On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 7:56 PM, Dave Crossland <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi > > Thanks Walter. I'd like to better understand some additional context > before diving in :) > > Does this mean Sameer you have stopped the project planning process you > started, and we should not expect you to restart it again? > At the most recent SLOB meeting Samson brought up the fact that we were still waiting and so I volunteered to write something up to get the conversation going again. > > Walter, are these the goals for this year, or are they your proposal for > the goals for this year? > Not sure I understand what you are asking. I wrote up a draft of goals but they are not "the goals" until we agree to them. regards. -walter > > > > On Apr 9, 2017 3:31 PM, "Walter Bender" <[email protected]> wrote: > >> As per the discussion in the last Suagr Labs Oversight Board Meeting, I >> had agreed to write a draft statement of goals for 2017. The document below >> includes feedback from Samson G. I hope this document can serve to >> revitalize our discussion from 2016 that never reached resolution. >> >> Sugar Labs Plans, Goals, Aspirations >> >> What is Sugar Labs? >> >> Sugar Labs creates, distributes, and maintains learning software for >> children. Our approach to learning is grounded in Constructionism, a >> pedagogy developed by Seymour Papert and his colleagues in the 1960s and >> 70s at MIT. Papert pioneered the use of the computer by children to help >> engage them in the “construction of knowledge.” His long-time colleague >> Cynthia Solomon expanded up his ideas by introducing the concept of >> engaging children in debugging as a pathway into problem-solving. Their >> 1971 paper, “Twenty things to do with a computer”, is arguably the genesis >> of contemporary movements such as the Maker Movement and Hour of Code. >> >> At the core of Constructionism is “learning through doing.” If you want >> more learning, you want more doing. At Sugar Labs we provide tools to >> promote doing. (We focus almost exclusively on tools, not instructional >> materials.) However, we go beyond “doing” by incorporating critical dialog >> and reflection into the Sugar learning environment, through mechanisms for >> collaboration, journaling, and portfolio. >> >> Sugar Labs is a spinoff of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project and >> consequently it has inherited many of its goals from that project. The goal >> of OLPC is to bring the ideas of Constructionism to scale in order to reach >> more children. A particular focus is on children in the developing world. >> In order to meet that goal, Sugar, which was originally developed for OLPC, >> was by necessity a small-footprint solution that required few resources in >> terms of CPU, memory, storage, or network connectivity. The major change on >> focus from the OLPC project is that Sugar Labs strives to make the Sugar >> desktop available to multiple platforms, not just the OLPC XO hardware. >> >> Who develops Sugar? >> >> Sugar Labs is a 100% volunteer effort (although we do occasionally raise >> money for paid student internships). Sugar development and maintenance is >> incumbent upon volunteers and hence we strive to provide as much control as >> possible to our community members, including our end-users. (In fact, one >> of our assertions is that by enabling our users to participate in the >> development of the tools that they use will lead to deeper engagement in >> their own learning.) Towards these ends, we chose the GPL as our primary >> license. It has been said of the GPL that it “restricts my right [as a >> developer] to restrict yours [as a user and potential developer]”, which >> seems ideal for a project that wants to engage a broad and diverse set of >> learners. But at Sugar Labs we go beyond the usual goals of FOSS: a license >> to make changes to the code is not enough to ensure that users make >> changes. We also strive to provide the means to make changes. Our success >> in this goal is best reflected in the number of patches we receive from our >> community. (We achieve this goal through providing access to source code >> and development tools within Sugar itself. We also actively participate in >> workshops and internship programs such as Google Summer of Code, >> Outreaching, and Google Code-In.) >> >> Who uses Sugar? >> >> Ultimately, our goal is to reach learners (and educators) with powerful >> tools and engage them in Constructionist learning. Currently we reach them >> in many ways: the majority of our users get the Sugar desktop preinstalled >> on OLPC XO hardware. We have a more modest set of users who get Sugar >> packaged in Fedora, Trisquel, Debian, Ubuntu, or other GNU/Linux platforms. >> Some users get Sugar on Live Media (i.e., Sugar on a Stick). Recently >> Sugarizer, a repackaging of some of the core Sugar ideas for the browser, >> has been finding its way to some users. There are also a number of Sugar >> activities that are popular outside of the context Sugar itself, for >> example, Turtle Blocks, which has wide-spread use in India. Harder to >> measure is the extent to which Sugar has influenced other providers of >> “educational” software. If the Sugar pedagogy is incorporated by others, >> that advances our goal. >> >> Who supports Sugar? >> >> When we first created Sugar Labs, we envisioned “Local Labs”—hence the >> name “Sugar Labs”, plural—that would provide local support in terms of >> local-language support, training, curriculum development, and >> customizations. This model has not ever gained the scale and depth >> envisioned (we can debate the reasons why), although there are still some >> active local communities (e.g., Educa Paraguay) that continue to work >> closely with the broader community. There are also individual volunteers, >> such as Tony Anderson and T.K. Kang, who help support individual schools in >> Rwanda, Malaysia, et al. An open question is how do we support our users >> over the long term? >> >> What is next for Sugar? >> >> We face several challenges at Sugar Labs. With the ebb of OLPC, we have a >> contracting user base and the number of professional developers associated >> with the project is greatly diminished. How can we expand our user base? >> How can we attract more experienced developers? Why would they want to work >> on Sugar as opposed to some other project? The meta issue is how do we keep >> Sugar relevant in a world of Apps and small, hand-held devices? Can we meet >> the expectations of learners living in a world of fast-paced, colorful >> interfaces? How do we ensure that it is fulfilling its potential as a >> learning environment and that our users, potential users, and imitators are >> learning about and learning from Sugar. Some of this is a matter of >> marketing; some of this is a matter of staying focused on our core >> pedagogy; some of this a matter of finding strategic partners with whom we >> can work. >> >> We have several near-term opportunities that we should leverage: >> * Raspian: The Raspberry PI 3.0 is more than adequate to run Sugar—the >> experience rivals or exceeds that of the OLPC XO 4.0 hardware. While RPi is >> not the only platform we should be targeting, it does has broad penetration >> into the Maker community, which shares a synergy with our emphasis on >> “doing”. It is low-hanging fruit. With a little polish we could have an >> image available for download from the RPi website. >> * Trisquel: We have the potential for better leveraging the Free Software >> Foundation as a vehicle for promoting Sugar. Their distro of choice is >> Trisquel and the maintainer does a great job of keep the Sugar packages up >> to date. >> * Sugarizer: The advantage of Sugarizer is that it has the potential of >> reaching orders of magnitude more users since it is web-based and runs in >> Android and iOS. There is some work to be done to make the experience >> palatable on small screens and the current development environment is—at >> least my opinion—not scalable or maintainable. The former is a formidable >> problem. The latter quite easy to address. >> * Stand-alone projects such as Music Blocks have merit as long as they >> maintain both a degree of connection with Sugar and promote the values of >> the community. It is not certain that these projects will lead users >> towards Sugar, but they do promote FOSS and Constructionist principles. And >> they have attracted new developers to the Sugar community. >> * School-server: The combination of the School Server and Sugar desktop >> is a technical solution to problems facing small and remote communities. We >> should continue to support and promote this combination. >> >> Specific actions: After last year’s Libre Planet conference, several >> community members discussed a marketing strategy for Sugar. We thought that >> if we could reach influencers, we might be able to greatly amplify our >> efforts. There are several prominent bloggers and pundits in the education >> arena who are widely read and who might be receptive to what we are doing. >> One significant challenge is that GNU/Linux remains on the far periphery of >> the Ed Tech world. Although the “love affair” with all things Apple seems >> to be over, the new elephant in the room—Chromebooks and Google Docs—is >> equally difficult to co-exist with. Personally, I see the most potential >> synergy with the Maker movement, which is building up momentum in >> extra-curricular programs, where FOSS and GNU-Linux are welcome (hence my >> earlier focus on RPi). (There are even some schools that are building their >> entire curriculum around PBL.) We can and should develop and run some >> workshops that can introduce Sugar within the context of the Maker >> movement. (Toward that end, I have been working with some teachers on how >> to leverage, for example, Turtle Blocks for 3D printing.) It is very much a >> tool-oriented community with little overall discussion of architectural >> frameworks, so we have some work to do. But there is lots of low-hanging >> fruit there. >> >> regards. >> >> -walter >> >> -- >> Walter Bender >> Sugar Labs >> http://www.sugarlabs.org >> <http://www.sugarlabs.org> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) >> [email protected] >> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep >> > -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org <http://www.sugarlabs.org>
_______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) [email protected] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
