Help Activity refresh

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Revision as of 19:28, 21 October 2011 by ChristophD (talk | contribs) (added brainstorming notes from Oct 21 meeting)
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A place to collect ideas, information, and resources for the planned refresh of the Help activity.

Schedule

Initial session tentatively scheduled for Friday October 21st, 2011 from 10AM to 4 PM at the Kleider home in Bolinas

Other sessions TBD

Current Help Activity Contents

  • Introduction (Introduction, About OLPC, What is Sugar, How to Volunteer)
  • Getting Started (Getting Started, Opening the XO, Ports, Battery Charging, Starting the XO, Keyboard)
  • Interface (About the User Interface, Home View, Activity View, Neighborhood View, Group View, The Frame, The Journal)
  • Activities (What is an Activity, Launching Activities, Switching Views, Collaborating, Exiting Activities, Installing Activities, Activity Sampler)
  • Network (Give Me The Internet, Connecting, Ad-Hoc Networking, Wireless Devices, Networking Hardware, Troubleshooting)
  • Record Activity (Introduction, Starting Record, Photos, Video, Audio, Starting Media, Things to Try, Wikimedia Commons)
  • Browse Activity (Introduction, What Is the Web, Starting Browse, Browse Web, Bookmarks, Changing the View, Sharing Links, Country Quiz, Search the Web, Using Wikipedia, Contribute to Wikipedia, Using Email) Cherry Withers
  • Write Activity (Introduction, Starting Write, Collaborating, Peer Editing, The Basics, Group Story Telling, Letter to the Editor, Emailing a Document
  • Turtle Art (Introduction, Getting Started, Starter Commands, Pen Colors, Pen Commands, Try Turtle Art, Turtle Art Letters, Repeating Commands, Numbers and Commands, Shapes and Spectrum)
  • Support (How to Reflash, Powering of Your Laptop, Replacing, Backing Up, Getting Support)
  • Appendices (Keyboard Shortcuts, Personalizing Sugar, Glossary, Getting Support, Credits)

Copy of Current User Manual

A copy of the current User Manual as it appears in the Help Activity can be found at: http://laptop.org/8.2.0/manual/

Suggestions for Additional Chapters

  • Localization (Registering, Forking, Translating, Adding and Deleting Chapters, Changing Graphics and Images)
  • Tam Tam (What are the Tam Tam Activities, How to Use Each, Where to find lessons, songs, and other resources) Caryl will welcome help!
  • Gnome (What is Gnome? Switching to Gnome and Back to Sugar, Using Gnome, Gnome Applications, Resources for More About Gnome and Its Applications)
  • Etoys (Cherry Withers will work on this online)
  • About This Floss Manual
  • Add a FAQ at the end of each chapter to deal with miscellaneous issues
  • Add pedagogical rationale and 'tips and tricks' to each chapter

Resources

List of manuals and chapters:

The above chapters were originally in one larger Manual that is currently the Help Activity. Other early manual versions:


Existing manuals that are incomplete or not added to Help Activity:

Procedures on Porting/Assembling the Manual into Help Activity

Information still needed for this section

How to Participate in the Work of Revising the XO Users Manual

If you plan to participate in the XO Users Manual refresh, either at the mini book sprint on the 21st or remotely before or after that, there are some things you should do ahead of time...

  • Register An Account on the FLOSS manual site

Go to the FLOSS Manual site and set up an account for yourself, if you don't already have one. Note, this is not the same as a Booki account. They are separate. We will be using the FLOSS Manual site which uses the same software as Booki. Here is the link for registration:

http://booki.flossmanuals.net/

Click on "Register," choose a user name and password and complete the registration. Make a note of the name you choose as your user name. While your password is recoverable, the user name is not.

  • Sign Up for The OLPC/Sugar Labs Group on Floss Manuals

After you have signed in, choose "All Groups" from the little menu on the top left of the page, or go to this link:

http://booki.flossmanuals.net/groups/one-laptop-per-childsugar-labs/

A long list of groups will appear. Choose "One Laptop Per Child/Sugar Labs." Then choose "Join This Group." You will know you were successful when you see the number of group members go up by one.

A click on the "Manuals" tab will show a list of all the manuals members of the group are working on. You can click on each one and see what is there. Some are very complete, others are only skeletons. Our manual is currently at the bottom of the list: "XO Users Manual (Rev 2011)." Currently, all of the chapters are "hidden" and waiting to be written, revised, and/or edited. If you click on "Edit" you will be able to see them at the bottom of the page. Please do not do any writing or editing until you have read and understand everything in the Booki Users Manual: http://en.flossmanuals.net/Booki-User-Guide/

The members tab will give you a list of the people who have signed up for the group. If you would like to add a photo and a little blurb about yourself to the your listing, the place to do that is the "My Settings" section (find it listed on the second menu on the top left).

Screenshots

  • "Alt + 1" key combination (on XOs)
  • post-processing with standard laptops and your tools of choice (Paint.Net (Windows) for me)
  • bring your XOs loaded with the latest 11.3.0 development builds since that's the easiest way to get Sugar 0.94
  • investigate whether using the advanced screenshot hack is a viable alternative

Ideas

  • keep localization in mind (see the corresponding thread from early October on Sugar-Devel, etc.
  • retain the current chapter format in terms of length and general content. Use links to refer to more in depth resources.

People

Please add your name if you're planning to contribute to the Help Activity Refresh.

  • Adam Holt
  • Cherry Withers (Addition of Etoys Chapter -- will work online)
  • Christoph Derndorfer
  • Caryl Bigenho (Will add a Tam Tam Chapter, but may need to complete after the summit)
  • Edward Bigenho (Editing)
  • Tony Anderson
  • Ana Cichero ( spanish translation - images editing - screenshots )
  • Mark Roy Battley

To-Be Done

Deadlines

  • Halloween
  • American Thanksgiving
  • Christmas

Tasks

  • Cherry Withers: eToys, Browse
  • Rita Freudenberg: eToys
  • Caryl Bigenho:
  • Mark Battley: Get started, Network, Interface, Speak, Maze, Memorize, Implode, Simplification of language, Pedagogical rationales, Tips and Tricks, FAQ's
  • Tony Anderson: Get started, Network, Interface
  • Adam Holt: How to volunteer
  • Christoph Derndorfer: Introduction, Acknowledgements

Notes

Brainstorming during the Meeting on 21 October 2011

  • decide on audience: basics for all -> teachers, pupils, parents
  • what to include
  • needed: manual not just for Haiti, making it more accessible, how to do that
  • slideshow approach -> make different language audio tracks, also needs different language screenshots
  • add four-finger salute
  • collecting existing documentation: including for example the latest Peruvian manual
  • chat as an example of collaboration
  • Memorize documentation
  • Maze -> include "why to teach this thing"
  • recommended approach
  • basics: learn the interface
  • Speak
  • progression levels
  • ...more specific & comprehensive Activity manuals
  • juggling / hammer on head / metaphors
  • content / how to do it / rationale (3 levels for teachers)
  • stylus feature: how to tell when you can use it, what you can use it for
  • Acknowledgement: depends on XO version, software build -> "about this manual" section (incl. limitations)
  • including FAQs for each section & each chapter (at the end)
  • contact information (depending on country)
  • how-to add something to Flossmanuals
  • presentation, structure, orders, labels -> organization needed
  • add glossary chapter
  • documentation styleguide: consistency is important (!)
  • importance of simple + clear language
  • potential todo: simply language + presentation