Re: [IAEP] 40 maths shapes challenges

[Edward Cherlin]

On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 5:12 PM, Alan Kay wrote:
> Well, much of the version of calculus that is used in the physical sciences
> is adapted from Gauss' differential geometry of vectors,

In particular, the standard textbook on General Relativity (Gravity,
by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler) uses differential geometry, that is,
the geometry of the tangent vectors at a point, throughout. The reason
is that General Relativity in curved spacetime coordinates reduces to
point-at-a-time Special Relativity, but with smoothly varying flat
inertial frames at each point.

I you didn't understand that, I hope you will take comfort from an
incident described by Richard Feynman at his Nobel Prize banquet. A
Swedish princess said to him, "You're a physicist. We can't talk about
that because nobody knows anything about it." Feynman replied, "No,
actually it's because somebody _does_ know something about it that we
can't discuss it. We can only talk about things like the weather that
nobody really knows anything about." He commented that he had heard of
people's faces turning to ice, but had never seen it before.

>and that is the
> math that Seymour adapted for Logo (in part because DGofV uses the same
> "from where I am" coordinate system that children have built in).

Einstein heartily approved of childlike thinking, particularly "the
holy curiosity of childhood". It got him into more trouble than
Feynman created for himself later on. But then, Einstein described
himself as autistic, while Feynman was no worse than severe Attention
Deficit. (More so than mine.)

> So the real problem is to convince school folks (most of whom are innocent
> of mathematics) that Logo is actually more like the real deal than what they
> have gotten into the habit of teaching. This "innocence" was (I believe) one
> of the main factors for Logo not catching on in the early 80s (or now).
>
> And, by the way, the circle as the limit of a polygon whose side count gets
> unboundedly larger with the side lengths approaching zero is the way
> Archimedes thought of circles, and the way he was able to get the first
> really good approximation to pi.
>
> I.e. don't worry about Logo, let's worry about the school systems ...
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alan
>
> 
> From: Bill Kerr 
> To: Maria Droujkova 
> Cc: iaep 
> Sent: Friday, September 4, 2009 4:27:26 PM
> Subject: Re: [IAEP] 40 maths shapes challenges
>
> On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 2:12 AM, Maria Droujkova  wrote:
>>
>> Circle is one of the hardest in Scratch. Unless I am missing a command.
>
> move a little turn a little lots of times
>
> repeat 360 [move 1 turn 1]
>
> that is a classic discussion arising from Papert
> does this prepare students for calculus?
> an honest child's version of sophisticated maths?
> or are the conventions of calculus so different from body syntonic logo
> maths that the learning does not transfer?
> good one to discuss
>
>
>
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Maria Droujkova
>> http://www.naturalmath.com
>>
>> Make math your own, to make your own math.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 7:19 AM, Bill Kerr  wrote:
>>>
>>> Image attached
>>> Forty shapes to make in Scratch or some other version of logo, such
>>> as Turtle Art. It's hard to see the thumbnail but click on it for a larger
>>> view.
>>>
>>> This is one of the best sheets ever for teaching maths (designed by Barry
>>> Newell):
>>>
>>> the logo turtle or scratch cat acts as a transitional object between the
>>> concrete maths shape and the abstraction of the script that makes the shape
>>> the sheet includes both simple and complex shapes, increasing in order of
>>> complexity, there is a challenge there for everyone
>>> many of the more complex shapes are made up of combinations of the
>>> simpler shapes
>>>
>>> Source: Barry Newell's Turtle Confusion (1988)
>>> ___
>>> 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
>



-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://earthtreasury.org/
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Re: [IAEP] School Surveillance and acknowledging market forces

[Dennis Daniels]

The arguments for and against giving teachers monitoring capabilities
across the entire classroom of computers is deep and wide. The ongoing
battle of philosophy and application. I'm going to try and break it
down a little from the perspective of someone who knows full well the
hurdles I'll face if/when I introduce a Sugar Lab into a
public/private school. I'm going to talk about the market here and the
decision makers and the decision makers are the adults.

Make it easy for teachers:
If you want teachers to get on board with Sugar you have to give them
a reason to want to get involved, namely making their lives easier,
Moodle et.al.,  and one of them is some assurance that they can see
what is going on in the classroom on machines that most teachers have
little experience with! I built my lab because I got fed up pushing
paper like a secretary. I'm a manager of education, computers make
that possible.

Get the parents support for the technology:
In Dubai, I had students taken out of my computer class because the
computer is the "tool of the devil"... but I got the students back
after I showed the concerned parents that Moussa and Amin and * were
not doing the devil's work, they were programming. "See my screen? I
can monitor your little angels all the time... they may grow up to
engineers or doctors one day..."

Acknowledge the market, teachers don't know much:
Please, if a teacher knows anything about computers, they don't stay
teachers very long... the demand for computer skills outstrips the pay
for teachers. Make it as EASY as possible for teachers to get Sugar
running.

Curriculum is controlled by people who generally don't know much about
computers:
To reach adults who control the curriculum and machine access, make it
easier for ADULTS to feel comfortable with letting eight years olds
know more about computers than the adults. I may sound convoluted but
there is a reason why computers have still not made it into schools in
any meaningful way, and it's not the cost of the machines. It's the
fear and ignorance of the adults. Throw the adults a bone, give them
'security' in knowing what little Johnny and Jeannie and * are doing
on the computer in real time i.e. monitoring.

Go try and convince a school to build a new 'cheap' computer lab:
Please, people, go work in a school as a volunteer in a school with
computers and one without, offer to build an LTSP lab in the
classrooms and watch the responses... then come back and make the
changes needed to Sugar to get everyone on board. OLPC may be a
giveaway program  sponsored by governments but Sugar is going to be a
HARD sell if it doesn't make adults'/teachers' lives easier.

I hope I'm not whistling in the wind here. Philosophy and
application... may the twain ever meet? Unlikely, not in the maelstrom
of school politics and forces. We can however make it easier to help a
lot of people if we keep in mind that this discussion has mainly
involved developers (philosophers) of education and very few people on
this list are actually teachers (application).  The answer to why this
continues to be true on IAEP is one that the Sugar project needs to
answer.

Dennis
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

[IAEP] DB module for moodle in XS server serously coool and needed addittion

[David Van Assche]

To create a easy reference for linux commands, the best way was to use the
Moodle database module. You can create quite elaborate databases which are
then easily edited and added to by users.

There are only 4 entries in it right now, but the idea is for it to get
filled up. So give it a go...

http://www.linux-for-education.org/mod/data/view.php?id=2747

The idea is, that this approach can be used for making the incredibly
powerful and simple to use dbs for XS moodle installs to contain important
materials such as a testing DB, general equipment DB, commands DB, hell even
a local apps DB that links ot applications.sugarlabs.org

Anyway, I remember Marting Langhoff trying to grab people's attention to
this great module, well above is an  implementation example which not only
works, but looks ok to..

kind regaards,
David Van Assche
linux-for-education.org -- www.nubae.com


-- 

Stephen 
Leacock
- "I detest life-insurance agents: they always argue that I shall some
day
die, which is not so."
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Re: [IAEP] 40 maths shapes challenges

[Alan Kay]

Well, much of the version of calculus that is used in the physical sciences is 
adapted from Gauss' differential geometry of vectors, and that is the math that 
Seymour adapted for Logo (in part because DGofV uses the same "from where I am" 
coordinate system that children have built in).

So the real problem is to convince school folks (most of whom are innocent of 
mathematics) that Logo is actually more like the real deal than what they have 
gotten into the habit of teaching. This "innocence" was (I believe) one of the 
main factors for Logo not catching on in the early 80s (or now).

And, by the way, the circle as the limit of a polygon whose side count gets 
unboundedly larger with the side lengths approaching zero is the way Archimedes 
thought of circles, and the way he was able to get the first really good 
approximation to pi.

I.e. don't worry about Logo, let's worry about the school systems ...

Cheers,

Alan





From: Bill Kerr 
To: Maria Droujkova 
Cc: iaep 
Sent: Friday, September 4, 2009 4:27:26 PM
Subject: Re: [IAEP] 40 maths shapes challenges


On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 2:12 AM, Maria Droujkova  wrote:

>Circle is one of the hardest in Scratch. Unless I am missing a command.
>

move a little turn a little lots of times

repeat 360 [move 1 turn 1]

that is a classic discussion arising from Papert
does this prepare students for calculus?
an honest child's version of sophisticated maths?
or are the conventions of calculus so different from body syntonic logo maths 
that the learning does not transfer?
good one to discuss


 

>Cheers,
>Maria Droujkova
>http://www.naturalmath.com
>
>Make math your own, to make your own math.
>
>
>
>
>
>On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 7:19 AM, Bill Kerr  wrote:
>
>>>
>>Image attached
>>
>>
>>
>>Forty shapes to make in Scratch or some other version of logo, such as Turtle 
>>Art. It's hard to see the thumbnail but click on it for a larger view.
>>
>>This is one of the best sheets ever for teaching maths (designed by Barry 
>>Newell):
>>
>>  * the logo turtle or scratch cat acts as a transitional object between 
>> the concrete maths shape and the abstraction of the script that makes the 
>> shape
>>  * the sheet includes both simple and complex shapes, increasing in 
>> order of complexity, there is a challenge there for everyone
>>  * many of the more complex shapes are made up of combinations of the 
>> simpler shapes
>>Source: Barry Newell's Turtle Confusion (1988)
>>
>>___
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] SVG coloured icons

[Bill Kerr]

arising out of my class work with SVG icons

many of the students wanted some fixed colours in their replacement icons
and I wanted them to demo ability to reset colours within sugar

both are possible by setting some colours with either names or hexadecimal
and setting other colours  using "&fill_color;" and "&stroke_color;"

see http://xo-whs2009.blogspot.com/2009/08/more-complex-svg-icons.html for
some of the results and more detail
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Re: [IAEP] 40 maths shapes challenges

[Bill Kerr]

On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 2:12 AM, Maria Droujkova  wrote:

> Circle is one of the hardest in Scratch. Unless I am missing a command.
>

move a little turn a little lots of times

repeat 360 [move 1 turn 1]

that is a classic discussion arising from Papert
does this prepare students for calculus?
an honest child's version of sophisticated maths?
or are the conventions of calculus so different from body syntonic logo
maths that the learning does not transfer?
good one to discuss




>
> Cheers,
> Maria Droujkova
> http://www.naturalmath.com
>
> Make math your own, to make your own math.
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 7:19 AM, Bill Kerr  wrote:
>
>> Image attached
>> Forty shapes to make in Scratch  or some other
>> version of logo, such as Turtle 
>> Art.
>> It's hard to see the thumbnail but click on it for a larger view.
>>
>> This is one of the best sheets ever for teaching maths (designed by Barry
>> Newell):
>>
>>- the logo turtle or scratch cat acts as a transitional object between
>>the concrete maths shape and the abstraction of the script that makes the
>>shape
>>- the sheet includes both simple and complex shapes, increasing in
>>order of complexity, there is a challenge there for everyone
>>- many of the more complex shapes are made up of combinations of the
>>simpler shapes
>>
>> Source: Barry Newell's Turtle Confusion (1988)
>>
>> ___
>> 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] 40 maths shapes challenges

[Costello, Rob R]

Hi Maria

like the logo approach

loop 360
  forward 1
   right 1

is a simple way to approximate a circle

could also use scratch's trig functions to draw a circle, but i guess the first 
is more what the bodily syntonic thing is about,,,how does it feel to walk 
around a circle

cheers

rob



From: iaep-boun...@lists.sugarlabs.org on behalf of Maria Droujkova
Sent: Sat 9/5/2009 2:42 AM
To: Bill Kerr
Cc: iaep
Subject: Re: [IAEP] 40 maths shapes challenges


Circle is one of the hardest in Scratch. Unless I am missing a command.

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

Make math your own, to make your own math.





On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 7:19 AM, Bill Kerr  wrote:


Image attached

Forty shapes to make in Scratch   or some 
other version of logo, such as Turtle Art 
 . It's hard to see the 
thumbnail but click on it for a larger view.

This is one of the best sheets ever for teaching maths (designed by 
Barry Newell):


*   the logo turtle or scratch cat acts as a transitional object 
between the concrete maths shape and the abstraction of the script that makes 
the shape
*   the sheet includes both simple and complex shapes, increasing 
in order of complexity, there is a challenge there for everyone
*   many of the more complex shapes are made up of combinations of 
the simpler shapes

Source: Barry Newell's Turtle Confusion (1988)

___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep




Important - This email and any attachments may be confidential. If received in 
error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before opening or using 
attachments check them for viruses and defects. Regardless of any loss, damage 
or consequence, whether caused by the negligence of the sender or not, 
resulting directly or indirectly from the use of any attached files our 
liability is limited to resupplying any affected attachments. Any 
representations or opinions expressed are those of the individual sender, and 
not necessarily those of the Department of Education and Early Childhood 
Development.
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Re: [IAEP] A video about a 1-1 Apple laptop middle school in NYC - School Surveillance and a discussion on Multitasking

[Bastien]

Caroline Meeks  writes:

> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/learning/schools/how-google-saved-a-school.html?play
>
> Towards the middle of the clip is an interview with the administrator who
> can observe the students on the laptops.  

Yes, and this is kinda scary.  It's not even clear whether students know
they are monitored (unless they receive a warning from the monitor!)

> Its also an interesting discussion about multi-tasking.

A teacher is giving this argument: "As an adult, I cannot sit and work
for more than one hour, I don't know why I should expect this from my
students." (... not literally what she says, please correct me if I
completely misunderstood.)

I don't buy this argument.

I think monotasking and multitasking require different attitudes and we
can learn how to improve our efficiency in both attitudes, but insisting
on learning how to multitask because "that's the way we work as adults"
does definitely sound wrong to me.

-- 
 Bastien
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Re: [IAEP] A video about a 1-1 Apple laptop middle school in NYC - School Surveillance and a discussion on Multitaskingr

[Benjamin M. Schwartz]

Dennis Daniels wrote:
> That's one of the reasons I was initially attracted to Sugar in that
> the peer networking was built in... please tell me that one station
> monitoring of all students is built in as well.

Nope. No monitoring built in.  However, I have recently implemented it as
an Activity called "Watch Me" [1].

> If it isn't then it
> should be for the teacher's sake.

1.  As a technical matter, this is not so easy over a congested wireless
network.
2.  We care much more about students than teachers.  Is it good for the
students?

To understand the perspective present when Sugar was developed, consider
the following paper:

http://www.usenix.org/event/upsec08/tech/full_papers/patterson/patterson.pdf

This paper criticizes OLPC's security design, because it would make it too
easy to trace communications back to the student who issued them.
Particularly in societies with oppressive governments prone to censorship,
this creates a chilling effect on freedom of expression.  OLPC's response
was, roughly, that the author had misunderstood the design, and that
cryptographic security for students against authorities was a key
consideration in the design.*

In other words, Sugar's design comes from a culture with a deep distrust
of authority figures.  I got my programming start by hacking my school's
computer systems, and I'm sure the same is true of many other contributors
here.  You will find plenty of opposition to letting teachers watch what
students are doing without permission.

[1] http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4205
*: In fact, this particular cryptographic scheme was never actually
implemented anyway, and I believe most collaboration traffic is still sent
over the network unencrypted.



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Re: [IAEP] A video about a 1-1 Apple laptop middle school in NYC - School Surveillance and a discussion on Multitaskingr

[Dennis Daniels]

Of the four years I taught in the elementary and high school classroom
I enjoyed fully equipped hardware computer labs with 1:1 ratio.

My life as a teacher improved _enormously_ when I was able to monitor
what all of my students were doing from one station as I did when
working in corporate training labs. The school Administrators liked it
as well for the accountability and monitoring.

That's one of the reasons I was initially attracted to Sugar in that
the peer networking was built in... please tell me that one station
monitoring of all students is built in as well. If it isn't then it
should be for the teacher's sake.

Dennis
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Re: [IAEP] A video about a 1-1 Apple laptop middle school in NYC - School Surveillance and a discussion on Multitasking

[Benjamin M. Schwartz]

Caroline Meeks wrote:
> I wonder if an advantage of Sugar is that it doesn't
> make it as easy for students to multitask and since we are focusing on
> a younger audience this is appropriate.

It's not an accident.  The GUI is designed so that once you're working in
an activity, that activity is all you see on the screen.  This was
designed largely to make the most of a small screen, but also to help
children focus on the task at hand.



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

[IAEP] A video about a 1-1 Apple laptop middle school in NYC - School Surveillance and a discussion on Multitasking

[Caroline Meeks]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/learning/schools/how-google-saved-a-school.html?play

Towards the middle of the clip is an interview with the administrator who
can observe the students on the laptops.  Its also an interesting discussion
about multi-tasking.
Schools will want
the feature of being able to see what students are doing on the computers.  We
have that too some extent when we start backing up the journal onto the XS.

I wonder if an advantage of Sugar is that it doesn't
make it as easy for students to multitask and since we are focusing on
a younger audience this is appropriate.

-- 
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] NOW: Contributors Program Mtg! (Fri 2PM Boston time, #olpc-meeting)

[Holt]

Please join us Right Now reviewing the latest OLPC/Sugar community 
projects over IRC Live Chat:  (2PM EDT Boston Time Friday)

http://forum.laptop.org/chat

Then type at bottom:
/join #olpc-meeting


AGENDA:

* New projects & libraries -- teaching them Community Outreach:
 http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Projects#XO_Laptop_Lending_Libraries

* Which projects might you enjoy Mentoring?!
 http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Projects
 http://rt.laptop.org/Search/Results.html?Query=Queue=%27contributors%27

* Fast Review of the 5 latest (greatest!) HW/Project Proposals -- please
 join us advocating for and/or reviewing shortcomings of these proposals:



1. Ambulant (W3C Smile 3.0 implementation) - Netherlands
  http://rt.laptop.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=46574
  (project needs to provide public URL!)

  Requests 2 XO-1's and 1 XO-1.5 over 12+ months

  Project Objectives:
  The goal is to be able to verify that the Ambulant software incorporated
  in the Smile activity operates properly on the XO with Sugar and to
  reproduce reported problems.


2. South Tyrol Lending Library - Italy
  http://rt.laptop.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=46582
  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_South_Tyrol

  Requests 10 XO-1's over 12 months

  Project Objectives:

   * Helping Italian speaking schools from a sugar soas environment to
 a XO/Sugar one
   * Italian schools are already using Sugar in thier Linux computer
 classrooms in some cases, the logical next step is to convince
 teachers to experiment with XOs.
   * Translating the manual to Italian language



3. Palaver Project - Liberia  
  http://rt.laptop.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=46632

  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Kathypuente

  Requests 2 XO's over 6+ months

  Project Objectives:
  Objective 1: To gather interest in the community by teachers, parents 
and students in having laptops as learning tools.
  Objective 2: To have a laptop for each student and teacher at 
Virginia Christian Academy in the Lower Virginia community in Liberia. 
There are approximately 150 students.
  Objective 3: To increase literacy in the community by having ebooks 
available for the children and their families to practice and enjoy. 
Liberia has only a 40% literacy rate. 
  Objective 4: To break down tribal barriers and create an atmosphere 
of collaboration through the use of technology and a network.



4. Aura OS, STS SpreadSheet, LittleJect File Compressor -- India
  http://rt.laptop.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=46764
  http://phoenix-team.tk

  Requests 2 XO 1.5's over 24+ months

  Project Objectives:

  PHOENIX AURA:
  Aura is an open source operating system which is based on OpenSuSE
  11.1 platform. Some members of Phoenix Team had recently proposed that
  it would be nice if we can work our way towards running Aura in XO and
  XO-1.5 netbooks. We are currently designing this project in 2 sub
  streams:

  -BASE PROJECT -- which is intentionally designed for low power
   machines, like old Intel P3 or Celeron which will install well inside
   the limit of 700 MiB. The XO is a good target for this type of stream.
  -Phoenix Aura-X -- Normal, full functional operating system designed
   specifically for home or developers' usage.

  Phoenix Aura will be:
  = Free of Charge, including every release
  = Open to modify its design and kernel
  = We are thinking to ship Aura free to every country for only shipping
and handeling charges.

  OBJECTIVES:
  =To provide free, interactive and full functional OS to youth.
  =Provide operating system for developer schools in India,,,(Some
   developers working for schools)
  =To increase the potential of FOSS.

  Spread-The-Sheet

  Spread-The-Sheet or STS is open source SpreadSheet program similar to
  Microsoft Office Excel or OpenOffice.org Calc... but it is simple and
  interactive, allowing even children to use it.
  STS is aimed clearly for children(or more specifically, youth) to use it.

  LittleJect

  LittleJect is a codename of a project which Phoenix-Team is currently
  developing in addition to BoomingBang(Codename Imperius)
  It is a file compression utility which is aimed to compress higher
  than 70%. We are in early development phase of this project which has
  just started in August.


5. OLOGO (OLPC Logo), Education game(s), Photo Editing - New York, USA
  http://rt.laptop.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=46913
  http://www.eecs.usma.edu/olpc (not active yet)

  Requests 2 XO-1's and 2 XO-1.5's over 12 months

  Project Objectives:

  The overall program objective is to enhance the OLPC and increase its
  value to the end users as a fun and educational tool.

  -The OLPC Logo program will allow the users to create graphics, and
   also learn how to write small scripts that can produce spriograph type
   images

  -The educational game(s) will be decided during the project, but aim at
   being addictive (ex. The incredible machine), and support learning as
   well.

  -The photo editing program is aimed to inspire the users by taking
  

Re: [IAEP] Project Guidelines posted

[David Farning]

On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 11:14 AM, Sebastian Dziallas wrote:
> David Farning wrote:
>>
>> The project guidelines are now on the wiki at
>>
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Project_Guidelines .
>>
>> Please edit as necessary.   When it looks like the editing has
>> stopped, I ask the board the ratify the guidelines.
>>
>> david
>
> I just looked into this, sorry for the delay. While reading it, some
> questions came to my mind: How does this relate to the existing teams?
>
> In Fedora, most efforts have been started as SIGs or still in that state.
> Even the team working on the general Fedora desktop metaphor and maintaining
> the Fedora Desktop Spin is one. So would we have teams, SIGs and projects
> then? Or are the teams going to be migrated to SIGs?

Teams and projects/SIGs are separate orthogonal structures.  Team are
functional based.  They have no life cycle.  For example, the
marketing team provides marketing support for Sugar Labs as a whole.

Project/SIGs are product focused.  The exist to help guide a project
through it's life cycle.  For example, there has recently been some
rather heated discussions about working more closely with Qt.  This is
an example of a idea the could start as a SIG and grow into a project
and be included in the Learning Platform if it proves useful.

Currently we are doing some hand waving about how Qt is not worth the
space.  We really won't know the answer to that question until someone
tries.  A SIG provides a mechanism for that, and other,
experimentation.

> And is the Oversight Board going and willing to step into this process? I'm
> asking because it seems like it would be a pretty significant change to the
> board's tasks - at least compared to what I've been told before.

The primary responsibilities of a board of directors in a not-for-profit are:
1. Determine the Organization's Mission and Purpose
2. Select the Executive
3. Support the Executive and Review His or Her Performance
4. Ensure Effective Organizational Planning
5. Ensure Adequate Resources
6. Manage Resources Effectively
7. Determine and Monitor the Organization's Programs and Services
8. Enhance the Organization's Public Image
9. Serve as a Court of Appeal
10. Assess Its Own Performance

The oversight of sigs/projects falls under responsibility seven.  The
existence of sigs/projects help with responsibility four, five, and
six.

david
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Re: [IAEP] 40 maths shapes challenges

[Maria Droujkova]

Circle is one of the hardest in Scratch. Unless I am missing a command.

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

Make math your own, to make your own math.




On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 7:19 AM, Bill Kerr  wrote:

> Image attached
> Forty shapes to make in Scratch  or some other
> version of logo, such as Turtle 
> Art.
> It's hard to see the thumbnail but click on it for a larger view.
>
> This is one of the best sheets ever for teaching maths (designed by Barry
> Newell):
>
>- the logo turtle or scratch cat acts as a transitional object between
>the concrete maths shape and the abstraction of the script that makes the
>shape
>- the sheet includes both simple and complex shapes, increasing in
>order of complexity, there is a challenge there for everyone
>- many of the more complex shapes are made up of combinations of the
>simpler shapes
>
> Source: Barry Newell's Turtle Confusion (1988)
>
> ___
> 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] Project Guidelines posted

[Sebastian Dziallas]

David Farning wrote:
> The project guidelines are now on the wiki at
>
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Project_Guidelines .
>
> Please edit as necessary.   When it looks like the editing has
> stopped, I ask the board the ratify the guidelines.
>
> david

I just looked into this, sorry for the delay. While reading it, some 
questions came to my mind: How does this relate to the existing teams?

In Fedora, most efforts have been started as SIGs or still in that 
state. Even the team working on the general Fedora desktop metaphor and 
maintaining the Fedora Desktop Spin is one. So would we have teams, SIGs 
and projects then? Or are the teams going to be migrated to SIGs?

And is the Oversight Board going and willing to step into this process? 
I'm asking because it seems like it would be a pretty significant change 
to the board's tasks - at least compared to what I've been told before.

--Sebastian
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] Request Feature Freeze Exception for ticket #916 to allow sugar on non-xo hardware to register with a schoolserver

[Tomeu Vizoso]

On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 17:24, Simon Schampijer wrote:
> On 09/04/2009 10:16 AM, Tomeu Vizoso wrote:
>>
>> On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 16:36, Tomeu Vizoso  wrote:
>>>
>>> On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 13:23, Hamilton Chua
>>>  wrote:

 Hello,

 I would like to kindly request for an exception to the feature freeze
 currently in place to allow the inclusion of a patch that will enable
 sugar
 on non-xo hardware to register with a schoolserver.

 The relevant ticket with details is at
 http://dev.sugarlabs.org/ticket/916

 The patch is "register-non-xo-with-xs.patch" which can be downloaded
 directly from

 http://dev.sugarlabs.org/attachment/ticket/916/register-non-xo-with-xs.patch
>>>
>>> The patch has a small impact on the codebase and the feature has been
>>> requested by users. So +1 from me.
>>
>> Ping. We need one more positive vote.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Tomeu
>
> Ok, sounds good to me, then. Land it and please add a good test case and
> please help to assure that it is tested before our final release.

Just pushed, thanks all.

Regards,

Tomeu

> Thanks everyone for all the hard work on this,
>   Simon
>



-- 
«Sugar Labs is anyone who participates in improving and using Sugar.
What Sugar Labs does is determined by the participants.» - David
Farning
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Re: [IAEP] Remove the naming alert in 0.86

[Sean DALY]

The popup could work if it was accompanied by a suggestion like "write
in what you were doing to help you find this again easily."

Learners (or teachers) encountering difficulty locating Journal
entries will I think find motivation to write in metadata.

Ideally, the popup could be set in the control panel for 1) when
opening an Activity, 2) when closing an Activity, 3) Don't show at
all.




On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 11:34 PM, Simon Schampijer wrote:
> On 09/03/2009 10:36 AM, Sascha Silbe wrote:
>> Posting to iaep only since cross-posting doesn't work for me anymore
>> (non-subscribed email addresses get rejected) and it's more than just a
>> technical issue (so sugar-devel isn't enough).
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 03, 2009 at 12:21:46AM +0100, Gary C Martin wrote:
>>
>>> Perhaps we drop this dialogue and then seriously take another look at
>>> improving the names automatically generated for new activity entries?
>> +1 on that, even though I don't have direct experience with learners
>> (other than myself) either.
>>
>> I'd like to toss another idea into the room: Show the naming dialog
>> directly after _startup_ of a new instance. Ask the user what (s)he's
>> intending to do when the decision is fresh and the user is focussed on
>> the current activity, instead of getting in the way on closing, when the
>> user is likely to already be focussing on the _next_ activity (whether
>> real-world or Sugar).
>
> Not sure, the student always know in advance what it does in TA for
> example. Anyway, my main problem is the forcing, I guess. When the
> learner knows in advance about the importance if giving good names and
> descriptions and add easy to reach tools, maybe that is enough.
>
> I disabled the alert for tomorrows class. I can explain the Journal
> concept and the importance before starting and see if the students would
> do pay attention to naming etc then.
>
> Regards,
>Simon
> ___
> 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] [Sugar-devel] Request Feature Freeze Exception for ticket #916 to allow sugar on non-xo hardware to register with a schoolserver

[Simon Schampijer]

On 09/04/2009 10:16 AM, Tomeu Vizoso wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 16:36, Tomeu Vizoso  wrote:
>> On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 13:23, Hamilton Chua  wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I would like to kindly request for an exception to the feature freeze
>>> currently in place to allow the inclusion of a patch that will enable sugar
>>> on non-xo hardware to register with a schoolserver.
>>>
>>> The relevant ticket with details is at
>>> http://dev.sugarlabs.org/ticket/916
>>>
>>> The patch is "register-non-xo-with-xs.patch" which can be downloaded
>>> directly from
>>> http://dev.sugarlabs.org/attachment/ticket/916/register-non-xo-with-xs.patch
>> The patch has a small impact on the codebase and the feature has been
>> requested by users. So +1 from me.
>
> Ping. We need one more positive vote.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tomeu

Ok, sounds good to me, then. Land it and please add a good test case and 
please help to assure that it is tested before our final release.

Thanks everyone for all the hard work on this,
Simon
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Re: [IAEP] 40 maths shapes challenges

[Bill Kerr]

tony has a demo of one of the shapes in turtle art on his blog:
http://tonyforster.blogspot.com/2009/09/turtleart-shapes.html

On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 9:52 PM, Costello, Rob R <
costello.ro...@edumail.vic.gov.au> wrote:

>  yes,  i had success using that sheet as well Bill ...
>
> here's a quick demo i did of scratch in action - emerged out of lesson  - i
> talked through a simple square for a couple of minutes; asked the students
> how i would make it triangle -  a year 8 girl suggested the approach; which
> we then generalised to any number of sides
>
> http://www.thinkingcurriculum.com/kittyAngles/kittyAngles.html
>
> students were off trying to build the shapes, or coming up with new ones
> ...some seem to find their niche with this
>
>
>
> -Original Message-
> From: iaep-boun...@lists.sugarlabs.org on behalf of Bill Kerr
> Sent: Mon 8/31/2009 9:19 PM
> To: iaep
> Subject: [IAEP] 40 maths shapes challenges
>
> Image attached
> Forty shapes to make in Scratch  or some other
> version of logo, such as Turtle
> Art.
> It's hard to see the thumbnail but click on it for a larger view.
>
> This is one of the best sheets ever for teaching maths (designed by Barry
> Newell):
>
>- the logo turtle or scratch cat acts as a transitional object between
>the concrete maths shape and the abstraction of the script that makes
> the
>shape
>- the sheet includes both simple and complex shapes, increasing in order
>of complexity, there is a challenge there for everyone
>- many of the more complex shapes are made up of combinations of the
>simpler shapes
>
> Source: Barry Newell's Turtle Confusion (1988)
>
>  *Important - *This email and any attachments may be confidential. If
> received in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before opening
> or using attachments check them for viruses and defects. Regardless of any
> loss, damage or consequence, whether caused by the negligence of the sender
> or not, resulting directly or indirectly from the use of any attached files
> our liability is limited to resupplying any affected attachments. Any
> representations or opinions expressed are those of the individual sender,
> and not necessarily those of the Department of Education and Early Childhood
> Development.
>
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] New Activities on a.sl.o was Sugar Digest 2009-08-11

[David Farning]

Thanks,

They look great.

david

On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 9:27 PM, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
> Caroline, i have uploaded rthe activities:
>
> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/es-ES/sugar/addon/4212
> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/es-ES/sugar/addon/4213
> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/es-ES/sugar/addon/4214
>
> Gonzalo
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 2:13 PM, Caroline Meeks 
> wrote:
>>>
>>> ===In the community===
>>>
>>> 3. Gonzalo Odiard reported on a successful
>>> [http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/olpc-sur/2009-August/004099.html
>>> Sugar Day Argentina on the Sur list.] Gonzalo also describes three new
>>> activities: [http://190.0.162.1/godiard/sugar/Domino/6/Domino.xo], a
>>> game where the pieces may have different mathematical operations or
>>> concepts which need to match;
>>> [http://190.0.162.1/godiard/sugar/Ecomundo.xo], an ecosystem in which
>>> there is grass, rabbits and foxes that are born, eat, reproduce and
>>> die; and [http://190.0.162.1/godiard/sugar/Elements/2/Elements.xo], a
>>> proof-pof-concept of a Javascript activity.
>>
>> Will these be going onto activities.sugarlabs.org?
>
>
> ___
> Sugar-devel mailing list
> sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>
>
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] Request Feature Freeze Exception for ticket #916 to allow sugar on non-xo hardware to register with a schoolserver

[Tomeu Vizoso]

On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 16:36, Tomeu Vizoso wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 13:23, Hamilton Chua wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I would like to kindly request for an exception to the feature freeze
>> currently in place to allow the inclusion of a patch that will enable sugar
>> on non-xo hardware to register with a schoolserver.
>>
>> The relevant ticket with details is at
>> http://dev.sugarlabs.org/ticket/916
>>
>> The patch is "register-non-xo-with-xs.patch" which can be downloaded
>> directly from
>> http://dev.sugarlabs.org/attachment/ticket/916/register-non-xo-with-xs.patch
>
> The patch has a small impact on the codebase and the feature has been
> requested by users. So +1 from me.

Ping. We need one more positive vote.

Thanks,

Tomeu

> Thanks,
>
> Tomeu
>
> --
> «Sugar Labs is anyone who participates in improving and using Sugar.
> What Sugar Labs does is determined by the participants.» - David
> Farning
>



-- 
«Sugar Labs is anyone who participates in improving and using Sugar.
What Sugar Labs does is determined by the participants.» - David
Farning
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep