[Its.an.education.project] An "About" statement? (Was: untangling constructionism)

[Bernie Innocenti]

[cc += michael]

Good point, Pamela -- we should advertise this more in talks.

Besides, we have designed beyond standard Linux security.  Michael Stone
implemented Rainbow, a system that keeps activities as isolated as possible
from each other, and from user's personal data:

  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Rainbow


Pamela Jones wrote:
> I'd add a fourth item, Greg, because I think it's the winning ticket in 
> sales going forward:
> 
> security.
> 
> We are talking about children. They must be protected from malware, 
> phishing, botnets, etc.  That is *never* going to be possible with 
> Windows software, and that is how Sugar can be presented by the sales 
> people, I think. Not that it's infallible, because FOSS folks always 
> tell the truth, but I'd focus on it very hard as a selling point, 
> because the whole world knows Microsoft is not secure. The DOD knows it, 
> and they are switching to GNU/Linux because of it.
> 
> So why would any government/school wish to endanger their kids?
> 
> Greg DeKoenigsberg wrote:
>> On Mon, 5 May 2008, Walter Bender wrote:
>>
>>> Another iteration:
>>>
>>> "It's an education project."
>>>
>>> Summary:
>>>
>>> (1) Learning practice and theory need to evolve as technology evolves; 
>>> we are discussing constructionist (and other learning theories) research 
>>> and practice;
>>>
>>> (2) We are engaging in an open dialog between the overlapping 
>>> communities of software developers and educators;
>>>
>>> (3) We are guiding Sugar software development, as it serves as a 
>>> tangible structural underpinning for the application of 1 and 2 above; 
>>> and
>>>
>>> (4) We are examining and discussing Sugar's educational importance.
>> My $0.02:
>>
>> I am a novice in the language of constructivism, so I will speak directly 
>> to the parts of the conversation I understand, and feel that I can bring 
>> value to.
>>
>> IMHO, the revolutionary things about the Sugar interface, and the things 
>> that are therefore most worth defending, are the notions that (a) kids 
>> should be "sharing by default", and (b) kids should be able to tinker. 
>> These are the things that make "activities" different than "applications". 
>> If Sugar activities allow and encourage *both* of these behaviors, then 
>> they are successful.  To anyone with any experience in free software 
>> development, the reasons for choosing free software for this endeavor are 
>> obvious, and need not be belabored.
>>
>> Other people continue to focus on "applications".  Other people will 
>> tackle challenges like getting Flash to play on particular configurations, 
>> and tweaking hardware to benefit these kinds of applications.  Good on 
>> them.  It allows us to focus on solving the challenges that will 
>> *actually* make a difference long-term.  Namely:
>>
>> 0. Making it *dead simple* to install Sugar everywhere.
>>    a. Which means packaging for every distro and every virtual machine,
>>       and removing hw-related olpc-isms wherever possible.
>>
>> 1. Making it *dead simple* to write Sugar activities.
>>    a. By demanding rock-stable apis, no matter the cost.
>>    b. And by making lots of awesome example code that uses these apis.
>>
>> 2. Making it *dead simple* to share Sugar activities.
>>    a. By figuring out an architecture that allows discovery of
>>       activities across the entire world... a hard problem.  :)
>>
>> >From where I sit, these three challenges are the *only* things in the 
>> critical path (from an engineering perspective) right now.  They are 
>> fundamental to creating the network effect that ultimately will be 
>> required to make Sugar successful.  If I've learned any lesson in my years 
>> in Fedora, it's this: attempts to generate community are wasted if there 
>> is not an adequate architecture of participation to sustain that 
>> community.
>>
>> In the end, Sugar is a *software* platform that supports *constructionist 
>> learning* through the development of compelling educational *activities*. 
>> To paraphrase our favorite monkey boy: activites, activities, activities. 
>> Activities!  Activities!  Activities!  EEEEEEEYAH!!!!!

-- 
   \___/
  _| o |  Bernie Innocenti - http://www.codewiz.org/
  \|_X_|  "It's an education project, not a laptop project!"