Integrated Writing Environment

Project Goal

To develop a new Activity for the XO laptop oriented around Language Arts and Writing. The primary desired outcomes are:

• Motivate user to write,
• Improve user's ability to write,
• Educate users on the writing process.

In particular, the Activity will focus on Creative Writing, although the application should be flexible for other kinds of writing.

Title

Currently, a suitable name for this software has not been found. For development purposes, I have been referring to it as the IWE - Integrated Writing Environment. Potential finalized names are:

• Write-o!
• The Write Stuff
• Write-on!

Learning Theory

• Intrinsic Motivation
• Constructivism
• Multimedia Learning
• Social Cognitive Theory

Methodology of Writing

Question, are these partitioned categories? Can the artifact being created be in multiple phases all at once?

• Pre-writing
• Drafting
• Revising
• Editing
• Publishing

Use Cases

The scope of this Activity should be highly scalable to account for all of the following use cases

• Individual child with laptop using software on their own
• Teacher with classroom of students following a specific curriculum
• Community of users online

In addition to those use cases, there is also the question of connectivity cases:

• Constant: The XO is constantly able to connect to the internet
• Delayed: The XO might be able to connect to the internet every few sessions, but not constantly.
• Indirect: The XO is unable to connect to the internet on it's own, but has connections to other computers that do (through Mesh or Sneakernet).
• Never: The XO is unable to connect to the internet on it's own, and has no other method.

Development

The application will be written in Python, using the PyGTK library. In addition, Pygame may be used for certain aspects.

Similar Work

This application will draw on aspects of other Activities, including Write, Labyrinth, Broadway, and Wacky Writer

Timeline

Phase	Time Range	Name	Description	Status
1	June 1 - July 13	Inception	Plan out project, including required features, timeline, community reactions, etc.	Ongoing