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

[Edward Cherlin]

On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 12:18, Gerald Ardito <gmanb5 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Edward,
>
> I am interested in what you have about the various <key> click behavior on
> the basic XO.

I will be able to resume work on these issues soon. We are beginning
to settle into our new home.

> And, I can validate your estimate about the year to learn from our pilot
> program last year.

I'm not clear what you mean. I wrote about Alan Kay's estimate that it
takes a year to go from an idea for a lesson to something tested,
verified, and polished. Do you mean a year for teachers to get an idea
of what they are doing with XOs?

In fact, we can expect to go on improving these processes for decades,
perhaps centuries, considering the model of the printing press and the
profusion of kinds of publishing over the last five and a half
centuries.

> I can also say that it depends less upon prior experience
> with computers as it does with a willingness to explore and meet obstacles,
> at least the 5th graders with whom I've been working. Many times, students
> at this level with a certain amount of experience with computers don't/can't
> really generalize to a new system.

Adults are almost universally convinced that they are unable to
generalize from Word to Open Office or from Windows to Linux. Linux
Users are more able to generalize, at least in part because they tend
to be familiar with multiple distributions.

Part of the problem is the insistence in schools on Right Answers. In
order to learn something new, you have to be willing to make mistakes
that you could avoid by staying with what you know.

"Anything that is worth doing at all is worth doing wrong."

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai/Quotes#Pablo_Picasso

Pablo Picasso

    * I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may
learn how to do it.

> Thanks again.
> Gerald
>
> On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 12:21 AM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 19:14, Gerald Ardito <gmanb5 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Edward,
>> >
>> > This is very helpful.
>> > Thanks.
>>
>> My pleasure. I have lots more of this sort of thing in draft. Let me
>> know of any other such issues you have run into, and I can give you
>> what I have, or think about it further. There are numerous uses for
>> left-click, double-click, triple-click, click-and-drag, right click,
>> hover, and in some systems mouse gestures. I use a four-button
>> trackball, and my son uses a special game control mouse, but we don't
>> have to get into all of that with Sugar. ^_^
>>
>> It will also be helpful, if you try my suggested process, to document
>> how long it takes for children in a given class to catch on to an
>> idea, and how long it takes for it to become automatic. I don't know
>> how we can instrument such a study, but I expect that someone here
>> will have an idea. I expect to see variations by age, by prior
>> computer experience (positive or negative), and by cultural and social
>> factors.
>>
>> BTW, nobody should suppose that this succession of ideas is finished
>> and perfect. No amount of sympathetic imagination can substitute for
>> classroom experience, any more than a battle plan can survive contact
>> with the enemy. I want to hear suggestions for improvement, and I want
>> to hear about other issues that arise. Alan Kay has said that it takes
>> about a year to polish a math or physics lesson, and I will be
>> surprised if it is very much shorter for each of the key issues in
>> Sugar.
>>
>> > Gerald

-- 
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/