X-Git-Url: https://codewiz.org/gitweb?p=wiki.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=blog%2F2010%2F03;h=43d06a8cb9bc2b0eb3a034336b950e4a33d72b93;hp=9174629e4b0c119fd338d6698b1c4637ff740c4b;hb=215399031cc80baa98361e85e68bf15ea663b27a;hpb=77db3f54bac6612ac0041536e52e721c3a1909f1 diff --git a/blog/2010/03 b/blog/2010/03 index 9174629..43d06a8 100644 --- a/blog/2010/03 +++ b/blog/2010/03 @@ -1,8 +1,6 @@ -== Fri, Mar 12 - Interview with "los scratcheros" == +== Fri, Mar 12 - Interview with //Los Scratcheros// == -|| {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/scratcheros/00008.jpg | maxwidth=480 | The "Scratcheros": Nadia, Benedicto and Alberto}} || {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/scratcheros/00003.jpg | maxwidth=480 | A sugar "hack" (zoom in to see the ASCII art detail) }} || -|| {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/cyber_nick/00001.jpg | maxwidth=480 | Cyber Nick, the XO repair lab in Caacupe }} || {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/cyber_nick/00029.jpg | maxwidth=480 | Kids asking to install Sugar 0.84 in front of Cyber Nick }} || - +|| {{ 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 | Everyone is a learner and a teacher }} || Today I spent some time with three siblings of Caacupe who has impressed me and the educators very much with their original creations in Scratch. Scratch is not a school subject, these kids are @@ -72,6 +70,68 @@ We also updated Benedicto's and Nadia's laptops to [[http://oficina.paraguayeduc which contains the latest release of [[http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/0.84/Notes | Sugar 0.84]]. Benedicto had been previously testing my build 45, revealing some bugs in networking and activities. +== Mon, Mar 8 - Children like Sugar, for the wrong reasons == + +|| {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/cyber_nick/00001.jpg | maxwidth=480 | Cyber Nick, Fernando's XO repair lab in Caacupe }} || {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/cyber_nick/00029.jpg | maxwidth=480 | Kids asking to install Sugar 0.84 in front of Cyber Nick's lab }} || + +A few days ago, Fernando the owner of the Caacupe XO support center, wrote (Google translation with some corrctions): + +{{{ +On March 8 2010 14:51, Raúl Gutiérrez Segalés wrote: +> How is the migration to Fedora 11 going so far? Approximate number +> of machines to date? + +Raul, the truth that it's going smooth so far, the boys are very excited +about the new version, and the rumor is spreading fast. +I think so far my team updated 120 laptops, more or less. +}}} + +I witnessed it with my own eyes: every day, children are lining up in front of Cyber Nick's +door early in the morning, and keep coming all day 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). 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!" +(now I have Windows). In Spanish, therre's no ambiguity on the meaning of the word Windoews. + +Power of brand. It doesn't rmatter if it's the actual Windows, or even if it really does +something useful. It's new, it's colored and it's what adults are using. Oh, and it also comes +with a really cool screensaver. + +Quick! Let's add all this crap 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: + +
+more configurability. +
+ +Yeah, dozen of scientific studies showed how users almost never customize the desktops beyond +setting a background image. Kids, however, are a lot more passionate about their precious +laptop than the average office clerk using Windows. They //do// cover the exterior of +their laptops with colorful stickers. + +|| {{pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/escuela_691_profesora_gudelia_cabrera/00048.jpg | maxwidth=480 | Shy girls hide behind their Barbie-fashioned laptops }} || {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/scratcheros/00003.jpg | maxwidth=480 | A sugar "hack" (zoom in to see the ASCII art detail) }} || + +Believe it or not, many of these kids also set their Home View with the random icon layout +(aka "the Negroponte layout"), because it lets them drag icons around and arrange them in +clever ways. I could take many screenshot to prove it, but I particulatily like this one +abusing Sugar's user name field to create a drawing on three lines. These kids do not live +in the middle of Silicon Valley; it is very likely that they rediscovered the technique +of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII_art | ASCII art]] completely on their own. +The original idea was passed along and successively refined by several anonymous artists. + +Finally, what was the gray-scale palette supposed to mean in our UI? I was explained it once, +and it seemed to make some sense, but now I forgot. And, whatver the reason was, kids are +unlikely to agree with us. + +Let's give our users a control panel applet for customizing colors as they wish, or they'll +switch to Gnome //en masse//. I can't blame them, either. What would you have done when +you were 8? + == Tue, Mar 02 - Charla @ Facultad Politecnica ==