[IAEP] Printing in Uruguay (was Re: OLPC in Science-Subjects --- NEED HELP!!!)

[mokurai at earthtreasury.org]

On Fri, May 13, 2011 2:30 am, nanonano at mediagala.com wrote:
> />mokurai at earthtreasury.org wrote:
>  >It is straightforward to share Journal entries between XOs.

although not over mesh networking.

> *>..Printing is not necessary.*
> ------------------------------------------------------------/

I said also that printing was useful. Further comments below on your
comments.

It is possible to set up XOs to print, but it requires installing the CUPS
printing package, and it means plugging into a USB printer for each job.

What we want is a school server with a printer, and a robust way to use
the wireless on the XOs to access it. Mesh networking is utterly
unreliable in the classroom, so we have to fall back to regular WiFi and
Jabber servers, or to a Web-based interface where one can upload a file or
a Journal entry and schedule it for printing. There are a number of
technical problems with this, which we need to put serious effort into
fixing. We also have to work on the user interface.

I will be happy to assist. Is anybody working on this in PLAN Ceibal?

Step 1. Collect user requirements in the form of use cases

* Who wants to print what, when, for what purposes?
* Do lots of children want to print at the same time?
* Is it acceptable to queue print jobs for later pickup?
* Color or black & white, or a mixture?
* Documents from other sources, or Journal entries, or printing from
activities?
* What sizes? (Metric vs. US; letter vs oversize and undersize)
* Should teachers schedule printing, or should students, or both?
* How much printing can a school afford?
* How will we manage permissions and privileges?
* What else have you heard from teachers and students?
* Which use case has highest priority?

Step 2. Triage

* Which use cases do we know how to support?
* Which use cases are most important?
* Who should decide what to do next?
* What minimizes the current pain?

Step 3. Implement first-cut solution

* Who will do the work?
* What oversight will there be?
* How do we test the solution?
* Did we solve the right initial problem?

Step 4.

* Lather, rinse, repeat

I hope this helps.

Who is willing to work on this problem?

> Mr. Mokurai:
>
> MAybe you are an expert in Education, and Xo, or SUgar development, or
> teaching children,

I reject the title of expert. I know a little, but mostly I know how
little I know. I am Project Manager of the Sugar Labs project to Replace
Textbooks with Open Education Resources, not because I know how to do it,
but because I am the only one who sees its importance as I do, and is
willing to do the work, and to find out how.

> but I think that you don't KNow the reality of the
> XOs here in Uruguay, or somewhere that the teachers uses XO.

My Spanish is bad, and I have not been to Uruguay, true. I am working on
both of those problems. I know how I use my laptop and my two XOs, which
does not include printing, unless an employer or a government agency
insists.

> *"Printing is not necessary"* is a very good statement , I agree, but
> for the real people (not the theoretical children) is only a statement,
> that is almost impossible to apply now. It is like saying "The peace is
> better than the war"... is a very good phrase, we all agree, but with
> that phrase I can not solve the problems of the world.

I have some ideas on peace, but they will take at least a generation to
work out. I am counting on our millions of children to help out after they
learn how to work with each other around the world. See The Evolution of
Cooperation, by Robert Axelrod, for a theoretical outline of an approach.

> The real world exists, and* in the real world the teachers wants to
> print.*.  that is a fact, and We can not change it. Maybe in 30 Years
> the mind of the Teachers will change, but not now.

Yes, I am very clear on the difference between "want to" and "need to". It
was one of the main topics of my seminary training.

> MAybe in 30 Years this statement will be true, but now if you told a
> TEacher that you can't print  is the same as saying _"don't use the
> Xo's. You have a XIX century mind. The XO are made for XXII century
> minds only"._..

A XV century, pre-Gutenberg, approach works quite well, actually. We need
to adjust our thinking more than theirs.

> This is not my opinion, it's simply an observation of the real world
> that I see that here in Uruguay: _there are a lot of teachers that don't
> Use the XO_ because of lots of problems that it has (there are also
> other reasons that are non technical). One of those problems are the
> "printing problem".

As expected, until we get XOs into the full curriculum in the teachers'
colleges.

> ----------------
>
> You said to "share the Journal".  Excuse me, Mr. Mokurai:_* *_Do you
> Know that the MEsh doesn't works?????

Yes, I do. You can share journal entries on USB flash drives, or over
Jabber servers.

>  Even if you can share something,  The XOs hangs up, or loose the entire
> journal, and the children don't use the journal for "important things",
> that's why the teachers wants to print!!!! to have something "hardware"
> that works, even if the XO hangs, or the "journal" fails.

Again, we need serious work on school servers, including regular backup of
student work.

> I Invite YOu to come to Uruguay to teach us how to share something in a
> real classroom with real Children .  NOrmally if YOu would share
> something, YOu have to use 30 minutes of an hour-class only for setting
> up the connections, and interrupting the class every 10 minutes because
> a child  had a disconnection.

After I learn to speak Spanish rather more, not just read, and whenever I
can get funded.

> --------------
>
> Sorry for my poor English.

My Spanish is far worse than your English. My Russian teacher, who also
taught Greek and Hebrew, always said, "If you aren't making mistakes, you
aren't learning."

> Paolo Benini
> Montevideo
>
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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://www.earthtreasury.org/