2017-04-09 19:03 GMT-05:00 Walter Bender <walter.ben...@gmail.com>: > > > On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 7:56 PM, Dave Crossland <d...@lab6.com> wrote: > >> Hi >> >> Thanks Walter. I'd like to better understand some additional context >> before diving in :) >> >> Does this mean Sameer you have stopped the project planning process you >> started, and we should not expect you to restart it again? >> > > At the most recent SLOB meeting Samson brought up the fact that we were > still waiting and so I volunteered to write something up to get the > conversation going again. >
Thanks for doing this Walter, After a quick read, I have to confess I feel sad and excluded because none of the projects I have worked on [1] is mentioned on your view of Sugar's history. Regards and blessings, Laura V [1] http://pe.sugarlabs.org/ir/Proyectos > > >> >> Walter, are these the goals for this year, or are they your proposal for >> the goals for this year? >> > > Not sure I understand what you are asking. I wrote up a draft of goals but > they are not "the goals" until we agree to them. > > regards. > > -walter > >> >> >> >> On Apr 9, 2017 3:31 PM, "Walter Bender" <walter.ben...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> As per the discussion in the last Suagr Labs Oversight Board Meeting, I >>> had agreed to write a draft statement of goals for 2017. The document below >>> includes feedback from Samson G. I hope this document can serve to >>> revitalize our discussion from 2016 that never reached resolution. >>> >>> Sugar Labs Plans, Goals, Aspirations >>> >>> What is Sugar Labs? >>> >>> Sugar Labs creates, distributes, and maintains learning software for >>> children. Our approach to learning is grounded in Constructionism, a >>> pedagogy developed by Seymour Papert and his colleagues in the 1960s and >>> 70s at MIT. Papert pioneered the use of the computer by children to help >>> engage them in the “construction of knowledge.” His long-time colleague >>> Cynthia Solomon expanded up his ideas by introducing the concept of >>> engaging children in debugging as a pathway into problem-solving. Their >>> 1971 paper, “Twenty things to do with a computer”, is arguably the genesis >>> of contemporary movements such as the Maker Movement and Hour of Code. >>> >>> At the core of Constructionism is “learning through doing.” If you want >>> more learning, you want more doing. At Sugar Labs we provide tools to >>> promote doing. (We focus almost exclusively on tools, not instructional >>> materials.) However, we go beyond “doing” by incorporating critical dialog >>> and reflection into the Sugar learning environment, through mechanisms for >>> collaboration, journaling, and portfolio. >>> >>> Sugar Labs is a spinoff of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project and >>> consequently it has inherited many of its goals from that project. The goal >>> of OLPC is to bring the ideas of Constructionism to scale in order to reach >>> more children. A particular focus is on children in the developing world. >>> In order to meet that goal, Sugar, which was originally developed for OLPC, >>> was by necessity a small-footprint solution that required few resources in >>> terms of CPU, memory, storage, or network connectivity. The major change on >>> focus from the OLPC project is that Sugar Labs strives to make the Sugar >>> desktop available to multiple platforms, not just the OLPC XO hardware. >>> >>> Who develops Sugar? >>> >>> Sugar Labs is a 100% volunteer effort (although we do occasionally raise >>> money for paid student internships). Sugar development and maintenance is >>> incumbent upon volunteers and hence we strive to provide as much control as >>> possible to our community members, including our end-users. (In fact, one >>> of our assertions is that by enabling our users to participate in the >>> development of the tools that they use will lead to deeper engagement in >>> their own learning.) Towards these ends, we chose the GPL as our primary >>> license. It has been said of the GPL that it “restricts my right [as a >>> developer] to restrict yours [as a user and potential developer]”, which >>> seems ideal for a project that wants to engage a broad and diverse set of >>> learners. But at Sugar Labs we go beyond the usual goals of FOSS: a license >>> to make changes to the code is not enough to ensure that users make >>> changes. We also strive to provide the means to make changes. Our success >>> in this goal is best reflected in the number of patches we receive from our >>> community. (We achieve this goal through providing access to source code >>> and development tools within Sugar itself. We also actively participate in >>> workshops and internship programs such as Google Summer of Code, >>> Outreaching, and Google Code-In.) >>> >>> Who uses Sugar? >>> >>> Ultimately, our goal is to reach learners (and educators) with powerful >>> tools and engage them in Constructionist learning. Currently we reach them >>> in many ways: the majority of our users get the Sugar desktop preinstalled >>> on OLPC XO hardware. We have a more modest set of users who get Sugar >>> packaged in Fedora, Trisquel, Debian, Ubuntu, or other GNU/Linux platforms. >>> Some users get Sugar on Live Media (i.e., Sugar on a Stick). Recently >>> Sugarizer, a repackaging of some of the core Sugar ideas for the browser, >>> has been finding its way to some users. There are also a number of Sugar >>> activities that are popular outside of the context Sugar itself, for >>> example, Turtle Blocks, which has wide-spread use in India. Harder to >>> measure is the extent to which Sugar has influenced other providers of >>> “educational” software. If the Sugar pedagogy is incorporated by others, >>> that advances our goal. >>> >>> Who supports Sugar? >>> >>> When we first created Sugar Labs, we envisioned “Local Labs”—hence the >>> name “Sugar Labs”, plural—that would provide local support in terms of >>> local-language support, training, curriculum development, and >>> customizations. This model has not ever gained the scale and depth >>> envisioned (we can debate the reasons why), although there are still some >>> active local communities (e.g., Educa Paraguay) that continue to work >>> closely with the broader community. There are also individual volunteers, >>> such as Tony Anderson and T.K. Kang, who help support individual schools in >>> Rwanda, Malaysia, et al. An open question is how do we support our users >>> over the long term? >>> >>> What is next for Sugar? >>> >>> We face several challenges at Sugar Labs. With the ebb of OLPC, we have >>> a contracting user base and the number of professional developers >>> associated with the project is greatly diminished. How can we expand our >>> user base? How can we attract more experienced developers? Why would they >>> want to work on Sugar as opposed to some other project? The meta issue is >>> how do we keep Sugar relevant in a world of Apps and small, hand-held >>> devices? Can we meet the expectations of learners living in a world of >>> fast-paced, colorful interfaces? How do we ensure that it is fulfilling its >>> potential as a learning environment and that our users, potential users, >>> and imitators are learning about and learning from Sugar. Some of this is a >>> matter of marketing; some of this is a matter of staying focused on our >>> core pedagogy; some of this a matter of finding strategic partners with >>> whom we can work. >>> >>> We have several near-term opportunities that we should leverage: >>> * Raspian: The Raspberry PI 3.0 is more than adequate to run Sugar—the >>> experience rivals or exceeds that of the OLPC XO 4.0 hardware. While RPi is >>> not the only platform we should be targeting, it does has broad penetration >>> into the Maker community, which shares a synergy with our emphasis on >>> “doing”. It is low-hanging fruit. With a little polish we could have an >>> image available for download from the RPi website. >>> * Trisquel: We have the potential for better leveraging the Free >>> Software Foundation as a vehicle for promoting Sugar. Their distro of >>> choice is Trisquel and the maintainer does a great job of keep the Sugar >>> packages up to date. >>> * Sugarizer: The advantage of Sugarizer is that it has the potential of >>> reaching orders of magnitude more users since it is web-based and runs in >>> Android and iOS. There is some work to be done to make the experience >>> palatable on small screens and the current development environment is—at >>> least my opinion—not scalable or maintainable. The former is a formidable >>> problem. The latter quite easy to address. >>> * Stand-alone projects such as Music Blocks have merit as long as they >>> maintain both a degree of connection with Sugar and promote the values of >>> the community. It is not certain that these projects will lead users >>> towards Sugar, but they do promote FOSS and Constructionist principles. And >>> they have attracted new developers to the Sugar community. >>> * School-server: The combination of the School Server and Sugar desktop >>> is a technical solution to problems facing small and remote communities. We >>> should continue to support and promote this combination. >>> >>> Specific actions: After last year’s Libre Planet conference, several >>> community members discussed a marketing strategy for Sugar. We thought that >>> if we could reach influencers, we might be able to greatly amplify our >>> efforts. There are several prominent bloggers and pundits in the education >>> arena who are widely read and who might be receptive to what we are doing. >>> One significant challenge is that GNU/Linux remains on the far periphery of >>> the Ed Tech world. Although the “love affair” with all things Apple seems >>> to be over, the new elephant in the room—Chromebooks and Google Docs—is >>> equally difficult to co-exist with. Personally, I see the most potential >>> synergy with the Maker movement, which is building up momentum in >>> extra-curricular programs, where FOSS and GNU-Linux are welcome (hence my >>> earlier focus on RPi). (There are even some schools that are building their >>> entire curriculum around PBL.) We can and should develop and run some >>> workshops that can introduce Sugar within the context of the Maker >>> movement. (Toward that end, I have been working with some teachers on how >>> to leverage, for example, Turtle Blocks for 3D printing.) It is very much a >>> tool-oriented community with little overall discussion of architectural >>> frameworks, so we have some work to do. But there is lots of low-hanging >>> fruit there. >>> >>> regards. >>> >>> -walter >>> >>> -- >>> Walter Bender >>> Sugar Labs >>> http://www.sugarlabs.org >>> <http://www.sugarlabs.org> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) >>> i...@lists.sugarlabs.org >>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep >>> >> > > > -- > Walter Bender > Sugar Labs > http://www.sugarlabs.org > <http://www.sugarlabs.org> > > _______________________________________________ > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) > i...@lists.sugarlabs.org > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep > -- Laura V. * I&D SomosAZUCAR.Org* “No paradox, no progress.” ~ Niels Bohr Happy Learning!
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