Hello Yama, David all.<br><br><br>Some thoughts,<br><br>It's definitely really important to have an official certification or support from SugarLabs international because as you now in our countries it's really difficult to get moving without a paper that says so..<br>
<br>For example here in Colombia, OLPC/Sugar pilots are beginning to get managed by Companies or Foundations, with needs for money but not with needs for doing things well or loving what they are doing ;). <br><br>Barely they are beginning to understand the project, but they are <br>
truly advanced in relation to contracts.($$$).<br><br>In addition to this, they are not even remotely interested in free software communities...and in some way the liberties are getting compromised.<br><br>Fortunately sugar labs is seeing the foundation of regional sugarlabs as an opportunity and not as a drawback (as maybe OLPC sees it, don't know why though)<br>
<br>So as David says there are two schemes, and people in countries can begin to adjust to one or another.<br><br>In relation to OLE Sugarlabs, I see OLE in a higher level than SugarLabs, the relation between them has to be reciprocal but OLE can group a broaden stile or kind of efforts related to education,<br clear="all">
<br>Rafael Ortiz <br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 3:05 PM, Yamandu Ploskonka <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:yamaplos@bolinux.org">yamaplos@bolinux.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
oh yes, totally.<br>
<br>
Neal Scoggin was all for a certification program.<br>
<br>
OLE had a similar view about local concerns doing local things. This is<br>
particularly liffe-and-death in places where American-organization<br>
presence is not wholly welcome, and where alternate sources of funding<br>
might favor local institutions. Moreover, this can open very<br>
interesting venues for places like Bolivia where the govenrment wants to<br>
favor Open Source providers, but there is none locally able to take part<br>
in project bids.<br>
<br>
Yama<br>
<br>
<br>
David Farning wrote:<br>
> We are facing the same problem in Columbia. There is a very strong<br>
> group that is having trouble being recognized because they are not<br>
> official.<br>
><br>
> So far we are working on two parallel solutions, Local Labs and Sugar<br>
> Partners. Local Labs will be very autonomous, NFP organization that<br>
> in some way support the Sugar Labs mission. It will be pretty easy to<br>
> have Local Labs recognized as official NFPs under the umbrella of<br>
> Sugar Labs.<br>
><br>
> The second solution is official Sugar Labs Partners. These are for<br>
> profit business that would like to be 'Sugar Certified.'<br>
><br>
><br>
> Please take a look at <a href="http://sugarlabs.org/go/Regional_Sugar_Labs" target="_blank">http://sugarlabs.org/go/Regional_Sugar_Labs</a> :)<br>
> I hope to get them going by the end of the week.<br>
><br>
> thanks<br>
> david<br>
><br>
> On Sat, Nov 29, 2008 at 1:13 PM, Yamandu Ploskonka <<a href="mailto:yamaplos@bolinux.org">yamaplos@bolinux.org</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
>> One thing that we need to see is about giving legitimacy to volunteers in<br>
>> countries where only if you have an "official" piece of paper you are to be<br>
>> taken into account. Right now I have an active, enthusiastic, capable<br>
>> volunteer in Uruguay who is not taken into account by higher authorities<br>
>> because he basically is "nobody".<br>
>><br>
>> A Sugarlabs "credential" or some sort of accreditation?<br>
>><br>
>> Yama<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> David Farning wrote:<br>
>><br>
>>> Hey Caroline, Silas, Yama<br>
>>><br>
>>> Would you be interested helping setup the 'charter' Local Labs[1] for<br>
>>> Sugar Labs. A lot of this has been inspired by combining Silas' ideas<br>
>>> on how to collaborate between developed regions and underdeveloped<br>
>>> regions, Yama's experience, and working Ubuntu LoCo teams.<br>
>>><br>
>>> I would appreciate your feedback on the implementation of Local Labs.<br>
>>><br>
>>> thanks<br>
>>> david<br>
>>><br>
>>> 1. <a href="http://sugarlabs.org/go/Regional_Sugar_Labs" target="_blank">http://sugarlabs.org/go/Regional_Sugar_Labs</a><br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>> On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 6:44 PM, Caroline Meeks<br>
>>> <<a href="mailto:caroline@solutiongrove.com">caroline@solutiongrove.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>>> Hi Silas,<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> How are things going? I'm sorry your email got burried during the Sugar<br>
>>>> Labs<br>
>>>> conference and just resurfaced.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 4:39 PM, Silas Bernardoni <<a href="mailto:sdbernardoni@wisc.edu">sdbernardoni@wisc.edu</a>><br>
>>>> wrote:<br>
>>>><br>
>>>><br>
>>>>> Caroline,<br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>> I plan on looking into the moodle more this weekend. I have a test<br>
>>>>> tomorrow morning and then I'm facilitating a campus visit for our high<br>
>>>>> school bridge design contest along with the Diversity Affairs Office for<br>
>>>>> the<br>
>>>>> College of Engineering. (Way too much on one day!)<br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>> We have a project meeting on Monday where all the teachers using XOs in<br>
>>>>> the city will share their lesson plans and giving their updates. I plan<br>
>>>>> on<br>
>>>>> pushing the moodle during the meeting with the hope of loading the<br>
>>>>> moodle<br>
>>>>> with content within the next week. I'll keep you informed on how that<br>
>>>>> goes.<br>
>>>>> We should also talk about how we are setting up our student<br>
>>>>> organization<br>
>>>>> and how I am planning on contributing to Sugar and OLPC.<br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>><br>
>>>> How did your meeting go?<br>
>>>><br>
>>>><br>
>>>>> I am also planning on doing my graduate research on the effectiveness of<br>
>>>>> Sugar and the XO starting in January. The plan is to do small scale<br>
>>>>> testing<br>
>>>>> here in Madison and then do large scale testing (3,700 XOs) in Paraguay<br>
>>>>> over<br>
>>>>> the summer. I would like to talk to you about the area of educational<br>
>>>>> open<br>
>>>>> source software and get your views on what should be evaluated. I look<br>
>>>>> forward to working with you. I've had a wonderful experience with<br>
>>>>> everyone<br>
>>>>> in the Sugar community. It's amazing how many good things are happening<br>
>>>>> here on our campus with this project!<br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>><br>
>>>> This sounds great. I'm sure you know quite a bit more about assessment<br>
>>>> then<br>
>>>> I do. Here are somethings I'm curious about. In countries that are<br>
>>>> already<br>
>>>> doing standardized testing what results are the tests showing?<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> In classes that are getting good results what is happening? So digging<br>
>>>> beyond the gross statistics and trying to find out what things create the<br>
>>>> best results. In the classes I've taken they say one of the things that<br>
>>>> makes evaluating educational technology hard is that it takes the<br>
>>>> teachers a<br>
>>>> year or two to get the hang of teaching with the new technolgoy. This has<br>
>>>> to<br>
>>>> be even more so in developing countries. So average statistics may not<br>
>>>> tell<br>
>>>> us much useful initially. Ideally I'd like to see research that could be<br>
>>>> used as feedback to teacher training.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> The Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach for America spoke at Harvard<br>
>>>> recently<br>
>>>> and talked about how they have been trying to learn from the few teachers<br>
>>>> who really are effective at significantly changing the trajectories of<br>
>>>> the<br>
>>>> thier students. They then are putting that back into thier training and<br>
>>>> trying to boost the percentage of people who become those exceptionally<br>
>>>> effective teachers. I think that would be a wonderful model to follow. If<br>
>>>> that falls within your interestes perhaps they would share thier<br>
>>>> evaluation<br>
>>>> techniques.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> Look forward to hearing more. Lets set up a time to talk voice.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> Again, sorry for losing your email!<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> Cheers,<br>
>>>> Caroline<br>
>>>><br>
>>>><br>
>>>>> Silas<br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>> Silas Bernardoni<br>
>>>>> Industrial and Systems Engineering<br>
>>>>> University of Wisconsin- Madison<br>
>>>>> Office: B1026 ECB<br>
>>>>> <a href="mailto:sdbernardoni@wisc.edu">sdbernardoni@wisc.edu</a><br>
>>>>> (608)482-0255<br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>> ----- Original Message -----<br>
>>>>> From: Caroline Meeks <<a href="mailto:caroline@solutiongrove.com">caroline@solutiongrove.com</a>><br>
>>>>> Date: Thursday, November 13, 2008 10:13 am<br>
>>>>> Subject: Re: Sugar Labs introduction<br>
>>>>> To: David Farning <<a href="mailto:dfarning@sugarlabs.org">dfarning@sugarlabs.org</a>><br>
>>>>> Cc: Silas Bernardoni <<a href="mailto:sdbernardoni@wisc.edu">sdbernardoni@wisc.edu</a>><br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>>> hi Silas,<br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>>> nice to meet you! Please let me knowif you need any help with<br>
>>>>>> <a href="http://schools.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">schools.sugarlabs.org</a> and I'm looking forward to learning more about<br>
>>>>>> your<br>
>>>>>> project.<br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>>> Cheers,<br>
>>>>>> Caroline<br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>>> On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 4:27 PM, David Farning<br>
>>>>>> <<a href="mailto:dfarning@sugarlabs.org">dfarning@sugarlabs.org</a>>wrote:<br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> Hey Caroline and Silas,<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> I wanted to make sure that the two of you were aware of each other's<br>
>>>>>>> work. I met Silas a few weeks ago at the University of Wisconsin -<br>
>>>>>>> Madison. He is the leader of a OLPC - student organization that the<br>
>>>>>>> university. The chapter currently has ~100 XO deployed around the<br>
>>>>>>> city at schools and community centers. There is also a research lab<br>
>>>>>>> set up in the School of engineering with another 10 XO to work on.<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> They are working on a lot of problems that I would consider outside<br>
>>>>>>> the primary scope of Sugar Labs, but very useful nonetheless. The are<br>
>>>>>>> great projects for proving the worth of the distributed development<br>
>>>>>>> model of Sugar Labs.<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> He, and the Madison chapter, are working closely with Paraguay to<br>
>>>>>>> develop a model where Madison support the Paraguay deployment remotely<br>
>>>>>>> and physically. I believe I cced you into a conversation about<br>
>>>>>>> Paraguay last week.<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> I met Caroline at an Open Source in education conference a few months<br>
>>>>>>> ago. Since then, she has been instrumental in driving the Sugar on<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>> a<br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> stick work forward. Her contributions have been mostly in the form<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>> of<br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> high quality feedback to the developers about what she, as an<br>
>>>>>>> educator, needs in the classroom.<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> Caroline's company, Solutions Grove, is hosting the moodle server at<br>
>>>>>>> <a href="http://schools.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">schools.sugarlabs.org</a>.<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> Silas's long term interest in the project is in measuring the<br>
>>>>>>> effectiveness of the XO and Sugar as learning and teaching tools.<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> In the short term, he has agreed to help seed the content at<br>
>>>>>>> <a href="http://schools.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">schools.sugarlabs.org</a>!<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> thanks<br>
>>>>>>> david<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>> --<br>
>>>>>> Caroline Meeks<br>
>>>>>> Solution Grove<br>
>>>>>> Caroline@SolutionGrove.com<br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>>> 617-500-3488 - Office<br>
>>>>>> 505-213-3268 - Fax<br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>> --<br>
>>>> Caroline Meeks<br>
>>>> Solution Grove<br>
>>>> Caroline@SolutionGrove.com<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> 617-500-3488 - Office<br>
>>>> 505-213-3268 - Fax<br>
>>>><br>
>>>><br>
>>>><br>
>>><br>
><br>
><br>
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</blockquote></div><br>