On Sun, Jun 10, 2012 at 9:57 PM, Caryl Bigenho <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Walter, > > Sounds like a great trip and a very complete workshop. I have a few > questions... > > 1) Were the teachers to go back and train other teachers at their schools? > (the Triple T format... Teachers Training Teachers)
Yes. > > 2) Were the teachers' expenses covered? I don't know. > > 3) Did the teachers receive a stipend? Certificate? I don't know re stipend, but they did get a certificate. -walter > Caryl > > >> Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2012 19:23:19 -0400 >> From: [email protected] >> To: [email protected] >> CC: [email protected]; [email protected] >> Subject: [IAEP] Sugar Digest 2012-06-10 > >> >> == Sugar Digest == >> >> 1. The typical trip from Lima to Chachapoyas [1], Amazonas involves >> flying and bus travel. A common way point is the city of Chiclayo, on >> Peru's north coast. We (myself, Melissa Henriquez (OLPC), Reuben Caron >> (OLPC), Raul Hugo (Escuelab), and Alexander Moñuz (Escuelab)) had a >> several hours before our bus, so we took a walk through a sea of taxi >> cabs and a cacophony of car horns. It reminded me of Lima from five or >> six years ago: too many cars and drivers not yet acclimated to the >> culture of driving. Lima, in contrast, while still overwhelmed by too >> many cars and buses, seems tranquil by comparison: the culture of >> driving has caught up with the increased availability of the >> technology of driving. Yet another example of Papert's observation >> that change is never a technology in isolation; it always has a >> cultural component. A goal of our week in Chachapoyas was to help >> shape the change in the culture of learning in Amazonas as more >> technology is made available to teachers and children in the region. >> >> The bus ride was only eight hours: better than the alternative, thirty >> hours from direct Lima. Once the poorly dubbed B-movies stopped >> playing on a television inconveniently placed inches from my face >> stopped playing, I managed to get some sleep, despite the incessant >> swaying of the bus as it snaked its way through the Andes. We arrived >> at 6 Sunday morning to a sleepy town, built in the traditional style: >> a grid with a central plaza. We had decided to use our one free day to >> explore Kuélap, an ancient city another 2.5 hours from Chachapoyas, so >> we didn't even manage a cup of coffee before heading up some even more >> winding roads. >> >> Kuélap [2] was settled at least 1500 years ago. It is an extensive >> ruin on top of a 3000-meter peak. The most characteristic artifacts >> are the circular foundations of the houses, packed together in a tight >> matrix. Diamond-shaped patterns, reminiscent of snake skin were >> frequent sights [3]. >> >> When we got back to town, we discovered that coincident with our >> week-long teacher-training workshop was a week-long festival, >> celebrating both the revolution against Spanish rule and some ancient >> traditions regarding inviting the coming solstice. It meant parades >> and firecrackers at sunrise, and music each evening. The rhythm of >> week was established: breakfast at 7; at the workshop by 8; an early >> dinner at 7; evening sessions beginning at 8:30; and dancing from 11 >> to 1 AM. The music and dancing offered an opportunity to get to know >> the teachers outside of the workshop. It was also an opportunity to >> observe some of the local ways. Most notable to me was the way in >> which the crowds organized themselves: tight circles of 10 to 15 >> people. If you took an aerial photograph of the festival, you'd see >> the same circle patterns as we had just seen in Kuelap. Sometimes a >> culture expresses itself in unexpected ways. >> >> Monday morning, we were joined by Elver Guillermo (our host), Alex >> Santivanez (DIGETE), and Jorge Parra (DIGETE) (Alex and Jorge arrived >> from Lima that morning). And 60 teachers from across six different >> regions from Amazonas. We began the week with a question: "how do you >> use XO/Sugar for learning?" It was no surprise that most teachers >> answer with, "No sé." Even the few that had had some minimal >> experience with the XO answered with mundane themes, such as doing >> research on the Internet. We asked the same question at the end of the >> week, and although I haven't seen the survey results, I am certain >> that the teachers expressed a wealth of ideas around communication and >> expression, math, science, and the arts. We also asked the teachers if >> and where they hung out on-line. Almost all of them were Facebook >> users, so Raul set up a Facebook group, >> [http://www.facebook.com/groups/370964266297045/ Amazonas XO], for >> them to use as a forum for sharing experiences. >> >> At the end of a day using Write, Record, Fototoons, Memorize, Mind >> Maps (Labyrinth) and Paint, we introduced the teachers to Portfolio, >> and they created their first reflections on the week. That evening, I >> reviewed the variety of Sugar activities available and introduced the >> Sugar concept of the "gear": the invitation of create your own variant >> of an activity. I also showed them a new Sugar activity I wrote Sunday >> night after visiting Kuelap: Amazonas Tortuga [4], a variant on Turtle >> Confusion that uses images from the region. A long day "drinking from >> a fire hose." Time for some music and dancing. A party in a different >> barrio each night. >> >> On Day Two, we did sessions of Turtle Art and Scratch. Melissa and >> split the groups into two. My first group of Turtlistas made rapid >> progress from pretending to be a turtle in the courtyard of the >> school, dragging a piece of chalk when "pen down", to mastering Stacks >> (Accions) and Boxes (Cajas). The second group, which had been working >> in Scratch for three hours, struggled with the programming concepts of >> Turtle Art. On the other hand, Melissa reported that the group that >> had used Turtle Art soared in Scratch class, much more will to >> explore. We still need controls: Scratch followed by Scratch and >> Turtle Art followed by Turtle Art, but it seems that using Turtle Art >> before Scratch helps Scratch proficiency while using Scratch before >> Turtle Art impedes Turtle Art proficiency. It is worth looking more >> deeply into this. >> >> The evening class was dedicated to programming. We began by looking >> into a bug in Labyrinth encountered by the teachers that day. I showed >> them how to access the Log activity and look for errors in the log. We >> discussed the error message, a ValueError and took note of the file >> name and line number. Next, I introduced View Source. We found the >> line in the code responsible for the error, and I discussed the >> reasons for the error: simple_scale wants integer rather than float >> input. We also discussed casting floats to ints as a potential >> solution. Next: we used the Duplicate function of View Source to make >> a clone of Labyrinth in which to apply our patch. Using JAMEdit to >> edit the file, we were able to fix the bug. Finally, I showed them the >> bug-tracking system and walked them through the process of writing a >> ticket. By that time, it was late and the concert had begun, so I only >> quickly reviewed the merits of Free Software -- I imagine we would >> still be on hold with the Microsoft call center -- and described the >> process of using git -- and commit messages -- to manage software >> development. >> >> Wednesday morning, Melissa, Raul, and Alex demonstrated sensors on the >> XO, in Scratch, Turtle Art, and with WeDo. Alex and I built a WeDo >> project using found materials in Turtle Art, while Raul showed how to >> make sensors to use with the XO mic-in. Much of the rest of the day >> was dedicated to technical issues: servers, updates, etc. Reuben and >> Jorge walked the teachers through these topics and then issued a >> screwdriver to each teacher, who used it to disassemble and reassemble >> their laptops. Not casualties. A second portfolio was created and >> uploaded to the School Server before heading out to the festival. We >> partied with the teachers from UGEL Rodríguez de Mendoza. >> >> Thursday, Alex and Melissa focused on curriculum development with >> Sugar. Alex described a process by which one could develop a >> curriculum unit and the teacher, broken into groups, designed >> curricula around the themes of communication and math. Thursday night, >> Raul, Alex, Elver and I stayed late to help teachers with their >> projects. One problem was posed by a teacher who wanted to write a >> program for inputting numbers and rendering them different colors >> based on magnitude. We got into an interesting discussion about how to >> represent the concept of magnitude as it relates to place when writing >> numbers. For example, to write the number, 123 from left to right, >> first you right 1, then you write 2, but that immediately changes the >> meaning of the 1. It is suddenly a ten. Writing 3 means that the 1 >> becomes 100 and the 2 becomes 20. While programming this in Turtle Art >> is not difficult, it was an interesting exercise, because it forced >> the teacher to think about how we represent numbers. >> >> Friday was a day for show-and-tell. In the morning, the teachers made >> presentations of their curriculum plans. In the afternoon, Alex >> arranged a project fair, where each teacher chose one project to show >> off to their peers. Finally, a third portfolio for the week. Then >> photos, lots of them, and goodbyes. I had an opportunity to discuss >> our progress with several officials from the region over coffee Friday >> morning. They seemed both encouraged by the progress made by the >> teachers and the sentiment that the next workshop should be led by >> people from the region, not just attended by people from the region. >> An important step towards appropriation. >> >> Before getting on the overnight bus back to Chiclayo, Jorge gave me a >> file with images of Peruvian Soles, so I was able write a Soles plug >> in for Turtle Art [5] on the overnight bus ride. (Again, I could not >> sleep due to the movie playing inches from my face.) Raul, who was >> sitting a few rows back from me, joined a shared Turtle Art session >> and we stumbled upon a new use for a well-worn activity: chat. By >> sharing text with the Show block (and as of TurtleBlocks-144 [6], >> text-to-speech with the Speak block), you can engage in an interactive >> chat or forum, which includes sharing of pictures and graphics. What >> fun. >> >> There had been the threat of a delay due to landslide, but the road >> was cleared and we arrived back in Chiclayo at 6AM. We walked a few >> blocks to a restaurant know for its fresh ceviche where we enjoyed the >> food and sights. Then back to Lima, where I gave a trip report to a >> gathering at Escuelab. (I used the Portfolio tool to make an annotated >> slide show, which I projected from an XO.) Then back to the airport in >> time to see the Boston Celtics lose Game 7 to the Miami Heat. A flight >> to Miami, a quick connection to Boston, and home again. >> >> 2. While I was in Lima, I got another chance to meet with Irma Alvarez >> and Aymar Ccopacatty. I gave Irma an XO on which to test her Quecha >> translations. Her translations of Turtle Art landed while was in >> Chachapoyas, which was nice to be able to report to the teachers >> there. >> >> With help from Reuben we guided her through the process of installing >> language packs [7]: >> >> 1. with Browse, download the .sh of the language you wish to install; >> 2. copy the file from the Journal to ~/Documents by drag and drop >> in the Journal view; >> 3. From terminal, >> cd ~/Documents >> sh ??_lang_pack_v2.sh >> where ?? should be replaced by the language code of the file you >> downloaded; >> 4. Restart Sugar. >> >> 3. Peter Robinson announced Sugar on a Stick 7 (Quandong). >> >> Many thanks to Peter and the Sugar and Fedora communities. >> >> From Peter's email: >> >> Some of the key new features of this release include: >> * Based on Fedora 17 and it's new features >> * Massively improved x86 Mac support >> * Sugar 0.96 with initial support for GTK3 Activities and many other >> improvements >> * Return of Browse, now based on WebKit >> * The long awaited return of Read and inclusion of GetBooks >> * Enhanced hardware support with the 3.3 kernel >> * An increase in default Activities by nearly 50% >> >> The release name, Quandong, continues the tradition of naming releases >> by types of fruit. The Quandong or Native Peach is a native Australian >> bushfood. >> >> You can download the release from [8]. It can also be installed as >> part of a standard Fedora 17 install and is shipped as part of the >> official Fedora installer DVD and the Fedora Multi Spin Live DVD. It >> can also be installed from the GUI package tool within a running >> Fedora install or by command line: >> >> sudo yum install @sugar-desktop >> >> === Sugar Labs === >> >> Visit our planet [9] for more updates about Sugar and Sugar deployments. >> >> ---- >> >> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chachapoyas,_Peru >> [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuelap >> [3] >> http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/17/Building_ruins_of_Kuelap.jpg >> [4] http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4585/ >> [5] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/images/5/52/Soles.tar.gz >> [6] http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4027 >> [7] http://translate.sugarlabs.org/langpacks/ >> [8] http://spins.fedoraproject.org/soas/ >> [9] http://planet.sugarlabs.org >> >> -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 > > _______________________________________________ > Sugar-devel mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel > -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) 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