Talk:ILXO Boston Pilot

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How this will work

Things to do this week

  • Make a build and customization key for CFS.
  • Make a school server for CFS.
  • Document all of the above.
  • Do the parent/student intro.
  • Teacher training.

Roles

  • Katie: Teachers/CFS-to-us interface.
    • Make sure teacher training happens
    • Get the parent/student intro to be awesome
    • Teacher interface for build & customization keys (Arjun is tech minion)
  • Arjun: Build and customization keys (tech minion for Katie), documentation (mostly XS, but of everything in general), FUDcon presentation
  • Jason: XS (Scott as Jason's technical minion)

Things that would be nice

  • Train the student tech team.
  • Sugar Labs - XS, testing

January 3, 2009-January 9, 2009

  • January 3-talked delegated roles
  • January 4-met with Harvard OLPC chapter, prepared the first set of activities for teacher meeting on the 5th
  • January 5-tested and finalized activities and had teacher meeting, got a response from all teachers as to what specific activities they would like
  • January 6-test day and work day, tested additional activities and made up the FINAL LIST for teacher training. had a general customization key and then favorite different activities for the circle view
  • January 7-second teacher training workshop
  • January 8-after school activity for children (student tech team)
  • January 9-FudCON presentation

Notes from the Week

January 3, 2009

+Explained basics of how an XO works (technical aspect)

+Software stack-layering model-each layer interacts with the other (layered from physical (bottom) to activities (top)

XO/Application Interface (API):

+Activities

+Journal

+Sugar Non-Sugar

+OS (Fedora-ish)

+Open Firmware

Shell, Kernel, Network

+Hardware Define

Build: Activities-->OS (Fedora-ish)

Customization Key--> Activities (bundles)

Development Key--> password that gives you permission to use currently being developed builds (builds that are non-signed and non-released)

Sugar::windows; education::business

WINDOWS

business based

i.e. my documents/files

SUGAR

education based

i.e. communities, activities

1.sharing=collabration (mesh network, my neighborhood)

2.reflecting/documenting=journal

3. discovery=activities

everything is automatically saved-->history is logged by the applications;shows learning/process of thinking

The Development Cycle::Textbook writing Process

Build 1--> Build 2--> Build 3-->Build 4

release a build every six months

first start adding whatever you want

then start editing

get a release candidate

fact check

spell check

release. (but at the same time everything is still being updated) you can update like firefox(?)

School Server and Mesh Network

SERVER

one hub with people connecting from one distance

MESH

one hub with one person connected...one person connected from them...peer to peer connecting much better when in a faraway place (i.e. village in the middle of the dessert); one access point

SCHOOL SERVER

1. gives infrastructure access point; mesh

2. squid=local cache; able to see what is used a lot, save on the server and save it locally

3. local moodle=community level content; common web server

+mailserver

+establishing a city library

January 4, 2009

+Prepared for meeting with Mac/Katelyn at 5PM 30 minutes

+success criteria: know what we're doing with CFS through Harvard when

"working relationship"

+Tried to use Emulator on Windows

at first try, cannot connect to network even after entering wireless name into server shut down

open again-worked on jason's and katie's computer

check for software updates

it works!

+Learned Terminal

command lines

cd: change directory

ls: list contents

cp: copy

cd ..: go up in directory

cp -r: copy recursive (copies everything in the folder)

rm: remove

wget: download

mu: move

Journal (technical)

Backlight

Compiled a list of possible activities for the customization stick

available at https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pFAYZYtRIh1CR_8ry7Tg8QQ&hl=en and

will get a prototype customization stick done by tomorrow

teacher meeting: 3:30PM the next day; awaiting confirmation

student server-Tuesday

teacher meeting-Wednesday (moved from Thursday)

after school: Thursday

Other points on agenda

How to download new programs

What build is and why it matters

Brief introduction in how networking works

Sharing activities with each other

Connecting to an access point

January 5, 2009

+Testing Results+

  • Log-needed to reinstall on XO (only Boston ILXO Deployment ones)

+Issues:

    • No limit to how much one XO can vote
    • Journal doesn’t document results

+Procedure:

  1. Computer with Poll building can create a poll and then SHARE IT WITH NEIGHBORHOOD (make sure that Mesh network is the same)
  2. Other computers click on the poll icon below the start computer (will be in the same colors as the XO)
  3. Join---there should be little notifications that tell you that polls are being shared and for you to join each poll (Yes/No)
  4. Vote.
    • you can also create your own poll underneath THAT poll builder and have it automatically shared with people who are underneath that application
    • note if the person who made the poll EXITS the poll builder application, then the poll is shut down.
    • if you enter again, then you can't see the results (no saving and with saving)
    • Journal notes down different activities and which people are joined (with colors) but can't note down which questions/results that you got.
  • View Slides-need to test; find zipped image files; works, but only in zip format and all have to be JPG, GIF, etc.
  • Ruler-works, has four different types (good for circles/measuring angles/measuring things).
  • ePals- 13 or under, need parent/guardian email; built in pen pal system; need a username and password in order to connect to other people; what does it do beyond the normal browse function?
  • Words-default is yo, yo; able to translate a lot of words from English to Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French and German (dictionary); very good for foreign language…two way…can’t do whole sentences/passages
  • Write- works, can insert images, tables
    • If you want one from the internet
  1. Copy and it should show up under the objects (which will pop up when you want to download an image) as clipboard + url.
  2. Insert and save as a different document name underneath the activity tab so that you can distinguish in the journal which is which
    • no way to open documents from the actual write activity
    • can't open with Word if working from XO to actual PC
  • Memorize-one of the preinstalled ones, so definitely WORKS
    • Procedure
  1. create one
  2. you can save game to my objects (journal)
  3. you can choose between grouped and ungrouped (grouped-pairs are different, ungrouped-match the same thing);saves as a different object/game if you change one little thing (no overwrite function)
  4. load game under play tab and share with neighborhood
  5. based on turns, if you get it right the first time then it goes to the next person
  • Geoquiz-
    • need to use the right arrow control pad and the actual arrow pad on the keyboard
  1. choose between Africa or South America
  2. Identify the country that is highlighted from a list
    1. . if it is right, then the country gets highlighted in green and there is a Correct! sign
    2. . if it is wrong, then there is a red wrong button and it just skips to another highlighted country
  3. . once you have identified the entire continent…
  4. . goes immediately into pollbuildertakes a long time to load
  5. . not complete?
    • Automatically closes/goes to PollBuilder after it is done with the geography quiz but not if you have Log open, it just closes.
    • Can we expand to other continents (Africa and Asia...other continents)

January 6, 2009

  • Concerns:
    • connecting to wireless (when it’s protected)
    • the intro to programming stuff
    • Powerpoint stuff
    • structuring the next meeting with teachersdo a mock one?
    • Geoquiz: can we expand? who is in charge?
  • Additional Testing:
    • News Reader-works definitely, needs internet, approved by katie
    • COBBLE-not applicable for academic studies
    • Maps-takes a long time to connect to map server, needs a really good internet connection in order to work; operates as GoogleMaps/Earth
    • GPS Roadmap-if you want more maps, you need to bring them on a FlashDrive (more trouble than it’s worth); not applicable for academic studies
    • View Slides-Existing PowerPoint presentations (and other presentation types) can be manually converted to SVG slides using the following process:
      • Create a PDF file from the PowerPoint presentation. On Mac OS X, PDF creation is built into the printing system. On Windows, software such as CutePDF Writer allows you to add a virtual PDF printer. Similar functionality exists as part of the CUPS printing system on Linux.
      • Using a vector graphics program such as Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape, open the PDF file a slide at a time, and save as an SVG.
        • This method may have some issues with fonts. It also does not create the most efficient SVG files.
        • Also can save each individual slide into a PDF format
      • If you download a ZIP FILE and open it in Journal, it should open immediately with View Slides
      • FROM THE WIKI: The image files can be JPEGs, GIFs, TIFFs, or PNGs. You can put them all in the root of the Zip file, or you can put them into subdirectories. The important thing is that the files and directories are named sequentially.

To make a file like this first create some image files and name them sequentially: image001.jpg, image002.jpg, image003.jpg, ...

    • Read Etexts-only Project Gutenberg files that are plain text; will soon also be supported by the Read activity…download the zip versions
      • once you download the zip you have to copy it to clipboard and then choose to open with read e-texts (plain text files only!)
    • Read-only PDFs (Google Books, other stuff)
    • Classroom Presenter- load slide shows? what files does it take?
    • SimCity vs. Micropolis—all the same, but Micropolis is probably better
  • For Wednesday To Do List
    • fix Read…will not open up PDFs and stay open
    • finalize list of activities
      • put them on a flash drive and put them on at least five computers
    • figure out classroom presenterwhat kind of files can actually be opened with it?

answer these questions:

    • make up the sheets for student activity/find out what time it will actually be at
      • find out how to deconstruct an XO
      • find lab manuals for the school
  • How to run customization stick using Terminal
  1. open up terminal
  2. type in cd /media
  3. type in ls
  4. type in cd KINGSTON
  5. type in cd Activities
  6. ls
  7. nano loadAll
  8. get out…but don’t save (CTRL X)
  9. bash loadAll
  10. and then type in yes/no according to what programs you need

January 7, 2009

Agenda for second teacher' meeting

1. How to connect to wireless/do collaborative activities (first thing on agenda for Wednesday), demo with Chat)

       a.	have to be on the same mesh network  in order to see each other and share stuff; technically, should be  able to be on the same wireless and mesh network and be able to share-best case scenario
       b.	when sharing multiple activities,  all activities will be shown on the neighborhood view, but only the one might not be able to share more than one activity
       c.	you can only pick one: either mesh or wireless..one always takes the other off

2. Explain differences among Read E-text (zipped+plain text), Read (PDF) and View Files (zipped+Jpgs)

       a.	Shared an example of each document on the XOs…see if people can view
       b.	explain to teachers that they have to download the actual file and then share it on neighborhood 

3. Demo one on one with each teacher’s lessonone on one, show all activities on the Favorites view

       a.	Arjun- Biology
       b.	Katie-History
       c.	Jason-Spanish

info

software stack

  • layers of abstraction
  • clear interface between layers (API)

build and customization

What flavor of Sugardo you want What apps should be available