[IAEP] [support-gang] An Opportunity to bring vital content to the Sugar/XO world - Needs technical help.

[Tomeu Vizoso]

Hi,

not sure why Caroline's email didn't reached IAEP, wrong email address?

On Sun, Jul 19, 2009 at 02:17, Caryl Bigenho<cbigenho at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Caroline,
>
> I agree that content is something we desperately need for Sugar and the XO.
> But, I don't quite understand your proposal.  Is Innovations For Learning
> offering us their software for free to adapt?

They have offered at least some of it. More may come but I don't know
about it yet. See:

http://blog.tomeuvizoso.net/2009/05/progress-on-sugar-activities-with-swf.html

> If so, what language is it
> in?

Flash, developed specifically to run on Gnash.

> Is the source code available?

Yes, though in the .fla format that as far as I know can only be
edited with the proprietary tools from Adobe.

> Or, is this something you think our volunteer programmers should try to
> reverse-engineer and create for Sugar and the XO?

Well, what I would like to see (but may not be what Caroline had in
mind) is someone with access to the Adobe tools and some Flash
knowledge to debug the EatBoom swf file and see why the game is not
progressing to the next levels after the first three or so sums have
been completed.

Once we can show to IFL that we are able to put their software to run
on real deployments, I'm confident they will release more code.

The assessment framework is very interesting, but I think we should
move forward step by step.

Regards,

Tomeu

> Caryl
>
> ________________________________
> Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:27:28 -0400
> From: caroline at solutiongrove.com
> To: iaep at lists.sugarlabs.org; server-devel at lists.laptop.org;
> support-gang at lists.laptop.org
> Subject: [support-gang] An Opportunity to bring vital content to the
> Sugar/XO world - Needs technical help.
>
> We have an opportunity to bring a program of K-2 English Reading and Math
> content to our Sugar users for free.
>
> http://www.innovationsforlearning.org/software_demo.php
>
> Ignore the teachermate hardware and the $100 a machine price tag. The
> concept is we make this available for Sugar for free.  So if you have XOs or
> a machines you can use with Sugar on a Stick, you can use it for free.
>
> If you watch the Classroom management video you'll see they have aligned it
> to major Basal Curriculum programs or it can be used without. It can
> differentiate instruction for groups and students.  This is vital
> functionality.  We need to port this to the Sugar world, probably by putting
> it on the XS, maybe as a module in Moodle.
>
> Tomeu has done some work on making the activities work in Sugar, but I don't
> think anyone has looked at how we enable classroom management.
>
> Why I think this is important:
>
> When I listen to feedback from the deployments, they all talk about the need
> for content.
> When I see for myself what its like to use Sugar in a school, I think we
> need an on-ramp for teachers.  This program would be an easy way to get the
> teachers to start using Sugar and computers without going very far outside
> of what they already know. Its aligned with the major curriculum programs
> they are already using.  My belief is if they take the first step, and use
> Sugar, they and their students will explore further.  Too much technology
> sits in the classroom closet. This seems like it would be used by lots of
> teachers, not just the most technological ones.
> This could be a model for other nonprofits for how to use Sugar to
> distribute content they have created for our age level.
> It would be an excellent selling point for teachers trying to bring Sugar
> into their schools.
>
> Please help us find someone (or a team) who has time and skills to tackle
> the technical challenge of porting/recreating the classroom management
> component.
>
> Thanks!
> Caroline
>
>
> --
> Caroline Meeks
> Solution Grove
> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>
> 617-500-3488 - Office
> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>
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