[Marketing] How to best describe Sugar Labs

[Walter Bender]

On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 6:10 PM, Bernie Innocenti <bernie at sugarlabs.org> wrote:

[snip]

> I was wondering if people who have done the same thing before and could
> share their blurbs and perhaps put a copy-pasteable paragraph somewhere
> on the wiki.


Here is the blurb I tend to use:

Sugar Labs Overview

What is Sugar?

Sugar...

...is a learning platform designed for children.

...was originally designed for the XO laptop of the OLPC project.

...runs on most netbooks and PCs.

...is used by more than two-million students in Peru, Uruguay, Rwanda,
Nepal, the United States, and more than 40 other countries.

...is Free Software.

...is available in more than 25 languages.

The Sugar learning platform promotes collaborative learning through
rich-media expression, part of an effort to provide an opportunity for
a quality education to every child. Sugar provides the means to help
people lead fulfilling lives through access to a quality education
that is currently missed by so many.

Sugar is a graphical user interface and a collection of software
applications—activities—that gives children a rich environment for
learning. It has three attributes that make it different and special:
simplicity, collaboration, and reflection.

The Sugar user interface is very simple. It has a “low floor” so that
even children as young as 2- and 3-years old can start to use it. At
the same time, it puts no limit to what they can achieve: children can
use Sugar to reach to very complex ideas. They are not bound by its
simplicity; rather they use its simplicity as a catalyst for growth.
Sugar presents no “ceiling” to the learner.

Sugar has built-in mechanisms for collaboration that make it very easy
for children and teachers to work together on projects, to share
ideas, and to engage in critical dialogs. With Sugar, learners balance
the exploration of knowledge with expression with their own ideas.

Sugar maintains a journal—a diary—of everything a child does; it is a
record of both what learners make and how they made them. A portfolio
tool pulls material from the journal, enabling a child, parent, or
teacher to monitor progress as a means of assessment.

Sugar is not about instruction; it is about learning. Children learn
under the guidence of their teacher and peers.

What is Sugar Labs?

Sugar Labs is a volunteer-driven, nonprofit organization, a member
project of the Software Freedom Conservancy. Sugar Labs coordinates
volunteers—international community of teachers, software developers,
artists and writers, parents and children—who are passionate about
providing educational opportunities to children through the Sugar
Learning Platform. Globally, there are teachers that discuss how they
use Sugar in their classrooms; students who blog about their Sugar
learning experiences; and everyone, not just software engineers,
contribute to the code base. (Children as young as 12-years old have
written Sugar activities.) At Sugar Labs, we promote investing locally
in learning that works for every child.

What distinguishes Sugar and the educational initiatives of Sugar Labs
from other projects?

While there are many great ICT-oriented learning projects, what
distinguishe Sugar is its platform features. Like a sponge, Sugar
pulls in projects such as Gcompris, Etoys, Scratch, and Open Office
for Children, as well as hundreds of learning activities specifically
written for Sugar, making those great tools available to more
children. But the Sugar platform further enhances the learning
experience through its mechanisms of collaboration and reflection.
With Sugar, the computer represents more than an opportunity for
interaction with isolated applications; it is the manifestation of a
change in the culture of learning.

Sugar will engage even the youngest learner in the use of computation
as a powerful “thing to think with.” They will quickly become
proficient in using the computer as a tool to engage in authentic
problem-solving. Sugar users develop skills that help them in all
aspects of life.

Sugar on a Stick

What is “Sugar on a Stick”?

Sugar on a Stick is a LiveUSB image of the Sugar learning platform. (A
live USB is a USB flash drive containing a full operating system that
can be booted. User data is preserved on the flash drive between
sessions.) Each student is provided with a bootable Sugar USB device,
ensuing access to Sugar on the computers in their homes, school and
after-school environments, and community.

Instead of purchasing a laptop, students can be given Sugar on a
Stick. Students will work with Sugar whenever and wherever they have
access to computers. Sugar on a Stick turns any computer into each
child's own personal computer, yet with a continuity of software,
collaborative connections to their classmates, and work in progress.

The Sugar advantage

Superior pedagogical framework

Unique collaboration and journaling (evaluation) features

Large and successful installed base with 100s of activities

Large and committed community base (both developers and teachers)

24/7 support; training and workshop materials available

Rapidly expanding teacher-driven development

Easily localizable and customizable

No licensing fees

A global project: no single point of dependency or failure

Great potential for local job creation

Sugar features

Sugar facilitates sharing and collaboration: children write, share
books, or make music together with one mouse-click.

There are no files, folders, or applications.

Everything is saved automatically: our goal is to make it almost
impossible to lose any data.

A journal records everything you do: a portfolio is used to reflect
upon and assess your work.

Sugar is available on all major GNU/Linux distributions and runs on
most computer hardware. (Sugar runs in a virtual machine on MS Windows
and Apple computers.)

Sugar is Free Software: it is written in Python and easily customized.

Documented by its users: it is easy to use and teachers have created a
wealth of pedagogical materials for it.

Sugar benefits

Hundreds of tools for discovery through exploring, expressing, and
sharing: browsing, writing, programming, etc.

Built-in collaboration system: peer-to-peer learning; always-on
support; and single-click sharing.

Built-in tools for reflection; a built-in portfolio assessment tool
that serves as a forum for discussion between children, parents, and
teachers.

A discoverable learning platform: it uses simple means to reach to complex ends.

Designed for local appropriation: it has built-in tools for making
changes and improvements and a growing global community of support.

An emphasis on learning through doing and debugging: more engaged
learners are to tackle authentic problems.

Available in a wide variety of forms: as part of GNU/Linux
distributions; LiveCD, LiveUSB; and in virtual-machine images.

The Sugar on a Stick advantages

Reduces costs with flexible hardware choices by allowing institutions
to continue using their existing investment in hardware while reducing
support costs and user frustration.

Enables low-cost options when purchasing new computers.

Makes it easy to accept donated older machines (e.g. computers being
discarded by industry); it increases the life of older computers,
reducing disposal costs and enabling the reuse of existing resources.

Provides a coherent and consistent computing experience even during
times of fluctuating technology funding and changes in hardware
choices.

Allows communities to take advantage of the increasing household
computer ownership, while still providing a consistent, comparable
computing environment.

“Portfolio on a stick” gives learners “pride of ownership” to have
access to the projects and creations and explorations they have
previously done regardless of where they did them.

Provides off-line access to applications and content: not every
learner has access to broadband or the Internet at home.

Enables classroom teachers the autonomy of using the Sugar learning
platform regardless of the configuration of the school computer
systems (classroom teachers are not allowed to install software; they
are completely beholden to their school system's IT department).

For more information, visit our website at http://sugarlabs.org or
send email to walter at sugarlabs.org. You can download Sugar on a Stick
from http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Downloads.

-walter

-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org