lunch at noon'". Instead of saying, open the e-mail >> application, put j...@joe.com in the To field, put meet me for lunch at >> noon in the Body, send the e-mail, close the e-mail application. >> >> I wonder if that is better or just an unnecessary obfuscation. >> >> Thanks, >> >> Greg S >> _______________________________________________ >> Sugar-devel mailing list >> Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org >> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel >> > _______________________________________________ > Sugar-devel mailing list > Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel > _______________________________________________ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
