[Sugar-devel] Sugar as desktop os

[Philippe Clérié]

We're located in Haiti. Sorry I left that off. And before anyone asks 
:-) we're not part of the pilot that was scheduled to begin in Haiti 
last year. I briefly worked with them. As far as I can tell, after 
the last cabinet shuffle, the project has gone dormant. Officially, I 
don't know why. Unofficially, the new Minister of Education does not 
like anything started by the previous one. Or so it seems.

And thanks everyone for the responses. That was quite a few in such 
a short span of time. I am now quite sure I can make it happen.

> This may not be so bad in a Montessori environment, where
> children don't all work on the same topic together. So if some
> children are using the traditional Montessori equipment, and some
> the computer, you will no doubt find a balance.

That's the plan. Use the computer as _just_ another montessori 
equipment/exercise. One problem is that while I have the computer 
expertise, I know next to nothing about education, and those who 
have that expertise are somewhat "afraid?" of the computer.

Has there been any documented experience in a Montessori 
environment? It seems to me that there is a lot of soul searching 
but not much hard data.

>
> I will be interested to know what balance point the children come
> to. It will no doubt vary by age and perhaps other factors. That
> information would be worth an article in one of the Montessori
> publications. I volunteer to write it if you and the teachers are
> willing to collect the data.

LOL! Get in line! 

But let's see what we can do. I certainly plan to document what I do 
on the computer side.

-- 


Philippe

------
The trouble with common sense is that it is so uncommon.
<Anonymous>

On Friday 10 July 2009 12:48:18 Edward Cherlin wrote:
> 2009/7/10 Philippe Clérié <philippe at gcal.net>:
> > I am looking into implenting sugar for a Montessori school.
>
> Maria would be so pleased. +1
>
> Where is your school? Is there a Sugar/XO user group nearby?
>
> > The
> > current plan is to start with 10 to 20 (depending on budget)
> > computers for a group of about 100 students from 6 to 13, and
> > usage would be on a rotating basis by groups.
> >
> > At this stage, there is no plan to supply each child with a
> > computer. On the other hand, if this implementation is
> > reasonably successful then the school will probably recommend
> > that parents buy computers for their children.
>
> I would suggest getting donations of 100  computers, and
> providing Sugar on a Stick to every student. That way, they could
> continue at home. Talk to any computer recycler about taking
> systems with no hard drive, and to any Linux User Group that does
> Installfests.
>
> > As things stand now what I was hoping to do is :
> >
> > - Install Sugar on each computer as the main OS.
> > - Setup a server to hold the kids' home directories and provide
> > other services as needed (routing and chat among other
> > things...).
> >
> > I am familiar with the XO and I have downloaded Sugar on a
> > Stick to try it out.
> >
> > My first problem with SaoS is that there is no easy way to
> > install the OS on a hard disk. By easy, I mean something like
> > a) boot the stick, b) click on install to hard disk, or
> > something equivalent.
>
> That's the hard way. Use a package manager like Synaptic to
> install Sugar. You will get more Activities that way.
>
> or
>
> yum install sugar (Fedora)
> apt-get install sugar (Debian, Ubuntu)
>
> > (As a side note, SaoS includes none of the sound/music
> > applications! That's a huge loss!)
>
> Jukebox is included but not selected as a Favorite. There is a
> technical discussion going on about sound in SoaS. When it is
> finished, you can expect to see more.
>
> > I looked at the distributions I use, Debian and Ubuntu, and at
> > Fedora because Sugar is derived from it. All three seem to have
> > small problems.
>
> If so, please check and if necessary file bug reports. We'll help
> you. The only issue I am aware of is that Sugar is broken in
> Ubuntu Jaunty. What problems do you see?
>
> > In addition it seems that they all require a sugar-
> > emulator and it's not clear to me what is being emulated.
>
> It's just the name of the program that starts everything. It is
> in a sense emulating an XO within a separate X session. But it
> isn't the fake version of some original that we're hiding from
> you. :)
>
> > I'm on a short schedule (only 4/6 weeks to procure and setup)
> > so I am looking for quick answers to avoid blind alleys while
> > doing the necessary research.
> >
> > Any comments/pointers welcome. Mostly I think what I'd like to
> > know is whether what I'm thinking of is even possible.
> > Specifically, is it possible
>
> There are some issues in configuring a school server that you
> will need to ask about. We need the experts to write a procedure
> for a reasonable configuration with Jabber and Moodle, and put it
> into the Wiki.
>
> > and how difficult would it be to have share use of a computer
> > with Sugar as the only desktop OS?
>
> It is of course possible. But it is like sharing one pencil among
> five or ten students. You can't integrate it into a curriculum.
>
> This may not be so bad in a Montessori environment, where
> children don't all work on the same topic together. So if some
> children are using the traditional Montessori equipment, and some
> the computer, you will no doubt find a balance.
>
> I will be interested to know what balance point the children come
> to. It will no doubt vary by age and perhaps other factors. That
> information would be worth an article in one of the Montessori
> publications. I volunteer to write it if you and the teachers are
> willing to collect the data.
>
> > Thanks in advance!
> >
> > Note: The hardware I am looking at is the HP Mini 110 Mi and
> > the System76 Starling Netbook.
>
> More than adequate.
>
> > --
> >
> >
> > Philippe
> >
> > ------
> > The trouble with common sense is that it is so uncommon.
> > <Anonymous>
>
>  +1