One of my students, David Cooper, worked on a Logic circuit simulator last year using pygame: <a href="http://launchpad.net/graphical-logic-circuits">http://launchpad.net/graphical-logic-circuits</a> I asked him to build a graphical tool to use with the logic circuit simulation code that Chris Meyers did in Python for Fun: <a href="http://openbookproject.net//py4fun/logic/logic.html">http://openbookproject.net//py4fun/logic/logic.html</a> <a href="http://openbookproject.net//py4fun/logic2/logic2.html">http://openbookproject.net//py4fun/logic2/logic2.html</a> Several years prior, another student, Peter Bui, began a tutorial on logic circuits: <a href="http://openbookproject.net/tutorials/getdown/logic_circuits">http://openbookproject.net/tutorials/getdown/logic_circuits</a> If there is more general interest in working on this, perhaps Sugar Labs DC could make it a priority? Thanks! jeff <div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 4:44 AM, <<a href="mailto:iaep-request@lists.sugarlabs.org">iaep-request@lists.sugarlabs.org</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Send IAEP mailing list submissions to <a href="mailto:iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org">iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit <a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep</a> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to <a href="mailto:iaep-request@lists.sugarlabs.org">iaep-request@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> You can reach the person managing the list at <a href="mailto:iaep-owner@lists.sugarlabs.org">iaep-owner@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of IAEP digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: Logic simulator (<a href="mailto:forster@ozonline.com.au">forster@ozonline.com.au</a>) 2. Re: Sugar Digest 2009-05-03 (Maria Droujkova) 3. Re: The User experience/interface for Printing (Andr?s Ambrois) 4. Re: Logic simulator (Tomeu Vizoso) 5. Re: The User experience/interface for Printing (Albert Cahalan) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 08:48:10 +1000 From: <a href="mailto:forster@ozonline.com.au">forster@ozonline.com.au</a> Subject: Re: [IAEP] Logic simulator To: <a href="mailto:iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org">iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:200905032248.n43MmAGN012930@smtp.ozonline.com.au">200905032248.n43MmAGN012930@smtp.ozonline.com.au</a>> > Noticed this Flash based logic simulator: > > <a href="http://joshblog.net/projects/logic-gate-simulator/Logicly.html" target="_blank">http://joshblog.net/projects/logic-gate-simulator/Logicly.html</a> > > Would be quite a simple sandbox activity to make (python, gtk+, > ciaro); but before I burn time (well add to my future todos list), do > teachers on this list think it is more than just a geeky play-thing, > or does it have educational merit? Gary, thanks for the link, I love it. Yes, I think this simulator does have strong educational merit. It is more than a digital logic simulator, Boolean logic goes further than teaching electronics, it teaches kids to problem solve and to think mathematically. I tried it out on the XO and it works fine (except for the jumpy cursor making wiring tricky) I would question whether it would be worth remaking in Python, the Flash version works well and if internet connectivity was limited, couldn't it just run on a school server? Bill Kerr in his blog, makes the point that the future of educational computing is in thin client netbooks with the smarts at the server end. This idea is reinforced by list discussions on books and book readers, it makes more sense to tap into the world's resources of ebooks than to write books specifically for the sugar platform. Similarly, it makes more sense to tap into the world's resources of simulators and puzzles than to rewrite them for the Sugar platform. If all this is true, then perhaps the focus for Sugar should be on its browser and book reader, making it compatible with the widest range of ebooks and web based simulations as possible. Walter I think has mentioned an unzip activity as a priority, sounds like a good idea, it gives better access to the wealth of educational material already out there on the www. Some more web based simulators, I haven't tried them for Sugar compatibility: <a href="http://www.sodaplay.com/constructor/" target="_blank">http://www.sodaplay.com/constructor/</a> <a href="http://www.biologic.com.au/bugbrain/" target="_blank">http://www.biologic.com.au/bugbrain/</a> <a href="http://www.armadillorun.com/" target="_blank">http://www.armadillorun.com/</a> <a href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40255643/" target="_blank">http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40255643/</a> <a href="http://www.kloonigames.com/crayon/" target="_blank">http://www.kloonigames.com/crayon/</a> <a href="http://www.acc.umu.se/%7Eemilk/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.acc.umu.se/~emilk/index.html</a> <a href="http://www.geogebra.org/cms/" target="_blank">http://www.geogebra.org/cms/</a> <a href="http://mathworld.wolfram.com/topics/AnimatedGIFs.html" target="_blank">http://mathworld.wolfram.com/topics/AnimatedGIFs.html</a> <a href="http://www.fi.uu.nl/wisweb/" target="_blank">http://www.fi.uu.nl/wisweb/</a> Tony ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 19:11:14 -0400 From: Maria Droujkova <<a href="mailto:droujkova@gmail.com">droujkova@gmail.com</a>> Subject: Re: [IAEP] Sugar Digest 2009-05-03 To: Walter Bender <<a href="mailto:walter.bender@gmail.com">walter.bender@gmail.com</a>> Cc: iaep <<a href="mailto:iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org">iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org</a>>, Sugar-dev Devel <<a href="mailto:sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org">sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org</a>>, <a href="mailto:community-news@lists.sugarlabs.org">community-news@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:a7f443b60905031611r7101f42bo7106cc71f14716f2@mail.gmail.com">a7f443b60905031611r7101f42bo7106cc71f14716f2@mail.gmail.com</a>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 On Sun, May 3, 2009 at 6:13 PM, Walter Bender <<a href="mailto:walter.bender@gmail.com">walter.bender@gmail.com</a>> wrote: > ===Sugar Digest=== > > I encourage you to join two threads on the Education List this week: > <a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-April/005382.html" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-April/005382.html</a>, which > has boiled down to an instruction vs construction debate; and > <a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-April/005342.html" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-April/005342.html</a>, which > has boiled down to a debate of catering to local culture vs the > Enlightenment. I encourage you to join these discussions. > > Rather than commenting here, I want to discuss a third, orthogonal > topic: creativity. I hosted a visit to Cambridge this week from Diego > Uribe, a Chilean researcher who is currently a Fulbright scholar at > the International Center for Studies in Creativity in Buffalo, NY. > Diego challenged me with two questions: Can we be more deliberate in > developing children's creativity skills and how can we use Sugar to > better disseminate creativity heuristics? > > Guidelines for divergent thinking > > * defer judgment > * go for quantity > * make connections > * seek novelty > > > Guidelines for convergent thinking > > * apply affirmative judgment > * keep novelty alive > * check your objectives > * stay focused > Walter, Thank you very much for this write-up. It is very, very interesting and quite helpful! Coincidentally, I am working on a proposal part about convergent and divergent actions, as applied to children's authoring in mathematics. As an aside, I find that using "creativity" or "creating" distracts people into a lot of tangents when I talk about math, so unless I have a lot of time to explain contexts, I go with "authoring." Metaphors and example spaces are two relevant parts of my framework here. A metaphor can start the divergent part of the cycle, allowing kids to quickly generate a number of mathematical objects. Then particular questions or goals help kids to sort through their objects, noticing properties and observing patterns. These generalities (properties and patterns) are convergent, and a pile of objects born of a metaphor gets structured into an example space. Now objects become examples OF something - namely, of observed generalities. At which point kids are tempted to generate more and better examples, which is the divergent part of the cycle at a new level, and so on. In practice, kids need ways to make math objects within a common metaphor and to collect, share and re-make those objects. With some kids, it's as simple as providing a graffiti wall and a verbal prompt, but typically you need heuristics and scaffolds to keep the thing going. In software, the challenge is to find a balance between providing enough scaffolds, yet leaving enough space for the divergent part of the cycle, allowing kids to actually, here goes - create. -- Cheers, MariaD Make math your own, to make your own math. <a href="http://www.naturalmath.com" target="_blank">http://www.naturalmath.com</a> social math site <a href="http://www.phenixsolutions.com" target="_blank">http://www.phenixsolutions.com</a> empowering our innovations ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 02:47:16 -0300 From: Andr?s Ambrois <<a href="mailto:andresambrois@gmail.com">andresambrois@gmail.com</a>> Subject: Re: [IAEP] The User experience/interface for Printing To: <a href="mailto:iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org">iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org</a>, <a href="mailto:sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org">sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> Cc: Albert Cahalan <<a href="mailto:acahalan@gmail.com">acahalan@gmail.com</a>>, Vamsi Krishna Davuluri <<a href="mailto:vamsi.davuluri@gmail.com">vamsi.davuluri@gmail.com</a>> Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:200905040247.16744.andresambrois@gmail.com">200905040247.16744.andresambrois@gmail.com</a>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" On Sunday 03 May 2009 06:29:26 pm Albert Cahalan wrote: > Vamsi Krishna Davuluri writes: > > So, talking to Tomeu, we agreed that for Write and Read using > > the gtkprint would be best as both support it as a printing API. > > The focus on "Write and Read" is short sighted and may lead > to inflexible solutions. Read was selected to contain the "send to print" code because Tomeu expressed some concerns about the maintainability of that code in the Journal. Also, we agreed that going through read is good for reviewing the pdf output and saving paper on badly formatted docs. > > Now, the current plan is: > > 1) We do journal printing only, albeit, the respective > > activity opens the file. > > Eh, OK. Provide a script called /usr/bin/lpr which runs ps2pdf > or directly runs gs. This lets normal software, which is already > designed to output standard Postscript to lpr, work just fine. > After conversion, put the PDF into the journal. > > Better yet, just toss the file into the journal without conversion. > > BTW, this can also be implemented as a filter script that the > normal lpr program invokes for the default printer. The priority is on sending the docs to cups-pdf for conversion and then talking to Moodle for teacher review. It is a good idea to have the code that sends docs for printing (to Moodle, a local printer, or one discovered by avahi) in a reusable module that a /usr/bin/lpr script can use. > > Now here a cross road is presented: > > > > 1) Do we use a print dialog inside each activity that can save it as pdf, > > print or export a pdf to moodle If we are going to keep everything inside Read for now. It'll be best to have the print button only in Read. The use case we had discussed was like this: open the file in Read, if its not ps/pdf Read converts it using cups-pdf, displays it, and then you can use the print button in its toolbar. The converted file gets added as a journal entry right after conversion. The datastore already contains code to hard link identical files, so disk space usage in multiple conversions is kept to a minimum. Read could add a pointer to the pdf in the original entry's metadata as well. Adding a print dialog to every activity (e.g. Adding some gtkprint support in sugar-toolkit) should be optional for GSoC. First we should concentrate on getting entries printed, and getting teacher review right. Then we can move code around for legacy support and nice "print me" buttons. > > 2) Do we use separate buttons for each of these operations? > > > > What of the user experience? > Separate buttons provides a distinction that will be important > in some environments. Some places will want immediate printing. > > For now, the "print" button can be almost the same as the other, > but with the output PDF marked for near-term deletion. > > "Make PDF" and "Print now" seem like fine names. > I agree. Just a print button for now. The PDF will be generated on startup anyway. We can have the cups-pdf local printer in the printer selection dialog when we provide other printing methods. > > The initial plan was to make Read the global printing station, > > how do you find this idea? > > Starting up Read just to print something is not nice. Read may > even cause an out-of-memory condition. For sure, there is no need > to very slowly render a big document that doesn't even need to be > seen on the screen. This is to encourage review and to keep the code away from the Journal. The code can then be moved to Glucose. Also, distributing a modified Read for testing will be considerably easier than patching the Journal. > > the teacher checks his print page in moodle, views the file (either > > through fancy javascript or a download) and approves/disapproves > > for printing. Kennedy then logs into his moodle print page and > > checks if the job was success or not, and if he has a comment from > > his teacher. > > I can barely imagine that happening in a real classroom. Try this: > > The student brings his XO to the teacher's desk, with his work shown > on the screen. The teacher looks at the work, then lets the student > plug his XO into a printer which sits on the teacher's desk. > > > Printing resources can be very expensive for most schools, so > > the system should include a way for students to submit jobs to a > > queue and for an administrator to preview and approve or denie them. > > Tux Paint can rate limit a student's printing. For example, a setting > of 60 will be once per minute. > > Do not forget that this issue is more social than technical. In addition > to any discipline, the teacher can simply turn off the printer. This is > advisable in any case; many printers use excessive power in standby. I dont see a teacher having a printer on her desk. Most schools here in Uruguay (and I dare say in Per?) don't even have printers. If there is one, it will be where the server/administration is. And possibly locked in a cage (like we have the servers now). So that scenario is going to be priority one. Next will be of course provide local printing when a full-blown cups installation is present (which we dont want to have as a sugar dependency for now). As I also see many kids having printers in their homes. > _______________________________________________ > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) > <a href="mailto:IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org">IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> > <a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep</a> -- Andr?s -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/attachments/20090504/308ccc06/attachment-0001.htm" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/attachments/20090504/308ccc06/attachment-0001.htm</a> ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 10:36:02 +0200 From: Tomeu Vizoso <<a href="mailto:tomeu@sugarlabs.org">tomeu@sugarlabs.org</a>> Subject: Re: [IAEP] Logic simulator To: Maria Droujkova <<a href="mailto:droujkova@gmail.com">droujkova@gmail.com</a>> Cc: iaep SugarLabs <<a href="mailto:iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org">iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org</a>> Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:242851610905040136n22c341fdpa264bf0d51163578@mail.gmail.com">242851610905040136n22c341fdpa264bf0d51163578@mail.gmail.com</a>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 On Sun, May 3, 2009 at 23:58, Maria Droujkova <<a href="mailto:droujkova@gmail.com">droujkova@gmail.com</a>> wrote: > It's a very neat thing. From my point of view, its pedagogical value > would very much increase if you could save and share your diagrams. So > that one student could build something and give it to others to > improve, etc. Or make some classic diagrams, etc. For any activity that produces diagrams, I recommend looking at Gaphas [0]. It's the library used in Gaphor to draw UML diagrams and is very flexible. [0] <a href="http://gaphor.devjavu.com/wiki/Subprojects/Gaphas" target="_blank">http://gaphor.devjavu.com/wiki/Subprojects/Gaphas</a> Regards, Tomeu > On Sun, May 3, 2009 at 5:09 PM, Gary C Martin <<a href="mailto:gary@garycmartin.com">gary@garycmartin.com</a>> wrote: >> Noticed this Flash based logic simulator: >> >> ? ? ? ?<a href="http://joshblog.net/projects/logic-gate-simulator/Logicly.html" target="_blank">http://joshblog.net/projects/logic-gate-simulator/Logicly.html</a> >> >> Would be quite a simple sandbox activity to make (python, gtk+, >> ciaro); but before I burn time (well add to my future todos list), do >> teachers on this list think it is more than just a geeky play-thing, >> or does it have educational merit? >> >> FWIW: it could do with a few more input/output and processing devices >> (sensors, buzzers, coloured leds, motors, counters). And, hey if time >> is no obstacle, perhaps make it a split screen view, holding a physics >> sandbox with the logic driving/animating simple little motorised >> constructions. >> >> Regards, >> --Gary >> _______________________________________________ >> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) >> <a href="mailto:IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org">IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> >> <a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep</a> >> > > > > -- > Cheers, > MariaD > > Make math your own, to make your own math. > > <a href="http://www.naturalmath.com" target="_blank">http://www.naturalmath.com</a> social math site > <a href="http://www.phenixsolutions.com" target="_blank">http://www.phenixsolutions.com</a> empowering our innovations > _______________________________________________ > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) > <a href="mailto:IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org">IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> > <a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep</a> > ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 04:44:33 -0400 From: Albert Cahalan <<a href="mailto:acahalan@gmail.com">acahalan@gmail.com</a>> Subject: Re: [IAEP] The User experience/interface for Printing To: Andr?s Ambrois <<a href="mailto:andresambrois@gmail.com">andresambrois@gmail.com</a>> Cc: <a href="mailto:iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org">iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org</a>, <a href="mailto:sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org">sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org</a>, Vamsi Krishna Davuluri <<a href="mailto:vamsi.davuluri@gmail.com">vamsi.davuluri@gmail.com</a>> Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:787b0d920905040144t6b427e50x473e4ae723f87aa6@mail.gmail.com">787b0d920905040144t6b427e50x473e4ae723f87aa6@mail.gmail.com</a>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 1:47 AM, Andr?s Ambrois <<a href="mailto:andresambrois@gmail.com">andresambrois@gmail.com</a>> wrote: > On Sunday 03 May 2009 06:29:26 pm Albert Cahalan wrote: >> Vamsi Krishna Davuluri writes: > The priority is on sending the docs to cups-pdf for conversion and then > talking to Moodle for teacher review. It is a good idea to have the code > that sends docs for printing (to Moodle, a local printer, or one discovered > by avahi) in a reusable module that a /usr/bin/lpr script can use. Sending the docs to cups-pdf for conversion and then talking to Moodle for teacher review can be done via /usr/bin/lpr, eliminating the trouble of having multiple data paths. > Adding a print dialog to every activity (e.g. Adding some gtkprint support > in sugar-toolkit) should be optional for GSoC. First we should concentrate > on getting entries printed, and getting teacher review right. Then we can > move code around for legacy support and nice "print me" buttons. If you start with what you disdain as "legacy support", then you can trivially test "getting entries printed" from the command line. The same goes for "getting teacher review right". You could even test with the TuxPaint activity, using real kids. >> > the teacher checks his print page in moodle, views the file (either >> > through fancy javascript or a download) and approves/disapproves >> > for printing. Kennedy then logs into his moodle print page and >> > checks if the job was success or not, and if he has a comment from >> > his teacher. >> >> I can barely imagine that happening in a real classroom. Try this: >> >> The student brings his XO to the teacher's desk, with his work shown >> on the screen. The teacher looks at the work, then lets the student >> plug his XO into a printer which sits on the teacher's desk. >> >> > Printing resources can be very expensive for most schools, so >> > the system should include a way for students to submit jobs to a >> > queue and for an administrator to preview and approve or denie them. >> >> Tux Paint can rate limit a student's printing. For example, a setting >> of 60 will be once per minute. >> >> Do not forget that this issue is more social than technical. In addition >> to any discipline, the teacher can simply turn off the printer. This is >> advisable in any case; many printers use excessive power in standby. > > I dont see a teacher having a printer on her desk. Most schools here in > Uruguay (and I dare say in Per?) don't even have printers. If there is one, > it will be where the server/administration is. And possibly locked in a cage > (like we have the servers now). So that scenario is going to be priority > one. That sounds like a printer that students aren't allowed to use. Such a school might not need printing support at all. Teachers are unlikely to learn a complicated (probably slow too) interface for approving printer use. I just don't see it happening with regular normal everyday human teachers. ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) <a href="mailto:IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org">IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> <a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep</a> End of IAEP Digest, Vol 14, Issue 7 *********************************** </blockquote></div>