Thanks Walter! +1 To the idea of code-in! 2012/10/27 Walter Bender <walter.ben...@gmail.com>
> On the unspoken truth behind the education system > > Calvin: As you can see, I have memorized this utterly useless piece of > information long enough to pass a test question. I now intend to > forget it forever. You’ve taught me nothing except how to cynically > manipulate the system. Congratulations. -- Bill Watterson > > == Sugar Digest == > > 1. Akarsh Sanghi asked me some questions about computing for a survey > he is conducting. I thought I would share some of my answers here. > > ;How do you think future technologies in the field of human-computer > interaction (HCI) affect the daily lives of people? [In context of the > rapture of interactive and touch based devices like the iPhone & > iPad]: I think that HCI has little impact. Yes, things arguably get > easier to use, but ease of use is not the gating factor in the use of > these devices. It is access and utility. Also, it is important to note > that very few of the touch-based interfaces represent advances in HCI. > These are old ideas (most from the 1970s) that are only finally > becoming commercially viable. > > ;How do you think interactive technologies affect the learning process > in primary education? Will these form of technologies help to expand > the horizon of a child growing up in practically a virtual world?: > Well, somewhat in contradiction to my previous answer, touch does make > a difference to very young children, for whom hand-eye coordination is > still an issue. As far as learning, I am skeptical of the premise that > the virtual world is particularly relevant. I think the character of > the tasks the children engage in is far more important than the > technology. The advantage of some small subset of the technology is > that facilitates engaging children in authentic open-ended problem > solving. Making worksheets electronic games is a complete waste of > time (although it may help the children pass an exam to measure how > quickly they can do worksheets.) > > ;As a part of the Sugar Labs community, I would like to ask you where > does it stand in the future?: Sugar, the learning platform developed > and maintained by the Sugar Labs community, is about giving children > an opportunity to use technologies to engage in authentic open-ended > problem solving. We'll continue down this path, trying to reach more > children in more contexts (laptops, desktops, phones, tablets, etc.) > > ;Sugar Labs and the OLPC projects are primarily targeted towards > developing nations and their education system, do you think the > education system in a country like America should also be put under > consideration and be directed more towards a student’s own creative > thought process?: Sugar Labs is trying reach children everywhere: > north or south, rich or poor. We have programs in every corner of the > globe. > > ;Every time while discussing OLPC, one hears about Constructionism. Is > the Constructionist approach a guiding or necessary aspect of > distributing laptops to children for learning? For designing an > interface for them? Why or why not?: Constructionism is completely > orthogonal to the problem of distributing laptops. But not to the > problem of using laptops for learning. (This is where Mr. Negroponte > and I differed in our approach.) You can give a child a laptop and > they will learn to use it (See my answer to the first question), but > will they learn to use it for learning? Not likely unless we craft an > environment in which they are encouraged to “imagine and realize, > critique and reflect, and iterate.” That is a constructionist > environment. > > ;How do you think Seymour Papert’s theory of constructionism should be > applied in the today’s time? Should people be involved in developing > tangible objects in the real world to understand concepts or follow > experiential learning processes to gain insight into the world around > them?: Not sure what you mean by “tangible objects”. I think more in > terms of authentic problems. Some of those problems may be tangible. > > ;How do you think Electronic Publishing is evolving with the rapid > development of reading devices like iPad, NOOK, Kindle and the major > use of ebooks?: To me, the interesting questions are more along the > lines of: Who will write books? What will be the relationship between > reading and writing? What is the future of copyright and the > commercialization of writing. > > ;Do you think in the near future this kind of electronic publishing > will hamper the growth of children as they will be devoid of > physically reading a book and understand the values that come along > with it?: I think that the difference is not so much paper vs plastic; > but rather, to what extent does an electronic interface afford the > freedom to write and share margin notes (or the books themselves) to > engage in personal expression, etc. The physicality of electronic > media is not the issue. > > ;In context of the famous phrase by Marshal McLuhan, “medium is the > message”, how do you think technology will evolve in the coming years? > All forms of communication and information will be the material itself > rather than a separate physical device.: McLuhan was wrong. The > message is the message. We use different media to deliver it, more or > less intact. > > 2. Sugar Labs is applying to Google Code-in (GCI), "a contest for > pre-university students (e.g., high school and secondary school > students) with the goal of encouraging young people to participate in > open source." > > Why we are applying? Sugar is written and maintained by volunteers, > who range from seasoned professionals to children as young as 12-years > of age. Children who have grown up with Sugar have transitioned from > Sugar users to Sugar App developers to Sugar maintainers. They hang > out on IRC with the global Sugar developer community and are > full-fledged members of the Sugar development team. It is this latter > group of children we hope will participate in and benefit from Google > Code-in. Specifically we want to re-enforce the message that Sugar > belongs to its users and that they have both ownership and the > responsibility that ownership implies. Just as learning is not > something done to you, but something you do, learning with Sugar > ultimately means participating in the Sugar development process. At > Sugar Labs, we are trying to bring the culture of Free Software into > the culture of school. So the Code-in is not just an opportunity for > us to get some tasks accomplished, it is quintessential to our overall > mission. > > Learn more about GCI [1] and the Sugar Labs GCI effort [2]. > > 3. Agustin Zubiaga Sanchez noted that last week we passed the > threshold of more than eight million activities downloaded from the > Sugar Labs activity portal [3]. I echo his sentiment that "I'm very > glad to be a sugarlabs developer. Congratulations to all the team :)" > > === In the community === > > 4. Last weekend was the OLPC SF summit [4] in San Francisco, which was > followed by a three-day Sugar Camp. Although I missed opening day, Day > Two was quite interesting in that there was a lot of good discussion > about how to sustain and grow the various volunteer-run OLPC/Sugar > deployments. At Sugar Camp, although not much code was written, there > was an opportunity to get tangible and actionable feedback from the > likes of Mark Bradley (we pushed hard on Turtle Art as a multimedia > toolkit). I also had the opportunity to catch up with Raul Gutierrez > Segales, Ivan Krstić, and others. > > === Tech Talk === > > 5. The little coding I did do in San Francisco was in support of > migrating more activities to touch. Specifically, I worked on > integrating the on-screen keyboard into several of my activities: > Portfolio and Turtle Blocks. The challenge was that I was using > key-press events directly, rather than accessing them through a GTK > widget such as a Entry or TextView. With help from Raul, I managed to > get things working pretty well: basically, I just drop a TextView > widget under the cursor where I expect keyboard input. The details are > outlined here [5]. I'm generally pleased with the results, but there > is a bit of fine-tuning of the interaction, e.g, you need to defocus > the TextView in order to dismiss it: not such a burden, but at times, > somewhat awkward. > > 6. Ignacio Rodriguez has been on a tear, helping me to migrate > activities to GTK 3. Over the past week, we converted: Card Sort, > Cookie Search, Color Deducto, Deducto, Flip, Fraction Bounce, Loco > Sugar, Napier's Bones, Nutrition, Paths, Pukllananpac, Recall, > Reflection, GNUChess, Sliderule, Story, Yupana, and XO Editor. I also > worked with Agustin Zubiaga on Portfolio, Flavio Denesse on Ruler, and > Daniel Francis on Turtle Blocks. Whew. > > === Sugar Labs === > > Visit our planet [6] for more updates about Sugar and Sugar deployments. > > -walter > > [1] > http://www.google-melange.com/gci/document/show/gci_program/google/gci2012/help_page > [2] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Google_Code-In_2012 > [3] http://activities.sugarlabs.org > [4] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugarcamp_SF_2012 > [5] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Touch/Programming_Tips > [6] http://planet.sugarlabs.org > > > -- > Walter Bender > Sugar Labs > http://www.sugarlabs.org > _______________________________________________ > Sugar-devel mailing list > sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel > -- Juan Ignacio Rodríguez CeibalJAM! Activity Central
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