+== Sun, Mar 14 - What are kids using Sugar for? ==
+
+I'm finally back in Asuncíon. Over the last few days, I had the
+opportunity to interview a dew dozen children who had been
+using Sugar 0.82 for about one year. Perhaps the most interesting
+and controversial finding was which activities are the most
+popular among them:
+
+ # [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(video_game) | Doom II]]
+ # [[http://www.pixelprospector.com/indev/2009/12/super-vampire-ninja-zero/ | Super Vampire Ninja Zero]]
+ # [[http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4024 | Navegar]] (Browse)
+
+{{podium.jpg|maxwidth=640|class=thumbright|What are kids doing with Sugar?}}
+
+Heh, at least Browse made the third place, I thought. But when I
+asked what websites they were visiting, the answer was invariably
+"videos".
+
+Well, at the least I could tell they were answering honestly!
+We often idealize our young users as being creative, passionate and
+eager to learn just about everything. Some kids are really
+like this, I met some in Caacupé. However, the naked truth is that the
+vast majority would rather spend their free time playing.
+
+
+=== Those inappropriate games ===
+
+It's no wonder kids would like a game which is "//widely regarded as one of
+the most important titles in gaming history//", according to the Wikipedia.
+The first 7 hits for the common word "[[http://www.google.com/search?q=doom|doom]]"
+are about the game itself. Then come the film adaptation and various fan sites.
+Anyway, how can we blame kids for playing games? After all, many of us played
+Doom and many other types of "inappropriate" video games throughout our childhood.
+
+We quickly took Doom down from the OLPC wiki soon after it was uploaded,
+yet it is still spreading fast among Sugar users worldwide. Let's look at the
+positive sides: it shows social behavior and encourages kids to find technical
+solutions to transfer activities directly (their old version of Sugar does not
+allow direct sharing from the journal).
+
+So, what we going to do about it? Do we lock the system down so kids could
+only install signed applications? So much for the "child ownership" principle.
+
+Do we develop a couple boring educational games, in the hope they will keep
+our kids from playing the "//#1 game of all time//"? I'm sure it will work :-)
+
+No, we give them the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_WAD|level editor]] too,
+channelling some of this passion to learn the concepts of 3D graphics and game
+deisgn. Over 13,000 maps were created for Doom by young artits of any age and
+nationality. Newer games from ID Software enabled users to create entire new games
+through an embedded [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuakeC | programming language]].
+
+
+=== Those inappropriate videos ===
+
+What about the videos? The most popular video websites are
+[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flash | Flash]] based.
+You Tube would work with [[http://www.gnashdev.org/ | Gnash]] as well,
+but because the required video codecs are [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3#Licensing_and_patent_issues | patent encumbered]],
+we're not allowed to ship them in Fedora. Besides,
+both Flash and Gnash are quite inefficient and would feel
+sluggish on the XO-1.
+
+So I am left wondering what solutions these kids came up with
+in order to circumvent the technical limitations and watch
+their favorite videos.
+
+The coordinator of the education team got curious and asked questions.
+It seems that some smart kids figured out how to rip videos from You Tube,
+store them in the journal, and then play them back with some
+[[http://www.olpcnews.com/software/applications/using_an_xo_laptop_a.html | clever hackery]].
+We do not know the details of how this is done, but it is quite impressive.
+
+=== Passion-driven learning ===
+
+Even though most kids are inclined to misuse our precious educational
+technology for gaming and other mundane uses, in order to do what they want,
+they seem to be acquiring pretty advanced problem-solving abilities
+in a self-motivated and social way; in other words, the purpose for which
+OLPC and Sugar were created.
+
+
== Fri, Mar 12 - Interview with //Los Scratcheros// ==
+(photos courtesy of Carla Crosa)
+
|| {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/scratcheros/00008.jpg | maxwidth=480 | The "Scratcheros": Nadia, Benedicto and Alberto}} || {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/scratcheros/1.00011.jpg | maxwidth=480 | Albertito, our youngest volunteer, helping one of our trainers }} ||
-Today I spent some time with three siblings of Caacupe who has impressed me and the educators very
+Today I spent some time with three siblings of Caacupé who has impressed me and the educators very
much with their original creations in Scratch. Scratch is not a school subject, these kids are
learning it on their own driven by their own passion.
* N: I learned the basics of Turtle Art at the trainer's course.
* A: Yes, I learned it there too.
- * **What other activities do you like besides Scatch and Turtle Art?**
- * B: //Ablar con Sara// [Speak] and //Super Vampire Ninja Zero//, //Máquina de discos// (Jukebox).
+ * **What other activities do you like besides Scratch and Turtle Art?**
+ * B: //Hablar con Sara// [Speak] and //Super Vampire Ninja Zero//, //Máquina de discos// (Jukebox).
* N: //eToys//, to edit photos. I need someone to teach me all the rest.
* A: //Grabar// (Record), to take videos, interview people...
* (Mom: They need an automatic spell checker... and a **screensaver**, of course).
* **What's the most annoying problem for you with Sugar?**
- * B: Can't use the "robot" function in //Ablar con Sara// (
+ * B: Can't use the "robot" function in //Hablar con Sara// (
* N: I want bigger fonts in //Pintar// (Paint).
* A: //Escribir// (Write ;-)
effects and text. Recently, she started creating line-art versions of the photos using eToys, so her
new creations look more like cartoons. At this point, Benedicto mentioned the [[http://htf.atom.com/ | Happy Tree Friends]],
an innocently named Internet series which makes even South Park seem politically correct in comparison!
-HTF is Flash-only and doesn't seem to work with Gnash -- we're above any bigot criticism for conveying
-such inapprorpiate content to young hack^Wchildren.
+HTF is Flash-only and doesn't seem to work with Gnash -- at least, we should be above any bigot criticism
+for conveying "inapprorpiate content" to young hack^Wchildren.
Nadia also created a platform videogame in which a dog needs to jump around to find the way out from
each level, while a bouncing arrow chases him. Technically simple, but shows sensitive use of
|| {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/scratcheros/00005-game-written-in-scratch.jpg | maxwidth=480 | Perro Bros }} || {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/scratcheros/00016-nadias-work-in-etoys.jpg | maxwidth=480 | Nadia's line-art image }} ||
-== Mon, Mar 8 - Children like Sugar, for the wrong reasons ==
-|| {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/cats/00001.jpg | maxwidth=480 | CATS, Fernando's XO repair lab in Caacupe }} || {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/cats/00029.jpg | maxwidth=480 | Kids asking to install Sugar 0.84 in front of Cyber Nick's lab }} ||
+== Mon, Mar 8 - Children want Sugar 0.84, for the wrong reasons ==
+
+|| {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/cats/00001.jpg | maxwidth=480 | CATS, Fernando's XO repair lab in Caacupe }} || {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/cats/00029.jpg | maxwidth=480 | Kids waiting to install Sugar 0.84 in front of the CATS lab }} ||
The owner of **Centro de Assistencia Tecnica y Soporte (CATS)**, the XO support center of
[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caacup%C3%A9 | Caacupé]], wrote:
early in the morning, and keep coming all day long, until the evening. All of them ask
for the new version, bui in interesting ways: a little boy said:
- "//Quiero poner ventanas coloradas//" (I want colored windows).
+ "//Quiero poner ventanas coloradas//" (I want to install colored windows).
They're obviously referring to the Gnome desktop, also known as "//salva pantallas//" (screensaver).
Another kid admired his freshly installed Gnome desktop and proudly declared: "//Ahora tienen Windows!//"
So, what do we do? Quick! Let's add a cool screensaver to Sugar! :-)
-Of course not, but could we do anything to appeal more to kids? By now, I think I've observed
-our young users closely enough to be able to guess what they're really missing in Sugar:
+Of course not, but could we do anything to appeal to kids more than a traditional desktop?
+I don't claim to be a pedagogist, but by now I've observed our young users closely enough
+to be able to guess what they're really missing in Sugar:
<div style="font-size: large; color: red; text-align: center">
more configurability.
projects / wiki.git / blobdiff