[IAEP] introduction - hi I'm Donna

[Donna Benjamin]

On Wed, 2008-12-10 at 21:15 +1800, David Farning wrote:
> Are you interested in theory, application, or something in-between?

All of the above actually. Theory gives structure to thinking through
new ideas. Application is the only thing that makes a difference, and
the "something in between" is how we apply theory to practice.

> One of our recent initiatives is the establishment of Local Labs.  It
> is still an open question what exactly a Local Lab[1] is. I envision
> that they will be based on the notion of, 'Think globally, act
> locally.'
> 
> Interested parties may take the idea of Sugar Labs and replicate it on
> a regional basis.  The challenge over the next several months and
> years will be how to encourage the creativity and resiliency that come
> from decentralization with the consistency and quality that a global
> 'brand' can provide.

Seems to me there are a number of "ideas whose time has come" floating
around. Local Sugar Labs, and OLPC communities of practice could indeed
be the same thing. I'm particularly interested in Sugar on non-OLPC
platforms - and am very excited by Caroline, Bill et als continued
efforts for sugar on a stick as a an example - and of course the liveCD
option too.

> If you, or anyone you know, is interest in the theory of establishing
> Local Labs we can certainly use your help.   If you are interested in
> the lessons that can be learned from actual deployments, the
> Deployment Team[2] may be for you.  How about something in the middle?
>  We could use a Sugar Labs -Australia to support local deployments,
> work on local issues, and feed good ideas and best practices back
> upstream to Sugar Labs.

Yep - happy to help in this capacity. I think there is a steadily
growing number of people keen to _do_ something productive to contribute
to the project. For some people that might just be buying a machine via
G1G1 - but I'm more interested in working with those who want to
contribute time and expertise. Whether this is by thinking through the
pedagogical implications and working with teachers, or by helping put
together specs / do testing / bug reports of activities... or... ???

> > I introduced the idea of building communities of practice to some people
> > in the Aussie OLPC community, getting local groups of XO owners
> > gathering with teachers and children to work together on testing,
> > learning, discovering and documenting their experience.  Have already
> > had a few informal gatherings with some of the developers who got an XO
> > at LCA - intending on doing more of that too.  It would be brilliant to
> > tap into the broader community to get a TODO list of tasks to accomplish
> > and hack on.
> 
> Your reputation as an organizer precedes you:) 

Uh Oh! :)

>  I would invite you to consider:
> Helping us figure out exactly what Local Labs are.

Yep.  Joel - I'd love to hear more about your thoughts on this.
I imagine you having a major role in this for Australia. Thanks for your
contributions at VITTA conference both last year and this year. 

Seems this is a polygon shaped thing :)

I guess my gut feel sees a Local Sugar Lab as primarily focussed on
software development - bug testing & triage and development. I also
think there's scope here for developers to better grok pedagogy - and
teachers to better grok software development.  Perhaps some focus on
teaching teachers programming could be part of Sugar Labs remit?
(Squeak, eToys, Scratch, Alice, Python, Smalltalk etc...)

Ongoing Evangelism (Marketing)
I'm a firm believer in activity being the attractor.

> Establish Sugar Labs - Australia to support local deployments and feed
> best practices back upstream.

Questions: 
HOW do we facilitate sugar exploration by willing teachers?

I know a few primary teachers very keen to get to work with Sugar or the
XO - but they don't necessarily have the know-how or resources to buy
machines for the school... this is where SOAS and live CDs come in...
but then what?

The instructions on the site are not for the faint-hearted. :)
I'd love to work to improve them - and make the whole thing fool-proof!
[ I don't even know if that's possible - I don't run windows, so the
whole bios / boot thing had me mystified ]

> Encourage and support local deployments.

I have 3 primary teachers, and a primary school technician all at
different schools ready to jump on a project / deployment in Victoria -
if only we can rally the resources to do so.

> 1. http://sugarlabs.org/go/Local_Labs
> 2. http://sugarlabs.org/go/DeploymentTeam

Thanks for these - I shall do some more homework.

cheers
Donna

-- 
Donna Benjamin - Executive Director
Creative Contingencies - http://cc.com.au
ph +61 3 9326 9985 - mob +61 418 310 414
open source - facilitation - web services