[IAEP] Sugar Digest 2009-08-27

[Tomeu Vizoso]

On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 05:30, Caroline Meeks<solutiongrove at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> 3. Bernie Innocenti and I spent a day in Barre VT with Paul Flint,
>> Kevin Cole, Nicco Eneidi, Colin Applegate, et al. to discuss the role
>> Sugar might play in various education initiatives in the region.
>> Despite too much driving in pouring rain, it was a fun, productive
>> session. (Bernie helped Colin get up to speed on packaging for Ubuntu
>> (Colin has subsequently build Sugar 0.86 for Jaunty) and did some
>> debugging of Turtle Art while engaging in discussion with some
>> teachers. One provocative question that was raised: What is the
>> advantage of a "platform" as opposed to a bunch of cool applications?
>> There are many cool applications out there and commercial (e.g.,
>> kidzui, which caters to parents who want someone else to worry about
>> what Internet content is appropriate for their children) and
>> non-commercial (e.g., Curriki, a place where teachers can pick and
>> chose applications and content that meet specific curricula demands)
>> collections. What is the advantage of the Sugar approach? We can sing
>> the praises of many aspects of the Sugar platform—the Journal, the
>> collaboration model, integrated view source, etc.—but I think it
>> ultimately comes down the way in which these features enhance the
>> ability to bring multiple learners together around a collection of
>> activities to engage in authentic investigations. This is a potential
>> that is not yet fully realized, but having spent time this summer
>> watching children move fluidly across multiple activities to, for
>> example, build a memory game, is seeing Sugar at its best.
>
> I agree with this but I also think equal access and consistent experience at
> home, school and after-school programs is an important advantage.  When we
> spoke with the 4th grade teachers at GPA this week they mentioned that they
> had previously used a web based program and that the kids who had access at
> home zoomed ahead and those that did not were left behind.  Both OLPC and
> Sugar on a Stick have the potential to extend access to computing outside
> school walls and hours, and thus extend learning time.

This is a very interesting observation because there's some tension
between optimizing for self-guided learning and for a classroom
setting.

If we make clear the advantages of a consistent learning experience we
can explain better the tradeoffs that we need to make to support such
different scenarios.

Regards,

Tomeu

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