Re: [IAEP] Anyone gotten a 4GB or greater USB stick to work for Sugar on a Stick?
On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 03:14, Caroline Meeks solutiongr...@gmail.com wrote: Hmm, This is all very interesting and in the field pretty confusing. We need to take this knowledge and use it in two ways. 1. Simple recommendations today, for naive users, on how to be most likely to create a working stick. 2. Recommendations for the developers of the teacher Stick Creator activity that runs off of Sugar and lets teachers clone their system including apps, language settings, network settings etc. and create fresh sticks for their students. Anyone want to take a shot at summarizing what we know into actionable information for either of these uses? Shouldn't we offer on-disk.com as an alternative for the less technically adventurous? Regards, Tomeu On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 3:57 AM, Jonas Smedegaard d...@jones.dk wrote: -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 09:06:15PM -0400, Caroline Meeks wrote: Ahh, this maybe where some of the confusing behavior we were seeing comes from. Let me repeat what I think I understand so I can see if I have it right. FAT is the same thing as FAT16 FAT is only an option for USB sticks 2 GB or less. You can only format a USB stick larger then 2 GB as FAT32. Some computers will not boot from a FAT32 formatted stick but some will. Thus if you put SoaS onto a 4 GB USB it will fail on some computers and not others. A partition allows you to have one part of the USB formatted differently then another part. Thus a work around if you want to use a USB stick larger then 2GB would be to create a smaller partition for the boot area and format that as FAT. Let me know what I have right and wrong! You got it right. But there are more works in that can: FAT is _often_ FAT16. In addition to FAT16 and FAT32 there is also FAT12, which some BIOSed might expect in USB-FDD mode. Also, some BIOSes do not support booting from a USB stick containing more than a single partition...: The various bugs in BIOS implementations apart, there are 3 kinds of boot methods for USB storage devices: USB-FDD, USB-HDD and USB-ZIP. USB-FDD expects no MBR (Master Boot Record), but instead one single unpartitioned whole - like a very large floppy disk. USB-FDD expects an MBR with standard DOS partition table - like a harddisk. USB-ZIP expects an MBR with specific DOS partition table - like a ZIP drive. makebootfat includes a special mbrfat combination that makes the device look like an unpartitioned single whole to BIOSes expecting USB-FDD, while presenting an MBR with a DOS partition table for BIOS-HDD use (and possibly BIOS-ZIP too). I strongly recommend to read the manpage for makebootfat. I don't know any tools to reverse-engineer boot sectors, which means it is not enough to say yes, it works with makebootfat - you need to document *what* works for *which* machine setup to use *what* USB access method. If you want to approach this systematically, to gain knowledge on what hardware supports which combinations of boot methods and tricks, then I strongly suggest that you try use makebootfat to prepare the USB sticks, or closely read documentation and/or code of other chosen tools to understand what exactly they do in comparison. Kind regards, - Jonas - -- * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist og Internet-arkitekt * Tlf.: +45 40843136 Website: http://dr.jones.dk/ [x] quote me freely [ ] ask before reusing [ ] keep private -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAknoNn0ACgkQn7DbMsAkQLiifgCfZLRgzR6DWrxOpEMBODwpQOa3 tlkAn370vm1hW+efS+0rQtvC7THSglkh =Rm6F -END PGP SIGNATURE- ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep -- Caroline Meeks Solution Grove carol...@solutiongrove.com 617-500-3488 - Office 505-213-3268 - Fax ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] design meeting
On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 03:54, Eben Eliason eben.elia...@gmail.com wrote: I'm going to be out of town on Sunday. Is tomorrow a possibility? I'd hate to push it off yet another week. An earlier time on Sunday could also work...8:30am Eastern, perhaps? I will stay all weekend close to the computer so I don't lose this meeting ;) Tell here when you agree on a time. Thanks, Tomeu Eben On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 5:08 PM, Christian Marc Schmidt christianm...@gmail.com wrote: Hi everyone I would like to propose that we hold a UI design meeting this Sunday at 11am EST/3pm UTC, to discuss a test protocol to measure the effectiveness of the current Home view, and quantify specific design tasks that we could work on for the next release. Please let me know if you would like to join but can't make it then. Thanks, Christian -- anyth...@christianmarcschmidt.com http://www.christianmarcschmidt.com 917/ 575 0013 ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
[IAEP] April 22 SoaS Beta-1 press release submitted - translators needed!
I submitted the press release yesterday before the deadline! I selected the following target categories: * Education * Children Youth * High Tech - Software * High Tech - Public Sector/Government Concerning the category Nonprofit Industry, I agreed with Caroline's argument that journalists covering child-oriented nonprofits will also be opted-in to Children Youth, while the latter category will have greater reach. I added one phrase in the beginning: for loading on any 1 Gb or greater USB stick the idea being to make it even clearer that we do not sell or distribute sticks, but the software images on-disk.com looks interesting as a no-hassle solution (particularly for a known platform such as the XO-1) but I think we would need to pay close attention to how each new SoaS image is identifiable - would be a pity if people pay money for an out-of-date version, etc. Another concern is that since we obviously cannot guarantee boot success on hardware config X, to avoid disappointment I consider it likely that we would end up recommending an on-disk order only for those who have already booted a downloaded+loaded SoaS image. We will want translations, as before I can do French but help with Spanish, German, Portugese, Dutch, Italian, other languages? will be greatly appreciated. I still haven't managed to get the pt nl translations of the previous release up yet, will do that asap I will be on vacation this Wednesday but I will somehow manage to get connected send the press release to our targeted mailing list thanks Sean ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] Anyone gotten a 4GB or greater USB stick to work for Sugar on a Stick?
On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 4:32 AM, Tomeu Vizoso to...@sugarlabs.org wrote: On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 03:14, Caroline Meeks solutiongr...@gmail.com wrote: Hmm, This is all very interesting and in the field pretty confusing. We need to take this knowledge and use it in two ways. 1. Simple recommendations today, for naive users, on how to be most likely to create a working stick. 2. Recommendations for the developers of the teacher Stick Creator activity that runs off of Sugar and lets teachers clone their system including apps, language settings, network settings etc. and create fresh sticks for their students. Anyone want to take a shot at summarizing what we know into actionable information for either of these uses? Shouldn't we offer on-disk.com as an alternative for the less technically adventurous? One of the things my teacher this semester talks about is moving from Either/or thinking to And Also thinking. Not that I think you were going there Tomeu, I just think its a wise habit to get into because its so easy to fall into Either/Or thinking and semantics. So, Yes, *and also* we should link to on-disk. Its a wiki, maybe they should put it into the Get Sugar page? However, lots of people will still want to burn their own. And Also people with macs, older computers, and people who don't know how to set their BIOS will have success if they burn their own CD and USB and use the boot helper. And Also one of our Lead Users has told us he can imagine doing this in his class because USB drives are on his school supply list that the parents buy at the beginning of the year so the kids already own them so there is no additional expense. We need to empower people to help themselves for free, And Also empower vendors to provide paid solutions. Thanks! Caroline Regards, Tomeu On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 3:57 AM, Jonas Smedegaard d...@jones.dk wrote: -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 09:06:15PM -0400, Caroline Meeks wrote: Ahh, this maybe where some of the confusing behavior we were seeing comes from. Let me repeat what I think I understand so I can see if I have it right. FAT is the same thing as FAT16 FAT is only an option for USB sticks 2 GB or less. You can only format a USB stick larger then 2 GB as FAT32. Some computers will not boot from a FAT32 formatted stick but some will. Thus if you put SoaS onto a 4 GB USB it will fail on some computers and not others. A partition allows you to have one part of the USB formatted differently then another part. Thus a work around if you want to use a USB stick larger then 2GB would be to create a smaller partition for the boot area and format that as FAT. Let me know what I have right and wrong! You got it right. But there are more works in that can: FAT is _often_ FAT16. In addition to FAT16 and FAT32 there is also FAT12, which some BIOSed might expect in USB-FDD mode. Also, some BIOSes do not support booting from a USB stick containing more than a single partition...: The various bugs in BIOS implementations apart, there are 3 kinds of boot methods for USB storage devices: USB-FDD, USB-HDD and USB-ZIP. USB-FDD expects no MBR (Master Boot Record), but instead one single unpartitioned whole - like a very large floppy disk. USB-FDD expects an MBR with standard DOS partition table - like a harddisk. USB-ZIP expects an MBR with specific DOS partition table - like a ZIP drive. makebootfat includes a special mbrfat combination that makes the device look like an unpartitioned single whole to BIOSes expecting USB-FDD, while presenting an MBR with a DOS partition table for BIOS-HDD use (and possibly BIOS-ZIP too). I strongly recommend to read the manpage for makebootfat. I don't know any tools to reverse-engineer boot sectors, which means it is not enough to say yes, it works with makebootfat - you need to document *what* works for *which* machine setup to use *what* USB access method. If you want to approach this systematically, to gain knowledge on what hardware supports which combinations of boot methods and tricks, then I strongly suggest that you try use makebootfat to prepare the USB sticks, or closely read documentation and/or code of other chosen tools to understand what exactly they do in comparison. Kind regards, - Jonas - -- * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist og Internet-arkitekt * Tlf.: +45 40843136 Website: http://dr.jones.dk/ [x] quote me freely [ ] ask before reusing [ ] keep private -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAknoNn0ACgkQn7DbMsAkQLiifgCfZLRgzR6DWrxOpEMBODwpQOa3 tlkAn370vm1hW+efS+0rQtvC7THSglkh =Rm6F -END PGP SIGNATURE- ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
Re: [IAEP] [Grassroots-l] OLPC - Parsons Collaboration
Hi Becky, I've taken the liberty of forwarding your inquiry to a few other OLPC and Sugar Labs lists which are more widely subscribed. Thank you for your interest and offers!--Fred On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 2:34 PM, be...@beckyheritage.com wrote: OLPC Grassroots, On behalf of Parsons The New School for Design, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Becky Heritage, and I am currently Faculty in the Design + Technology department at Parsons. We are interested in contributing for the OLPC through curriculum development for the unit and its activities. We also, have an interest in long term partnership. In addition to the Wikis and online resources we've been absorbing, we would also like to invite a representative from an Education based initiative, to meet our department and come speak at a Consortium that we host Wednesday evenings. Preferably, we'd appreciate perspective from someone that has deployment experience, as this is also one of our interests for contribution. If you could provide insight to any individuals that would be interested, it would be much appreciated. Sincerely, Becky Heritage Becky Heritage | Adjunct Faculty Design + Technology Parsons The New School for Design 2 W 13th Street New York, NY 10031 917 628 3901 be...@beckyheritgae.com http://cdt.parsons.edu ___ Grassroots mailing list grassro...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/grassroots ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
[IAEP] Advice on what I should learn next
Dear Colleagues, As part of my class this semester on School Improvement I have to research and give a mini-course on something, pretty much anything, relating to School Improvement. My current personal learning focus is on how do we teach and empower adults to help children learn with Sugar. I am especially interested in the tension I see between the structured worksheet, lesson plan, standardized test and the free flowing follow your bliss and learn about what you love exploration models of teaching and learning. - How do we support teachers who were taught in the worksheet model and have always taught that way to expand their practice to include a constructivist approach? - How do we support students, especially ones that are currently seen by the system as low performing and not motivated to go deep and engage at a high level with open ended tasks. Because the culture of fill in the blank worksheet is not just the teachers, the students will also push for concrete tasks with right and wrong answers. - How do we support teachers and schools in bringing in open ended and student driven work within their culture of state mandated curriculum and high stakes tests? As some of you might be aware, I'm just a little busy right now, and this is supposed to be a 10 minute mini-class. I need to narrow this way down! Thus, I'm looking for advice on academic work you have read that you think speaks in a very practical way to any piece of this dilemma. Thanks! Caroline P.S. Not interested in just arguments against the status quo, no matter how right they are. My goal is in going into the existing systems in the very near future. Standing on a soap box saying we should get rid of standardized tests isn't going to help me meet my goals. I want practical techniques that we can teach to teachers, day care instructors and parents. -- Caroline Meeks Solution Grove carol...@solutiongrove.com 617-500-3488 - Office 505-213-3268 - Fax ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] Feedback on SoaS
Regarding content, the advantage of the local homepage in the XO-1 browser as shipped from OLPC is that content is there in an understandable way even if the network doesn't work/isn't available. As compared with finding content in the journal, it is easier to tell what and why the content might be interesting. It really seems wrong to me to put all eggs in the journal basket for new users. I know that the journal is much loved by the sugar afficianados, but it actually is pretty opaque to a new user. Regarding infoslicer, I think so much of sugar activities is math and science oriented, it is great to see a way that a teacher might create simplified content for kids to read. I hope, btw, that Infoslicer is enhanced to, for example, take as input an epub book, allowing someone to easily work on and produce a simplified version.There is a dearth of open content suitable for emergent readers. On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 6:57 AM, Frederick Grose fgr...@gmail.com wrote: See http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick/Roadmap/Home_View http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick/Roadmap/Home_View --Fred On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 9:20 AM, Sebastian Dziallas sebast...@when.comwrote: Let me add some thoughts here, too... ... If its not too hard to change I think we should set up a wiki page where we can discuss what should be in the favorites rings and potentially update the image fairly regularly. This is what I've tried to get off the ground several times, for example here (without getting a reply): http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2009-February/012303.html It admittedly concerned the list of included activities, and not only the ones in the ring, but it clearly went in the same direction. ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep -- It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. -- Upton Sinclair ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] Home View
Activities should be modifyable. You should be able to create your own lessons - see Typing Turtle (a brilliant program). Even if creating the lessons requires a bit of programming knowledge (I don't know python but I know how to cut and paste and a bit of perl php). So that a teacher can get a local nerd to help her (or him) make lessons within the structure. -Kathy _ From: iaep-boun...@lists.sugarlabs.org [mailto:iaep-boun...@lists.sugarlabs.org] On Behalf Of Caroline Meeks Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009 7:24 AM To: IAEP SugarLabs Subject: [IAEP] Home View We are getting a great discussion going on what activities should be in the home view. I actually think this is really important. I want to step back a step and work together on what criteria we should have to put an activity in the home view. Here is how I've deconstructed my thinking. 1. We want an attractive, abundant but not cluttered ring of activities. 2. Activities in the ring should work! 3. Activities in the favorites ring should have most of these characteristics 1. be easily engaged with by a kid or adult 2. Not frustrating to a new user 3. Easy to image how the activity could promote learning 4. A free and open version of something some schools or parents are currently paying money for 5. Show off the power of the system in some way (examples) 1. Collaboration 2. Teacher ability to structure materials Maybe people can add and clarify this. -- Caroline Meeks Solution Grove carol...@solutiongrove.com 617-500-3488 - Office 505-213-3268 - Fax ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
[IAEP] design meeting tomorrow at 9am EST/1pm UTC
Hi everyone We moved the meeting to 9am EST/1pm UTC tomorrow so Eben can join. Thanks, Christian -- anyth...@christianmarcschmidt.com http://www.christianmarcschmidt.com 917/ 575 0013 ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
