[sugar] Printing et al.

[Benjamin M. Schwartz]

On Fri, 2008-01-04 at 13:40 -0500, Jim Gettys wrote:
> Sample 1: OLPC Trial School in Arahuay, Peru:
> 
> Needs printing: but not for the kids (too expensive) for any routine
> printing.  The teachers need to be able to use an XO for preparing
> tests
> and handouts for the kids, as conventional computers are not available
> in sufficient quantities (there is 1 conventional desktop system at
> the
> entire school).

Printing should serve as a reminder of missing functionality in Sugar.
Handouts and tests should not require printing; they should be
accomplished within Sugar without even needing a server.  At the moment,
this is possible, but quite inconvenient, because there is no way to
transfer instances non-collaboratively.  

Currently, to work on a test, which might be nothing more than a Write
document, students would have to join, keep the instance, close it, and
resume it from the Journal, in order to ensure that they do not edit the
master copy.  When they are done, they must share it by invitation with
the teacher, who must accept, keep, and close.  This is very
inconvenient.

Given an easy way to transfer activity instances non-collaboratively,
and pen-tablet support, almost all tests (and handouts) should be
convenient to distribute, complete, and return. To streamline the
process further, we might consider:

1. Pre-authorized Push support, so that, once authorized by the student,
teachers may send content to students without student action.
 a. Groups, so that something may be pushed to the whole class at once.
 b. pushback support, so that students can send the completed test back
to the teacher without requiring teacher confirmation.
2. An activity for creating and taking written/drawn exams
 a. time limits
 b. lockdown, to prevent Chat-ing with other students during the exam
(now there's a good topic for debate...)

I understand that many of these features are planned, but clearly this
is a high priority for the customers. Simple non-collaborative transfer
should be in Update.2.

--Ben