[IAEP] [Sugar-devel] Sugar Digest 2012-09-18

[S. Daniel Francis]

Hi Kevin,

2012/9/19 Kevin Mark <kevin.mark at verizon.net>:
> Hearing from the kids who are making Sugar activities and more contributions, I'm really wanting to
> know what teaching environment made this possible?

Summing my case all the cases I listened about, we usually learn by our self.
Thinking about why Sugar, well, we could make desktop applications,
but a free and decent way to share a program is difficult to find and
there's not always a community where we can share what we make. Also I
think Sugar needs activities, unlike desktops, where practically all
is already made.

Just Edward suggested us to tell our stories, but at the moment I'll
not get into many details and only answer your questions.

> Are there activity hacking classes?
In Uruguay there is only one activity hacking teacher: Flavio Danesse.
He is an IT teacher, and every year he organizes a workshop where he
teaches volunteer students to program in Python. The group "Python
Joven", in English "Young Python"..

Currently, his students contributing here are Agustin Zubiaga and
Cristhofer Travieso, they told me about another student who develops
applications for Android.

> Is this kind of experimentation part of a turtleart class?
For my part I can say "yes and no"... When I received my XO with Sugar
I liked very much TurtleArt, but the teachers don't teach it very
often, I had to look for documentation.

>Have kids 'goggled' about programming on their own time and wanted to know about programming?
Now you are right, I learn practically all 'googling'. Flavio's
students told me they also learn(ed) a big part of what they know
searching and investigating by them self.
I think it's better because we can learn what we are interested in,
also if it's not related with Sugar.

> Are there computer programming classes and teachers that have assignments that ask the kids to explore?

Programming is not often a subject at the school.
I know about optional workshops, like Flavio's. My parents are
teachers, and about three-four years ago, when I was ten years old, I
used to go to the highschool where my parents worked and I listened to
a workshop about web design (basic HTML development) and graphic
design (with GIMP). That workshop was not a way to get young
programmers, but it removed me the fear of seeing a source code as
something strange or made for be understood by non-human people.

Cheers.
~danielf

P.S: Sorry, I don't speak English very well.