From: Bernie Innocenti Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:30:18 +0000 (-0300) Subject: New blogpost X-Git-Url: https://codewiz.org/gitweb?p=wiki.git;a=commitdiff_plain;h=e2b1b5962b9684caca885ba47b985ed394f97848 New blogpost --- diff --git a/blog/2010/03 b/blog/2010/03 index 5dd88d9..de3f338 100644 --- a/blog/2010/03 +++ b/blog/2010/03 @@ -1,8 +1,73 @@ +== 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: + + 1. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(video_game) | Doom II]] + 2. [[http://www.pixelprospector.com/indev/2009/12/super-vampire-ninja-zero/ | Super Vampire Ninja Zero]] + 3. [[http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4024 | Navegar]] (Browse) + +{{podium.png}} + +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. + +Doom is one of the most popular games of all time, to the extent +that the first 7 hits for the word "doom" are +about the game itself. Then come the film adaptation and various +fan sites. After all, many of us played Doom and many other types of +"inappropriate" video games throughout our childhood. +Anyway, how can we blame kids for playing games? + +We took down Doom 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). + +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. + +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. @@ -42,7 +107,7 @@ 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?** + * **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... diff --git a/podium.png b/podium.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3524416 Binary files /dev/null and b/podium.png differ