[IAEP] GPA Report - Feedback on using the Journal

[Edward Cherlin]

I don't know who invented this set of controls, but it seems to me to
be  programmers who have forgotten how to be users, and especially
novices. Yes, it works fine for developers to save, compile, test,
commit, open, edit, save, compile, test...but not for office workers
and not for children.

We need to start over on the Journal, not try to fix it piecemeal in
the absence of understanding. What is the child's natural workflow? I
will not guess, but will wait for the teachers to tell us more of what
they have observed. Actually, what I want is to ask children myself.

I do know that there are several natural workflows. One is for
discovering how an activity or a system capability works. Another is
for making something, saving it, done. Another for working on
something in successive sessions, or trying different variations, or
working with others in each of these ways, or sharing something in
progress or done, or creating a special presentation, backing up work,
submitting homework...What are the components of these workflows that
make natural sense to our children? What controls with what icons and
what names make sense to them for those components?

What do they say?

On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 6:38 AM, Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com> wrote:
> Hi Caroline,
>
> On 9 Oct 2009, at 02:42, Caroline Meeks wrote:
>
>> Today we worked with two groups on multiplication. They made squares
>> with each side being a different multiplication problem that had the
>> same answer.
>>
>> http://screencast.com/t/sUbiof2H
>>
>> We also had them reflect in their Journals about what they did.
>>
>> All of this went well.
>>
>> What was horrible was trying to get the right point in the project
>> saved to the Journal and then navigating to the correct place to
>> write.
>
> Sorry if this sounds a little terse, but it seems you decided to
> completely avoid using the "Stop" button at the end of each of your
> tasks:
>
> 1) Start a new Activity
> 2) Do stuff
> 3) Stop Activity
> 4) Name it
> 5) Goto 1
>
> The "Keep" button, as currently implemented, will come back to haunt
> you when you return to work on those activities later (I've tried to
> explain this in all its gory detail in previous emails). None of the
> issues you mention above have yet hit the gory Keep versioning issues,
> so you'll have that joy to come when kids want to resume a couple of
> old kept activities for reference when working on a new one.
>
> I'll be happy the day that the "Keep" button is removed, it's clearly
> causing you and others horrible confusion. I smiled the day I realised
> the new toolbar designs at least demoted that darn button to a second
> class UI component (i.e hidden in a secondary toolbar) :-) It would be
> better if it just died even if we have no better replacement. For the
> engineers reading, the "Keep" function actively prevents users from
> 'manual merging' of their work, so as an intended method for exposing
> a versioning system, it is actually having the reverse effect.
>
>> The solution I suggest is when you click the Keep button (Journal
>> Icon) from an activity that the Journal reflection dialog box appears.
>>
>> Here are the problems we had.
>>
>>       • Hard to get to the Journal, no easy F# short cut.
>
> There's been lot's of discussion (feature proposals, email threads,
> trac ticket comments) trying to find a free F# key that is not gong to
> conflict. F5 seemed a good candidate but is a poor choice for XO
> hardware. Likely we need a control panel that allows distros/
> deployments to make their own choice and for the user then to have the
> ability to change if needed (perhaps the current frame CP module would
> be a place for changing Sugar shortcuts).
>
>>       • Hard to find the little arrow that gets you to where you can
>> write. Especially since if the Frame is active, which it has to be
>> to get to the Journal, the little bitty arrow you need to click is
>> covered.
>
> There's a recent deployment (Mexico I think) ticket reporting this,
> I'm sure a design solution can be found. Note that you could direct
> kids to use the palette menu on the icon and select "View Details" as
> an alternative.
>
>>       • When students did their assigned task they were eager to go back
>> to exploring with Sugar and wrote over their work without it being
>> saved, or using the same name as the assigned activity.  This was
>> probably the worst outcome because then it was like they hadn't done
>> the assignment, they had nothing to show for their work and we'll
>> want to use it later for a portfolio.
>
> Get them to "Stop" when complete, and then "Start new".
>
>>       • clicking the Activity Tab to write down the name is a PITA (this
>> one is fixed in .88 I think).
>
> The 0.86 new toolbar design still requires you to click the Activity
> toolbar icon to show the title input box, but at least you're not then
> lost at that point (i.e. primary toolbar still visible and usable).
>
>>       • After they reflected they wanted to immediately go back to
>> exploring in TA and we had to stop them, make them change the name
>> again. They were very perplexed by this because they didn't know
>> what to name their new file because they hadn't done anything yet.
>
> Get them to "Stop" when complete, and then "Start new"...
>
>>       • The word "Description" is not very friendly. I like "What did you
>> do?" Walter wants to expand it even further, I'm not sure about
>> that, its pretty challenging for the students to type so I'm not
>> sure we want more boxes.
>
> No comment, I don't like this whole dialogue to be honest (it breaks
> my working flow and distracts me from whatever I'm trying to achieve),
> but I'm not a pedagogic type so don't feel I have a say in this
> design. I get the impression most (adults and kids) will just skip
> past this dialogue anyway give half a chance. There's been some noises
> to remove this dialogue completely, or at least let folks easily
> disable it from within Sugar.
>
>>       • Confusion between the Keep button and the samples and the
>> snapshot icons.
>
> This is pretty much a TA design issue (and also that everyone still
> seems to be completely confused as what the "Keep" button actually
> does).
>
>>       • No feedback when you click Keep so there is a tendency to click
>> it repeatedly.
>
> Yea, that's always bad.
>
>> I usually try to stick with reporting my observations and not giving
>> specific usability advice but this time I really have an opinion. I
>> think it would be much much more useful to have the Keep button
>> popup the Journal Dialog box. That would let me reflect and also
>> rename if I want to.
>>
>> What are the downsides of this?
>
>
> If we kill "Keep" and replace it with the actually useful "Keep a
> copy" function (i.e. no attempt at versioning), there would be merit
> in considering a naming dialogue; however I think we'll have confusion
> as the naming dialogue would now be for the new copy i.e. users would
> be asked to name and describe an activity before actually doing it;
> currently when you click "Stop" you are asked to name and describe the
> activity you have just done.
>
> Regards,
> --Gary
>
> P.S. Pretend "Keep" is not there, 1) Start a new Activity, 2) Do
> stuff, 3) Stop Activity, 4) Name it, 5) Goto 1 ;-)
>
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-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://earthtreasury.org/