These are precisely the types of discussions that will be extremely beneficial to Sugar Labs and the Sugar project over the next several months to a year.
The questions are about: What do we _need_ to make our deployment work? How do we prioritize those _needs_? How do we work with the larger Sugar community to meet those _needs_? david On Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 8:55 AM, Walter Bender<[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 8:54 AM, Caroline Meeks<[email protected]> > wrote: >> I'd like to build on this from the 100 ft level and Sugar on a Stick. >> >> I've been with kids this summer and when Sugar is working on the computer in >> front of them the experience is great. Lots of learning, great engagement, >> kids are willing to take on challenges. >> >> This fall I'd like to see lots of other people working with Sugar and small >> groups of students. >> >> Based on my experiences this summer there are some technical/logistical >> barriers I'd like to break down before I recruit teachers/parents/day care >> workers to try Sugar on a Stick in group settings. >> >> Here are what I think the barriers are: >> >> Very hard to customize your spin and then copy it for a hundred kids. > > Can you break this down further? Are you suggesting it is hard to > create a customized key? to replicate the key for 100s of children? or > there is a need to customize keys per child? (a wholly new requirement > AFAIK for which it would be useful to here a use case). > >> Sticks are dieing a lot! Like 1 or 2 every class. > > It would be helpful to see real data here. I certainly haven't seen > these sorts of failure rates. > >> Backup and recovery >> What is a reasonable expectation for the role of the XS in Sugar on a Stick >> deployments in the next 6 months? > > If possible, we need a simple backup strategy independent of XS since > the population of XSs will lag behind... > >> Collaboration is unreliable and thus frustrating. Its working fairly well >> in the wired network at the GPA lab, but no other use case seems to work >> reliably. > > In fact, once we had properly configured the customization process not > to mangle the public keys, collaboration at GPA seems to be quite > reliable and not at all frustrating. There are some issues with > workflow around sharing that is part of a separate discussion thread. > > Regarding wireless collaboration, we do need to better diagnose the > various failure modes we have been seeing. But this has not been part > of the SoaS pilot experience at GPA or LGF. > >> Using a CD helper take a lot of prep time before and after class. A floppy >> helper would reduce it. A VM solution might also reduce it. > > Some of this can be handled with better workflow. The CD can be > rejected once the USB is booted, so it doesn't have to include a > power-on / reject / power off cycle at the end of the class. > >> I'll try to expand on these in the next week and come up with a plan of >> action for each. >> >> What are the other critical things we need to do in the next month or two >> that will allow teachers/parents/daycare workers to try Sugar on a Sick? >> >> >> On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 6:17 PM, David Farning <[email protected]> >> wrote: >>> >>> Over the last couple of weeks we have been talking about how to grow Sugar >>> Labs. >>> >>> Without looking at specific solutions, I would like to think about >>> framing Sugar Labs growth in three directions: >>> 1. Improve and stabilize the learning platform. >>> 2. Grow towards the student. >>> 3. Increase reach and impact. >>> >>> Growing in these directions will help Sugar Labs accomplish its >>> mission. But, hand in hand with growth we must think about how our >>> structure as a community based projects affects that growth. >>> >>> The two most important factors driving growth in a community project are: >>> 1. A _product_ that is valuable enough for others to test, use, and >>> improve. >>> 2. A _project_ that encourages users to test, use, improve, and >>> participate in the project by sharing their improvements with the >>> project. >>> >>> 'Users' is a wide term. In the case of Sugar Labs, it can range from >>> individuals, to companies, to national governments. Anyone who takes >>> a Sugar deliverable and builds on it to help someone learn is a user. >>> >>> To take a step back, we can think of adding value to Sugar Labs. But, >>> what is value? There are many definitions of value in a project such >>> as Sugar Labs: >>> Quality of code. >>> Number of users. >>> Number of headlines. >>> Compliance to specific teaching pedagogies. >>> .... >>> >>> The notion of value that I tend to looks at, from a 50,000 feet, is >>> 'How does Sugar Labs create a large pool of users -- who benefit >>> enough from using Sugar -- that they, and others, are willing to >>> invest in improving Sugar'? >>> >>> As a rough model we can think of value as Educational Excellence(X), >>> Technical Excellence(Y) and Reach and Impact(Z). >>> >>> Growth towards educational excellence represents extending the core >>> product towards the learner. Possible steps include: >>> >>> Stable learning platform. >>> Easy distribution mechanism -- the shift from ./configure; make; make >>> to [rpm|apt-get] install .... was huge. >>> Easy deployment process. >>> Creation of base learning activities/content. >>> Creation of specific learning curriculum to meet specific teaching needs. >>> >>> Going down this list, the groups involved involved tend to shift from >>> developers to practicing educators. We need to think of growing to >>> include educators rather than crowding out developers. As we move >>> towards the right along the x-asis, each prior stage grows and >>> improves along the y-axis >>> >>> In the larger context of adding value to the project, we can >>> think of project visibility and desirability along the z-axis . As >>> the product grows towards the user and the quality of the product >>> increases, the >>> marketing team is able to increase the visibility and desirability >>> (z-axis) of the product and project to more and more people. >>> >>> Another way to look at this, is to examine how a tree grows:) >>> >>> Tree growth is most easily measured in how much taller or wider the >>> tree become as a result of linear grow of the trunk or branches. In >>> addition to growing in length, new branches grow off of the trunk or >>> existing branches. As the length and number of the branches increase, >>> the trunk and branches increase in width to provide both physical >>> support and enough pores to transport water from the root to the >>> leaves and transport energy from the leave to the roots. >>> >>> In this analogy, the length of the branches can represent market >>> penetration. Sugar must become useful enough to penetrate deeply into >>> the learning occurring at individual schools. As Sugar penetrates in >>> to individual schools, those efforts can be "branched" to migrate >>> sugar into additional schools. >>> >>> Finally, the education, deployment, development, and support teams >>> must grow proportionally to support the deployments while pulling the >>> ideas and >>> improvements from the schools back up stream. >>> >>> david >>> -- >>> David Farning >>> Sugar Labs >>> www.sugarlabs.org >>> _______________________________________________ >>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) >>> [email protected] >>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep >> >> >> >> -- >> Caroline Meeks >> Solution Grove >> [email protected] >> >> 617-500-3488 - Office >> 505-213-3268 - Fax >> >> _______________________________________________ >> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) >> [email protected] >> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep >> > > -walter > -- > Walter Bender > Sugar Labs > http://www.sugarlabs.org > _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) [email protected] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
