[IAEP] Service-Learning Curriculum around Sugar Testing

[Marco Pesenti Gritti]

On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 8:30 PM, Caroline Meeks
<caroline at solutiongrove.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm going to do a bit of preaching to the choir but I thought it was worth
> sharing my thoughts to see if everyone is on the same page and to see if
> anyone has anything to add.
>
> Why Now?
>
> If we can get some activities ready in time for G1G1 then we could end up
> with some synergy on the marketing.  Teachers could use it as a way to
> encourage students to ask for it for Christmas, and our tester recruiting
> program could get a bunch of publicity.
>
> Why is it important?
>
> -For Sugar
>
> Growth in adoption will mean more activities which means we need more
> testing.
> Teachers are a key factor in getting adopted in the developed world, the
> success of Moodle shows us that, this is a way to reach teachers
> We can explicitly put in the curriculum a suggestion for students to show
> Sugar to one of their old elementary school teachers.
> Some high school kids are very good programmers, this could potentially be
> an avenue for programmer recruitment.
> Some geeky high school kids have parents who are very good programmers, this
> could be another avenue for programmer recruitment
> In developing the curriculum we will hopefully find other high quality
> curriculum that we can reuse.  This is an opportunity to find partners that
> can help in marketing and future curriculum development.
>
> -For Students
>
> There is a tremendous amount that can be learned and an excellent
> opportunity for authentic, situated, project based learning. Hardware and
> Software, Education Theory, Understanding the differences in education world
> wide
> It is an opportunity to bridge the gender gap that currently exists in the
> US. More girls tend to be interested in Community Service and more boys in
> computers.
>
> Anything to add/subtract?

I don't have much to add, but I think it's a fantastic idea. Sugar is
not getting enough testing, because, unlike other open source
projects, his developer and user base are different (and mostly
disconnected). Also testing is often a good way to make your first
steps inside a project and then contribute to the development.

Marco