[Sugar-devel] [DESIGN] 'Resume' vs 'Start a new' Activity

[Gerald Ardito]

Edward,

This is very helpful.
Thanks.

Gerald

On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 9:27 AM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:

> Excellent post. We need lots more like it to give us real-world
> information on children's learning issues.
>
> I am documenting these problems in [[The Undiscoverable]], and working
> on a guide for teachers to introduce and reinforce whatever children
> have trouble with. It has been on hold during my move from California
> to Indiana, but I can resume work now.
>
> Have you tried giving explicit lessons on Start New and Resume as part
> of larger lessons? Something like this, perhaps:
>
> Class, we worked on [activity, function] yesterday, and we wanted to
> know how to [other function]. Let's see if we can discover how to do
> that in [activity]. First, right-click on [activity name] and select
> New to start a new session. Then click the [tabe name] tab, and look
> at the controls. Do any of them look as though they do what we want?
> What happens when you try them?...
>
> At the end of the session, have students exit and give the session a
> meaningful name related to the idea you were teaching.
>
> Later:
>
> Do you remember what we did with [new idea from yesterday]? [Responses
> from class] Now go to your Journals and click the [name] session to
> resume it.
>
> Do this as often as necessary in different activities until you are
> sure that the students remember it. Let me know how this works.
>
> I used to do this as the very first lesson in teaching adults word
> processing and text editing.
>
> 1. Start program. (Most apps give you an empty document by default. If
> not, create one.)
> 2. Save empty file in specified directory with any name.
> 3. Type something.
> 4. Save again.
> 5. Close file, or create new document.
> 6. Re-open file.
> 7. Exit program.
> 8. Find file, and click to resume.
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 03:09, Simon Schampijer <simon at schampijer.de>
> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have observed certain difficulties with the 'resume' and 'start a new'
> > activity concept. At the moment we have the following situation:
> >
> > *** Current Situation:
> > In the Home View you can resume an activity and start a new one. The
> > option to start a new activity is in the palette of the activity icon. A
> > list of last entries from this activity type is present in the palette
> > as well. When you click on the icon with the left mouse button, the last
> > activity is resumed by default. Clicking with the right mouse button on
> > the icon does reveal the activity palette. The activity is revealed
> > after a delay when hovering over the icon, too. Since version 0.86 when
> > you hold the alt-key pressed and click on the activity icon you can
> > start a new activity. This is visually guided by the uncolored activity
> > icon.
> >
> > In the Journal you can resume activities. There is no option to start a
> > new activity from within the Journal.
> >
> >
> > *** Background:
> > I teach a Sugar class of 15 students (5th and 6th grade) in a German
> > primary school [1]. The classes are on a weekly one hour basis. They had
> > 10-15 hours of Sugar by now. We use Sugar 0.84 on Fedora 11. I explained
> > the concept of the Journal, repeated several times how to start a new
> > activity and how to resume one. I explained them that revealing of the
> > palette is quicker when using the right mouse button.
> >
> >
> > *** Disclaimer:
> > The information below is not meant to be hard data. There are
> > differences in backgrounds (cultural etc), ages and quite importantly: a
> > difference between a first time user, a regular user and a daily user.
> > Some might as well question if I have chosen the right methodical way to
> > explain things, and be sure sometimes I do question myself, however the
> > data gathered might be a good basis for discussing this issue and maybe
> > others will provide some data, too.
> >
> >
> > *** Observations:
> > Most of the kids click on the activity icon when they want to start a
> > new activity. Since there is a delay to reveal the palette, the learner
> > does not see the other information in the palette.
> >
> > When they resume a previous activity, and they wanted to start a new
> > one, I have seen learners erasing the previous content and keep on
> > working in that activity.
> >
> > Nearly all the kids do not use the right click to reveal the palette.
> > They wait for it to appear.
> >
> >
> > *** Survey:
> > Last class I asked the learners in a small survey the following
> questions:
> >
> > A: How do you do a new drawing in TurtleArt?
> > R:
> > Some: Nothing, or did misunderstood the question.
> > Some: I click on TurtleArt.
> > One said: One clicks with the right mouse on TurtleArt and clicks with
> > the left one on New.
> > One said: Go on TurtleArt, wait, click New.
> >
> > A: How do you edit a previous drawing in TurtleArt?
> > R:
> > Many: Go to the Journal and resume there.
> > One: Go to Journal or right click and choose the one one want to resume.
> > One: Go on TurtleArt and choose the name one wants to resume.
> > Some: Nothing / did not understand the question
> >
> > A: Is there a difference between the right mouse click and the left
> > mouse click?
> > R:
> > One: it is quicker to use the right mouse button.
> > Some: you get a new field/list.
> > Many: Nothing / did not understand the question
> >
> >
> > *** Comments:
> > The concept of using the Journal to resume a previous activity does work
> > very well for the kids. With adding the list of previous activities to
> > the activity palette in the home view we added that concept to the home
> > view. The issue is, it is a secondary option. There is only one way in
> > Sugar to start a new activity - to work from scratch. And this is a
> > secondary option.
> >
> > For me it would be worth trying to test going back to create a new one
> > by default, as I think this is what my learners somehow expected.
> >
> > Small additions to the activity palette could be helpful, too. Adding
> > the journal date field to the entries. And having headers like in [2],
> > though I think there was a technical issue with this.
> >
> > Another improvement could be to cut the delay, so the secondary options
> > are more prominent. Or, the left mouse click would reveal the palette
> > and the learner then needs to decide what option to choose. This would
> > clash with the rest of the UI I guess.
> >
> > I remember we had some design mockups quite some time ago, where a
> > certain amount of Journal entries where displayed in the home view in a
> > horizontal time line. Maybe this would help to make the Journal more
> > accessible from there.
> >
> >
> > Congrats, if you made it reading that far. Comments, ideas, mockups,
> > plans for more data I should provide etc welcome.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >    Simon
> >
> >
> > [1] at the moment only in German:
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Planetarium
> > [2]
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Design_Team/Designs/Activity_Management#6
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Sugar-devel mailing list
> > Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
> Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
> The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
> http://www.earthtreasury.org/
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