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Hi, Walter<br>
<br>
Thanks for this. I feel at long last the community may actually get
involved in a serious discussion about what we are about and what we
need to do.<br>
<br>
Discussion about whether to support Trisquel or Raspberry Pi or
Windows is a distraction. The fundamental requirement is that Sugar
be available on mainstream platforms. The perception that Sugar is
software limited to the XO should be replaced by Sugar as a
effective learning platform available to anyone and usable on their
own computer, free and unencumbered by eulas. Naturally, this
requires that we make it so.<br>
<br>
If a credible Raspberry Pi image is easy to do, for God's sakes do
it! if it can be distributed as a part of NOOBs, do it! If Trisquel
is a viable Sugar distribution, then for God's sake document where
it can be obtained and how to install it.<br>
<br>
Aslam Kishwer told me, 'Make Sugar available on Windows.' It doesn't
matter if Windows is installed on 99% or 10%. Like it or not,
Microsoft has made learning 'Office' the sine qua non of using
computers in the classroom. It needs a Sugar image, installable as a
Windows application (a la wubi). <br>
<br>
A Sugar image needs to be a file that can be installed from a local
computer. In remote locations, the internet may not be available.
Even with available broadband access, downloading software directly
to each of 40 computers is not practical.<br>
<br>
A Sugar image needs to be supported by Sugar Labs and its community.
Currently, the XO provides 0.110 while SOAS and Ubuntu 16.04 provide
earlier versions. So the a Sugar release needs to be images for the
supported platforms. Sugar activities need to work on supported
releases (which will involve significant community effort to test in
the release cycle). <br>
<br>
Our intended users are not software developers and so the
installation technique needs to be comfortable and not require steps
unfamiliar to the average computer user.There are simple gui
versions of dd which could be used. SOAS is installable by dd from
an image. This is not a conclusion you would reach from the Sugar
Labs site which starts with requiring the installation of Fedora! <br>
<br>
In the context of 'making', I think we need to consider who are the
'makers'. The makers are our Sugar users - primary school children.
Unfortunately, Sugar Labs seems to be moving to a closed community
of software developers and computer science students. As a result
our support environment is evolving to tools not available to our
users - translate.sugarlabs.org, github, and our current mantra:
'build a development environment'. All of these isolate our users
from the 'making' of Sugar (esp. activities and localization).<br>
<br>
Our focus in programming in visual languages. This is a great start.
However, it is what educators call scaffolding. We need to use the
tools we have and develop others to help our users program in text
languages - Python and Javascript (with HTML and CSS). Currently our
focus is 'View Source'. This is not a path to encourage making and
violates the constructionist principle to start from what the user
knows. More effective would be to focus on 'Making Your Own Sugar
Activity' and the supporting tools (PyTute, HelloWorld,
HelloWebWorld, Pippy). Programming today in text languages is not
more difficult than it was in Basic or Pascal on the Apple II. <br>
<br>
One vehicle which supports the maker community is the Makerfaire.
Adam Holt and his team have effectively represented Sugar at some of
these. One requirement is to provide an opportunity for visitors to
use the available computers to do something with the computer. There
ia a Pi and More conference in Trier on June 24, 2017. I would love
to be able to show Sugar on the Raspberry Pi there. The essential
requirement is a viable and supported image that is available to the
attendees. Ideally such an exhibit would show a Raspberry Pi as a
server with XSCE and others as Sugar systems with monitors,
keyboards, and mouses. <br>
<br>
Tony<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 04/10/2017 08:03 AM, Walter Bender
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CADf7C8uW-CUNFktd3uRm9Gh5+Jb4khr4BFKx6ZkyQ8dGyQvydQ@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr"><br>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 7:56 PM, Dave
Crossland <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:dave@lab6.com" target="_blank">dave@lab6.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="auto">Hi
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">Thanks Walter. I'd like to better
understand some additional context before diving in :)<br>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">Does this mean Sameer you have stopped
the project planning process you started, and we
should not expect you to restart it again?</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div> </div>
<div>At the most recent SLOB meeting Samson brought up the
fact that we were still waiting and so I volunteered to
write something up to get the conversation going again.</div>
<div> </div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="auto">
<div dir="auto">
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">Walter, are these the goals for this
year, or are they your proposal for the goals for
this year?</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Not sure I understand what you are asking. I wrote up a
draft of goals but they are not "the goals" until we agree
to them.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>regards.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>-walter</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="auto">
<div dir="auto">
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div>
<div class="h5">On Apr 9, 2017 3:31 PM, "Walter
Bender" <<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:walter.bender@gmail.com"
target="_blank">walter.bender@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br type="attribution">
</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<div class="h5">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>As per the discussion in the last Suagr
Labs Oversight Board Meeting, I had agreed
to write a draft statement of goals for
2017. The document below includes feedback
from Samson G. I hope this document can
serve to revitalize our discussion from 2016
that never reached resolution.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Sugar Labs Plans, Goals, Aspirations</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>What is Sugar Labs?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Sugar Labs creates, distributes, and
maintains learning software for children.
Our approach to learning is grounded in
Constructionism, a pedagogy developed by
Seymour Papert and his colleagues in the
1960s and 70s at MIT. Papert pioneered the
use of the computer by children to help
engage them in the “construction of
knowledge.” His long-time colleague Cynthia
Solomon expanded up his ideas by introducing
the concept of engaging children in
debugging as a pathway into problem-solving.
Their 1971 paper, “Twenty things to do with
a computer”, is arguably the genesis of
contemporary movements such as the Maker
Movement and Hour of Code.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>At the core of Constructionism is
“learning through doing.” If you want more
learning, you want more doing. At Sugar Labs
we provide tools to promote doing. (We focus
almost exclusively on tools, not
instructional materials.) However, we go
beyond “doing” by incorporating critical
dialog and reflection into the Sugar
learning environment, through mechanisms for
collaboration, journaling, and portfolio.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Sugar Labs is a spinoff of the One Laptop
per Child (OLPC) project and consequently it
has inherited many of its goals from that
project. The goal of OLPC is to bring the
ideas of Constructionism to scale in order
to reach more children. A particular focus
is on children in the developing world. In
order to meet that goal, Sugar, which was
originally developed for OLPC, was by
necessity a small-footprint solution that
required few resources in terms of CPU,
memory, storage, or network connectivity.
The major change on focus from the OLPC
project is that Sugar Labs strives to make
the Sugar desktop available to multiple
platforms, not just the OLPC XO hardware.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Who develops Sugar?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Sugar Labs is a 100% volunteer effort
(although we do occasionally raise money for
paid student internships). Sugar development
and maintenance is incumbent upon volunteers
and hence we strive to provide as much
control as possible to our community
members, including our end-users. (In fact,
one of our assertions is that by enabling
our users to participate in the development
of the tools that they use will lead to
deeper engagement in their own learning.)
Towards these ends, we chose the GPL as our
primary license. It has been said of the GPL
that it “restricts my right [as a developer]
to restrict yours [as a user and potential
developer]”, which seems ideal for a project
that wants to engage a broad and diverse set
of learners. But at Sugar Labs we go beyond
the usual goals of FOSS: a license to make
changes to the code is not enough to ensure
that users make changes. We also strive to
provide the means to make changes. Our
success in this goal is best reflected in
the number of patches we receive from our
community. (We achieve this goal through
providing access to source code and
development tools within Sugar itself. We
also actively participate in workshops and
internship programs such as Google Summer of
Code, Outreaching, and Google Code-In.)</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Who uses Sugar?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Ultimately, our goal is to reach learners
(and educators) with powerful tools and
engage them in Constructionist learning.
Currently we reach them in many ways: the
majority of our users get the Sugar desktop
preinstalled on OLPC XO hardware. We have a
more modest set of users who get Sugar
packaged in Fedora, Trisquel, Debian,
Ubuntu, or other GNU/Linux platforms. Some
users get Sugar on Live Media (i.e., Sugar
on a Stick). Recently Sugarizer, a
repackaging of some of the core Sugar ideas
for the browser, has been finding its way to
some users. There are also a number of Sugar
activities that are popular outside of the
context Sugar itself, for example, Turtle
Blocks, which has wide-spread use in India.
Harder to measure is the extent to which
Sugar has influenced other providers of
“educational” software. If the Sugar
pedagogy is incorporated by others, that
advances our goal.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Who supports Sugar?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>When we first created Sugar Labs, we
envisioned “Local Labs”—hence the name
“Sugar Labs”, plural—that would provide
local support in terms of local-language
support, training, curriculum development,
and customizations. This model has not ever
gained the scale and depth envisioned (we
can debate the reasons why), although there
are still some active local communities
(e.g., Educa Paraguay) that continue to work
closely with the broader community. There
are also individual volunteers, such as Tony
Anderson and T.K. Kang, who help support
individual schools in Rwanda, Malaysia, et
al. An open question is how do we support
our users over the long term?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>What is next for Sugar?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>We face several challenges at Sugar Labs.
With the ebb of OLPC, we have a contracting
user base and the number of professional
developers associated with the project is
greatly diminished. How can we expand our
user base? How can we attract more
experienced developers? Why would they want
to work on Sugar as opposed to some other
project? The meta issue is how do we keep
Sugar relevant in a world of Apps and small,
hand-held devices? Can we meet the
expectations of learners living in a world
of fast-paced, colorful interfaces? How do
we ensure that it is fulfilling its
potential as a learning environment and that
our users, potential users, and imitators
are learning about and learning from Sugar.
Some of this is a matter of marketing; some
of this is a matter of staying focused on
our core pedagogy; some of this a matter of
finding strategic partners with whom we can
work.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>We have several near-term opportunities
that we should leverage:</div>
<div>* Raspian: The Raspberry PI 3.0 is more
than adequate to run Sugar—the experience
rivals or exceeds that of the OLPC XO 4.0
hardware. While RPi is not the only platform
we should be targeting, it does has broad
penetration into the Maker community, which
shares a synergy with our emphasis on
“doing”. It is low-hanging fruit. With a
little polish we could have an image
available for download from the RPi website.</div>
<div>* Trisquel: We have the potential for
better leveraging the Free Software
Foundation as a vehicle for promoting Sugar.
Their distro of choice is Trisquel and the
maintainer does a great job of keep the
Sugar packages up to date.</div>
<div>* Sugarizer: The advantage of Sugarizer
is that it has the potential of reaching
orders of magnitude more users since it is
web-based and runs in Android and iOS. There
is some work to be done to make the
experience palatable on small screens and
the current development environment is—at
least my opinion—not scalable or
maintainable. The former is a formidable
problem. The latter quite easy to address.</div>
<div>* Stand-alone projects such as Music
Blocks have merit as long as they maintain
both a degree of connection with Sugar and
promote the values of the community. It is
not certain that these projects will lead
users towards Sugar, but they do promote
FOSS and Constructionist principles. And
they have attracted new developers to the
Sugar community.</div>
<div>* School-server: The combination of the
School Server and Sugar desktop is a
technical solution to problems facing small
and remote communities. We should continue
to support and promote this combination.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Specific actions: After last year’s Libre
Planet conference, several community members
discussed a marketing strategy for Sugar. We
thought that if we could reach influencers,
we might be able to greatly amplify our
efforts. There are several prominent
bloggers and pundits in the education arena
who are widely read and who might be
receptive to what we are doing. One
significant challenge is that GNU/Linux
remains on the far periphery of the Ed Tech
world. Although the “love affair” with all
things Apple seems to be over, the new
elephant in the room—Chromebooks and Google
Docs—is equally difficult to co-exist with.
Personally, I see the most potential synergy
with the Maker movement, which is building
up momentum in extra-curricular programs,
where FOSS and GNU-Linux are welcome (hence
my earlier focus on RPi). (There are even
some schools that are building their entire
curriculum around PBL.) We can and should
develop and run some workshops that can
introduce Sugar within the context of the
Maker movement. (Toward that end, I have
been working with some teachers on how to
leverage, for example, Turtle Blocks for 3D
printing.) It is very much a tool-oriented
community with little overall discussion of
architectural frameworks, so we have some
work to do. But there is lots of low-hanging
fruit there.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>regards.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>-walter</div>
<div><br>
</div>
-- <br>
<div
class="m_-4175201952617904324m_7371648061571581588gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<div><font><font>Walter Bender</font></font><br>
<font><font>Sugar Labs</font></font></div>
<div><font><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.sugarlabs.org"
target="_blank"><font>http://www.sugarlabs.org</font></a></font><br>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop
project!)<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org"
target="_blank">IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep"
rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/lis<wbr>tinfo/iaep</a><br>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<br clear="all">
<div><br>
</div>
-- <br>
<div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<div><font><font>Walter Bender</font></font><br>
<font><font>Sugar Labs</font></font></div>
<div><font><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank"><font>http://www.sugarlabs.org</font></a></font><br>
<br>
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