100 Days of Sugar Labs Walter Bender

● anchored to ideas ● “free” is different

talk outline (1) a brief overview of Sugar Labs commingled with discussion

a global transformation Giving children who don't have the opportunity for learning that opportunity: so it's about access; it's about equity; and it's about giving the next generation of children in the developing world a bright and open future.

“hard fun” The playfulness of childhood is the most demanding teacher we have. Never again in those children's lives will anything drive them to work so hard. —Marvin Minsky, The Emotion Machine

process (1) Imagine and realize (2) Critique and reflect (3) Iterate

Sugar: collaboration, reflection, and discovery Sugar promotes "studio thinking" and "reflective practice". Through clarity of design, children and teachers have the opportunity to use computers on their own terms; they can reshape, reinvent, and reapply both software and content into powerful learning activities. A focus on sharing, criticism, and exploration is grounded in the culture of free and open- source software ( FOSS ).

Sugar The Sugar interface is the first serious attempt to create a user interface that is based on both cognitive and social constructivism: learners engage in authentic exploration and collaboration.

discovery through exploring, expressing, and sharing web browsing reading chatting playing media playing games word processing reflecting (Journal)‏ creating graphics creating rich media programming

collaboration Features ● collaboration – w or w/o Internet access Benefits ● peer-to-peer learning ● always-on support ● 1-click sharing

reflection Features ● auto-generated journal ● auto-saved work Benefits ● “portfolio assessment tool ● place of reflection

discovery Features ● scalable interaction Benefits ● using simple to reach to the complex: no upper bound on where you can reach

Transparency is empowering. Free and open-source software (and content) gives children—and their teachers— the freedom to reshape, reinvent, and reapply. appropriate to appropriate Features ● everything is free and open Benefits ● community of support ● easy to fix

modifying Sugar Features ● everything is fungible Benefits ● Learn through doing and debugging

Sugar Labs Sugar Labs is a non-profit foundation whose mission is to produce, distribute, and support the use of the Sugar learning platform. Sugar Labs supports the community of educators and software developers who want to extend the platform. Sugar is a community project. It is available under the GNU General Public License ( GPL ) and free to anyone who wants to use or extend it.

Try it, you'll like it. Getting Sugar ● Fedora ● Ubuntu ● Debian ● QEMU ● LiveCD

really basic questions ● Where do you find things (source code, etc.)? ● Which things do what? ● How do you know which files have to be tweaked? ● Who do you communicate with? ● How do you program more advanced stuff? ● What is FOSS etiquette? How do you go about learning to be a member of this community?

23 more questions/themes 1. connecting us all 2. consumer as creator 3. designing for appropriation 4. versioning 5. I18n & l12n 4 all 6. life off the grid 7. small is beautiful 8. green is the new black 9. measuring what we value 10. reform school 11. learners are teachers 12. lessons from FOSS 13. It's all about scale. 14. the rule(s) of many 15. It has to add up at the end of the day. 16. a bottom-up approach 17. Sounds right, but is it? 18. the Prisoner's Dilemma 19. intelligence in the leaves 20. a children's commons 21. Sounds right, but is it? (II) 22. “powerful ideas” 23. a role for universities

1. connecting us all electrical engineering and computer science How does one build an efficient, scalable, affordable community network? How do we efficiently connect these local networks to the global network?

2. consumer as creator electrical engineering and computer science Can we design a more symmetric global content distribution system, so that people everywhere are on a more equal footing as both creators and consumers of content?

3. designing for appropriation electrical engineering and computer science Are there scalable architectures for software development such that one can reach towards complexity while maintaining a level of simplicity? Can these architectures be open to local development and yet secure to malware? Can these architectures be reasonably efficient?

4. versioning electrical engineering and computer science Is there a better distributed fully-persistent versioned file system? Do we/how do we expose file systems (and versioning) to the end user?

5. i18n & l12n 4 electrical engineering and computer science A Are there more efficient means of internationalization and localization? (We need to scale current efforts by three orders of magnitude in order to reach every corner of the planet.)

6. life off the grid electrical engineering and computer science Can we develop low-power computing and alternative power systems?

7. small is beautiful electrical engineering and computer science Can we develop low-cost computing (and buck industry’s predilection for marketing bigger and faster systems to no purpose)?

8. green is the new black electrical engineering and computer science Can we build cost-effective environmentally-robust computing?

9. measuring what we value learning and epistemology Can we validate methods that lead to fluency, such as “scaffolding” in support of “learning through doing” at scale and across disciplines? How well do we understand mastery? How well do we understand understanding? How do we measure what we value instead of value what we can measure?

10. reform school learning and epistemology Is school reform possible (in our lifetimes)? Are there systemic approaches to overcoming the systemic barriers to change?

11. learners are teachers learning and epistemology How can we unleash the teacher in the classroom and in each of us?

12. lessons from FOSS learning and epistemology Are there new tools for collaboration, critique, and meaningful evaluation? (There lessons the education community can learn from the FOSS community.)

13. It's all about scale. learning and epistemology How can we engage local, regional, and global communities to help children learn? Are there any other ways to scale such that every child has an opportunity for a quality learning experience?

14. the rule(s) of many economics What are the best models for the governance of volunteer communities? What tools should we build for these communities?

15. It has to add up at the end of the day. economics What are are the new economic models for schooling and learning?

16. a bottom-up approach economics What are the micro-economics of learning, of support, and of development?

17. Sounds right, but is it? economics Is it possible to validate the hypothesis that learning (coupled with freedom of thought) leads to economic development?

18. the Prisoner's Dilemma economics Are there better models of the economic (and technological) impact of free and open-source systems? (Often times cooperative systems outperform competitive systems.)

19. intelligence is in the leaves social sciences How will we cope with a switch in the balance of knowledge and knowledge creation? How does this impact local culture and social norms?

20. a children's commons social sciences What does it mean for a child to create content from both legal and cultural perspectives?

21. Sounds right, but is it? (Part 2) social sciences Who should pay for learning? Is it a basic human right? Is it a means to combat poverty and the other root causes of social unrest?

22. “powerful ideas” social sciences What “shoulders of giants” should we stand on? What is it that children should learn? Are there any universals? (Or non-universals? e.g,. reading and writing; deductive abstract mathematics; model-based science; equal rights) How do children decide whom and what to believe?

23. a role for universities social sciences How can open-content programs such as Open Courseware be expanded? Should contribution to a knowledge commons be the de rigour for universities or does it undermine economic opportunity?

Hassounah Sometimes the riskiest path is the status quo.