[IAEP] Update on the Sugar Labs website refresh

[mokurai at earthtreasury.org]

On Thu, June 30, 2011 7:11 am, Sean DALY wrote:
> Many thanks Christian for this update
>
> Yes I too saw that although Walter (the Sugar Digest [1]), myself (on
> the lists [2] plus the olpcnews piece [3]), John (on the lists [4]),
> JT & Mike (on the lists [5]) all asked for content, there was little
> or no reaction. I believe we need to ask more concretely, i.e. "for
> the X page we need a Y visual" - even if this means a list of
> requests.

As described at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requested_pictures

> I can't help but feel that the day the new site goes live
> there will be complaints, while assistance now will make the site the
> best it can be!

I have reached a point where I can start posting content to the Wiki
regularly, starting with educational topics in Turtle Art. My list is
below Tony Forster's at

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/TurtleArt/Tutorials

I have begun at opposite ends of the spectrum, with preschool Turtle Art
(You Be the Turtle) and a Turtle Art Turing Machine with Logo translation.

We need the same kind of information here on Smalltalk/Etoys resources.

As part of the Sugar Labs Replacing Textbooks program, various of us are
working on responses to the Plain Ceibal RFP for up to 1,000 digital
educational resources. English translation of requirements section of
Licitación linked at

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks#Plan_Ceibal_project

We will post on whatever we decide to propose.

Replacing Textbooks has a list of sources of free educational resources,
with well over 100,000 items in pages it links to.

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Open_Education_Resources

We will be recruiting teachers, subject-matter experts, and translators
for all of this.

> Another next step is to assemble a teacher panel to assess the site
> usability.

And for many other purposes. We need teachers from all target countries,
too, and in addition we should ask children what issues they have in using
our site and our documentation.

> The Marketlab study [6] clearly showed that teachers are
> not finding the information they need on our current sites, and
> coupled with the high technical barriers to installing and configuring
> Sugar means we discourage too many teachers from even trying
> Activities. Teachers, contact us please to participate in the panel!

As a former professional technical writer, I can point out a number of
ways to improve the site, in terms of navigation, accessibility,
audiences, and more.

> thanks
>
> Sean
>
> 1. http://walterbender.org/?p=431
> 2. http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2011-March/012783.html
> 3.
> http://www.olpcnews.com/software/sugar/teachers_help_us_improve_the_sugarlabs_website.html
> 4. http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2011-April/012959.html
> 5. http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2011-April/012843.html,
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/dextrose/2011-April/001234.html
> 6. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Marketing_Team#MIT_Sloan_MarketLab_Study
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 11:22 PM, Christian Marc Schmidt
> <anything at christianmarcschmidt.com> wrote:
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> John and I wanted to give you a brief update on the status of the
>> website. For the last few months we had the benefit of working with
>> two RIT students, JT and Mike, who helped us take initial steps in
>> launching a new and improved public-facing website. With their help,
>> we identified the shortcomings of the current site and the
>> opportunities for (a) better articulating the Sugar value proposition
>> and (b) keeping the site current with events and progress made by the
>> developer community.
>>
>> There were a few learnings along the way: While JT and Mike were able
>> to gather and produce a fair number of assets, it was far more
>> difficult to get all the content we had hoped for and which we know
>> does exist. This means that we will be reaching out to the community
>> again in a short while to help us fill in the missing pieces. In the
>> meantime, thank you to all of you who helped to provide content in the
>> first round!
>>
>> Next steps are to make further traction on the UI design in order to
>> give us a scaffold to populate with content as it comes in. This will
>> be happening over the next few weeks, and we'll keep all of you
>> updated when there are opportunities for feedback.
>>
>> Thanks, and more to come,
>>
>>
>> Christian
>>
>> --
>> anything at christianmarcschmidt.com
>> 917/ 575 0013
>>
>> http://www.christianmarcschmidt.com
>> http://www.facebook.com/christianmarcschmidt
>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/christianmarcschmidt
>> http://twitter.com/cms_
>> Skype: christianmarcschmidt
>>
> _______________________________________________
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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://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks