Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS] Unmaintained Projects and Teams

[Bernie Innocenti]

On Fri, 2010-07-02 at 10:06 +0200, Tomeu Vizoso wrote:

> > Proposal: draw a list of teams that should be hidden in some "Disbanded
> > Teams" page. Or, to put it positively, "Teams Awaiting Coordinators".
> > At the top of the team page, we could add a template saying "This team
> > is looking for a coordinator, ask inside". How does it sound?
> 
> Sounds great! Everything that gives more visibility to the resourcing
> problem is of great importance to SLs today.

Ok, which teams are currently inactive? These are those I never hear
anything about:

 * Education Team
 * Deployment Team (briefly revived by rgs one month ago)
 * Documentation (though dfarning seems to be up to something)

All the other teams appear to have at least some activity, so the
situation isn't as bad as it seemed initially.


> Sure not, but we need to take into account that we may not be able to
> highlight 60 projects, a more realistic number would be 6? But I leave
> this subject for our community team ;)

Good point. 6 seems like a good number. When we get there, we could do
like Apache and Eclipse do: split them between primary/secondary or
front-page/incubator projects. It could be done with an objective
criteria or by vote of the board.


> > Red Hat and Canonical got into the habit of showcasing their top
> > projects on freedesktop.org, gnome.org, kernel.org and similar umbrella
> > organizations.
> 
> Not sure I get this. You mean that they sponsor projects in those
> upstream orgs and capitalize it in terms of marketing?

No, I meant to say that RH and Canonical, who have perfectly good
project hosting sites of their own, choose to host many high-profile
projects on upstream, vendor-neutral sites.

In other words, the parallel I was trying to make is:

 Red Hat / Canonical => freedesktop.org, gnome.org...
 OLPC / SoaS => sugarlabs.org, fedoraproject.org...


> I guess we need to find the best balance for us. Organizations whose
> primary goal is supporting an upstream project use to have very clear
> that they shouldn't get into the downstream waters (no pun intended).
> I'm thinking of GNOME, KDE, LXDE, etc.
> 
> Some links for comparison:
> 
> * http://lxde.org/download - points to Debian images (but without
> making it too explicit)
> 
> * http://www.kde.org/download/ - links to distros carrying KDE
> 
> * http://library.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/2.30/#rninstallation -
> promotes "GNOME Live Media" for trying it out, points to distros for
> actual usage. GNOME Live Media is based on Foresight Linux but it's
> not explicitly mentioned.
>
> What I conclude from that is that upstream projects understand the
> need to make as easy as possible for people to try out their stuff,
> which leads to some contributors of both that upstream and of some
> distro to make customized images. Though I don't see no upstream
> project taking a distro and optimizing it for a specific piece of
> hardware, I guess Sugar's situation is special enough in this aspect.
> For SLs' is critical that our software runs as well as possible on
> OLPC machines.

For package distributions, small projects often start by making their
own binaries and then let the various distros take over.

We're doing this too, at the package level: we release tarballs and let
Fedora, Debian, OpenSUSE and Mandriva package them up autonomously.
Ubuntu is getting there too, with some help.

OTOH, to make Sugar useful in the classroom, especially in 1-to-1
computing environments, we absolutely also need customized distros. This
does not seem to be happening without our direct push. At least, not
yet.

The day OLPC ships the latest version of Sugar, I'll be glad to step
asid and move to do something else. SoaS is done by people who are both
in the Fedora and in the Sugar camp. Would it happen entirely within
Fedora? I doubt it.

Perhaps because of immaturity of the Sugar ecosystem, the usual thing
that happened to KDE and GNOME has not yet happened to us. Perhaps, it's
just that low-age education has special demands and cannot be fit into
generic mainstream distros.


> Wonder when someone will start a LTSP-ready spin for schools with computer 
> labs.

Ask David Van Assche, he's been working on it for a while. With Sugar,
too.


> Sure, I'm in favour of trimming out the non-essential goals and
> looking at similar organizations for models. But I also see the point
> that it may be in our interest to nurture the broadest interests
> around Sugar. Crazy idea: what about an incubation lab for projects
> that don't fit 100% and that haven't grown yet to have their own
> organization?

I'm all for it! We already have all the needed pieces of infrastructure
to brew activities: gitorious, wiki, aslo. Trac and Pootle require
sysadmin action.

For projects other than activities, we offer free shell accounts with
file distribution on http://people.sugarlabs.org . Admittedly, it's a
little weak.

To improve the situation, we tried to make a deal with Launchpad and
even install our 

Re: [IAEP] Feedback request for my Python tutorial

[Caryl Bigenho]

Hi Again...
I can't get that link to work at all  it starts to go somewhere then 
displays "Go to this address" in the address bar. The rest of the page is blank.
Caryl

From: dinko.gale...@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2010 02:56:49 +0200
Subject: Re: [IAEP] Feedback request for my Python tutorial
To: cbige...@hotmail.com
CC: iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org

Hi,

I've uploaded[1] the files again with "execute" permission removed. 

Dinko


[1] http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3266265/Pippy-Python_lessons.tar.gz
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Re: [IAEP] Feedback request for my Python tutorial

[Dinko Galetic]

Hi,

I've uploaded[1] the files again with "execute" permission removed.

Dinko


[1] http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3266265/Pippy-Python_lessons.tar.gz
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Re: [IAEP] Feedback request for my Python tutorial

[Dinko Galetic]

Hello Caryl,

On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 2:08 AM, Caryl Bigenho  wrote:

>
> I am attaching a screenshot the file info for one of the files that
> transferred incorrectly that I cannot open as a text file. As you can see,
> it was section "1.0 introduction" and came through as a unix file.
>

Ah, Unix *executable* files . I've checked them now, and it appears that
files 1 through 4 somehow got marked as executables (I have not done that
manually). However, they are still pure text files, and I'm sure you can
open them with any text editor. I can see "Open With TextEdit" in your
screenshot, you can do it like that or open TextEdit (or whatever you used
to read the others) and then do something like File-Open-"1.0 introduction".


Kind regards,
Dinko
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Re: [IAEP] First Sugar pilot deployment in Chile

[Werner Westermann]

Estimada Luz, saludos cordiales.  Estamos comunicando nuestros primeros
pasos con Sugar a la comunidad internacional de Sugar, donde participan
numerosos docentes.  La dejo introducida a la lista (en inglés) para que se
inscriba y participe:

http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Por favor revise:

http://educalibre.cl/?p=259
http://cl.sugarlabs.org/go/Piloto_Florence_Nightingale_Macul/Planificaciones#Jornadas_Introductorias

Saludos cordiales,

werner


El 6 de julio de 2010 18:39, Walter Bender escribió:

> 2010/7/6 Werner Westermann :
> > We are happy to announce our first Sugar deployment with 3rd graders,
> more
> > detalis:
> >
> > http://educalibre.cl/?p=259
> >
> > En el colegio Florence Nightingale de Macul, se ha iniciado una
> experiencia
> > piloto de la plataforma digital de aprendizaje para niños Sugar en el
> nivel
> > de 3ro Básico.  La iniciativa es apoyada por Sugar Labs Chile, iniciativa
> > impulsada por ONG Corporación Educalibre, transformándose en la primera
> > experiencia de implementación en el país.  Previo a la salida de
> vacaciones
> > invernales, se les ha introducido al entorno educativo personalizado en
> > jornadas introductorias con actividades que les han permitido jugar en
> > niveles crecientes de complejidad y crear juegos de memoria visual.  Se
> > trabaja junto a la profesora Luz Blandón para la inclusión de las
> diversas
> > actividades que provee Sugar en distintos sectores de aprendizaje y otras
> > actividades. Se está utilizando una solución portable de Sugar on a Stick
> > (Mirabelle) que corre desde un UBS stick (pendrive).  ¿Qué es Sugar y
> cuáles
> > son sus alcances para a educación de los niños?
> > ___
> > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> > IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
> >
>  Werner, please welcome the children and teachers to the community.
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>
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Re: [IAEP] First Sugar pilot deployment in Chile

[Walter Bender]

2010/7/6 Werner Westermann :
> We are happy to announce our first Sugar deployment with 3rd graders, more
> detalis:
>
> http://educalibre.cl/?p=259
>
> En el colegio Florence Nightingale de Macul, se ha iniciado una experiencia
> piloto de la plataforma digital de aprendizaje para niños Sugar en el nivel
> de 3ro Básico.  La iniciativa es apoyada por Sugar Labs Chile, iniciativa
> impulsada por ONG Corporación Educalibre, transformándose en la primera
> experiencia de implementación en el país.  Previo a la salida de vacaciones
> invernales, se les ha introducido al entorno educativo personalizado en
> jornadas introductorias con actividades que les han permitido jugar en
> niveles crecientes de complejidad y crear juegos de memoria visual.  Se
> trabaja junto a la profesora Luz Blandón para la inclusión de las diversas
> actividades que provee Sugar en distintos sectores de aprendizaje y otras
> actividades. Se está utilizando una solución portable de Sugar on a Stick
> (Mirabelle) que corre desde un UBS stick (pendrive).  ¿Qué es Sugar y cuáles
> son sus alcances para a educación de los niños?
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>
 Werner, please welcome the children and teachers to the community.

regards.

-walter


-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org
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[IAEP] First Sugar pilot deployment in Chile

[Werner Westermann]

We are happy to announce our first Sugar deployment with 3rd graders, more
detalis:

http://educalibre.cl/?p=259

En el colegio Florence Nightingale  de Macul, se ha
iniciado una experiencia
pilotode
la plataforma digital de aprendizaje para niños Sugar en el nivel de
3ro
Básico.  La iniciativa es apoyada por Sugar Labs
Chile,
iniciativa impulsada por *ONG Corporación Educalibre*, transformándose en la
primera experiencia de implementación en el país.  Previo a la salida de
vacaciones invernales, se les ha introducido al entorno educativo
personalizado en jornadas
introductoriascon
actividades que les han permitido jugar en niveles crecientes de
complejidad y crear juegos de memoria visual.  Se trabaja junto a la
profesora Luz Blandón para la inclusión de las diversas actividades que
provee Sugar  en distintos
sectores de aprendizaje y otras actividades. Se está utilizando una solución
portable de Sugar on a
Stick(Mirabelle)
que corre desde un UBS stick (pendrive).
* ¿Qué es Sugar y cuáles son sus alcances para a educación de los
niños?
*
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Re: [IAEP] Feedback request for my Python tutorial

[Dinko Galetic]

Woops, pressed "send" by accident. There's the rest of my email.

On Tue, Jul 6, 2010 at 3:52 PM, Dinko Galetic wrote:

>
> On Tue, Jul 6, 2010 at 7:22 AM, Caryl Bigenho wrote:
>
>>  Hello Dinko,
>>
>> Actually, it could also be helpful it the code part of your example was
>> shown as you have it and the rest be in another font it will help the
>> reader.
>>
>
> Well, if the tutorial was to be published on a website or in a book, sure.
> However, it will be in a Python script...
>

... and displayed in a Python shell, so fonts are not an option.


>
>> I'm glad you have this project underway.  It will be very useful. When it
>> is finished, we will need to get some people to translate it into other
>> languages as well so OLPC users all over the world can enjoy using it.
>>
>> Caryl (aka SweetXOGrannie)
>>
>
I'm glad you think so! I do feel quite optimistic about the project. :) We
can bring programming to a lot of kids this way.

Thanks for your help,
Dinko
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Re: [IAEP] Feedback request for my Python tutorial

[Dinko Galetic]

Hi Caryl,

My first email was written in haste so I didn't explain what I am aiming at
with my tutorial, so I'll do that now. I think it should answer some of your
questions.

The materials I've send to the list are pure text. I mainly aimed this at
the discussion about the content, not the form, of the tutorial (are the
sentences clear enough, could certain things be explained better, etc.)

My intention is that this tutorial is used from Pippy in the same way the
current examples are. The content of the tutorial (the pure text I've mailed
to the list) would be wrapped in Python code so that it displays text one
paragraph at the time, is interactive (the learned can type code and
practice), offers the options to save progress, quit, continue etc. Since
the code for that would look quite intimidating[1] to the learner, it would
be hidden, most likely in /pippy/library/pippy/tutorial. The learner would
directly use files in /pippy/data/tutorial, the same way the currect Python
examples are used from Pippy. Those files (like this one [2]) would only
have something like:

import lesson1
lesson1.run()
# some comments on how to use the tutorial
# and what can be learned from this lesson

There are also some notes in the materials which will not be something the
learner will see; I've just marked places where I need to think more about
something or where a prompt will be.

On Tue, Jul 6, 2010 at 7:22 AM, Caryl Bigenho  wrote:

>  Hello Dinko,
>
> This is a nice project and I will take some time over the next week or 2 to
> look at it in detail.  I notice a few "typos" that I can help with and will
> send them along later.  However I do have a question and a couple of
> suggestions at this point after glancing at the download.
>

I appreciate all the help I can get - even if it's about typos (in fact, I'm
curious about where you found them, I had everything checked before I posted
to the list).

Question: Why are some sections unix files and others plain text?  What are
> we supposed to open the unix files on?
>

There's no such thing as a unix file - those are all just standard plain
ASCII text files. In fact, all of them are in exactly the same format. I
accidentally named some of those differently (.txt). You should have no
problems opening them with your text editor.


>
> Suggestion: When a term is used in a Python tutorial do not assume your
> reader knows what it stands for or means. Keeping a glossary of terms will
> help teach the reader more than simple mysterious commands.  For example the
> > and < signs could be explained (very young readers will not know these).
>  Also the term "int." I assume it stands for "integer."  If so, tell us
> somewhere that it does and what an integer is. If not... what does it
> represent? Is it just a variable that you picked?
>
>
I see your point. A glossary is a good idea, I'll think of something.
However, there's one thing we should keep in mind. If there are readers
which don't know that < and > mean "less" and "larger", are you sure they
are of proper age to learn programming? While Sugar is for children from
6-12, I am aiming for the upper range of that age with my tutorial (they
should learn how read first, won't they :) ). I keep that idea in mind when
deciding if something is too advanced.

Regarding "int", I've mentioned that it is used to turn strings into a
number. The concept of integer is quite an advanced mathematical concept. I
do plan to talk a bit more about different number in later lessons, but I
decided to keep it short for now since most of the kids probably won't know
about decimal numbers so I didn't want to say "Look, int() gives you a whole
number, and float() a floating point number, which is a way numbers can be
binary represented... and we use that for decimal numbers..". In later
lesson, I do plan to mention it, but give a link to Wikipeda article on
floating point notation and say that they can read it there if they are
interested, but that it's enough to know it represents decimal numbers (and
also mention that they don't have to bother with it if they haven't learned
decimal numbers in school yet).



> Suggestion: Large blocks of text are very intimidating.  If you can break
> them up into smaller units (paragraphs) it will make it easier for the
> reader.
>

I have that in mind. There will always be a "Press enter to continue" prompt
after a block of text.


> Actually, it could also be helpful it the code part of your example was
> shown as you have it and the rest be in another font it will help the
> reader.
>

Well, if the tutorial was to be published on a website or in a book, sure.
However, it will be in a Python script


>
> I'm glad you have this project underway.  It will be very useful. When it
> is finished, we will need to get some people to translate it into other
> languages as well so OLPC users all over the world can enjoy using it.
>
> Caryl (aka SweetXOGrannie)
>


[1]
http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/pippy/repos/dga

[IAEP] Alexandre Borovik's collaborative book, "Shadows of the Truth"

[Maria Droujkova]

I came across Alexandre's project via Alex Bogomolny of Cut the Knot. I am
reading the current version
http://www.maths.manchester.ac.uk/~avb/ST.pdfwith growing fascination.
Please help Alexandre make it even stronger by
contributing to his inquiry. From what is already in the book, there are all
indications it will powerfully support families and educators who want to
help their kids work on advanced math early.

Here is Alexandre's request.

Cheers,
Maria Droujkova
http://www.naturalmath.com

Make math your own, to make your own math.

~*~*~*~*~*
I send this request to every  person interested in mathematics or
mathematical education and who I have managed to get in contact with,
personally or via networking.

I am writing a book on mathematical thinking, and I ask you to kindly pass
to me your recollections of challenges you encountered in your early
learning of mathematics. Such stories provide a fascinating
insight into the psychology of mathematical thinking.

One example of what I am looking for:

A girl aged 6 easily solved “put a number in the box” problems of the type 7
+ [ ] = 12, by counting how many 1’s she had to add to 7 in order to get 12
but struggled with [ ] + 6 = 11, because she did not know where to start.
Worse, she felt for years that she could not communicate her difficulty to
adults.

This example is one of many from my forthcoming book “Shadows of the Truth:
Metamathematics of Elementary Mathematics”, available for free download from
http://www.maths.manchester.ac.uk/~avb/ST.pdf

It is a follow-up to my recent book "Mathematics under the Microscope",
 AMS, 2010, available from
http://www.mrlonline.org/bookstore-getitem/item=MBK-71

Please also give me the following details:

[*]Your gender.

[*] Your age when a particular episode happened.

[*] What was the language of mathematical instruction? Was it different from
your mother tongue?

Please send your stories to boro...@manchester.ac.uk.

My warmest thanks!

Alexandre Borovik
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