[IAEP] First steps with Sugar

[Cherry Withers]

Hi Werner,

Before I started my deployment training in the Philippines (with XOs not
SoaS), I asked the same question. I came across a small wiki write up by
Caroline Meeks and Walter Bender before I saw the myriad of manuals on
deployment and it served as my guide for the first minutes/hour of my
training. Wish I can find the wiki-link now.

- Start by having the children personalize their environment. Have them name
their XO/SoaS and choose their own color. It is important for them to have
that first feel of ownership.
- Then introduce the different views and have that lesson relate to their
physical world. What does it mean to be "home"? What's the "favorite's list"
view mean and how it relates to what they like to do at home. Whenever the
children in my class get lost by opening an activity unfamiliar to them or
have clicked something they didn't mean to, I tell them to first get their
bearings by going "Home ".

I find relating the virtual to the actual is important especially for kids
who have not seen or played with anything remotely like a computer. When a
child opened too much stuff and the computer slows down to a crawl, I asked
them what it's like to have a cluttered and crowded house? How fast can you
move? Can you wash the dishes, do your homework, make your bed, etc....all
at the same time?

Anyways didn't mean to rattle on. There's a great guide from Australia that
introduces the different activities in their increasing complexities:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/File:XOComesToClassV1_1.pdf

You might have to change up the activities based on what's possible for the
SoaS version and cues from the children.
Have fun and good luck on your deployment!

Regards,
Cherry


On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 8:48 PM, Werner Westermann <wernerio at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hello, regards from Santiago.
>
> We are beginning a short Sugar pilot deployment in the K-3 level (8-9
> years), using Mirabelle SoaS:
>
> http://cl.sugarlabs.org/go/Piloto_Florence_Nightingale_Macul
>
> We have focused on curricular work, exploring, selecting, prioritizing
> Sugar activities with the teacher. But we haven't thought of the initial
> encounter with Sugar.
>
> What do you suggest to do in class to get in touch on Sugar?, Any ideas,
> metaphors that could motivate of the environments, activities, journal,
> etc?, what activities to work on first?, preferring a exploratory or
> rather approach at first?
>
> Any help is very welcomed, best wishes,
>
> werner
>
> _______________________________________________
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/attachments/20100615/fac0f854/attachment.htm