headers
Bryan Berry | 2 Jan 02:50
Favicon
Gravatar

How to Make Activity Designers Happy , Parts I and II

This is a draft of a multi-part article I plan to post to OLPC News.

It is very long but I would very much appreciate your opinions and
feedback. Your input will make it a better article once published.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This OLPC project seems to be going pretty well as of late December
2008. G1G1 v2 is well underway, there are a number of successful pilots
going on, and a number of larger-scale pilots will come online this
spring and coming summer. 

Still, there is a big gaping whole in the middle of our little education
project. There just aren't enough activities. Mind you, we have some
seriously awesome activities such as Etoys, Scratch, TamTam, and others.
We have tremendous depth but very limited breadth. 

By breadth, I mean interactive activities for language, history,
geology, health, etc. In order to expand the range of activities, we
need to recruit a lot more activity developers and make it dead-simple
for them to contribute. 

<strong>But Which Developers?</strong>

Let's think about who we want to recruit. We're talking about breadth
here so we need experts on Nepali grammar, Pashto vocabulary, Philippine
history, and Andean  geography. The good news is that there are
technically-oriented people out there that know these things and want to
help.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Bryan Berry | 2 Jan 02:50
Favicon
Gravatar

[Sugar-devel] How to Make Activity Designers Happy , Parts I and II

This is a draft of a multi-part article I plan to post to OLPC News.

It is very long but I would very much appreciate your opinions and
feedback. Your input will make it a better article once published.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This OLPC project seems to be going pretty well as of late December
2008. G1G1 v2 is well underway, there are a number of successful pilots
going on, and a number of larger-scale pilots will come online this
spring and coming summer. 

Still, there is a big gaping whole in the middle of our little education
project. There just aren't enough activities. Mind you, we have some
seriously awesome activities such as Etoys, Scratch, TamTam, and others.
We have tremendous depth but very limited breadth. 

By breadth, I mean interactive activities for language, history,
geology, health, etc. In order to expand the range of activities, we
need to recruit a lot more activity developers and make it dead-simple
for them to contribute. 

<strong>But Which Developers?</strong>

Let's think about who we want to recruit. We're talking about breadth
here so we need experts on Nepali grammar, Pashto vocabulary, Philippine
history, and Andean  geography. The good news is that there are
technically-oriented people out there that know these things and want to
help.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Bryan Berry | 2 Jan 02:50
Favicon
Gravatar

How to Make Activity Designers Happy , Parts I and II

This is a draft of a multi-part article I plan to post to OLPC News.

It is very long but I would very much appreciate your opinions and
feedback. Your input will make it a better article once published.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This OLPC project seems to be going pretty well as of late December
2008. G1G1 v2 is well underway, there are a number of successful pilots
going on, and a number of larger-scale pilots will come online this
spring and coming summer. 

Still, there is a big gaping whole in the middle of our little education
project. There just aren't enough activities. Mind you, we have some
seriously awesome activities such as Etoys, Scratch, TamTam, and others.
We have tremendous depth but very limited breadth. 

By breadth, I mean interactive activities for language, history,
geology, health, etc. In order to expand the range of activities, we
need to recruit a lot more activity developers and make it dead-simple
for them to contribute. 

<strong>But Which Developers?</strong>

Let's think about who we want to recruit. We're talking about breadth
here so we need experts on Nepali grammar, Pashto vocabulary, Philippine
history, and Andean  geography. The good news is that there are
technically-oriented people out there that know these things and want to
help.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Chris Ball | 2 Jan 05:06
Favicon
Gravatar

Re: How to Make Activity Designers Happy , Parts I and II

Hi Bryan,

   > Sadly, Javascript can't use the Graphics Processing Unit like Flash
   > can. Ouch,

The XO doesn't have much of a GPU, so I wouldn't be so worried about
this.  Any Javascript renderer that backs onto cairo will get as any
other graphics on the XO.

   > Many people will likely hate my promotion of Flash for learning
   > activities. It's OK if you hate me and Flash. I do hope you
   > recognize that we need a more developer-centric activity framework
   > that uses web technologies.

Making activity development easier is an unarguably fine goal, but I
don't think there are any simple solutions.  For example, do we even
have a Flash editor under Linux?  Is the first instruction on how to
write activities for someone in the developing world going to be "First,
pirate a copy of Windows and Adobe Flash Professional, and then.."?

- Chris.
--

-- 
Chris Ball   <cjb@...>
Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Michael Stone | 2 Jan 05:41
Favicon
Gravatar

Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] How to Make Activity Designers Happy , Parts I and II

On Thu, Jan 01, 2009 at 11:06:07PM -0500, Chris Ball wrote:
>   > Many people will likely hate my promotion of Flash for learning
>   > activities. It's OK if you hate me and Flash. I do hope you
>   > recognize that we need a more developer-centric activity framework
>   > that uses web technologies.
>
>Making activity development easier is an unarguably fine goal, but I
>don't think there are any simple solutions.  

So what?

> For example, do we even have a Flash editor under Linux?  

What does this have to do with Brian's real points about the economic
factors underlying availability of programmer time?

(Tangentially: where did the GIMP, Inkscape, and Blender come from?)

> Is the first instruction on how to write activities for someone in the
> developing world going to be "First, pirate a copy of Windows and
> Adobe Flash Professional, and then.."?

Can we propose a workable counter-offer?

Michael
Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Michael Stone | 2 Jan 05:41
Favicon
Gravatar

Re: [IAEP] How to Make Activity Designers Happy , Parts I and II

On Thu, Jan 01, 2009 at 11:06:07PM -0500, Chris Ball wrote:
>   > Many people will likely hate my promotion of Flash for learning
>   > activities. It's OK if you hate me and Flash. I do hope you
>   > recognize that we need a more developer-centric activity framework
>   > that uses web technologies.
>
>Making activity development easier is an unarguably fine goal, but I
>don't think there are any simple solutions.  

So what?

> For example, do we even have a Flash editor under Linux?  

What does this have to do with Brian's real points about the economic
factors underlying availability of programmer time?

(Tangentially: where did the GIMP, Inkscape, and Blender come from?)

> Is the first instruction on how to write activities for someone in the
> developing world going to be "First, pirate a copy of Windows and
> Adobe Flash Professional, and then.."?

Can we propose a workable counter-offer?

Michael
Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Bryan Berry | 2 Jan 06:32
Favicon
Gravatar

Re: How to Make Activity Designers Happy , Parts I and II

On Thu, 2009-01-01 at 23:06 -0500, Chris Ball wrote:
> Hi Bryan,
> 
>    > Sadly, Javascript can't use the Graphics Processing Unit like Flash
>    > can. Ouch,
> 
> The XO doesn't have much of a GPU, so I wouldn't be so worried about
> this.  Any Javascript renderer that backs onto cairo will get as any
> other graphics on the XO.
> 
>    > Many people will likely hate my promotion of Flash for learning
>    > activities. It's OK if you hate me and Flash. I do hope you
>    > recognize that we need a more developer-centric activity framework
>    > that uses web technologies.
> 
> Making activity development easier is an unarguably fine goal, but I
> don't think there are any simple solutions.  For example, do we even
> have a Flash editor under Linux?  Is the first instruction on how to
> write activities for someone in the developing world going to be "First,
> pirate a copy of Windows and Adobe Flash Professional, and then.."?

If they know what computer programming is, they have likely already done
the above steps.

Developing learning activities requires the developer already know
something about programming. In Nepal, China, India that means they have
at least a pirated copy of Windows and possibly Adobe Flash. If they
have linux, that means that some time ago they had pirated Windows which
they used to learn about linux.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Bryan Berry | 2 Jan 06:32
Favicon
Gravatar

Re: [Sugar-devel] How to Make Activity Designers Happy , Parts I and II

On Thu, 2009-01-01 at 23:06 -0500, Chris Ball wrote:
> Hi Bryan,
> 
>    > Sadly, Javascript can't use the Graphics Processing Unit like Flash
>    > can. Ouch,
> 
> The XO doesn't have much of a GPU, so I wouldn't be so worried about
> this.  Any Javascript renderer that backs onto cairo will get as any
> other graphics on the XO.
> 
>    > Many people will likely hate my promotion of Flash for learning
>    > activities. It's OK if you hate me and Flash. I do hope you
>    > recognize that we need a more developer-centric activity framework
>    > that uses web technologies.
> 
> Making activity development easier is an unarguably fine goal, but I
> don't think there are any simple solutions.  For example, do we even
> have a Flash editor under Linux?  Is the first instruction on how to
> write activities for someone in the developing world going to be "First,
> pirate a copy of Windows and Adobe Flash Professional, and then.."?

If they know what computer programming is, they have likely already done
the above steps.

Developing learning activities requires the developer already know
something about programming. In Nepal, China, India that means they have
at least a pirated copy of Windows and possibly Adobe Flash. If they
have linux, that means that some time ago they had pirated Windows which
they used to learn about linux.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Bryan Berry | 2 Jan 06:32
Favicon
Gravatar

Re: How to Make Activity Designers Happy , Parts I and II

On Thu, 2009-01-01 at 23:06 -0500, Chris Ball wrote:
> Hi Bryan,
> 
>    > Sadly, Javascript can't use the Graphics Processing Unit like Flash
>    > can. Ouch,
> 
> The XO doesn't have much of a GPU, so I wouldn't be so worried about
> this.  Any Javascript renderer that backs onto cairo will get as any
> other graphics on the XO.
> 
>    > Many people will likely hate my promotion of Flash for learning
>    > activities. It's OK if you hate me and Flash. I do hope you
>    > recognize that we need a more developer-centric activity framework
>    > that uses web technologies.
> 
> Making activity development easier is an unarguably fine goal, but I
> don't think there are any simple solutions.  For example, do we even
> have a Flash editor under Linux?  Is the first instruction on how to
> write activities for someone in the developing world going to be "First,
> pirate a copy of Windows and Adobe Flash Professional, and then.."?

If they know what computer programming is, they have likely already done
the above steps.

Developing learning activities requires the developer already know
something about programming. In Nepal, China, India that means they have
at least a pirated copy of Windows and possibly Adobe Flash. If they
have linux, that means that some time ago they had pirated Windows which
they used to learn about linux.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Chris Ball | 2 Jan 09:09
Favicon
Gravatar

Re: How to Make Activity Designers Happy , Parts I and II

Hi Bryan,

   > Developing learning activities requires the developer already know
   > something about programming. In Nepal, China, India that means they
   > have at least a pirated copy of Windows and possibly Adobe Flash.
   > If they have linux, that means that some time ago they had pirated
   > Windows which they used to learn about linux.

That sounds plausible, at least for pirated Windows.  (I'm sure it's
much harder to get a copy of Flash.)

I'm not willing to incorporate "First, get a pirated copy of Windows
and Flash" into my instructions for activity development, though.
We're supposed to be combating the inequity that says "we can create
things on our computers because we're rich, but you don't get to do
that on yours without breaking the law because you're poor".  That
inequity is just as much a part of the digital divide as everything
else we're trying to bridge over, in my opinion.

It feels important to me to be able to say "Here's a software platform
for you to start out with, and here's all of the software we used in
the process of making it, which means there's nothing stopping you
from learning to further it yourself".  A true passing on of knowledge
from one group to another, as equals.

I imagine this is the kind of debate where no-one really changes their
mind; that's okay.  As long as the viewpoint of software freedom as a
foundational principle for Sugar (even in the face of extra convenience)
is being represented and considered, I'm happy.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |

Gmane