[IAEP] [Testing] Sugar on Android (was Questions for SCaLE 11X)

[Caryl Bigenho]

Hi Guys and Gals,
Thanks for all of the good ideas and information to help us do a good job representing OLPC and Sugar Labs at SCaLE 11X. In addition to some local folks who are involved with olpc-SoCal, we will have George Hunt, Tony Anderson, Aaron Borden, Manu Gupta, Ed Bigenho, and myself. The weather this SCaLE weekend, unlike the past couple of years, is going to be beautiful! Maybe we will even have a chance to take an XO-1.75 up to the roof and demo it running without the battery, entirely on solar power!
There is one thing I couldn't resist commenting on in this thread. Speaking as an educator, I suggest we not sell the RPi short! With the new emphasis (and rightly so) on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), and given the right curriculum, I can see the RPis as a wonderful tool that teachers and districts are probably going to embrace. Consider the low cost, the ability to use old cast-off keyboards, monitors, and even TVs, the flexibility, the thrill of the student who puts it all together and makes it work to do a task of his choosing... it is hard to beat.
I can see a scenario where districts would buy RPi kits for upper grade students to build, and have them build extra ones for the younger ones to run Sugar (or Nell?) on. But still, the Android is also attractive... the devices, although not as STEM oriented, are ubiquitous. What an opportunity to get millions more students using Sugar!
Caryl

From: sdaly.be at gmail.com
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:39:17 +0100
To: docdtv at gmail.com
CC: dwnarvaez at gmail.com; iaep at lists.sugarlabs.org; testing at lists.laptop.org; support-gang at lists.laptop.org
Subject: Re: [Testing] [IAEP] Sugar on Android (was Questions for SCaLE 11X)

The Sugar Labs Oversight Board confirmed Android compatibility as a strategic goal at the January 14 meeting [1].

It goes without saying that this is far easier said than done.

There are several technical approaches possible, and coming to a decision how to proceed is itself a challenge.



Sean.

1. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Meeting_Minutes-2013-01-14



On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 1:30 PM, Ron Feigenblatt <docdtv at gmail.com> wrote:


> On 21 February 2013 09:35, Ron Feigenblatt <docdtv at gmail.com> wrote:



>> The big news is that OLPC reports potential buyers have expressed

>> interest in Android, so it has a plan to move the XO-4 that way...

>> could Sugar sit on top of Android rather than Linux Fedora by then?



On 2/21/13, Daniel Narvaez <dwnarvaez at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think that's never going to happen unless we come up with a plan.

>... I just hope people will realize

> that it's urgent to do something about this...



Let me hazard mockery by citing a very obvious incentive to getting

Sugar to run on Android. If Sugar could be an Android .apk, it could

not merely run on some future Android-based OLPC, but on over a

million new devices EVERY DAY, closing in on a total of a billion -

and be trivial to install in the bargain. Isn't that worth lots more

attention than a million Raspberry Pi's, which aren't even full

appliances, but merely boards mainly of interest to DIY embedded

system guys?



Moving to Android would also address OLPC's new Android-tablet line.

(Perhaps one might even partner with profit-seeking hardware keyboard

aftermarket vendors, by encouraging them to conceptually bundle

Sugar.)



The game console market has been off-limits to Sugar due to large

developer license fees. But what if an Android-based project like the

Ouya (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouya ), with zero fees, can

prove successful?



On the other hand, with limited developer staffing, maybe Sugar Labs

should just dig in its heels and concentrate on supporting the nearly

3 million units to which the educational systems of at least two

nations have made deep and expensive commitments. Few things have

given the information technology industry a worse name than the rate

at which it often tries to force users to migrate away from legacy

systems, rather than perfect their flaws.



The REALLY BIG CHANGE is not from one electronic learning system to a

newer one, but from one based on printed matter, blank paper and

pencils, to one based on electronics - thereby enabling audio,

animation, photography, interactivity, zero-inventory-zero-unit-cost

courseware, and total portability.

_______________________________________________

IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)

IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org

http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep




_______________________________________________
Testing mailing list
Testing at lists.laptop.org
http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/testing 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/attachments/20130221/1aad7558/attachment.html>