[IAEP] GPA Class Notes August 5

[Walter Bender]

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 8:18 AM, Tomeu Vizoso<tomeu at sugarlabs.org> wrote:
> 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.

The number-two priority is a discussion.

>
> 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
>



-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org