Articulate post from Michael Widner about learning to code.  Michael also has great advice for us trying to figure out how to work effectively in Digital Humanities. http://hastac.org/blogs/michael-widner/building-digital-tools-advice-getting-started

I know Michael has played around with the XO a bit, so maybe he can weigh in on this.  I wonder if the OLPC and Sugar community would benefit from reconceptualizing themselves as a digital humanities project, setting up some protocols for posting and sharing information, building a digital repository that really works, rather than a thousand scattered pieces.

Hello everyone,

You may be interested in a review I have written of the OLPC Australia
education programme:

http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2012/02/01/creating-an-education-programme/

It contains the video of a talk I gave at the linux.conf.au conference
in January, and a more detailed explanation of that talk.

Some of the key points:

* We have a comprehensive education programme that highly
values teacher empower?ment and com?munity engagement, with a focus
on building sustainability.
* The investment to provide a connected learning device to every
one of the 300 000 children in remote Australia is less than 0.1% of
the annual education and connectivity budgets.
* For low socio-economic status schools, the cost is only $80 AUD per child.
* Our programme is available to any school in Australia, for $380
AUD per child.
* Our programme is schools-centric, with a strong focus on the teacher.
* A teacher must undergo training and earn a certification to
qualify to receive XOs for their class.
* Training is conducted online, and hence scales very well.
* We have an online community to provide peer-driven support,
assisted by OLPC Australia personnel.
* Technology development and deployment is guided by the principle
that it must be manageable by non-technical personnel.
* Our technology platform is open and not locked-down, providing
maximum opportunity for children to learn and empowering
schools/communities to own the deployment for themselves.
* We are seeing real educational results from our efforts, and are
engaged in longitudinal and detailed evaluation.
* Our supporters include corporations and members of parliament at
state and federal levels, but we can always use more help

Please have a read if you are interested, and contact us if you would
like to take part in our mission.

We will be releasing more information on this educational programme in
the coming months.

Sridhar

Sridhar Dhanapalan
Engineering Manager
One Laptop per Child Australia

No RISE award for Fargo XO this year, but we will try again next year.  If the OLPC  and Sugar communities worked together on a project, that might show more impact and clout, although $30,000 wouldn’t go very far, either.  Comment below if you are interested in exploring this possibility.

I bought a box of fruit snacks for my kids without looking at the box too closely (bad dad). When I got it home, the kids got excited, not b/c of the snack but because of the XO on the front and the South African boy with his on the back.

We have now entered the contest but didn’t win the “shuffle” round which would enter us; we are invited to play everyday until July 31.  What’s going on here, procedurists? Marketing majors?

We haven’t explore the site yet; I suppose that is part of the pull.  Definitely interested in learning about the Rwandan deployments featured.

Yesterday’s post was about a web-based service for learning Python; today’s post is about a very realistic 10 year plan for truly learning how to program.

This online tutorial got some positive comments on the IEAP list. An excerpt from another list also seemed to be talking about using E-toys to build a Rosetta Stone styled language learning activity, but one list member lined to Wikiotics online.  It’s a straight up online reverse engineered RS, except that it localizes to NYC. That’s probably a great idea, but we would need to localize to Fargo.

Great project for the Miami area school.  I wonder if they need some consultants from Fargo to come down in the next couple of weeks.   : )

I hope the schools share some of their best practices.

Level 1.

Start physics and name the activity level one before doing anything else. Then simply try out most of the tools. Draw 3 lines: one straight, one with a single bend, one with two bends. Then draw circles, squares, triangles in S, M, and L sizes. Finally, draw a pentagon, hexagon, and heptagon (or just funny shapes with multiple sides.  Try to keep all the objects on the screen. When you have completed level one, raise your hand and we will note your accomplishment on the game board.  Then, on your computer, go back to home, open Write and name this activity “Physics Notes.”  Write what you did, learned, and liked about Physics so far.

Level Two

Go back to Home again after writing in your journal, and click on Physics, but try not to launch your existing project. Get the drop down menu that gives you a chance to “Start New”.  Start a new Physics module and call this activity “Level Two.”  The goal this time is to make teeter-totters. One challenge is to make it with as few objects as possible (only two is very hard), and one is to make it with 10 objects, any configuration that you like.  When you have completed level two, raise your hand and we will note your accomplishment on the game board.  Then, on your computer, go back to home, open the Write Activity called “Physics Journal,” and name this activity “Physics Notes.”  Write what you did, learned, and liked about Physics in level two.

We think those two levels can be covered on day one; we’ll sketch the other two days ASAP but would love to see or hear about other approaches to Physics.

Us Sugar users would probably do well to encourage people to build word lists in Memorize; I also wonder if there is any way to build up a library of Memorize flash cards.  Not very constructivist of me, but hard to construct language skills without them.

Will 11am on Thursdays work?
Yes: Kevin, Chris, Jade, and David
Not sure: Matt and Emily

Tech Team – Spring Curriculum Planning

3 Week Physics Challenge — Build a “Mouse Trap” machine (starts on 01/24)
3 Week Etoys Challenge — TBD

Physics Challenge

Students will challenged to create their own machine that moves an object from point A to point B. It will be framed as the Sugar Superhero Camp, where they must demonstrate their cleverness, so they can move onto the next level of Etoys.

Tech Teamers will be “scored” by the number of pieces/components and the level of complexity of the system of processes. Of course, it must also work. And, perhaps, it should also contain a mix of self-sufficient procedures vs. interactive procedures?

After completing this unit, we will provide the materials on our blog, as well as share it on the “Physics” wiki site. We will also be sure to take video of our work and the work of the students to share with the community.

The hope is to also scaffold in moments to help students understand the type of procedures that they are constructing. The hope is to start thinking procedurally, then taking that line of thinking into Etoys with more script-based activities.

Sugar Team Duties

1. Look for similar examples — David
2. Make one — Chris, David, Jade?, Matt?
3. Look for instructions — Chris
4. Notify Emily about the instructions

Instructions

Will contain the following:
>>Framed as Sugar Superhero Camp to demonstrate their cleverness, so they can move onto the next level of Etoys.
>>Screenshot of finished product: think Mouse Trap (to come)
>>Screenshot and explanation of different tools (http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Physics#Tools)