Re: [IAEP] Letter to GPA Parents
On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 11:05 PM, fors...@ozonline.com.au wrote: We found out today that summer school ends a week sooner then we thought! It ends next week. We want to send the sticks home with the kids. We need to write a letter to the parents explaining what the stick is. Does anyone have any suggestions or sample letters? What would be good, but probably impractical at short notice, is to invite the parents to the last session, so the kids can show what they have achieved. That would give the opportunity to explain the sticks. The parents all work, I assume, so I doubt that will work this summer. Next year we will make a point of being at as many events where parents come to the school as possible. (It has also a sound base in constructionist and social constructivist pedagogy, the creation of public entities) Tony -- 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] Letter to GPA Parents
This doesn't answer Caroline's question, but I think a workshop led by the kids we worked with the summer to kick off the fall where parents and the whole school community is invited would be a great way to go. -walter On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 11:05 PM, fors...@ozonline.com.au wrote: We found out today that summer school ends a week sooner then we thought! It ends next week. We want to send the sticks home with the kids. We need to write a letter to the parents explaining what the stick is. Does anyone have any suggestions or sample letters? What would be good, but probably impractical at short notice, is to invite the parents to the last session, so the kids can show what they have achieved. That would give the opportunity to explain the sticks. (It has also a sound base in constructionist and social constructivist pedagogy, the creation of public entities) Tony ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep -- 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
[IAEP] is this a bug in the SoaS version of Calculator?
is this a bug in the SoaS version of Calculator? There seems to be an error in the trigonomety because tan 45 = 1.62 whether set on degrees or radians. That is correct for radians but it should change to tan 45 = 1. for degrees. On the SoaS version the degrees / radians button is found under the Miscellaneous tab. Maybe I am missing something but it seems to me to be a bug in this version of Calculator http://xo-whs2009.blogspot.com/2009/07/from-sugar-to-blogger.html ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] is this a bug in the SoaS version of Calculator?
There is definitely something screwed up. I'll investigate. -walter On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 8:00 AM, Bill Kerrbillk...@gmail.com wrote: is this a bug in the SoaS version of Calculator? There seems to be an error in the trigonomety because tan 45 = 1.62 whether set on degrees or radians. That is correct for radians but it should change to tan 45 = 1. for degrees. On the SoaS version the degrees / radians button is found under the Miscellaneous tab. Maybe I am missing something but it seems to me to be a bug in this version of Calculator http://xo-whs2009.blogspot.com/2009/07/from-sugar-to-blogger.html ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep -- 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] SoaS in the classroom feedback
On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 9:54 PM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.comwrote: On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 7:55 AM, Bill Kerrbillk...@gmail.com wrote: Is Internet access working out of the box? 7) Had to type about:config into Browse and muck around with proxy settings to get internet access - I had never done this before and needed assistance http://xo-whs2009.blogspot.com/2009/07/connecting-to-internet-through-soas.html But then it worked? -- yes, from home internet access works without any fiddling when booting SoaS on an xo SoaS internet access does not work on my dell mini inspiron - joel explained that was a different sort of problem, that it has a non-free wireless card driver at school it worked after mucking around with proxy settings even though connection seemed flaky but for school that is not unusual - am testing it with class tomorrow, will be interesting to see the success rate on a first trial lesson plan here: http://xo-whs2009.blogspot.com/2009/07/from-sugar-to-blogger.html ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] community influence on development
On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 04:17:56PM -0300, Bert Freudenberg wrote: On 28.07.2009, at 07:22, Martin Dengler wrote: On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 03:24:13PM +0545, Daniel Drake wrote: However, I feel like it could be better if the community (who I might even stretch to call customers) could have more influence. [...] What are the options for the community having more of an influence here? Influence on whom? Developers? There are no SugarLabs employed developers. But if we get feedback from the front line, from teachers actually using our software in the field, the volunteer developers I know struggle to find a way to make it easier for them. Nothing beats direct contact with children of course, but even meeting teachers from the deployments and hearing first-hand accounts of the problems (and successes!) is rather motivating. Reading these reports on a mailing list is less emotionally moving but still a great hint at how to prioritize one's spare time. I don't disagree with anything you said, but I'm struggling to see how it's relevant to the OP or my reply. Perhaps by the volunteer developers I know struggle to find a way to make it easier for them you're implying that we need to make it easier for volunteer developers to contribute? The problem is we get way too few feedback. Indeed. - Bert - Martin pgphPf2S3MF5Z.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] [Sugar-devel] community influence on development
On 30.07.2009, at 22:23, Martin Dengler wrote: On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 04:17:56PM -0300, Bert Freudenberg wrote: On 28.07.2009, at 07:22, Martin Dengler wrote: On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 03:24:13PM +0545, Daniel Drake wrote: However, I feel like it could be better if the community (who I might even stretch to call customers) could have more influence. [...] What are the options for the community having more of an influence here? Influence on whom? Developers? There are no SugarLabs employed developers. But if we get feedback from the front line, from teachers actually using our software in the field, the volunteer developers I know struggle to find a way to make it easier for them. Nothing beats direct contact with children of course, but even meeting teachers from the deployments and hearing first-hand accounts of the problems (and successes!) is rather motivating. Reading these reports on a mailing list is less emotionally moving but still a great hint at how to prioritize one's spare time. I don't disagree with anything you said, but I'm struggling to see how it's relevant to the OP or my reply. Perhaps by the volunteer developers I know struggle to find a way to make it easier for them you're implying that we need to make it easier for volunteer developers to contribute? No, I meant the volunteer developers are motivated largely by feedback from users of their software. They then do all they can (sometimes even struggling) to help. At least that's what I see with the Etoys developers, which is similar to Sugar in that it's not a scratch-your- own-itch open-source project. - Bert - The problem is we get way too few feedback. Indeed. - Bert - Martin ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
[IAEP] FW: VirtualBox Webinar: What's New in 3.0
Hi All, If you didn't get this email, you might be interested in registering for Sun Microsyatems webinar about VirtualBox next Wednesday morning. VirtualBox is one way to run Sugar on a MacBook. I haven't tried it on a PowerMac yet. It might work there too. Caryl Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:37:56 -0700 From: eng...@mail.communications.sun.com To: cbige...@hotmail.com Subject: VirtualBox Webinar: What's New in 3.0 VirtualBox webinar: Learn what's new in 3.0. » Register Now August VirtualBox Live Show What's New in 3.0 Dear Sun Community Member: We've just launched the latest, greatest version of VirtualBox and can't wait to share it with you at our next VirtualBox Live show. Learn all about the great new features in VirtualBox 3.0 including: - SMP or multiple virtual CPUs - Direct3D and OpenGL graphics acceleration - the new python shell Also in the show, we'll introduce an exciting new community project, the VirtualBox Web Console. What: VirtualBox Live Show When: August 5, 2009, 8:00 am PDT / 11:00 am EDT / 15:00 UTC/GMT Where: Simply access the web seminar from the comfort of your own home or office. Who Andy Hall VirtualBox Product Manager and the Team Why: If you want to save time, money and frustration, you'll want to join this webinar on the world's most popular open source virtualization software. Tune In or Miss Out. Register Now! If you have any questions or feedback, please send a message to virtualboxinquir...@sun.com. Thank you, Sun Microsystems, Inc. PS: If you can't join us live, make sure you catch the archive, which will be posted here within 24 hours of the show. Sun Microsystems, Inc. respects your privacy. You are receiving this email at cbige...@hotmail.com because of your registration activity related to Sun VirtualBox. Privacy Policy | Trademarks | Manage Subscriptions | Update My Profile | Unsubscribe Please do not reply to this email. Instead, contact the editor. Sun Microsystems, Inc., 18 Network Circle, M/S: UMPK18-124, Attn: Global eMarketing, Menlo Park, CA 94025 USA © 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
[IAEP] Is again Community Influence - Re: Lets Get Satisfaction (was: Community Influence)
I've been working this week on stick failures and I've had a good conversation with Martin Dengler which I think is relevant to the problem we hope to solve with this new tool. My feedback from the field was vague, incomplete and built over a period of days. It was not structured QA, replicable bugs with logs attached. I also talked about features that are not in scope for the next few months (specifically creating a Stick solution that survives the washing machine). My hope is that every developer on this project goes to their local school or daycare and runs a Sugar Club and gets to experience trying to get good data on errors in a room with 10-20 kids where the kid who is experiencing a problem is really engaged and very upset that they can't do what they were trying to do, especially when all the other kids are! Actually mostly I hope you do this cause its actually a ton of fun. :) Things are working most of the time and kids love it. However, everyday I'm in class something weird happens with Sugar. At this point if I can get it to go away I don't report it. Its just too much time to fill out a trac ticket for unreplicable things that aren't fatal. I think we have a choice. We harrang and nag the people in the classroom to give us better info, thus chasing away most of them, or we encourage feedback and get a lot of bad data. I vote for creating a system that lets us aggregate the bad data enough to pull out the real issues. Following the agile traditional I write some stories. Today, for example, a stick didn't boot twice on one computer. It did boot on another. If I wanted to test that I need to boot another known good stick on that computer, and probably retry later with the problem stick, plus capture what points the boot stop and if its consistent. The problem is class ends at 12:30 and we have to be cross town at Dorchester at 1:00. And honestly I have more serious issues to work on right now. What I actually did was ignore it and move on. My hope is that with a nice AJAX UI I could very quickly make notes about this and in the process of typing see if someone else has already reported it. If I had a this system in place I would have noted what the error on the screen was (I could have taken a photo of the screen) and written: Stick failed to boot and the screen said dectecting USB blah blah stick booted on another computer. In my ideal world of this story there are many other people and they also write things like this. So lets say I' m the first. The next teachers goes to enter the same error. With the wonders of AJAX they see that for me the stick booted on another computer after this error. So they now go try it on another computer. Perhaps their immediate problem is solved. Over the next few weeks I keep an eye on that computer, does it happen again? Does it happen to that stick again? If it happens again does it work on a different USB port of the same computer, is the cord bad? What work arounds does the other teacher use? Does the other teacher see a repeat on the same machine...etc. so eventually, if its a real problem, over the course of weeks we get data. The data may not end up pointing to a bug that Sugar can fix, it might end up pointing to the need to write an FAQ. If you see this type of error try another USB port on the same computer. * * *In this story we never need developer attention. Its a hardware issue. Its still a Sugar issue, its still a problem that we need to support Sugar users in solving. Indeed the people solving this problem are every bit as much members of the Sugar community as developers. * *Let me tell another story with a software bug:* * Activity X crashes when I have a bunch of people sharing it. - One report, not very actionable. * Next person types in Activity X and sharing and sees the report above so adds theirs as a comment. Soon we have 25 reports each with different details. Some list the number of people sharing. Another whether it local or remote collaboration, another whether its wireless or not. With a bunch of reports we know that 1. Its important, lots of people want to share Activity X. 2. We probably see some patterns to the failure. 3. look through the 25 reports and find the tech savvy teacher who can collect logs. We can't do this if the 20 not so tech savvy teachers have any sort of emotional or logistical block to posting their incomplete bug reports. We also can't have developers having to categorize, close as duplicate 25 tickets! nor can we have developers feeling like each of these 25 people need an immediate personal response and thus they are overwhelmed. *So thats the vision of where I want to go. Its going to take more then putting up a web page to get there. Little bit of Web 2.0 magic and lots of social engineering, probably gardners or the support gang helping quite a bit.* *As we seem to be currently evaluating tools, does anyone else have a user story they would like to share on how they
Re: [IAEP] Letter to GPA Parents
First draft - Comments? Suggestions? Do you think I put in too much background information? Dear Parent, Your child will take home from camp a USB stick and a CD that they used in school this summer. Their work this summer is the first part of a school wide program to use “Sugar on a Stick” at the GPA. The GPA will be the first school that uses a USB stick to bring Sugar home. Sugar is the name of the software and you can learn more at www.sugarlabs.org. Your kids are the first ones to use it on a USB stick but almost a million kids are using it on the “One Laptop per Child” computers in countries like Peru and Uruguay. If there is a computer at home the students can try to use Sugar. We will teach them how to do it in class. It may not work on your computer yet. The stick may also stop working at some point. That is fine, we are doing a pilot test and we know there are still problems. We will work all next year to make sure it works for all students. Please have your student bring the stick back to school on the first day of school regardless of whether or not it works. The kids all had a wonderful time working with Sugar this summer and produced some amazing things! Pictures of their work are up on the web: We may also be creating some videos that will include your children and their work, if you have signed a release form. If you would like to know more about Sugar and our plans for the Fall or if you’d like to volunteer to help in the fall please email carol...@sugarlabs.org Thank you and we look forward to meeting you all in September! Sincerely Caroline Meeks Sugar Labs Instructions for booting your computer with Sugar. Put in the CD Turn off the computer Plug in the USB Turn on the computer If you have a Mac, hold down the “c” key as it starts up and as you hear the chime. Please don’t be frustrated if it doesn’t work! We’ll figure out why and fix it this fall. -- 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
