[IAEP] Getting volunteers started (was Re: introduction - hi I'm Donna)

[Edward Cherlin]

Welcome.

On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 1:16 AM, Donna Benjamin <donna at cc.com.au> wrote:
> 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... ???

Indeed. Elsa Culler and Nikki Lee are interested in creating a
newsletter for people who want to become involved. I have provided
them with a list of news sources and some suggestions for projects,
and plan to write for them about the many skills and the wide variety
of knowledge we can use. Basically, everybody can contribute. We need
developers, testers, teachers, writers, students, subject-matter
experts, artists, musicians, designers, event organizers and managers,
Border Collies (to make sure that people know what is expected of them
when they volunteer, and that it gets done), Gophers, and lots more.

We also need to rework some of the introductory information on the
Wiki, and we undoubtedly need to create more documentation of various
projects and processes.

> 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...)

Anything necessary that is out of scope for OLPC and Sugar Labs goes
to Earth Treasury. If you know of anything that isn't getting done,
please bring it to my attention.

> 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?

I have a very early draft of that book, which will be greatly improved
after I get Alan Kay, Doug Engelbart, and many others to improve it.
In the meantime, show people Seymour Papert's classic Mindstorms:
Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas, and get them to look at the
tile-based programming tutorial in Etoys, and all of the samples that
come with Turtle Art. My favorite is flower.ta. Tile-based programming
is much clumsier than text for the expert, but it has many advantages
for the beginner, not least the impossibility of forgetting semicolons
and other such trivia. We can add a set of tutorial TurtleArt
examples, demonstrating the fundamental ideas and the use of each kind
of tile.

> 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 ]

I spent 17 years in high-tech market research, after an education in
math and computer science. If I don't know the answers, I can tell you
who does. I then spent 12 years in technical writing, for every kind
of audience: novices, engineers, marketing...and I have been a
classroom teacher, in the Peace Corps and elsewhere. I always say that
the only stupid question is the one you didn't ask.

>> 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.

Tell me more. Earth Treasury is getting ready to go into schools in
Ghana and Uganda, and will be delighted to help with any others.

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



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And Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination.
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