On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 6:55 AM, Bill Kerr<[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 10:10 AM, Caroline Meeks > <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Hi Bill, >> >> I'm excited that you are doing pilot. How old are the kids? From the >> blog posts it looks like you have some XOs, are you using SoaS on other >> computers too? > > thanks for the mail, Caroline > one xo > standard usage is SoaS, for this course > year 10 approx 15yo
This is the part that excites me the most. 15yos are generally mischievous to break anything:) Combine that with a mentor like Bill Kerr.... I think we need to prepare for a pretty good flow of high quality feedback. david > course outline involves critical evaluation and building some useful > software > details: http://xo-whs2009.blogspot.com/2009/07/course-outline.html > >> >> We don't have a system for feedback yet so until people complain about the >> volume lets talk here on the list. >> >> I think feedback falls into 4 categories. >> >> Sugar bugs >> Sugar on a Stick specific bugs and barriers to deployment >> Activity specific feedback and bugs >> Curriculum, pedagogy, lesson plans >> >> What seems to work best is to post about problems in general then after >> discussion post a bug in Trac. Sometimes I find that I just don't understand >> something or can't find the right button and its not actually a bug. > > >> >> I have decided that I really want more SoaS pilots so I'm going to focus >> for a few weeks on problems that are barriers to teachers using SoaS this >> fall (#2 above). I would like your input on this. My current working >> document is: http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick/TODO > > Just read that, it's a good start, covers a lot of ground > A few issues (dumb questions, saves time if I put them up here) > 1) once I have created a stick can I upgrade just one program, such as the > version of Physics which saves (if so how?), or do I have to wait until that > version is officially released and then reformat all the sticks - I suppose > both are time consuming since I have about 20 sticks to do - but the latter > involves waiting for the official release > 2) > http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick/Strawberry#Windows_Users > For Window User point 5 > > "Set the Persistent Storage slider to the maximum so you can save your Sugar > work onto the USB device; > (You may allocate as much storage as there is capacity on your device. You > may allocate less than the maximum, if you want to use some of the device > storage when not booting Sugar.)" > > I ended up setting the Persistent Storage to maximum. Now I'm wondering that > if I had allocated less than the maximum then could a student copy a file > from the journal onto the SoaS (rather than their own USB) and it would save > in some of that non allocated storage. This is an issue because not all > students bring their own USBs to class. Sometimes there is a need to swap in > and out of the Sugar environment back to the Windows environment (found in > most schools) so ability to easily save on a USB is an issue. Actually, this > ended up being the first major thing I taught my students to do. > 3) the information about failed sticks not rebooting is valuable - some > sticks have failed for me but I haven't worked out any real pattern yet, > quite complex to keep track when teaching a class, just tell the kids to try > a different stick and / or different computer - but the sticks are numbered > and now each student uses the same one each lesson so patterns will become > clearer soon > 4) some of my sticks (about half) are card readers 2GB cards, they work fine > 5) the brand of stick of stick makes a difference, LASERS are very slow (and > cheapest), KINGSTON seem good > 6) collaboration did not work out of the box - is it meant to? - I have a > jabber server from last year which I have yet to setup but will do so soon > 7) Had to type about:config into Browse and muck around with proxy settings > to get internet access - I had never done this before and needed assistance > http://xo-whs2009.blogspot.com/2009/07/connecting-to-internet-through-soas.html > 8) I noticed when I loaded Pippy on my dell mini inspiron that the run > button in the middle of the screen was not visible - ie. does not work with > all screen configurations (it looked ok on school machines though) > >> >> Greg Smith is gravitating towards documenting the lesson plans etc and >> creating, organizing and prioritizing tickets that will help in actual usage >> based on field experience (#3 above). So coordinate with him on getting your >> lesson plans on the wiki and your bugs filed, categorized etc. > > I'm not really developing lesson plans for the xo target age group (6-12 yo) > at the moment, see course outline link above > Nevertheless, some general curriculum development principles might transfer, > eg. find tasks that reward initiative, independent exploration > >> >> As you've already seen physics has an active following! I think your kids >> are older then the ones we are working with (7-9) but we will be working >> with slightly older kids (8-11) and science in the fall so I'll be >> interested in how we can fit it in with their curriculum. > > Tony Forster suggested physics modification and that would be a suitable > goal for my age group > http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Modifying_Activities#Modifying_Physics > > hope that some of this is useful > cheers > - Bill >> >> >> Thanks, >> Caroline >> >> -- >> 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 > _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) [email protected] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
