[IAEP] Thailand to revive 1-1 computing
Has anybody heard about this, or have any idea what hardware they might be talking about? http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1765816.html Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra tried to put in an OLPC program for Thailand before he was ousted in a coup. His sister Yingluck Shinawatra and their political party have recently won a landslide election victory in Thailand, and this article lists some of her promises. This one is directly relevant to us. FREE TABLET PCS - The new government has promised free tablet computers for about 800,000 new school children each year for six years beginning in January. Puea Thai says these would cost between 3,000 and 5,000 baht ($100 to $160) each and operate with open-source software, possibly from India or China. NOTE: Olarn Chaipravat, a senior figure in Puea Thai's economic team, told Reuters the project would cost about 4 billion baht ($131 million) a year. The idea has divided educators with some saying it will do more harm than good. The project is a continuation of the One Laptop Per Child project (OLPC) adopted by Yingluck's brother, Thaksin, but scrapped when he was ousted in a 2006 coup. -- Edward Mokurai (#40664;#38647;/#2343;#2352;#2381;#2350;#2350;#2375;#2328;#2358;#2348;#2381;#2342;#2327;#2352;#2381;#2332;/#1583;#1726;#1585;#1605;#1605;#1740;#1711;#1726;#1588;#1576;#1583;#1711;#1585; #1580;) Cherlin Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation. The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] Looking for Concrete Fraction Experiences
On Tue, July 12, 2011 11:23 pm, Steve Thomas wrote: Looking for ideas on how we can give kids (and adults) concrete experiences with the concept of fraction. You do not have to *give* them such experiences. You need to draw attention to the experiences they have had all their lives. You do eat slices of pie, cake, and pizza, and chocolate bars marked for breaking, I trust. You use coins, and can get dollar coins, half dollars, quarters, tenths, twentieths, and hundredths. You can talk about the divisions of hours, minutes, seconds, yards, feet, inches, meters, decimeters, centimeters, gallons, quarts, pints, cups, fluid ounces, tablespoons, teaspoons, liters, milliliters, pounds, ounces, kilograms, grams... Special bonus points for anyone who can come up with an example of division with fractions (ex: 1/3 divided by 1/2) 1/2 goes into 1 twice. In fact it goes into any whole number N by dividing N objects into 2 pieces each, giving 2N pieces. Similarly, it goes into 1/3 twice 1/3, or 2/3. If you divide a circle into sixths, you can easily see that a third of the circle (two pieces) is two-thirds of half the circle (three pieces), in just the same way that, for example, two beads is 1/4 of eight beads. It has been done in detail, and is available on various OER sites, some of which are given at http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Open_Education_Resources I have written about this on other mailing lists. I will do a Turtle Art version of this some time soon, after I do a bit more on the concept I have been working on most recently, figurate numbers. I have several such lessons at http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/TurtleArt/Tutorials#Mokurai.27s_Tutorials Tony Forster did a TA visualization for fractions that I plan to carry further. http://tonyforster.blogspot.com/2009/12/turtle-fractions.html Others are welcome to join with Tony and me. So here is the outline. You will have to take this more slowly with children, of course. * Cut a pie in pieces, and color some of the pieces, as Tony did. That gives the basic idea of a fraction. Point out that when you cut a pie in, say, 8 pieces, you are doing 1 divided by 1/8. * Cut more than one pie in the same number of pieces each. This lets us talk about improper fractions and mixed fractions (integer plus fraction), and converting between them. We can also introduce rational numbers at some stage of child development. * Cut a pie in pieces, and cut the pieces into smaller pieces (multiplication of the simplest fractions, such as 1/2 times 1/3). Some fractions can be described using the bigger pieces, and some require the smaller pieces. Talk about reducing fractions to lowest terms. (You will need other materials in order to talk about Greatest Common Divisors. I'll do something on that.) Take some time on multiplying fractions. Then notice that, for example, if you divide a pie into sixths, three of the pieces make a half. 3 times 1/6 is 1/2, so 1/2 divided by 3 is 1/6, and 1/2 (= 3/6) divided by 1/6 is 3. (Assuming prior understanding that if the product of, say, 2 and 3 is 6, then 6/3 = 2 and 6/2 = 3.) * Cut several pies. For example, cut two pies into three pieces each, and then color pairs of pieces. How many groups of two pieces make two pies? Congratulations, you have just divided 2 by 2/3. * Work other examples, dividing whole numbers by fractions, then fractions by other fractions, choosing cases that come out even to start with. * Now look at examples where one fraction does not go evenly into the other. What do you have to do to make sense of the remainder? Say you have a pizza cut into 8 pieces, and you have hungry pizza eaters who want three slices each. How many can you accommodate? Well, two, with two slices left over. Two slices is 2/3 of three slices, so that comes to 2 2/3 portions. None of this requires Turtle Art. You can cut pies or cakes, or pieces of construction paper to do all of this. Oh, yes. How many pieces do the local pizza parlors cut pizzas into? What fractions can you make from those pieces? Can you find pictures of pizzas from directly above, so that they appear as circles? (Yes.) What else? Craters on the moon? The whole moon? Circular swimming pools, fountains, ponds? It remains an open question whether the children will discover the invert-and-multiply rule for dividing fractions by themselves, whether they will need broad hints, or whether they will have to be told. It would be interesting to me to hear how they would explain these ideas to each other. I will be interested to hear your results. Thanks, Stephen ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep -- Edward Mokurai (#40664;#38647;/#2343;#2352;#2381;#2350;#2350;#2375;#2328;#2358;#2348;#2381;#2342;#2327;#2352;#2381;#2332;/#1583;#1726;#1585;#1605;#1605;#1740;#1711;#1726;#1588;#1576;#1583;#1711;#1585; #1580;) Cherlin
Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS]: Request for certifications of developing an activity
On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 06:11:31PM -0400, Chris Ball wrote: Hi, On Tue, Jul 12 2011, Walter Bender wrote: Can we discuss this? I think it would be good to have a certificate program of some sort. I image that if we get sign-off by 2+ experienced developers, we should be willing to award some sort of certificate (perhaps we can get the design team to work something up.) Perhaps we could tie the certificate-awarding to posting an activity on ASLO and getting a review from someone on the Activity Team or something? Perhaps even prominent reviewers on ASLO (are there any?). Either way it's more sustainable and honest than herding developers to sign off on certificates. Thanks, - Chris. Martin pgpDmJTzX08Zv.pgp Description: PGP signature ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS]: Request for certifications of developing an activity
I like the idea of giving certificates, but I think we should take the opportunity to enforce some simple best practices, like requiring a toolbar, requiring Share and Keep buttons to be hidden if they aren't used, requiring a proper icon for the Activity, etc. It might be nice to have two levels of certificate. Since shared Activities are more difficult to develop, maybe we have a separate certificate for those. James Simmons On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 2:53 AM, Martin Dengler mar...@martindengler.comwrote: On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 06:11:31PM -0400, Chris Ball wrote: Hi, On Tue, Jul 12 2011, Walter Bender wrote: Can we discuss this? I think it would be good to have a certificate program of some sort. I image that if we get sign-off by 2+ experienced developers, we should be willing to award some sort of certificate (perhaps we can get the design team to work something up.) Perhaps we could tie the certificate-awarding to posting an activity on ASLO and getting a review from someone on the Activity Team or something? Perhaps even prominent reviewers on ASLO (are there any?). Either way it's more sustainable and honest than herding developers to sign off on certificates. Thanks, - Chris. Martin ___ 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] Looking for Concrete Fraction Experiences
On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 11:23 PM, Steve Thomas sthom...@gosargon.com wrote: Looking for ideas on how we can give kids (and adults) concrete experiences with the concept of fraction. Special bonus points for anyone who can come up with an example of division with fractions (ex: 1/3 divided by 1/2) Thanks, Stephen ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep There are few examples here: http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Math4Team/Florida#Instructional_Block_10 In Caacupe, they use the variant of Abacus that they invented, which allows for adding and subtracting fractions. -walter -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS]: Request for certifications of developing an activity
Yes. Also, we must recommend working more in the open, I don't know why, but in particular students in universities are very reluctant to integrate to the community, and are happy dropping a finished product without interaction. Gonzalo On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 5:37 AM, James Simmons nices...@gmail.com wrote: I like the idea of giving certificates, but I think we should take the opportunity to enforce some simple best practices, like requiring a toolbar, requiring Share and Keep buttons to be hidden if they aren't used, requiring a proper icon for the Activity, etc. It might be nice to have two levels of certificate. Since shared Activities are more difficult to develop, maybe we have a separate certificate for those. James Simmons On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 2:53 AM, Martin Dengler mar...@martindengler.comwrote: On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 06:11:31PM -0400, Chris Ball wrote: Hi, On Tue, Jul 12 2011, Walter Bender wrote: Can we discuss this? I think it would be good to have a certificate program of some sort. I image that if we get sign-off by 2+ experienced developers, we should be willing to award some sort of certificate (perhaps we can get the design team to work something up.) Perhaps we could tie the certificate-awarding to posting an activity on ASLO and getting a review from someone on the Activity Team or something? Perhaps even prominent reviewers on ASLO (are there any?). Either way it's more sustainable and honest than herding developers to sign off on certificates. Thanks, - Chris. Martin ___ 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
Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS]: Request for certifications of developing an activity
On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 4:37 AM, James Simmons nices...@gmail.com wrote: I like the idea of giving certificates, but I think we should take the opportunity to enforce some simple best practices, like requiring a toolbar, requiring Share and Keep buttons to be hidden if they aren't used, requiring a proper icon for the Activity, etc. It might be nice to have two levels of certificate. Since shared Activities are more difficult to develop, maybe we have a separate certificate for those. James Simmons Just to bang my usual drum, personally I would consider i18n and follow through (PO file on Poolte) to be a core element, but maybe you can use that for an advanced certificate criteria, cjl volunteer Sugar Labs / OLPC / eToys / Poolte admin ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS]: Request for certifications of developing an activity
On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 6:28 AM, Chris Leonard cjlhomeaddr...@gmail.com wrote: On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 4:37 AM, James Simmons nices...@gmail.com wrote: I like the idea of giving certificates, but I think we should take the opportunity to enforce some simple best practices, like requiring a toolbar, requiring Share and Keep buttons to be hidden if they aren't used, requiring a proper icon for the Activity, etc. It might be nice to have two levels of certificate. Since shared Activities are more difficult to develop, maybe we have a separate certificate for those. James Simmons Just to bang my usual drum, personally I would consider i18n and follow through (PO file on Poolte) to be a core element, but maybe you can use that for an advanced certificate criteria, Another thought on an advanced certificate criterion, implementing sharing / collaboration. cjl volunteer Sugar Labs / OLPC / eToys / Poolte admin ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] Looking for Concrete Fraction Experiences
On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 4:23 AM, Steve Thomas said: Special bonus points for anyone who can come up with an example of division with fractions (ex: 1/3 divided by 1/2) I found a couple of promising lesson plans with a web search: http://mypages.iit.edu/~smile/ma9703.html http://mypages.iit.edu/~smile/ma8805.html If your students are familiar with cuisenaire rods, a little coaching should help them to develop demonstrations or calculation methods with the rods. Also, how about pouring a liter a water into cups marked with a fill line at two-tenths of a liter. (two-tenths is one fifth, the student fills five cups, so the reciprocal of one fifth is five.) And so on with two liters, then half a liter ... Above present division as quotition (how many times x goes into z) Partition (sharing z equally among y groups) is still up for Steve's bonus points. I don't think elementary/middle school students should be expected to think of sharing a third of a pizza among half a person, but there are probably many natural examples that don't occur to me at the moment. An unnatural one and perhaps intimidating one, is figuring out how to pay a dividend to a holder of a fractional share of stock! David ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
[IAEP] Oct 17-21 Doc Camp @ Google HQ, Mountain View, California
This could be a major opportunity -- many Book Sprints within one week to create many free/open 'Quick Start' guides. Perhaps even more so given its schedule aligns so well with http://olpcSF.org 's own global community summit Oct 21-23 right in town there in San Francisco! Even if OLPC/Sugar participation in GSoC (Google Summer of Code) has unfortunately lagged this year. All the more reason several exceptional volunteer writers/communicators/educators across our OLPC/Sugar community should strongly consider applying+connecting+building with like-minded folk here: http://sites.google.com/site/docsprintsummit/ -- Help kids everywhere map their world, at http://olpcMAP.net ! Subject:Re: [FM Discuss] register for doc camp Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2011 07:41:49 -0500 From: Anne Gentle annegen...@gmail.com To: disc...@lists.flossmanuals.net This announcement is truly awesome. I plan to apply. Looking forward to seeing people in sunny (mild) California! Anne ** *Anne Gentle* my blog http://justwriteclick.com/ | my book http://xmlpress.net/publications/conversation-community/ | LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/annegentle | Delicious http://del.icio.us/annegentle | Twitter http://twitter.com/annegentle On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 4:46 AM, adam hyde a...@xs4all.nl mailto:a...@xs4all.nl wrote: Hi everyone, Please pass this on to anyone interested. This is a call for proposals for the 2011 Google Summer of Code Doc Camp. Individuals and projects are invited to submit proposals for the GSoC Doc Camp to be held at Google's Mountain View headquarters (California) 17 October - 21 October. The GSoC Doc Camp is a place for documentors to meet, work on documentation, and share their documentation experiences. The camp aims to improve free documentation materials and skills in GSoC projects and individuals and help form the identity of the emergent free documentation sector. The Doc Camp will consist of 2 major components - an unconference and 3-5 short form Book Sprints to produce 'Quick Start' guides for specific GSoC projects. The unconference will explore topics proposed by the participants. Any topic on free documentation of free software can be proposed for discussion during the event. Each Quick Start Sprint will bring together 5-8 individuals to produce a book on a specific GSoC project. All participants of the Doc Camp must attend a sprint. The Quick Start books will be launched at the opening party for the GSoC Mentors summit immediately following the event. Individuals with a passion for free documentation about free software may apply to attend by filling out the application form [1] and submitting before 5 August. Those wishing to attend do not need to be from a GSoC project. Accommodation and food will be covered by the GSoC Doc Camp. Part or complete travel costs can also be applied for as part of the application process. Quick Start Sprint projects will be chosen from proposals submitted to the GSoC Doc Camp before 5 August through the application form [1]. Applications for Quick Start Sprints are invited from projects that are part of the 2011 GSoC program. Quick Start Sprint proposals can nominate up to 5 individuals to attend and participate in the proposed sprint. A Quick Sprint proposal does not have to nominate individuals to participate - you can also use this as an opportunity to promote your project to Doc Camp participants. If the proposal is accepted the accommodation and food costs will be covered by the Doc Camp for any listed individuals and part or complete travel costs for each can be applied for (if applicable). The GSoC Doc Camp is co-organised by GSoC and FLOSS Manuals. Books Sprints and unconference facilitation conducted by Adam Hyde. [1] - https://sites.google.com/site/docsprintsummit/ Cheers, Carol and Adam ___ Discuss mailing list disc...@lists.flossmanuals.net mailto:disc...@lists.flossmanuals.net http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS]: Request for certifications of developing an activity
Gonzalo, having worked with a handful of student groups in Austria over the past three years I agree with your observation. With education students I feel it's hard to get them involved because they're simply not used to tools such as mailing-lists, wikis, and IRC which happen to be the places where most of the existing community hangs out. While I always try to encourage them to participate or even simply listen to the conversation especially here on IAEP it only seldomely works out (e.g. the OLPC in Science-Subjects --- NEED HELP!!! mail from one of the current students back in May or so:-). But more often then not I end up being the gate-keeper and forwarding relevant mails to them from the lists, etc. :-/ So while I know I'm beating a very dead horse here: Unless we change or adapt our communication processes and tools I personally don't expect many educators (students or not) to participate in the community. With engineering students I thought that things would be easier however unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case, at least here in Austria. Again, there was a tiny bit of involvement at some points in the past but when you see people updating source code via e-mail attachments and Skype messages you realize that you generally have a long way to go... Here I feel that maybe having a separate sugar-students@ mailing list might be a way forward. Ideally some experienced developers and community people would closely monitor it and offer timely replies. Everyone working with students should then encourage them to sign up there. This way there'd be a space for them to collaborate, exchange experiences, and discuss issues without being overwhelmed by the traffic on IAEP and sugar-devel which can be very overwhelming at times, particularly when you're just getting involved. Last but not least we have to realize that many student projects operate on a term-by-term basis. Still being a student myself I know how little time that tends to leave for doing anything that doesn't directly affect your grade... :-/ Cheers, Christoph Am 13.07.2011 12:27, schrieb Gonzalo Odiard: Yes. Also, we must recommend working more in the open, I don't know why, but in particular students in universities are very reluctant to integrate to the community, and are happy dropping a finished product without interaction. Gonzalo On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 5:37 AM, James Simmons nices...@gmail.com mailto:nices...@gmail.com wrote: I like the idea of giving certificates, but I think we should take the opportunity to enforce some simple best practices, like requiring a toolbar, requiring Share and Keep buttons to be hidden if they aren't used, requiring a proper icon for the Activity, etc. It might be nice to have two levels of certificate. Since shared Activities are more difficult to develop, maybe we have a separate certificate for those. James Simmons On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 2:53 AM, Martin Dengler mar...@martindengler.com mailto:mar...@martindengler.com wrote: On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 06:11:31PM -0400, Chris Ball wrote: Hi, On Tue, Jul 12 2011, Walter Bender wrote: Can we discuss this? I think it would be good to have a certificate program of some sort. I image that if we get sign-off by 2+ experienced developers, we should be willing to award some sort of certificate (perhaps we can get the design team to work something up.) Perhaps we could tie the certificate-awarding to posting an activity on ASLO and getting a review from someone on the Activity Team or something? Perhaps even prominent reviewers on ASLO (are there any?). Either way it's more sustainable and honest than herding developers to sign off on certificates. Thanks, - Chris. Martin ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org mailto:IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org mailto: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 -- Christoph Derndorfer co-editor, www.olpcnews.com e-mail: christ...@olpcnews.com ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS]: Request for certifications of developing an activity
Chris, I would consider Pootle support basic good practice, not advanced. I agree with others who said we need to get them involved in the community. That might actually make the certificate attractive to teachers. If he assigns a student to get a certificate from us the student will learn valuable skills that he doesn't have to teach, and the project will be pre-graded in a sense too. I think MYOSA covers all the things we want the students to do: Git, Pootle, icons, toolbars, etc. I know that student projects have to be short, but none of this stuff takes that much time. Doing it right takes no longer than doing it wrong. James Simmons On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 5:28 AM, Chris Leonard cjlhomeaddr...@gmail.comwrote: On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 4:37 AM, James Simmons nices...@gmail.com wrote: I like the idea of giving certificates, but I think we should take the opportunity to enforce some simple best practices, like requiring a toolbar, requiring Share and Keep buttons to be hidden if they aren't used, requiring a proper icon for the Activity, etc. It might be nice to have two levels of certificate. Since shared Activities are more difficult to develop, maybe we have a separate certificate for those. James Simmons Just to bang my usual drum, personally I would consider i18n and follow through (PO file on Poolte) to be a core element, but maybe you can use that for an advanced certificate criteria, cjl volunteer Sugar Labs / OLPC / eToys / Poolte admin ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [OLPC-SF] Oct 17-21 Doc Camp @ Google HQ, Mountain View, California
On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 6:16 AM, Holt h...@laptop.org wrote: This could be a major opportunity -- many Book Sprints within one week to create many free/open 'Quick Start' guides. Perhaps even more so given its schedule aligns so well with http://olpcSF.org 's own global community summit Oct 21-23 right in town there in San Francisco! Even if OLPC/Sugar participation in GSoC (Google Summer of Code) has unfortunately lagged this year. Fantastic! Last year we had the book server/OPDS at the Internet Archive to dovetail with OLPC SF Community Summit. This year the doc sprint could do the same. Getting to Mountain View from SF is easy on Caltrain. http://www.caltrain.com/ cheers, Sameer All the more reason several exceptional volunteer writers/communicators/educators across our OLPC/Sugar community should strongly consider applying+connecting+building with like-minded folk here: http://sites.google.com/site/docsprintsummit/ -- Help kids everywhere map their world, at http://olpcMAP.net ! Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] register for doc camp Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2011 07:41:49 -0500 From: Anne Gentle annegen...@gmail.comannegen...@gmail.com To: disc...@lists.flossmanuals.net This announcement is truly awesome. I plan to apply. Looking forward to seeing people in sunny (mild) California! Anne * * *Anne Gentle* my blog http://justwriteclick.com/ | my bookhttp://xmlpress.net/publications/conversation-community/| LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/annegentle | Delicioushttp://del.icio.us/annegentle| Twitter http://twitter.com/annegentle On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 4:46 AM, adam hyde a...@xs4all.nl wrote: Hi everyone, Please pass this on to anyone interested. This is a call for proposals for the 2011 Google Summer of Code Doc Camp. Individuals and projects are invited to submit proposals for the GSoC Doc Camp to be held at Google's Mountain View headquarters (California) 17 October - 21 October. The GSoC Doc Camp is a place for documentors to meet, work on documentation, and share their documentation experiences. The camp aims to improve free documentation materials and skills in GSoC projects and individuals and help form the identity of the emergent free documentation sector. The Doc Camp will consist of 2 major components - an unconference and 3-5 short form Book Sprints to produce 'Quick Start' guides for specific GSoC projects. The unconference will explore topics proposed by the participants. Any topic on free documentation of free software can be proposed for discussion during the event. Each Quick Start Sprint will bring together 5-8 individuals to produce a book on a specific GSoC project. All participants of the Doc Camp must attend a sprint. The Quick Start books will be launched at the opening party for the GSoC Mentors summit immediately following the event. Individuals with a passion for free documentation about free software may apply to attend by filling out the application form [1] and submitting before 5 August. Those wishing to attend do not need to be from a GSoC project. Accommodation and food will be covered by the GSoC Doc Camp. Part or complete travel costs can also be applied for as part of the application process. Quick Start Sprint projects will be chosen from proposals submitted to the GSoC Doc Camp before 5 August through the application form [1]. Applications for Quick Start Sprints are invited from projects that are part of the 2011 GSoC program. Quick Start Sprint proposals can nominate up to 5 individuals to attend and participate in the proposed sprint. A Quick Sprint proposal does not have to nominate individuals to participate - you can also use this as an opportunity to promote your project to Doc Camp participants. If the proposal is accepted the accommodation and food costs will be covered by the Doc Camp for any listed individuals and part or complete travel costs for each can be applied for (if applicable). The GSoC Doc Camp is co-organised by GSoC and FLOSS Manuals. Books Sprints and unconference facilitation conducted by Adam Hyde. [1] - https://sites.google.com/site/docsprintsummit/ Cheers, Carol and Adam ___ Discuss mailing list disc...@lists.flossmanuals.net http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net ___ OLPC-SF mailing list olpc...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sf ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS]: Request for certifications of developing an activity
On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 04:07:49PM +0200, Christoph Derndorfer wrote: With education students I feel it's hard to get them involved because they're simply not used to tools such as mailing-lists, wikis, and IRC How do you think we could reach education students? Is it worth doing? Last but not least we have to realize that many student projects operate on a term-by-term basis. Probably not, I guess...? Cheers, Christoph Martin pgpxneeNJLeNb.pgp Description: PGP signature ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS]: Request for certifications of developing an activity
On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 3:27 AM, Gonzalo Odiard gonz...@laptop.org wrote: Yes. Also, we must recommend working more in the open, I don't know why, but in particular students in universities are very reluctant to integrate to the community, and are happy dropping a finished product without interaction. Gonzalo A lot of it has to do with motivation. Students typically pick up a project because they have a requirement, and may be passionate about the work at that moment, but needs of looking for a job, working on other course assignments etc. will quickly supersede their original project direction. The reluctance of integrating with the community stems from the requirements of the project (schedule/deliverables are course driven) and a usual lack of understanding of how FOSS projects work. Once the university requirement is satisfied, their motivation to continue typically goes away. However, if we are able to inculcate in these students, a desire for working on these projects while they are in the course, and integrate them into the community, then there is hope of continued work. cheers, Sameer -- Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Information Systems Director, Campus Business Solutions San Francisco State University http://verma.sfsu.edu/ http://opensource.sfsu.edu/ http://cbs.sfsu.edu/ http://is.sfsu.edu/ On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 5:37 AM, James Simmons nices...@gmail.com wrote: I like the idea of giving certificates, but I think we should take the opportunity to enforce some simple best practices, like requiring a toolbar, requiring Share and Keep buttons to be hidden if they aren't used, requiring a proper icon for the Activity, etc. It might be nice to have two levels of certificate. Since shared Activities are more difficult to develop, maybe we have a separate certificate for those. James Simmons On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 2:53 AM, Martin Dengler mar...@martindengler.com wrote: On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 06:11:31PM -0400, Chris Ball wrote: Hi, On Tue, Jul 12 2011, Walter Bender wrote: Can we discuss this? I think it would be good to have a certificate program of some sort. I image that if we get sign-off by 2+ experienced developers, we should be willing to award some sort of certificate (perhaps we can get the design team to work something up.) Perhaps we could tie the certificate-awarding to posting an activity on ASLO and getting a review from someone on the Activity Team or something? Perhaps even prominent reviewers on ASLO (are there any?). Either way it's more sustainable and honest than herding developers to sign off on certificates. Thanks, - Chris. Martin ___ 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 -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS]: Request for certifications of developing an activity
Just to remind the list about this guidance that I think is very useful and mentions pootle, collaboration, etc. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activity_Library/Editors/Policy On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 2:50 PM, Sameer Verma sve...@sfsu.edu wrote: On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 3:27 AM, Gonzalo Odiard gonz...@laptop.org wrote: Yes. Also, we must recommend working more in the open, I don't know why, but in particular students in universities are very reluctant to integrate to the community, and are happy dropping a finished product without interaction. Gonzalo A lot of it has to do with motivation. Students typically pick up a project because they have a requirement, and may be passionate about the work at that moment, but needs of looking for a job, working on other course assignments etc. will quickly supersede their original project direction. The reluctance of integrating with the community stems from the requirements of the project (schedule/deliverables are course driven) and a usual lack of understanding of how FOSS projects work. Once the university requirement is satisfied, their motivation to continue typically goes away. However, if we are able to inculcate in these students, a desire for working on these projects while they are in the course, and integrate them into the community, then there is hope of continued work. cheers, Sameer -- Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Information Systems Director, Campus Business Solutions San Francisco State University http://verma.sfsu.edu/ http://opensource.sfsu.edu/ http://cbs.sfsu.edu/ http://is.sfsu.edu/ On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 5:37 AM, James Simmons nices...@gmail.com wrote: I like the idea of giving certificates, but I think we should take the opportunity to enforce some simple best practices, like requiring a toolbar, requiring Share and Keep buttons to be hidden if they aren't used, requiring a proper icon for the Activity, etc. It might be nice to have two levels of certificate. Since shared Activities are more difficult to develop, maybe we have a separate certificate for those. James Simmons On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 2:53 AM, Martin Dengler mar...@martindengler.com wrote: On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 06:11:31PM -0400, Chris Ball wrote: Hi, On Tue, Jul 12 2011, Walter Bender wrote: Can we discuss this? I think it would be good to have a certificate program of some sort. I image that if we get sign-off by 2+ experienced developers, we should be willing to award some sort of certificate (perhaps we can get the design team to work something up.) Perhaps we could tie the certificate-awarding to posting an activity on ASLO and getting a review from someone on the Activity Team or something? Perhaps even prominent reviewers on ASLO (are there any?). Either way it's more sustainable and honest than herding developers to sign off on certificates. Thanks, - Chris. Martin ___ 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 -- 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] [SLOBS]: Request for certifications of developing an activity
Sameer, I remember being a student like it was yesterday. The thing is, you have classes like this one that Mel Chua pointed out awhile back: http://csci462-2011.wikispaces.com/ I looked at some of their blogs and some of them were struggling with pretty basic stuff like how to put in a toolbar, etc. They were using my book as a reference and still didn't quite get it. If I had been able to help them (not do the work, but point them in the right direction) I would have. The kind of stuff we'd like for them to do is the same kind of thing future employers are going to want, for the same reasons. I really think we have something to offer them. Once they are part of the community they may find that they like it. James Simmons On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 12:50 PM, Sameer Verma sve...@sfsu.edu wrote: On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 3:27 AM, Gonzalo Odiard gonz...@laptop.org wrote: Yes. Also, we must recommend working more in the open, I don't know why, but in particular students in universities are very reluctant to integrate to the community, and are happy dropping a finished product without interaction. Gonzalo A lot of it has to do with motivation. Students typically pick up a project because they have a requirement, and may be passionate about the work at that moment, but needs of looking for a job, working on other course assignments etc. will quickly supersede their original project direction. The reluctance of integrating with the community stems from the requirements of the project (schedule/deliverables are course driven) and a usual lack of understanding of how FOSS projects work. Once the university requirement is satisfied, their motivation to continue typically goes away. However, if we are able to inculcate in these students, a desire for working on these projects while they are in the course, and integrate them into the community, then there is hope of continued work. cheers, Sameer -- Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Information Systems Director, Campus Business Solutions San Francisco State University http://verma.sfsu.edu/ http://opensource.sfsu.edu/ http://cbs.sfsu.edu/ http://is.sfsu.edu/ On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 5:37 AM, James Simmons nices...@gmail.com wrote: I like the idea of giving certificates, but I think we should take the opportunity to enforce some simple best practices, like requiring a toolbar, requiring Share and Keep buttons to be hidden if they aren't used, requiring a proper icon for the Activity, etc. It might be nice to have two levels of certificate. Since shared Activities are more difficult to develop, maybe we have a separate certificate for those. James Simmons On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 2:53 AM, Martin Dengler mar...@martindengler.com wrote: On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 06:11:31PM -0400, Chris Ball wrote: Hi, On Tue, Jul 12 2011, Walter Bender wrote: Can we discuss this? I think it would be good to have a certificate program of some sort. I image that if we get sign-off by 2+ experienced developers, we should be willing to award some sort of certificate (perhaps we can get the design team to work something up.) Perhaps we could tie the certificate-awarding to posting an activity on ASLO and getting a review from someone on the Activity Team or something? Perhaps even prominent reviewers on ASLO (are there any?). Either way it's more sustainable and honest than herding developers to sign off on certificates. Thanks, - Chris. Martin ___ 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 -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS]: Request for certifications of developing an activity
I agree with most of your comments, and the next comments, we have knowledge useful to share, working with others, a lot of tools, professional level reviews, etc and also interacting have a cost for the students and the community (time, effort,etc). I do not think creating a low trafic list will solve the issue, (we tried stimulate the spanish community with the sugar-desarrollo list without success) I think the only solution is having a mostly permanent contact in a university, then the students will have short time interactions, but a lot of knowledge will be in the teachers. Then we need sell to a university teacher the idea of working with us. Gonzalo Here I feel that maybe having a separate sugar-students@ mailing list might be a way forward. Ideally some experienced developers and community people would closely monitor it and offer timely replies. Everyone working with students should then encourage them to sign up there. This way there'd be a space for them to collaborate, exchange experiences, and discuss issues without being overwhelmed by the traffic on IAEP and sugar-devel which can be very overwhelming at times, particularly when you're just getting involved. ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS]: Request for certifications of developing an activity
Hi Martin, long time no see, hope all is well in HK! :-) Am 13.07.2011 19:13, schrieb Martin Dengler: On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 04:07:49PM +0200, Christoph Derndorfer wrote: With education students I feel it's hard to get them involved because they're simply not used to tools such as mailing-lists, wikis, and IRC How do you think we could reach education students? (a) By working on things that are actually relevant to them. (b) By making an effort to understand them rather than forcing them (and largely failing) to understand us. (All assuming that you believe in the education vs. technology divide which some very smart people challenged during the eduJAM! summit back in May.;-) Is it worth doing? Yes, because speaking to technology people only helps you figure out whether you're doing things right. Speaking to education people helps you figure out whether you're doing the right things. (- the good ol' software verification vs. validation debate) Cheers, Christoph -- Christoph Derndorfer co-editor, www.olpcnews.com e-mail: christ...@olpcnews.com ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS]: Request for certifications of developing an activity
Hi Gonzalo, as you know I'm generally a fan of process rather than tool solutions but in this particular case I think that having a separate mailing list (and the aforementioned associated process;-) could actually help. IMHO the signal to noise ratio on lists such as IAEP is relatively low, particularly for people who only want to drop in for a couple of months (hopefully only initially that is). Even looking at my own inbox I currently have ~9500 unread e-mails out of the ~13800 messages sent via IAEP since it was first established. And I certainly do agree that professors at schools and universities are a vital component as they're a continuum in these institutions. However even with our small pilot project being a good, almost vital, selling point I haven't yet figure out a way to attract more of them to this community. From my own experience I do believe that long-term funding and/or institutional commitment (e.g. Uruguay's Flor de Ceibo) and associated research - and subsequent output in the form of papers, etc. - play an important role here. Though how to really get there I honestly don't know... :-? Cheers, Christoph Am 13.07.2011 20:38, schrieb Gonzalo Odiard: I agree with most of your comments, and the next comments, we have knowledge useful to share, working with others, a lot of tools, professional level reviews, etc and also interacting have a cost for the students and the community (time, effort,etc). I do not think creating a low trafic list will solve the issue, (we tried stimulate the spanish community with the sugar-desarrollo list without success) I think the only solution is having a mostly permanent contact in a university, then the students will have short time interactions, but a lot of knowledge will be in the teachers. Then we need sell to a university teacher the idea of working with us. Gonzalo Here I feel that maybe having a separate sugar-students@ mailing list might be a way forward. Ideally some experienced developers and community people would closely monitor it and offer timely replies. Everyone working with students should then encourage them to sign up there. This way there'd be a space for them to collaborate, exchange experiences, and discuss issues without being overwhelmed by the traffic on IAEP and sugar-devel which can be very overwhelming at times, particularly when you're just getting involved. -- Christoph Derndorfer co-editor, www.olpcnews.com e-mail: christ...@olpcnews.com ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Does anybody know what this announcement means? Did they merely put the page up before it was ready? http://education.gov.vc/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=125Itemid=107 Their home page shows that they have already distributed 2000 of some other kind of netbook with a blue case and carry handle Waveplace probably know - waveplace.com Tony ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
