On Mon, Mar 2, 2015 at 3:32 PM, Caryl Bigenho <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi... > > I agree with Sean that the browser based distro like Lionel's Sugarizer is > a good way to go. Having Android and IOS versions too is good since many > students already have access to devices that will be able to use it. > I agree. A web version and virtual machines are good ideas. > > Don't discount the SmartPhone as a viable device! At SCaLE last week I > attended a student presentation of "new technology in education." They used > the smartphone to do a survey of the audience. Carol Ruth Silver (OLPC-SF) > has a great demo of using old phones for a women's literacy program (I > think it is in Pakistan). With the price of these dropping and lots of > older "used" models available very inexpensively they are accessable to > almost everyone, worldwide. I think the literacy program one has the > lessons installed on it... they maay not need to access wifi to use it. > > > One of my concerns is that there are so many Activities (over 400!) that > it would take a very long time to port them to Sugarizer. There needs to be > a priority listing so that those things like Fototoon and maybe a couple of > parts of TamTam and Labrynth can be in the first big release. ... (Well, > those are among my favorites so maybe I am biased.) > > Clearly we need prioritize. And that programming can't be done by free. We will get a help with GSoC, but we need think in the long run. > Another concern is that the Activities that lend themselves to > integrating... a draw or paint and a camera (obvious thing is to use the one > already in the individual device) with Fototoon, and things like that. > > Yes. That is the main problem when you think in Android as a platform. We don't have a "Journal" or anything similar yet. > The proposed survey of the educators who have been using Sugar long term > is a key to making this work. Teachers are very busy. Maybe just a few > simple questions like: > > > - What subjects and grades do you teach? > > > - List the 5 Activities you use the most with your students: > - Which one is the most useful for teaching concepts? > - Which ones do you need to have to integrate for students to complete > projects? > > > Maybe we should make a Google Doc for a Survey and invite folks to "tweak" > it a bit and refine it. Then we could do translations and, finally > distribute it to educators to see what the best focus might be. > > Thanks, is very useful. We started to design a survey for deployments, but based in the mails in the lasts days, I think we should add another for our volunteers, and one for teachers is a good idea. > Caryl > > P.S. Do I dare say that Google Docs is a nice model of online apps working > together? > Yes, when you have good connectivity. > ------------------------------ > From: [email protected] > Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2015 22:57:57 +0100 > To: [email protected] > CC: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [IAEP] Planning for the future > > > Hi Samuel, > > thanks for this > > I believe Sugar has had a clear pedagogical vision from day one, but has > not had a strategy for some time. > > Outside the XO, Sugar's historical technical architecture has > unfortunately kept it out of reach from all but the most determined and > tech-savvy teachers (and journalists). Without a pancake button download > and one-click installer, the installation barrier is too high. OLPC's > historical focus on the hardware was never helpful either, and the main > reason OLPC got mauled by incorrect memes was they didn't want to accompany > journalists past the unfamiliarity barrier of the XO (hardware+software). > > In my view there are only a few ways to overcome this issue: > > * Develop 1-click installers for Windows / MacOS / GNU/Linux. I had > suggested maintaining a matrix of preconfigured (i.e. languages/keyboards, > prepopulated Journal, selection of Activities) VMs over Oracle VirtualBox, > whose license allows free distribution for nonprofit and educational > purposes. Upsides were immediate fullscreen Sugar experience without > touching the configuration of the host computer. The downsides were huge VM > images and the effort required to build and maintain the matrix. At the > time I suggested we approach Oracle for corporate sponsorship, but some > community members voiced objections. > > * Arrange for Sugar to be preinstalled on low-cost, reliable machines > other than XOs. This is complex and would require a sales force (or working > with a partner's) since no OEM will make that investment without a prospect > of selling many thousands of units. As an alternative I had suggested we > ride the wave of Raspberry Pi units (five million sold in three years) by > developing an SD card for it based on Sugar on a Stick, but there was no > interest in that effort. I still believe a Sugar-branded version (case + > teacher starters kit -documentation) could have an impact. > > * Migrate to a web-based Sugar compatible with browsers on any platform. > Lionel's Sugarizer is I think a fabulous solution. > > > I've heard it suggested that marketing could do fund-raising, but donors > large and small won't want to contribute unless there is a plan. I've been > bewildered what the plan is for some time. > > Sean > > > > On Tue, Feb 24, 2015 at 12:36 AM, Samuel Greenfeld <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Disclaimer: The following are my views, and not the views of my current or > past employers. > > About a year ago, I privately expressed concern that Sugar needed to > ensure it had long-term sponsorship and a long-term user base. > > Since then, both the historical US-based OLPC organization and Sugar Labs > have not publicly said much about their long-term plans, with OLPC also > being rather closemouthed about the present. > > Meanwhile contributors silently leave. It is hard to justify volunteering > when you don't know who will benefit besides mysterious "customers." > > Everyone seems happy to cite their past successes. No one corrects the > press when they report stale information in their favor. > > > There is no shame in being a smaller project. But we need to ask the hard > questions. With Sugar, getting users and developers for a niche platform > is a problem. With OLPC, everyone seems to love repeating the 2 or 2.5 > million number for laptops historically shipped. Rarely is it asked how > many XOs been shipped in the past year or are in active use & where. > > Sugar & OLPC need to come up with long-term strategies. While there is > nothing public I have seen stopping One Education's XO Infinity from > running Sugar, I haven't seen anything stopping it from running anything > else. It is also unclear how much One Education is willing to engage with > the historical Sugar & OLPC communities (or how much they can tell us at > this time). > > > Historically there have been many philosophical questions like "Does there > need to be a physical machine?" and "Have we succeeded if every child has a > computer, but from someone else?" > > I do not believe Sugar or OLPC is down for the count. But in order to > engage One Education, governments, and other educational groups, both Sugar > and the historical OLPC structure need to have plans to transition to the > future. Otherwise these plans will be written for us. > > I suspect I know how things will end; but I wish it was not happening > though silence. > > --- > SJG > > _______________________________________________ > 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 > > _______________________________________________ > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) > [email protected] > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep > -- Gonzalo Odiard SugarLabs - Software for children learning
_______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) [email protected] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
