[IAEP] Reflections on giving a Sugar Demo

[Tomeu Vizoso]

On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 02:19, Caroline Meeks<caroline at solutiongrove.com> wrote:
> First off it went well. The teacher's loved Sugar, saw a lot of
> possibilities and are motivated to help us go forward. People talked with me
> about it the entire conference.
>
> That said, I learned a lot of lessons and there are things I would do
> differently.
>
> Always bring an AP. Don't use existing wireless.
>
> When I tested before class the wireless seemed great. We packed the room.
> The wireless network got very flacky.  Next time I'm going to bring an AP
> and just try to collaborate locally.  I'm thinking of getting one of the
> open-mesh $29.00 units and seeing how that works.
>
> Either get USB sticks to boot OR teach about Sugar, don't try to do both at
> once.
>
> The class was packed and although most of the computers finally booted to
> sugar it took a lot of time.  Until we really get things down I think I'm
> going to hand out LiveCDs then after wards tell people I'll work with them
> one-on-one to get it to boot from USB.

Perhaps the main medium of SoaS distribution should be a SoaS LiceCD
with an activity that would make very simple to flash a USB stick?

That would allow us to control better the flashing process, where is
very easy to get into trouble.

And maybe that LiveCD could double as a Boot helper?

Regards,

Tomeu

> We need to create a list of Sugar Basics that we cover before we turn people
> loose to explore.
>
> This is the Home Screen.
> This icon represents you and its your colors
> Here is how you get to the frame.
> This is the Neighborhood view.  You can get there from the frame or from F1.
> Here is how you connect to the AP. More color in the circle means stronger
> signal (Someone told me that he thought he should go for the empty ones
> cause it meant they had more room)
> This the your group view. Your friends will show up here.
> This is the Journal where your work is saved.
> To do something go to your Home screen and click on any of these icons. They
> are the activities.
>
> We didn't do this and people got frustrated needlessly. We want them to
> explore but I think we need to figure out what people need to oriented too
> before they explore.   I wonder if showing the demo movie would have been a
> good way to cover this.
>
> We didn't get to the lesson plan I created because we had so many people and
> so many problems booting.  Luckily Walter can do a Sugar and Turtle Art
> presentation in his sleep.
>
> One thing we should have done, and would have gotten to if we had been able
> to follow our plan, is to demo Write and peer editing.  This is a big deal
> for teachers.  We need to remember to do it early in the presentation,
> before we get sucked into playing with the cute turtle.
>
> --
> Caroline Meeks
> Solution Grove
> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>
> 617-500-3488 - Office
> 505-213-3268 - Fax
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