Re: [Sugar-devel] interesting article on evaluation
Walter, I agree with your position about this. I often think of it in these terms: we want to talk about depth of learning and not just proficiency in regards to skills and content. To do that, we need to offer al alternative world to the one that argues for more and more high stakes testing. The tools you propose seem really consistent with that. And thanks for sharing the article. Gerald On Sat, Feb 28, 2015 at 2:09 PM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.com wrote: Amidst all the discussion about the future of Sugar, it would be good to keep in mind what more we can do in terms of analyitics and evaluation. We have a pretty decent mechanism (wrtiten by Martin) for data gathering about what kids do; the portfolio for assessing what they have done; and a few rubrics for tying together some of these data. The ideas expressed in [1] suggest we could do more. regards. -walter [1] http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2015/02/26/things-every-kid-should-master/uM72LGr63zeaStOp9zGyrJ/story.html -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] [Server-devel] The quest for data
Just to add my $.02, I agree with Walter and Claudia's approach in this paper. Making the specifics of learning visible to teachers and students, and doing the development from this perspective, I think is the best way to go. Thanks. Gerald On Sun, Jan 12, 2014 at 9:33 AM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.comwrote: On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 3:37 PM, Sameer Verma sve...@sfsu.edu wrote: On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 3:26 AM, Martin Dluhos mar...@gnu.org wrote: On 7.1.2014 01:49, Sameer Verma wrote: On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 12:28 AM, Martin Dluhos mar...@gnu.org wrote: For visualization, I have explored using LibreOffice and SOFA, but neither of those were flexible to allow for customization of the output beyond some a few rudimentary options, so I started looking at various Javascript libraries, which are much more powerful. Currently, I am experimenting with Google Charts, which I found the easiest to get started with. If I run into limitations with Google Charts in the future, others on my list are InfoVIS Toolkit (http://philogb.github.io/jit) and HighCharts (http://highcharts.com). Then, there is also D3.js, but that's a bigger animal. Keep in mind that if you want to visualize at the school's local XS[CE] you may have to rely on a local js method instead of an online library. Yes, that's a very good point. Originally, I was only thinking about collecting and visualizing the information centrally, but there is no reason why it couldn't be viewed by teachers and school administrators on the schoolserver itself. Thanks for the warning. In fact, my guess would be that what the teachers and principal want to see at the school will be different from what OLE Nepal and the government would want to see, with interesting overlaps. You left out one important constituent: the learner. Ultimately we are responsible for making learning visible to the learner. Claudia and I touched on this topic in the attached paper. Just to place all my cards on the table, as much as I hate to suggest we head down this route, I think we really need to instrument activities themselves (and build analyses of activity output) if we want to provide meaningful statistics about learning. We've done some of this with Turtle Blocks, even capturing the mistakes the learner makes along the way. We are lacking in decent visualizations of these data, however. Meanwhile, I remain convinced that the portfolio is our best tool. regards. -walter cheers, Sameer ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org ___ Server-devel mailing list server-de...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] The quest for data
Agreed. On Sun, Jan 12, 2014 at 6:02 PM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.comwrote: On Sun, Jan 12, 2014 at 3:32 PM, Sameer Verma sve...@sfsu.edu wrote: On Sun, Jan 12, 2014 at 6:33 AM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.com wrote: On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 3:37 PM, Sameer Verma sve...@sfsu.edu wrote: On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 3:26 AM, Martin Dluhos mar...@gnu.org wrote: On 7.1.2014 01:49, Sameer Verma wrote: On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 12:28 AM, Martin Dluhos mar...@gnu.org wrote: For visualization, I have explored using LibreOffice and SOFA, but neither of those were flexible to allow for customization of the output beyond some a few rudimentary options, so I started looking at various Javascript libraries, which are much more powerful. Currently, I am experimenting with Google Charts, which I found the easiest to get started with. If I run into limitations with Google Charts in the future, others on my list are InfoVIS Toolkit (http://philogb.github.io/jit) and HighCharts ( http://highcharts.com). Then, there is also D3.js, but that's a bigger animal. Keep in mind that if you want to visualize at the school's local XS[CE] you may have to rely on a local js method instead of an online library. Yes, that's a very good point. Originally, I was only thinking about collecting and visualizing the information centrally, but there is no reason why it couldn't be viewed by teachers and school administrators on the schoolserver itself. Thanks for the warning. In fact, my guess would be that what the teachers and principal want to see at the school will be different from what OLE Nepal and the government would want to see, with interesting overlaps. You left out one important constituent: the learner. Ultimately we are responsible for making learning visible to the learner. Claudia and I touched on this topic in the attached paper. Thanks for the paper. While we did point out to Portfolio and Analyze Journal activities in our session at OLPC SF Summit in 2013, I didn't include it in the scope of the blog post. I'll go back and update it when I get a chance. Just to place all my cards on the table, as much as I hate to suggest we head down this route, I think we really need to instrument activities themselves (and build analyses of activity output) if we want to provide meaningful statistics about learning. We've done some of this with Turtle Blocks, even capturing the mistakes the learner makes along the way. We are lacking in decent visualizations of these data, however. I haven't had a chance to read the paper in depth (which I intend to do this afternoon), but how much of this approach would be shareable across activities? Or would the depth of analysis be on a per activity basis? If the latter, then I'd imagine it would be simpler for something like the Moon activity than the TurtleBlocks activity. Meanwhile, I remain convinced that the portfolio is our best tool. I think the approaches differ in scope and purpose. In the RFPs I've been involved in, the funding agencies and/or the decision makers either request or outright require dashboard style features to report frequency of use, time of day, and in some cases even GPS-based location in addition to theft-deterrence, remote provisioning, etc. The same goes for going back to an agency to get renewed funding or to raise funds for a new site expansion. In a way, the scope of the learner-teacher bubble is significantly different from that of the principal-minister of edu. One is driven by learning and pedagogy, while the other is driven by administration. Accordingly, the reports they want to see are also different. While the measurements from the Activity may be distilled into coarser indicators for the MoE, I think it is important to keep the entire scope in mind. Don't get me wrong: satisfying the needs of funders, administrators, etc. is important too. They have metrics that they value and we should gather those data too. My earlier post was just to suggest ultimately we need to consider the learner and how making learning visible can be of use. That theme seemed to be missing from the earlier discussion. I am mindful of the garbage in, garbage out problem. In building this pipeline (which is where my skills are) I hope that the data that goes into this pipeline is representative of what is measured at the child's end. I am glad that you and Claudia are the experts on that end :-) cheers, Sameer regards. -walter cheers, Sameer ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org ___ Sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Sugar Labs Oversight Board 2014
Thanks Luke. On Dec 29, 2013 3:36 PM, Luke Faraone l...@sugarlabs.org wrote: Hello all, Since we only had three candidates for three slots, the three candidates will assume their roles on the board. That is, * Chris Leonard (cjl) 2013 Candidate Statement http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Cjl/Candidate_Statement * Walter Bender 2013 Candidate Statement http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Walter#Regarding_the_Sugar_Labs_Oversight_Board * Jose Miguel Garcia (Jmgarcia) 2013 Candidate Statement http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Jmgarcia are members of the Sugar Labs Oversight Board effective 1 January, 2014. -- __ (_ Luke Faraone, Web Infrastructure __)ugarLabs.org ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] [support-gang] Fun-Sized Sugar… Why Not?
Caryl, I am really intrigued by this idea, and am interested in participating in the project. I would encourage that you add Turtle Blocks to the scope of work. Thanks. Gerald On Sun, Nov 10, 2013 at 12:42 AM, Caryl Bigenho cbige...@hotmail.comwrote: Hi Folks… First I would like to state that I fully support the maintenance and expansion of Sugar for the XO family and believe that should be one of the main goals of Sugar Labs as we move into the future. That said, I want to speak out in favor of developing a different version of Sugar that could be distributed worldwide, either (1) to the many Android tablets and phones that are or will be in the hands of children and teachers, in the form of an app available free at the PlayStore or, (2) on its own new website where students could create projects., much like that of Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/?tip_bar=getStarted). My reasons for advocating this approach are several, including such things as: The large number of devices already in use that could utilize Sugar in this way The large number of new users that could be continuously added (unlike for the XO) There are probably any more people are able to create and work in HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript than can program Sugar Activities in Python. Of course, this would necessitate starting most of these from scratch, but the project could be started with a small set of key Activities that would allow users to have the Sugar experience and begin using it for Project Based Learning. I have put together a small mind-map (attached) showing what this might include for starters. There would be a set of resource Activities (such as the 4 shown on the map) and a set of creating Activities (like the 4 on the map) that would use some or all of the resource Activities to create curriculum based projects. As time goes on, more Activities could be added to updates. Recruiting for this project could reach out to new volunteers at places like SCaLE and Linux Users Groups. I would love to help work with a small team to recruit and organize this effort. I am just a beginner at HTML, but understand a lot about Sugar and how to use it for learning. Caryl ___ support-gang mailing list support-g...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/support-gang ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] [Sur] Sugar oversight board meeting
Walter, I will be at the meeting, and expect to arrive late. Gerald On Sunday, November 3, 2013, Walter Bender wrote: We have a SLOB meeting scheduled for Monday, 4 November at 9AM EST (2PM GMT). Please join us on irc.freenode.net #sugar-meeting (chat.sugarlabs.org) Tenemos una reunión SLOB programada para el lunes, 4 de noviembre a 09 a.m. EST (14:00 GMT). Por favor, únase a nosotros en irc.freenode.net #-sugar-meeting (chat.sugarlabs.org) Topics: (1) election (2) ambassadors (3) tech/learning meetups (4) status of Trip Advisor grant (5) Google Code In (6) your topic here... -walter -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org ___ Lista olpc-Sur olpc-...@lists.laptop.org javascript:; http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sur ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Sugar 0.100.0 (stable)
This is really impressive. Congratulations! Gerald On Oct 31, 2013 8:45 PM, Daniel Narvaez dwnarv...@gmail.com wrote: Hello, we are proud to announce the release of Sugar 0.100.0. A lot is new for both users and developers, see the release notes http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/0.100/Notes Sources: http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-datastore/sugar-datastore-0.100.0.tar.xz http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-artwork/sugar-artwork-0.100.0.tar.xz http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-runner/sugar-runner-0.100.0.tar.xz http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar/sugar-0.100.1.tar.xz http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-toolkit-gtk3/sugar-toolkit-gtk3-0.100.0.tar.xz Thanks to everyone that contributed with code, translations and testing! -- Daniel Narvaez ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Sugar Digest 2013-10-22
Walter, This is very inspiring work. Thank you. Gerald On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 10:33 AM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.comwrote: == Sugar Digest == Free software gives the license. Sugar provides the means. 1. I'm back from a week in Paraguay and Uruguay to celebrate Turtle Art Days in Caacupé and Montevideo. Turtle Art Day Caacupé exceeded my expectations. 275 students, their parents, and 77 teachers joined educators and Sugar developers from eight countries throughout the Americas and as far away as Australia (Tony Forster). Brian Silverman and Artemis Papert, the co-creators of Turtle Art, led workshops to a room full entralled children. Martin Abente, Andres Aguirre, and Alan Aguiar similarly led Butiá/Juky robots workshops, using TurtleBots. Claudia Urrea and I led workshops using Turtle Blocks, where the emphasis was on sensors and mutlimedia. Tony led a seminar with teachers on pedagogical framework for Turtle Art. We were assisted by Evolution children, youth leaders in Caacupé who attend school in the morning, teach in the afternoon, and on weekends supply technical support to school programs (I hope we are able to recruit many of them to participate in Google Code In, should Sugar Labs be chosen to participate again this year). While I have come to expect that children will deeply engage with Turtle Art, the fact that they maintained intense focus for three consecutive two-hour workshops, 70 to room, with only short breaks, was unexpected. Many thanks to Mary Gomez, Pacita Pena, Cecilia Alcala, and the Paraguay Educa team for all of the work they did behind the scenes (and in the classrooms) to make the day a success. Turtle Art Day Montevideo was teacher-focused rather than child-focused. Organized by José Miguel García, it attracted 70 teachers to ANEP for a series of workshops. Claudia and I began the day with a short lecture on pedagogy. The workshop themes included sensors (led by Guzman Trindad), robots (led by Andres and the Butiá team), advanced blocks, and turtle mathematics. During the robots workshop, we implemented inter-robot communication by taking advantage of some new collaboration blocks in Turtle Blocks (ported to TurtleBots): we mapped the accelerometer from one machine to the motors of another to make a remote-control steering wheel. In discussions the following day with Mariana Herrera, who works with children with severe physical disabilities, we came up with a simple adaptation that may enable her students to program Butiá using some buttons embedded in pillows. Sdenka Zobeida Salas Pilco and the children at an Aymara-speaking school organized a Turtle Art Day in Puno as well: Children and I organized quickly this event, they provided some ideas for celebrating, it was their idea to arrange the classroom and sticking balloons to the walls. Girls asked me to were the traditional local clothes. They helped me a lot. Also, they prepared a song, a poetry and riddles in Spanish and Aymara language. Finally, the little ones worked some codes, 4th graders were exploring the activity, and 6th graders organized the event. Other Turtle Art Days are following: in Costa Rica, Malaysia, and possibly Singapore. While the primary purpose of these Turtle Art Days is to promote children learning through programming, an important secondary goal was also achieved: programming is not just in service of geometry (what Papert called Mathland) but also in service of whatever passion drives the child. (Artemis refers to the work she and Brian do as Artland. Work with sensors, robots, multimedia, etc., offer many mountains to climb.) 2. Other activities in Paraguay and Uruguay this week included EduJam in Asuncion, a Sugar Hackfest, a meeting with Pablo Flores and the Python Jóven, a Butiá workshop, and a Ceibal event for educators in Montevideo. Leticia Romero organized the first EduJam to be held regionally, at the National University of Asuncion. (I handed out 100 copies of Sugar on a Stick to interested attendees thanks to the generosity of Nexcopy [1].) It was well attended by educators and engineers from Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, et al. The hackfest was also well attended. It included testing of Sugar 100 in a session orchestrated by Gonzalo Odiard (a number of bugs were discovered and fixed), an introduction to the new HTML5/Javascript by Manuel Quiñones, and a discussion of a proposal Brian to use an embedded Logo environment in the Arduino brains of the various robots programmed with TurtleBots. The Butiá workshop was an opportunity for me to observe how children use TurtleBots in programming their robots -- a few of my observations led to some fine-tuning of the UI in TurtleBlocks-192. And a chance to get direct feedback from teachers who use Turtle Blocks in a wide range of activities. Eye-opening. We discussed the ongoing challenge of providing both a low floor and a high ceiling.
Re: [Sugar-devel] Google Summer of Code
On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 11:48 AM, Remy DeCausemaker re...@civx.us wrote: I will def be there. Congrats on getting additional slots :) --RemyD. On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 10:58 AM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.comwrote: As you probably have heard, we have 8 slots for GSoC. I'd like to have a quick meeting Thursday evening on irc to discuss how we will get to our final decision on students. Would 6pm EST (22UTC) work for everyone? We need to keep this a private meeting for the moment, so let's agree to use #sugar-gsoc on irc.freenode.net? If you cannot attend, please send me any thoughts you'd like to share in advance. thanks. -walter On Fri, May 3, 2013 at 4:18 PM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.comwrote: Sugar Labs has 37 applications applications for GSoC. We have the next three days to review the applications and rank them by preference. I don't know yet how many slots we will get -- probably between 2 and 5, so we are only going to be able to accept about one in ten applications. Please, if you can please review as many applications as you can over the next 48 hours and put your scores in the GSoC system at [1], and also to please send to me, Gonzalo and Claudia any additional ideas/thoughts/concerns, that would be very helpful. Criteria you should consider in your reviews include: * quality of the proposal * benefit to Sugar community * potential of the student to complete the task Please feel free to ping me with any questions. regards. walter [1] http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/dashboard/google/gsoc2013#proposals_submitted -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org -- -- Remy DeCausemaker Research Associate Lab for Technological Literacy http://foss.rit.edu Rochester Institute of Technology Center for Student Innovation 159 Lomb Memorial Drive Building 87-1680 Rochester, NY 14623 ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Google Summer of Code
I'll be there. Gerald On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 2:57 PM, Dr. Gerald Ardito gerald.ard...@gmail.comwrote: On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 11:48 AM, Remy DeCausemaker re...@civx.us wrote: I will def be there. Congrats on getting additional slots :) --RemyD. On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 10:58 AM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.comwrote: As you probably have heard, we have 8 slots for GSoC. I'd like to have a quick meeting Thursday evening on irc to discuss how we will get to our final decision on students. Would 6pm EST (22UTC) work for everyone? We need to keep this a private meeting for the moment, so let's agree to use #sugar-gsoc on irc.freenode.net? If you cannot attend, please send me any thoughts you'd like to share in advance. thanks. -walter On Fri, May 3, 2013 at 4:18 PM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.comwrote: Sugar Labs has 37 applications applications for GSoC. We have the next three days to review the applications and rank them by preference. I don't know yet how many slots we will get -- probably between 2 and 5, so we are only going to be able to accept about one in ten applications. Please, if you can please review as many applications as you can over the next 48 hours and put your scores in the GSoC system at [1], and also to please send to me, Gonzalo and Claudia any additional ideas/thoughts/concerns, that would be very helpful. Criteria you should consider in your reviews include: * quality of the proposal * benefit to Sugar community * potential of the student to complete the task Please feel free to ping me with any questions. regards. walter [1] http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/dashboard/google/gsoc2013#proposals_submitted -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org -- -- Remy DeCausemaker Research Associate Lab for Technological Literacy http://foss.rit.edu Rochester Institute of Technology Center for Student Innovation 159 Lomb Memorial Drive Building 87-1680 Rochester, NY 14623 ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Google Summer of Code
Walter, I am trying to review these. I applied as a mentor, but when I go to the dashboard link you posted yesterday, I don't see any projects. What should I do? Thanks. Gerald On Sun, May 5, 2013 at 11:44 AM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.comwrote: We have just 24 hours to finish reviewing applications. Please take some time to give a quick assessment of as many of the applications as you can -- focus on the ones that you may be interested in mentoring, but also please read any of the ones with reasonably high average ratings so as to help us with the final culling. regards. -walter On Fri, May 3, 2013 at 4:18 PM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.comwrote: Sugar Labs has 37 applications applications for GSoC. We have the next three days to review the applications and rank them by preference. I don't know yet how many slots we will get -- probably between 2 and 5, so we are only going to be able to accept about one in ten applications. Please, if you can please review as many applications as you can over the next 48 hours and put your scores in the GSoC system at [1], and also to please send to me, Gonzalo and Claudia any additional ideas/thoughts/concerns, that would be very helpful. Criteria you should consider in your reviews include: * quality of the proposal * benefit to Sugar community * potential of the student to complete the task Please feel free to ping me with any questions. regards. walter [1] http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/dashboard/google/gsoc2013#proposals_submitted -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] Sugar Labs in GSoC 2013
This is really great news! On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 7:19 AM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.comwrote: Sugar Labs has been accepted in Google Summer of Code 2013. Thanks to everyone in the community who contributed to our application. Now it is time to recruit students. More details coming your way soon. regards. -walter On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 2:12 PM, Manuel Quiñones ma...@laptop.org wrote: 2013/4/9 Kalpa Welivitigoda callka...@gmail.com: Hi all, I am really happy and impressed to see Sugar Labs listed in accepted organizations for Google Code of Summer 2013. Great news! This comunity is giving a boost :) -- .. manuq .. ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) i...@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Google Summer of Code project ideas
Walter, I am looking over this list. I am wondering about the requirements for a mentor. Thanks. Gerald On Tuesday, March 26, 2013 at 2:17 PM, Walter Bender wrote: We have been accumulating project ideas for Google Summer of Code 2013 [1]. Please take a few minutes to add a favorite project or sign on as a co-mentor to an existing project. Also, feel free to help us refine the descriptions on the pages. (I've added a bit of text to the end of each project, describing how it benefits both Sugar and the student working on the project. These blurbs need some refining. The deadline is the 29th of this month, so please act in the next day or two. -walter [1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Summer_of_Code/2013 -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org (mailto:Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org) http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
[Sugar-devel] About to teach Python programming
Hello. I have been asked by my school district to teach a one semester course on computer programming to some of our high school students. I was already settled on Python. In my planning, I thought it would be great if the students built an application for Sugar/XO Laptop. I have, as I think you know, been using them in our school for a few years, I think the transition from consumer to producer would be great. I am not a Python programmer, although I understand the basic concepts and can muddle my way through. So,here's my question -- what should the students know/be able to do in Python before they are able to write an Activity? I hope this makes sense. And I appreciate your time. Best, Gerald Ardito ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] offline a.sl.o
This is very interesting. I have a kind of related question. Has there been any work done for a non-internet based email server (and XO based client)? I know that Tony Anderson (now in Rwanda) is working in a school with no internet access, but with the need for email-type communication. Thanks. Gerald On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 8:09 PM, Aleksey Lim alsr...@sugarlabs.org wrote: On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 08:04:36PM -0800, Sameer Verma wrote: Has anyone looked into running an offline copy of activities.sugarlabs.orgon a server that isn't on the Internet (a la XS)? To run ASLO copy on a standalone server, you need to install ASLO/AMO php application (http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activity_Library/Devel but instructions might be outdated) and clone MySQL data with activity files (~9G). Some time ago, SL used 2nd ASLO node, but it used the same MySQL and files storage. There is the same need in ASLO on a school server in the field. But in my mind, trying to adapt ASLO/AMO to this scheme is an overkill. The real environments might assume lack of maintaining or restricted school servers (for example XO laptops in offline schools), i.e., Apache+MySQL+PHP+ASLO/AMO is a real misuse. In this regard, Sugar Network[1] was initiated a ~year ago, i.e., content sharing system (in contrast to ASLO, SN will provide non-software content like books or Journal objects). Sugar Network functionality is explicitly split into server side and client application(s). Server side is capable for running even on XO laptops (XO-1.5 is preferable) in pure offline case (e.g. one-teacher schools in Peru when people have only XO laptops) with further offline synchronization[2]. Clients might be any applications that use REStful API provided by Sugar Network node (master server like ASLO or any distributed node). For now there are two clients[3] written as a lightweight Web application and one that is pure JS application. The centralized scheme (like ASLO) is available right now[3] (it is being assumed to be used in Peruvian pilot). The offline model is in progress and should be ready, in some stage, during this year. [1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Network [2] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Deployment_Platform/Sneakernet [3] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Network#Try_it -- Aleksey ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] offline a.sl.o
Aleksey, At the risk of asking a stupid question, what is the Sugar Network functionality you are talking about? Thanks. Gerald On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 8:43 PM, Aleksey Lim alsr...@sugarlabs.org wrote: On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 08:20:23PM -0500, Dr. Gerald Ardito wrote: This is very interesting. I have a kind of related question. Has there been any work done for a non-internet based email server (and XO based client)? I know that Tony Anderson (now in Rwanda) is working in a school with no internet access, but with the need for email-type communication. Generally speaking, people (students and teachers) from Peruvian one-teachers offline schools might need the same offline email. But the approach that was take for Sugar Network is not trying to create full featured/partial replacement of online environments (e.g., email, web, wikipedia, feedback reporting system, etc) but create one solid/robust system (that is capable for offline) with features: * content sharing (both ways, not only from deployers to deployments) * having reliable feedback from the field, i.e., fail reports, usage statistics, questions * and social activity regarding the content in general (review, comments, etc) So, there is no direct offline-email analogy. But in my mind, designed Sugar Network functionality makes offline-email less needed (and not needed at all if we are talking about environments like rural schools with no any IT skilled people). -- Aleksey ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] NPR story on OLPC in Peru
I wanted to share that we have faced the same criticisms in our school regarding the XOs. For the last four years, the teachers and students have complained that the devices do not connect well or reliably to our wireless network. Obviously, in our case, we have a wireless network and essentially continuous access to the internet. But, what I have had to fight against is that this is the most basic use of any computing device. The only way I have been able to stem this tide is to come up with projects and programs that made use of the XOs as standalone or mesh networked devices. For example, we have done a lot with Memorize and Etoys and Scratch (and beginning to work with TurtleBlocks). I have found that once the students and teachers are involved with these activities, the internet stuff goes away. But the bigger point that is missed in the story, and the broader conversation, is that the XOs and Sugar tap into non-traditional methods of teaching and learning. When this invisible line is crossed, real magic happens. It is the conversations which illuminate this invisible line that is tough. Just my two cents. Gerald On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 8:29 AM, Christoph Derndorfer christoph.derndor...@gmail.com wrote: On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 2:21 AM, Sameer Verma sve...@sfsu.edu wrote: On Sat, Oct 13, 2012 at 3:48 PM, Alexandro Colorado j...@oooes.org wrote: On 10/13/12, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.com wrote: Alexandro, I think you are grossly underestimating the connectivity problem in Peru. Yes maybe, but I understand most educational systems dont have enough budget to acquire connectivity so getting connectivity from other sources like public buildings, libraries, will allow other resource to come through without needing to be funded by the educational budget. Now if we are talking about, the whole town not having ways on connecting, then the next option would be looking for alternative sources, in Mexico they used Satelite modems. http://www.scribd.com/doc/10324524/Capacitacion-Para-Maestros-Uso-Del-Aula-Enciclomedia#page=15 But other mediums like DSL modems attached to a wifi router will be able to get some basic Internet for HTML/images, IRC, etc. The big question is about the level of connectivity for copper phone lines. It seems that a fair number of offline requirements will be served by the XS school server, but I don't see that show up in any of the conversations. Does any location in Peru use any version of the XS? (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/School_server) I'm not aware of any schools having school servers, at least they didn't have them when I was there in 2010. The next best thing were USB drives with some collections of offline materials compiled by DIGETE but as far as I can tell only a certain percentage of teachers ever received theirs. Cheers, Christoph cheers, Sameer regards. -walter -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org ___ Devel mailing list de...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel -- Alexandro Colorado PPMC Apache OpenOffice http://es.openoffice.org ___ Devel mailing list de...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel -- Christoph Derndorfer volunteer, OLPC (Austria) [www.olpc.at] editor, OLPC News [www.olpcnews.com] contributor, TechnikBasteln [www.technikbasteln.net] e-mail: christ...@derndorfer.eu ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] NPR story on OLPC in Peru
Kevin, I also grew up in that world. I fondly remember my first computer class in high school (1978), learning FORTRAN on the big teletype machine. When those remarkable moments of learning on the XOs are happening, I know we are doing the right thing. And I point them out to the students and the teachers so that they can see what I do. This has been an effective strategy for bringing others into the conversation. Gerald On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 3:44 PM, Kevin Mark kevin.m...@verizon.net wrote: I wanted to share that we have faced the same criticisms in our school regarding the XOs. For the last four years, the teachers and students have complained that the devices do not connect well or reliably to our wireless network. Obviously, in our case, we have a wireless network and essentially continuous access to the internet. But, what I have had to fight against is that this is the most basic use of any computing device. The only way I have been able to stem this tide is to come up with projects and programs that made use of the XOs as standalone or mesh networked devices. For example, we have done a lot with Memorize and Etoys and Scratch (and beginning to work with TurtleBlocks). I have found that once the students and teachers are involved with these activities, the internet stuff goes away. But the bigger point that is missed in the story, and the broader conversation, is that the XOs and Sugar tap into non-traditional methods of teaching and learning. When this invisible line is crossed, real magic happens. It is the conversations which illuminate this invisible line that is tough. I grew-up in a world before google and before the internet but after computers became affordable by homes. We had different expectations of these devices. This is something that affect the teachers, kids and media pundits today: they have seen (even in the remoter parts of the world) 'high speed computers with always-on internet with shiny video game worlds'. The is a good thing and bad thing. It means that they know an end-point that they want to reach but are unsatisfied with what they have. But they don't know what I and others of my age knew -- the learning and imagination that was done with disconnected clunky machines with 8-bit graphics. Which is sort-of what the XO appears to be by comparison. And also the fact that learning with computers is not the same as playing world of warcraft and you can do the former with an XO and don't need a 3GHZ pentium 7 with the latest video card. ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] Sugar Digest 2012-09-18
Daniel and others, This thread has really inspired me. I am going to work with my students to develop Sugar activities. I have James' book. Are there other resources I need? Thanks. Gerald On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 4:16 AM, Kevin Mark kevin.m...@verizon.net wrote: --- On Wed, 9/19/12, S. Daniel Francis fran...@sugarlabs.org wrote: From: S. Daniel Francis fran...@sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] Sugar Digest 2012-09-18 To: Kevin Mark kevin.m...@verizon.net Cc: James Simmons nices...@gmail.com, iaep i...@lists.sugarlabs.org, Sugar-dev Devel sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org, community-n...@lists.sugarlabs.org Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2012, 11:27 PM Hi Kevin, 2012/9/19 Kevin Mark kevin.m...@verizon.net: Hearing from the kids who are making Sugar activities and more contributions, I'm really wanting to know what teaching environment made this possible? Summing my case all the cases I listened about, we usually learn by our self. Thinking about why Sugar, well, we could make desktop applications, but a free and decent way to share a program is difficult to find and there's not always a community where we can share what we make. While I can't speak for Sugar Labs, this sound like a very good problems to address. Scratch has a website to 'upload' its programs. I would really love to see a way to help young sugar activity hacker have a place for them to 'hack' on their games/activities. Maybe Activities.sugarlabs.org or some website in .uy? And maybe a forum? (I'm not someone to do this sadly but would think that the very capable people around the sugar community would find this idea motivating) Also I think Sugar needs activities, unlike desktops, where practically all is already made. Just Edward suggested us to tell our stories, but at the moment I'll not get into many details and only answer your questions. Are there activity hacking classes? In Uruguay there is only one activity hacking teacher: Flavio Danesse. OH wow. I have recently started to 'hack' on JAMedia and JAMediaTube. So I know his work. I wonder if making videos of his lecture would be something he could do and the kids could watch? He is an IT teacher, and every year he organizes a workshop where he teaches volunteer students to program in Python. The group Python Joven, in English Young Python.. If you and others can make 'clubs' in your area, that would be great, maybe they can setup a web 'forum' for everyone to exchange ideas. Currently, his students contributing here are Agustin Zubiaga and Cristhofer Travieso, they told me about another student who develops applications for Android. Is this kind of experimentation part of a turtleart class? For my part I can say yes and no... When I received my XO with Sugar I liked very much TurtleArt, but the teachers don't teach it very often, I had to look for documentation. Oh, that is sad, I'm surprised to read that. Have kids 'goggled' about programming on their own time and wanted to know about programming? Now you are right, I learn practically all 'googling'. Flavio's students told me they also learn(ed) a big part of what they know searching and investigating by them self. I think it's better because we can learn what we are interested in, also if it's not related with Sugar. yes that is true. learning what you want (being an auto-didact) is powerful. Are there computer programming classes and teachers that have assignments that ask the kids to explore? Programming is not often a subject at the school. I know about optional workshops, like Flavio's. My parents are teachers, and about three-four years ago, when I was ten years old, I used to go to the highschool where my parents worked and I listened to a workshop about web design (basic HTML development) and graphic design (with GIMP). That workshop was not a way to get young programmers, but it removed me the fear of seeing a source code as something strange or made for be understood by non-human people. Yes, many people have a fear of this 'scary' stuff. It something everyone who wants to learn about programming has to face. Turtleart and Scratch was suppose to help. Cheers. ~danielf P.S: Sorry, I don't speak English very well. Thanks you very much for your answers. I think you write English very well! -Kevin aka kevix ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] Sugar Digest 2012-09-18
Walter, Sounds good. Thanks. Gerald P.S. And congratulations on the pending new arrival. On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 9:12 AM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 9:05 AM, Dr. Gerald Ardito gerald.ard...@gmail.com wrote: Daniel and others, This thread has really inspired me. I am going to work with my students to develop Sugar activities. I have James' book. Are there other resources I need? I'd recommend using the Duplicate function in View Source. Have them make some changes to a favorite existing Sugar activity. regards. -walter Thanks. Gerald On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 4:16 AM, Kevin Mark kevin.m...@verizon.net wrote: --- On Wed, 9/19/12, S. Daniel Francis fran...@sugarlabs.org wrote: From: S. Daniel Francis fran...@sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] Sugar Digest 2012-09-18 To: Kevin Mark kevin.m...@verizon.net Cc: James Simmons nices...@gmail.com, iaep i...@lists.sugarlabs.org, Sugar-dev Devel sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org, community-n...@lists.sugarlabs.org Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2012, 11:27 PM Hi Kevin, 2012/9/19 Kevin Mark kevin.m...@verizon.net: Hearing from the kids who are making Sugar activities and more contributions, I'm really wanting to know what teaching environment made this possible? Summing my case all the cases I listened about, we usually learn by our self. Thinking about why Sugar, well, we could make desktop applications, but a free and decent way to share a program is difficult to find and there's not always a community where we can share what we make. While I can't speak for Sugar Labs, this sound like a very good problems to address. Scratch has a website to 'upload' its programs. I would really love to see a way to help young sugar activity hacker have a place for them to 'hack' on their games/activities. Maybe Activities.sugarlabs.org or some website in .uy? And maybe a forum? (I'm not someone to do this sadly but would think that the very capable people around the sugar community would find this idea motivating) Also I think Sugar needs activities, unlike desktops, where practically all is already made. Just Edward suggested us to tell our stories, but at the moment I'll not get into many details and only answer your questions. Are there activity hacking classes? In Uruguay there is only one activity hacking teacher: Flavio Danesse. OH wow. I have recently started to 'hack' on JAMedia and JAMediaTube. So I know his work. I wonder if making videos of his lecture would be something he could do and the kids could watch? He is an IT teacher, and every year he organizes a workshop where he teaches volunteer students to program in Python. The group Python Joven, in English Young Python.. If you and others can make 'clubs' in your area, that would be great, maybe they can setup a web 'forum' for everyone to exchange ideas. Currently, his students contributing here are Agustin Zubiaga and Cristhofer Travieso, they told me about another student who develops applications for Android. Is this kind of experimentation part of a turtleart class? For my part I can say yes and no... When I received my XO with Sugar I liked very much TurtleArt, but the teachers don't teach it very often, I had to look for documentation. Oh, that is sad, I'm surprised to read that. Have kids 'goggled' about programming on their own time and wanted to know about programming? Now you are right, I learn practically all 'googling'. Flavio's students told me they also learn(ed) a big part of what they know searching and investigating by them self. I think it's better because we can learn what we are interested in, also if it's not related with Sugar. yes that is true. learning what you want (being an auto-didact) is powerful. Are there computer programming classes and teachers that have assignments that ask the kids to explore? Programming is not often a subject at the school. I know about optional workshops, like Flavio's. My parents are teachers, and about three-four years ago, when I was ten years old, I used to go to the highschool where my parents worked and I listened to a workshop about web design (basic HTML development) and graphic design (with GIMP). That workshop was not a way to get young programmers, but it removed me the fear of seeing a source code as something strange or made for be understood by non-human people. Yes, many people have a fear of this 'scary' stuff. It something everyone who wants to learn about programming has to face. Turtleart and Scratch was suppose to help. Cheers. ~danielf P.S: Sorry, I don't speak English very well. Thanks you very much for your answers. I think you write English very well! -Kevin aka kevix ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Sugar Labs Website Revamp IRC Mtg 1-8-12 11:00amEST(16:00UTC)
Christian, I'll be there. Thanks. Gerald On Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 2:21 PM, Christian Marc Schmidt christianm...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all We met today on IRC to discuss the website design and content, but not many were present. It is important that we get your feedback as the work on the website progresses. Therefor, I am looking to reschedule our meeting to another time that works for everyone. See John's original email below: We are looking for feedback on the design as well as volunteers to help us generate content for the new website. Does this coming Saturday 14th at 11:00am EST/16:00 UTC work for everyone? Or is a time during the week better? Suggestions welcome. Thank you, Christian On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 4:10 PM, John Tierney jtis4...@hotmail.com wrote: Hello All, Happy New Year! As the New Year starts we are making another effort to restart the Sugar Labs Website Revamp. Designer and community member Christian Marc Schmidt has put together a Design Template along with a Sugar Labs Website Refresh: Content Document. These two documents along with the work and content gathering done by RIT Co-op students Mike Devine and JT Mengel last year will hopefully give us solid basis to start from. Our Kick-off IRC meeting will take place this Sunday Jan. 8th on#sugar-meeting at 11:00amEST(16:00UTC), after the Design Meeting surrounding Write To Journal Anytime taking place at 10:00amEST. Please join us if you are available-our key shortcoming last year in our attempt was a lack of content to effectively create the new site. All help is Welcome and needed. Because this is in the Building and Design stage please email me at: jtis4...@hotmail.com to get links to the preview documents if you are interested in being part of the process. Our First Step is to give Christian the Thumbs Up/Make Enhancements to the Design. Our Second Step will look to get individual community members to take responsibility in Content Gathering Areas that flow out of the documents Christian has prepared. Our Third Step is to execute Content Gathering Upon receiving enough content Christian will then commence the build phase. We hope you can join us on Sunday and look forward to working with the community to do this important work. Please let us know of your interest in taking part in this important endeavor. Appreciate the Collaboration! John Tierney P.S. Please get into the hands of those who will be best able to assist-Thank You! -- anyth...@christianmarcschmidt.com 917/ 575 0013 http://www.christianmarcschmidt.com http://www.facebook.com/christianmarcschmidt http://www.linkedin.com/in/christianmarcschmidt http://twitter.com/cms_ Skype: christianmarcschmidt ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] New activity from OLPC France
Walter, The type of lab notebook activity you describe could be extended beyond the cooking area. I can see students using this for all kinds of scientific investigations. My two cents. Gerald On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 7:47 AM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.comwrote: On Sun, Apr 17, 2011 at 11:24 AM, Stefanie Nobel stefanie.no...@googlemail.com wrote: Hello, I’m glad to present you a new project from OLPC France. For the next six months we will develop a new playful software, which aims at educating children about a healthier nutrition. In this game children are taking care of an avatar by providing him with meals, which they have to prepare before. By doing so the children are meant to learn the importance of good nutrition for their healthy. The game will be supported by Danone Research. They will not only finance the project but also share their great knowledge on this topic with us. We’re just at the begining of the development but here is a short description of our first ideas: The game will be split in two parts: In one part the children can create their own recipes in a virtual environment, similar to a “cook studio”. There is also the possibility to share these recipes with other children. The other part is for validation: Here the meal will be “validated” by the avatar, (for example, a reaction might be, that the avatar can’t do homework because he has not sufficient energy). So at first we will have to define the relevant parameters, which you have to consider when you validate a healthy meal, for example: The need of the different nutritional values, The nutritional value of the aliment In natural and organic state and after the preparation of the meal The activities, the avatar/child do/did during the day The season and the weather The times of the meals during the day(this has an impact on the gain of the food) The health of the avatar/child The extent of hygienic conditions when preparing the food The next step will be to collect all those information and integrate it into a rough logic. So don’t hesitate to comment about this project and share your thoughts. We appreciate all kinds of input! FWIW, several of us have been thinking about a different angle on a cooking activity, one more geared towards chemistry and the science of the kitchen: getting the kids to experiment with recipes, for example, changing the 'resting time' when making noodles from flour and water, and observing how this changes the consistency, flavor, etc. The Activity would be more like a lab notebook and set of simple data analysis tools than anything else, but then the kids could presumably photograph their results with their XO and share their successes and failures, and aggregate data more widely. It be interesting to fold in nutrition into the mix: does Danone have data we can use re how cooking impacts the foods we eat? regards. -walter Stefanie ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Interesting USB-pluggable robots, controller boards, and sensors
I am very interested in this functionality and that of using WeDo Robots. Would this be available for the XOs? Both versions or only the XO 1.5? How would that work? Thanks. Gerald On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 7:25 AM, Emiliano Pastorino epastor...@plan.ceibal.edu.uy wrote: Emiliano has Arduino + TA working, I think. Needs to be reworked as a plugin in the new TA plugins model (which seems excellent). Yes, it's working. We don't know if we're going to use them, but I plan to create a plugin anyway. On the Uy/Ceibal side, I really want to know which Arduino they are using, and the exact sensors too. So we document that in wiki.l.o, buy the exact same kit here, and fold it into our test plans. We bought a kit from sparkfun.com last year which I think is no longer available (dev-09284) Anyway, these are the items icluded: Arduino Duemilanove (ATmega328) Light sensor SEN-09088 http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9088 Buzzer COM-07950 http://www.sparkfun.com/products/7950 Trim pot COM-9288 http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9288 Temperature sensor SEN-00250 http://www.sparkfun.com/products/250 Tricolor LED COM-09264 http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9264 Button COM-09190 http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9190 Jumper wires PRT-08431 http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8431 We also bought a motor shield for driving more motors: http://www.ladyada.net/make/mshield/ Turtle Art Arduino, at least when I last ran it, requires Firmata software in the Arduino Yes, we're using Firmata in the Arduino. Correct. The current TA+NXT is based on the nxt_python library, which works tethered, so the NXT controller acts as a dumb slave of the XO. I think there's a function in nxt-python that lets you upload a program to the nxt brick. I'll check it out later. Right now I'm working on a plugin for the new plugins model for TA. On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 9:56 PM, Gonzalo Odiard gonz...@laptop.org wrote: Thanks Tony. Added to the wiki page Gonzalo On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 6:09 PM, fors...@ozonline.com.au wrote: Turtle Art Arduino, at least when I last ran it, requires Firmata software in the Arduino. So the Arduino is acting as a dumb I/O expansion board and is not being programmed as an autonomous robot. The user is programming in TurtleArt. I used the Arduino Duemilanove but I don't think the version matters much. http://tonyforster.blogspot.com/search/label/Arduino Emiliano has Arduino + TA working, I think. Needs to be reworked as a plugin in the new TA plugins model (which seems excellent). On the Uy/Ceibal side, I really want to know which Arduino they are using, and the exact sensors too. So we document that in wiki.l.o, buy the exact same kit here, and fold it into our test plans. ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel -- Ing. Emiliano Pastorino Centro Ceibal Av. Italia 6201 Ed. Los Ceibos Montevideo, Uruguay Tel: (598) 2601 5773 int.: 2232 ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Interesting USB-pluggable robots, controller boards, and sensors
Martin, Thanks. This is all really exciting. I am really looking forward to connecting the XOs to probes, robots, etc. so that the students can experience manipulating physical and digital objects. Gerald On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:17 AM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.comwrote: On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:02 AM, Dr. Gerald Ardito gerald.ard...@gmail.com wrote: I am very interested in this functionality and that of using WeDo Robots. Would this be available for the XOs? Both versions or only the XO 1.5? How would that work? It's a headline feature for 11.2.0 which is planned to be XO-1 and XO-1.5 . Unless we hit unexpected problems, XO-1 is supported. If you look under the hood, it will be a bunch of rpms that get integrated into 11.2.0, plus activity updates that make good use of them. In some cases, actiivites already support boards / robots so what happens is that it is now covered by our QA work, so bugs will be discovered and fixed. Crafty adventurous people can probably get them installed on 10.1.x :-) but that'll be unsupported. cheers, m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- Software Architect - OLPC - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Interesting USB-pluggable robots, controller boards, and sensors
Emiliano, Thanks. I was working with Scratch yesterday with some students and noticed that they have a new category of Examples that pertains to WeDo. Can't wait to play! Gerald On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:29 AM, Emiliano Pastorino epastor...@plan.ceibal.edu.uy wrote: Gerald, I haven't worked with WeDo, but it seems to be supported in Scracht: http://info.scratch.mit.edu/WeDo On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 11:20 AM, Dr. Gerald Ardito gerald.ard...@gmail.com wrote: Martin, Thanks. This is all really exciting. I am really looking forward to connecting the XOs to probes, robots, etc. so that the students can experience manipulating physical and digital objects. Gerald On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:17 AM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com wrote: On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:02 AM, Dr. Gerald Ardito gerald.ard...@gmail.com wrote: I am very interested in this functionality and that of using WeDo Robots. Would this be available for the XOs? Both versions or only the XO 1.5? How would that work? It's a headline feature for 11.2.0 which is planned to be XO-1 and XO-1.5 . Unless we hit unexpected problems, XO-1 is supported. If you look under the hood, it will be a bunch of rpms that get integrated into 11.2.0, plus activity updates that make good use of them. In some cases, actiivites already support boards / robots so what happens is that it is now covered by our QA work, so bugs will be discovered and fixed. Crafty adventurous people can probably get them installed on 10.1.x :-) but that'll be unsupported. cheers, m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- Software Architect - OLPC - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff -- Ing. Emiliano Pastorino Centro Ceibal Av. Italia 6201 Ed. Los Ceibos Montevideo, Uruguay Tel: (598) 2601 5773 int.: 2232 ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Interesting USB-pluggable robots, controller boards, and sensors
Walter, That's great. Thanks. Gerald On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:40 AM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.comwrote: On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:31 AM, Dr. Gerald Ardito gerald.ard...@gmail.com wrote: Emiliano, Thanks I was working with Scratch yesterday with some students and noticed that they have a new category of Examples that pertains to WeDo. Can't wait to play! Gerald FYI, there is also an Olin student working on a WeDo plugin for Turtle Art. -walter On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:29 AM, Emiliano Pastorino epastor...@plan.ceibal.edu.uy wrote: Gerald, I haven't worked with WeDo, but it seems to be supported in Scracht: http://info.scratch.mit.edu/WeDo On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 11:20 AM, Dr. Gerald Ardito gerald.ard...@gmail.com wrote: Martin, Thanks. This is all really exciting. I am really looking forward to connecting the XOs to probes, robots, etc. so that the students can experience manipulating physical and digital objects. Gerald On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:17 AM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com wrote: On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:02 AM, Dr. Gerald Ardito gerald.ard...@gmail.com wrote: I am very interested in this functionality and that of using WeDo Robots. Would this be available for the XOs? Both versions or only the XO 1.5? How would that work? It's a headline feature for 11.2.0 which is planned to be XO-1 and XO-1.5 . Unless we hit unexpected problems, XO-1 is supported. If you look under the hood, it will be a bunch of rpms that get integrated into 11.2.0, plus activity updates that make good use of them. In some cases, actiivites already support boards / robots so what happens is that it is now covered by our QA work, so bugs will be discovered and fixed. Crafty adventurous people can probably get them installed on 10.1.x :-) but that'll be unsupported. cheers, m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- Software Architect - OLPC - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff -- Ing. Emiliano Pastorino Centro Ceibal Av. Italia 6201 Ed. Los Ceibos Montevideo, Uruguay Tel: (598) 2601 5773 int.: 2232 -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Text-to-speech on the XO 1.5 with 10.1.3
Gonzalzo, Do I understand you correctly that this is supposed to work by using alt-shift-s, but currently does not? Gerald On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 12:40 PM, Gonzalo Odiard gonz...@laptop.org wrote: On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 9:05 AM, Gonzalo Odiard gonz...@laptop.orgwrote: On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 1:58 AM, Dr. Gerald Ardito gerald.ard...@gmail.com wrote: Gonzalzo, Thanks for your help with this. I can see now pasting text into Speak. And I understand about Read Ebooks. What the teachers were asking for was for the ability to have text read in Browse and Write. The use case would be highlighting text and then taking some action which results in the text being spoken by the XO. Correction to my first mail. This use case is implemented, but is failing. Alt-shift-S must say the selected text. Gonzalo ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
[Sugar-devel] Text-to-speech on the XO 1.5 with 10.1.3
Hello all. I am working with some teachers and students using XO 1.5 and version 10.1.3 of the software. The teachers really want to make use of a text to speech functionality. I can't seem to find out how this works. I would appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks. Gerald ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Text-to-speech on the XO 1.5 with 10.1.3
James, Thanks. This is very helpful. Gerald On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 1:00 AM, James Cameron qu...@laptop.org wrote: The Sugar Speak activity provides a keyboard to speech function. The learner types words, then presses enter. The text is spoken. I'm personally not aware of a general purpose text to speech function for the rest of the Sugar user interface, but someone else may know of one. -- James Cameron http://quozl.linux.org.au/ ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Text-to-speech on the XO 1.5 with 10.1.3
Gonzalzo, Thanks for your help with this. I can see now pasting text into Speak. And I understand about Read Ebooks. What the teachers were asking for was for the ability to have text read in Browse and Write. The use case would be highlighting text and then taking some action which results in the text being spoken by the XO. Let me know if you need more detail or information. Thanks again. Gerald On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 1:35 AM, Gonzalo Odiard gonz...@laptop.org wrote: Read Ebooks activity have text to speech capabilities, and i am adding this to Read activity too. Can you describe what you and your teachers need? Gonzalo On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 9:39 PM, Dr. Gerald Ardito gerald.ard...@gmail.com wrote: Hello all. I am working with some teachers and students using XO 1.5 and version 10.1.3 of the software. The teachers really want to make use of a text to speech functionality. I can't seem to find out how this works. I would appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks. Gerald ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] Feedback needed: pippy use cases?
I wanted to add that I agree with Steve. I have been working with 5th-8th graders, many of whom love Turtle Art, Scratch, and Etoys. When they get the bug from this kind of programming, I want to introduce them to Pippy, but, like Steve said, I am not sure what to do other than press run. Gerald On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 4:45 AM, Steve Thomas sthom...@gosargon.com wrote: An interface and examples like: http://tryruby.org/ would be a nice. It;s a hand's on tutorial that walks you through learning ruby step by step and you feel like you are actually doing and learning something. Ideally you could also build a framework where users could create their own lesson's following a similar format. Part of the challenge of the existing Pippy is while it has some nice fun examples they don't invite you in to start coding the way tryruby.orgdoes. To me when I first saw it I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do other than hit Run!'. FYI, the Thanks program does not work on my XO. Stephen http://mrstevesscience.blogspot.com/ On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 11:03 PM, Anish Mangal an...@activitycentral.orgwrote: Hi, As Pippy maintainer, I'm looking for inputs as to how is Pippy intended to be used in a classroom environment and how is it currently used. In particular: 1. What grades use Pippy? Could it be used in lower grades with some changes? If so, what could be the nature of those changes? 2. Collaborative code editing? How much is it actually used? What could be made better? 3. Sharing/reviewing of examples by other kids/teachers? 4. Would more explanatory code comments in Pippy examples help? 5. Would having a central repository of having pippy code examples help... For example, the ability to download/upload to a url like pippy.sugarlabs.org? 6. Would it help to have the examples in different languages wherever possible (spanish, for example)? Inputs will help guide future releases of Pippy. -- Anish ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) i...@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) i...@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
