[IAEP] The eBook "ah ha" moment for Sugar on a Stick

[Gary C Martin]

On 12 May 2009, at 18:37, Caroline Meeks wrote:

> For the next SoaS Beta I'd like to help users trying out Sugar,  
> especially educators, have an "ah ha" moment about how Sugar on a  
> Stick can open a huge world of books for their students.
>
> The US elementary schools I visit have a computer lab and they have  
> books. But they certainly don't have the budget to get as many  
> copies of as many different books as they would like.
>
> Maybe our new users will know that there are free books on the  
> internet.  Good chance they have never actually tried it  
> themselves.  Plus, having a book on the internet doesn't help their  
> students if they get one hour of computer time in the lab.
>
> But having a book on your Sugar Stick and being able to read it in  
> multiple locations is actually very useful!
>
> This is one of the many things I want educators to discover as they  
> play with their Sugar Sticks.
>
> I know we have wonderful library apps coming down the pike. What I'm  
> interested in right now is what is the art of the possible for the  
> next Beta in June?
>
> Suggestions so far:
>
> - Include the FLOSS Sugar manual in the SoaS Image
> - Add a link to one or more free book sites in the startup page on  
> Browse

Whatever happened the 'great and glorious' Moodle? Lot's of noises  
were made about how well suted ti education it is, and much effort was  
made setting up servers and accounts, but where is the simple basic  
literature lesson plan that links to 5 or 6 decent pdf ebooks as  
reading material so folks can download and get going??

I was hoping http://schools.sugarlabs.org/ was going to be a growing  
resource of such top level educational example content, but it seems  
to be a barren wasteland – and that's one of the reasons I was OK with  
the default home page going to a local school server (at Martins  
request) rather that to schools.sugarlabs.org.

Would be happy to rework the default home page with a javascript trick  
so that the school link tries for a local school server first, and  
then falls back to schools.sugarlabs.org if no local server is found –  
just didn't have time to do thins in the last cycle.

Perhaps Moodle was a poor choice of content management system? Perhaps  
teachers are unwilling, unable, or unconvinced enough about Sugar to  
help provide lesson plans?

> - Include a kids book in the SoaS Image.
>
> Other ideas?

Is it possible to provide a handful of example pdf books into the  
Journal? Would be great if they could also be well named, with useful  
metadata (description/tags/preview), and starred for easy sorting/ 
finding. I've always thought the Journal could do with a few 'hello  
world' example entries to get people into the concept.

--Gary

> Thanks,
> Caroline
>
> -- 
> Caroline Meeks
> Solution Grove
> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>
> 617-500-3488 - Office
> 505-213-3268 - Fax
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