OLPC Boston/Monthly Meet-ups/031709: Difference between revisions

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(New page: =Attending= * AuntiMame * =Using Browse= Lauren (from BU) and Katelyn (from Harvard) were at the meeting to learn more about OLPC and how students at their respective ...)
 
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=Attending=
=Attending=
* [[User:AuntiMame|AuntiMame]]
* [[User:AuntiMame|Diane]]
*
* Liane
* Deb
=Using Browse=
* George
Lauren (from BU) and Katelyn (from Harvard) were at the meeting to learn more about OLPC and how students at their respective schools can organize XO Users Groups.
* Bob
* Caliban (Matilda)
* Aunurag (Pat)
* Owen
* [[User:Sethwoodworth|Seth]]
* [[User:Sj|S J Klein]]
* [[User:Dogi|Stefan]]
* 6 other people whose names I didn't get


=Casual Discussions During Dinner=
=Local School Deployment=
A local private school wants to run a small deployment. The XOs will be acquired through G1G1-2008. We discussed how OLPC Boston can help:
* 10 afternoon workshops in early November 2008. Approx 4-6PM. These workshops will not be "official" OLPC events and therefore need sponsorship. OLPC Boston has agreed to sponsor the events. Sponsorship duties:
** Publicize workshops. Newspaper, local colleges, personal contacts, Boston Linux Users Group (BLUG),
** Solicit presenters for the workshops. Proposed format for workshops: 1/2 time spent in familiarizing users with Sugar and various activities. 1/2 time spent in demonstrating how activity can be used to engage students in learning about "fill-in-subject-here".
*** Examples: Learn about TamTam and then have a musician lead a group in creating a piece of music. Or, learn about Record then go on a field trip to take pictures of "fill-in-subject-here".
* Physical issues at school. The school wants ownership of pilot to be by the teachers not IT. So these issues have to be resolved by external support.
** Is there wireless in the rooms?
** Will they have XS server?
*** Where will hardware come from? [[User:bogstad]] tentatively enlisted BLUG.
*** Will the XS use Moodle?
**** Teacher training for Moodle
* Burn and distribute LiveCDs so teachers/students can get comfortable with Sugar.
* Fund raising. The school has many scholarship students, and purchasing the XOs through G1G1 would be a hardship. The deployment will need approx $6k in funds to purchase equipment. Lauren and Katelyn tentatively enlisted the Harvard/BU student Users Group (HUG)/(BUUG) to work on this. Enlistment of the school's PTA was discussed.


==Deployment Team==
==Dell Netbooks==
Deb brought her Dell netbook (purchased through her work in Worcester Public Schools. She explained that she has a had time with the keyboard as Bell moved some keys for space saving. This makes is very hard for a trained touch typist to use they keyboard.
A volunteer deployment team from [[Illinois_Math_and_Science_Academy_Chapter|IMSA]] will be doing the actual physical deployment in January at the school. They will handle:
* Distributions of XOs (loading activity bundle)
* Pull cable / setup wireless
* setup XS
* power infrastructure


=="Tabbed" browsing using Browse==
==What OLPC Boston is being asked to do==
Deb showed us how the bookmarks work in Browse - creating a small thumbnail of the bookmarked page and placing this thumbnail on the bottom of the Browse window. This takes up real estate on the screen, but effectively lets the user tab move between multiple sites. The instance of the Browse activity saved in the journal keeps these bookmarks, but the next time Browse is opened from the Home screen there are no bookmarks in this new instance on the Activity.
* Keep people in the loop team (IMSA liaison, school liaison, etc.)
* XS team (BLUG? -- sysadmin/IT)
* Business/fund raising team (Lauren from BU Users Group (BUUG) and Katelyn (from Harvard Users Group (HUG) expressed tentative enlistment)
* Make an activity bundle team (work with teachers to determine bundle)
* Edu research team (HUG)
* Repairs team (Olin UG has already agreed to this)
* Documentation team (deployment procedures and workshops)


==Creating a Teacher's Group==
=OLPC Boston future topics=
Deb is interested in a once-a-month meeting of teachers so they can create lesson plans using the XO. Liane suggested that a joint project among Worcester areas colleges (Holy Cross, Worcester Polytechnic, and Worcester State Teacher's College) and the public schools might be a good mix.
# mplayer (& other non-sugar apps in 8.2)

# screenshot uploader

# wik userpages
=OLPC Corps=
# floss manuals
Eight students from 3 local universities (BU, BC, MIT) came to talk about OLPC Corps and their teams and the process of applying to OLPC Corps.

==OLPC Corps Goals==
Fighting poverty, but OLPC is open to creative ideas from teams. OLPC has expressed a preference for rural deployments, and MIT group was concerned that their proposal might be rejected because they are thinking about working with an established NGO in urban South Africa.

==OLPC Corps Meetings==
* A meeting specifically to focus on OLCP Corps is needed.
** BU - There is an existing BU OLPC User's group. BU students interested in OLPC Corps should use the [http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc_boston OLPC_Boston mailing list] to shout out and get connected with the group.
** Harvard - There are several Harvard groups. Similarly use the [http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc_boston OLPC_Boston mailing list] to connect to groups here. There is also a Harvard group doing international development work in Kenya in parallel with OLPC.
** MIT Sloan - Nicki Gomez has a languishing project.
** Olin? - [http://www.olin.edu Olin College] is an engineering school in Needham MA. The OLPC project at the school has been very active for a couple of years. The Repair Center at Olin is a result. A (weekly/monthly?) Saturday seminar run by ex-OLPC staff is ongoing there.

==Training & Hardware==
Each team needs a laptop to work/experiment with. Katelyn @ Harvard is the contact for this. She is part of the [[Boston_pilots#Loop_teams|loop team]] from [http://www.one-for-all.org One For All]. Email [[User:AuntiMame|AuntiMame]] for Katelyn's contact info.

[[User:AuntiMame|AuntiMame]] is willing to run a basic training class on a Saturday. Sugar basics and basic hardware repair.


=Visit to 1CC=
As the meeting was wrapping up, Seth invited everyone across the street to 1CC to see the OLPC offices. A general tour of the office and XO experimentation ensued.

Revision as of 13:47, 17 March 2009

Attending

  • Diane
  • Liane
  • Deb
  • George
  • Bob
  • Caliban (Matilda)
  • Aunurag (Pat)
  • Owen
  • Seth
  • S J Klein
  • Stefan
  • 6 other people whose names I didn't get

Casual Discussions During Dinner

Dell Netbooks

Deb brought her Dell netbook (purchased through her work in Worcester Public Schools. She explained that she has a had time with the keyboard as Bell moved some keys for space saving. This makes is very hard for a trained touch typist to use they keyboard.

"Tabbed" browsing using Browse

Deb showed us how the bookmarks work in Browse - creating a small thumbnail of the bookmarked page and placing this thumbnail on the bottom of the Browse window. This takes up real estate on the screen, but effectively lets the user tab move between multiple sites. The instance of the Browse activity saved in the journal keeps these bookmarks, but the next time Browse is opened from the Home screen there are no bookmarks in this new instance on the Activity.

Creating a Teacher's Group

Deb is interested in a once-a-month meeting of teachers so they can create lesson plans using the XO. Liane suggested that a joint project among Worcester areas colleges (Holy Cross, Worcester Polytechnic, and Worcester State Teacher's College) and the public schools might be a good mix.


OLPC Corps

Eight students from 3 local universities (BU, BC, MIT) came to talk about OLPC Corps and their teams and the process of applying to OLPC Corps.

OLPC Corps Goals

Fighting poverty, but OLPC is open to creative ideas from teams. OLPC has expressed a preference for rural deployments, and MIT group was concerned that their proposal might be rejected because they are thinking about working with an established NGO in urban South Africa.

OLPC Corps Meetings

  • A meeting specifically to focus on OLCP Corps is needed.
    • BU - There is an existing BU OLPC User's group. BU students interested in OLPC Corps should use the OLPC_Boston mailing list to shout out and get connected with the group.
    • Harvard - There are several Harvard groups. Similarly use the OLPC_Boston mailing list to connect to groups here. There is also a Harvard group doing international development work in Kenya in parallel with OLPC.
    • MIT Sloan - Nicki Gomez has a languishing project.
    • Olin? - Olin College is an engineering school in Needham MA. The OLPC project at the school has been very active for a couple of years. The Repair Center at Olin is a result. A (weekly/monthly?) Saturday seminar run by ex-OLPC staff is ongoing there.

Training & Hardware

Each team needs a laptop to work/experiment with. Katelyn @ Harvard is the contact for this. She is part of the loop team from One For All. Email AuntiMame for Katelyn's contact info.

AuntiMame is willing to run a basic training class on a Saturday. Sugar basics and basic hardware repair.


Visit to 1CC

As the meeting was wrapping up, Seth invited everyone across the street to 1CC to see the OLPC offices. A general tour of the office and XO experimentation ensued.