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

[Caroline Meeks]

On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 2:28 PM, Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com> wrote:

> 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.


I like that idea!

I like the idea of a few sample lesson plans on schools.sl.org too.  Might
be somethine we could do in Paris.

I always think of Moodle as the School's private intranet, not as a tool for
a central source of content. Although that is not out of the relm of the
possible in the future.


>
> 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?



I would withhold judgment on Moodle till we get full schools using Sugar
*with* the automagic Moodle login and an easy to setup server.  I think
there are a lot of pieces that all have to work for XS and Moodle to be
valuable. I do think it will be extremely valuable for SoaS because it will
backup the sticks which are sure to get lost or broken.   But I'm not
expecting to really see people sharing Moodle content until a year after we
get all the pieces working, which they don't yet.

>
>
>  - 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.


Got some suggestions?  I am mindful of the fact people ahve to download the
image through slow connections so I want to trade off the value of having
this sort of thing easy to discover with the size of the image.  But I do
think a some small items in the Journal makes a lot of sense!

Great thoughts. Thanks

>
>
> --Gary
>
>  Thanks,
>> Caroline
>>
>> --
>> Caroline Meeks
>> Solution Grove
>> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>>
>> 617-500-3488 - Office
>> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>> _______________________________________________
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
>
>


-- 
Caroline Meeks
Solution Grove
Caroline at SolutionGrove.com

617-500-3488 - Office
505-213-3268 - Fax
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