[IAEP] GPA Class Notes August 5

[Tomeu Vizoso]

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 14:12, Walter Bender<walter.bender at gmail.com> wrote:
> I am not sure that voting is necessary. Reporting of any sort is the
> number-one priority.

Ok, but how can I tackle first what is important for deployments? I
might be fixing what they don't care about and not fixing what they
really care.

Regards,

Tomeu

> -walter
>
> On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 4:36 AM, Tomeu Vizoso<tomeu at sugarlabs.org> wrote:
>> On Sun, Aug 9, 2009 at 23:28, Greg Smith<gregsmithpm at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Hi David,
>>>
>>> That would be a big help. I am way behind reading the list and working on bugs.
>>>
>>> I appreciate any help you can give filing bugs based on the reports.
>>> GPA in the keyword field will let me query them later.
>>>
>>> I plan to do a full clean up of all GPA found issues some time in the
>>> last two weeks of August.
>>>
>>> In terms of the next Sugar release, can anyone help me identify
>>> features or bug fixes which address issues raised at GPA? e.g. are
>>> there any use cases or work flows which will be improved by the new
>>> Toolbar?
>>
>> Any thoughts about how we could let each deployment express their
>> urgency for bugs and features? Would be kind of similar to voting, but
>> it should be clear which deployments voted for a given ticket.
>>
>> This could help prioritizing, may motivate volunteers, may help
>> further involving deployments, etc
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Tomeu
>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Greg S
>>>
>>> On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 4:56 PM, David Farning<dfarning at sugarlabs.org> wrote:
>>>> Greg,
>>>>
>>>> How have you been doing turning these reports in bug reports for the
>>>> development side of the project?  If you would like, I can start
>>>> working through your reports turning them into bug reports with a
>>>> keyword such as GPA.
>>>>
>>>> david
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 1:12 PM, Greg Smith<gregsmithpm at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Hi All,
>>>>>
>>>>> Here are my notes from the last class at Gardner public school on August 5.
>>>>>
>>>>> Caroline, Bill, Anurag and I had a class with 9 x 3rd graders.
>>>>> Caroline led the class.
>>>>>
>>>>> Caroline introduced the class and saying we could not finish making
>>>>> the games but we would try to make the computer talk and the kids
>>>>> would take the USB sticks home today.
>>>>>
>>>>> She asked who has computers at home and everyone raised their hand.
>>>>> Then she asked what was the "coolest" thing they had done and what was
>>>>> the most challenging. Three kids answered:
>>>>> 1 -
>>>>> coolest: making your own memorize game
>>>>> most challenging: playing Conozco Uruguay in Spanish as some kids
>>>>> didn't know Spanish
>>>>>
>>>>> 2 -
>>>>> Coolest: painting your own pictures.
>>>>> Most challenging: getting pictures from the internet
>>>>>
>>>>> 3 -
>>>>> coolest and most challenging were the same: playing maze game.
>>>>>
>>>>> Caroline then showed the kdis how to put a CD in and the USB stick
>>>>> then reboot to bring up sugar. Kids went to the computers and that
>>>>> went well. 4/5 kids got the USB in OK. 1/5 had trouble connecting it
>>>>> and asked for help.
>>>>>
>>>>> Back on the carpet Caroline explained the Home list view and how you
>>>>> can flag activities there to show in the Home circle view. Then she
>>>>> asked the kids to try that and to try playing some of the games. She
>>>>> showed the physics game and the kids "oohed" at that.
>>>>>
>>>>> Many kids had trouble finding the list view, understanding how to
>>>>> click the star to pick activities and most difficult was to get back
>>>>> to circle home view. See UI comments at the end for more, in short
>>>>> they usually missed the need to click on the dot within circle icon in
>>>>> the upper right from the Home|List view.
>>>>>
>>>>> Several kids really wanted to play Maze but the scale was wrong and
>>>>> they couldn't. Same problem for Physics. In both cases, a part of the
>>>>> app was off screen. We definitely need a "screen resolution" option.
>>>>>
>>>>> They tried Speak. In most cases they didn't hear it (possibly more
>>>>> debugging data later from the team). It worked for one or two kids and
>>>>> for one it was crashing the OS and needing reboot after working a
>>>>> while.
>>>>>
>>>>> We showed them Mama media stick builder, cartoon builder, solitaire
>>>>> bounce a bunch of other games. They seemed to like them but often ran
>>>>> out of patience or wanted to be shown what to do. Some kids decided to
>>>>> try to chat. They needed instructions on how to connect with each
>>>>> other (more below) but liked that once it was up.
>>>>>
>>>>> Back on the carpet, Caroline explained how to go to Sugar activities
>>>>> page and download new activities with the Implode game as an example.
>>>>>
>>>>> Kids really wanted to play Scary Maze
>>>>> (http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=scary+maze+game+3&aq=0&oq=scary+maze+game+&aqi=g10&fp=flbC24gbdiA)
>>>>> but we said that wasn't available. I tried it via Flash later and it
>>>>> worked fine but I wasn't sure its really kid appropriate. I realized
>>>>> that they probably like it because of the adrenalin rush at being
>>>>> scared when you make a small mistake. I think Nintendo 64, Game Boy
>>>>> and other popular younger kid games also benefit from provoking the
>>>>> adrenalin response. I think Sugar could use more adrenalin provoking
>>>>> games....
>>>>>
>>>>> Many kids needed help launching Browse and finding the sugar home
>>>>> page. BTW often they ask for help because someone is there to help. If
>>>>> no one was there they would probably soldier on themselves.
>>>>>
>>>>> On activities page they tried to find Pacman to no avail. We also
>>>>> found Gcompris maze games which they liked. Implode,Gcompris chess,
>>>>> and bounce were also popular.
>>>>>
>>>>> Caroline then exhorted them to wait until the computer shuts down
>>>>> before taking out USB. Then they each took a boot helper CD and USB
>>>>> stick and the class was over.
>>>>>
>>>>> We debriefed mostly on UI suggestions and areas which were hard for
>>>>> the kids. Not order comments:
>>>>>
>>>>> - Drop down menus don't show fast enough. In general kids need some
>>>>> kind of feedback on each click on when waiting (e.g. hour glass
>>>>> cursor). This was most apparent when trying to shut down activities
>>>>> because too many are running. I watched a kid do this by opening the
>>>>> frame, clicking on the activity, waiting for the drop down, choosing
>>>>> stop from that, then clicking the check mark in the Name This Journal
>>>>> entry popup. He had about 6 activities open and it took him about 10
>>>>> minutes to close them, mostly because he kept looking at what the next
>>>>> kid over was doing while he waited for the menu to show. Also, the
>>>>> check box to close Journal naming dialog was not obvious and in
>>>>> general not needed. Possible improvement would be to make that an "X"
>>>>> and to not even show it when someone closes from the frame or home
>>>>> view and the activity has not changed since the last save/keep.
>>>>>
>>>>> - When downloading new activities the count down was not always enough
>>>>> feedback that the computer is "working". Also, if you don't click "OK"
>>>>> and just download another file next, the original OK dialog/bar stays
>>>>> there waiting until its gets its OK click.
>>>>>
>>>>> - Bill mentioned that the names of "things" often includes the file
>>>>> name or other data when it would be better to see a more human useful
>>>>> name. One example is when they opened Turtle Art examples they read
>>>>> the name nnnn.sa by pronouncing the extension. Seems related also to
>>>>> my comment about how hard it is to find journal entries because the
>>>>> full URL is listed first.
>>>>>
>>>>> - Maze and physics were to big to fit on the screen. Not sure if that
>>>>> is a problem of the actitvity itself, but a screen resolution changing
>>>>> tool would be useful. This is important on SoaS when it wasn't so hot
>>>>> on XO.
>>>>>
>>>>> - Gcompris chess didn't save/keep when clicking the stop button.
>>>>>
>>>>> - When trying to chat kids instinct was to have both kids open chat.
>>>>> The way you must do it is to have one open chat then choose share with
>>>>> my neighborhood. Kids needed to be shown where share with my
>>>>> neighborhood drop down is. Most kids I saw clicked on the text "share
>>>>> with". Its not clear enough that the oblong oval (rounded rectangle?)
>>>>> next to that is a drop down list. They needed to be reminded to go to
>>>>> the Neighborhood view. Once there they often clicked on the XO icon
>>>>> above the chat icon. You need to click on the chat icon itself and
>>>>> that's a consistent misconception. One kid asked for "emoticons" and
>>>>> other images to put in the chat. Caroline thought that it would be
>>>>> wise to allow kids to open chat then see what other chats are shared
>>>>> or available from within the activity.
>>>>>
>>>>> - Activities search tool on Sugar home page was a little troublesome
>>>>> in two main ways: 1) hard to go back to start a new search after
>>>>> digging a few clicks in. Back button works but would be nice to have a
>>>>> "new search" link. 2) Hard to see a a list of all activities. Search
>>>>> with blank text does it but not sure any kids would try that. Also, we
>>>>> believe that there are some activities on OLPC wiki which are not on
>>>>> the Sugar list (e.g. pacman and some eToys examples).
>>>>>
>>>>> - Switching from list view to circle view was not clear. Here's the
>>>>> click order as it stands now:
>>>>> 1 -- Start at home|circle
>>>>> 2 -- Click list view
>>>>> 3 -- star/select activities
>>>>> 4 -- Click circle view icon
>>>>>
>>>>> Its step 4 that's problematic. Instinct when on list view and wanting
>>>>> to see the circle is to click the dot within circle icon (F3). That
>>>>> just leaves you at List|Home view. Most everyone ran in to this.
>>>>> Another challenge is that the icons for switching from list <-> circle
>>>>> are in the upper right corner. So you often hit the frame which has a
>>>>> nice circle icon on it (=F3). In general, way too many UI elements are
>>>>> right near the corner which pops up the frame.
>>>>>
>>>>> - Kids consistently couldn't find the stop button. Either because it
>>>>> was on a different tab or because the icon doesn't ring true.
>>>>>
>>>>> That's it! Thanks a lot to Caroline et al for the chance to see the SW
>>>>> in action.
>>>>>
>>>>> I hope developers don't get too take it badly that there are lots of
>>>>> "suggestions" or complaints. In general the SW is great, things go
>>>>> well and its an awesome project. I just focus on continuous
>>>>> improvement but ts nit meant as criticism.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>
>>>>> Greg S
>>>>>
>>>>> BTW I am 1 - 2 weeks behind on reading the lists. CC me directly as
>>>>> needed and I hope to catch up a little before the end of August.
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>>>>> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
>>>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>>>>
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>>> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> «Sugar Labs is anyone who participates in improving and using Sugar.
>> What Sugar Labs does is determined by the participants.» - David
>> Farning
>> _______________________________________________
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>



-- 
«Sugar Labs is anyone who participates in improving and using Sugar.
What Sugar Labs does is determined by the participants.» - David
Farning