Olin university chapter/archives

12/16/07 (Office Hours)

• SJ gave us two more XOs to play with!
• we should look into making B1s and B2s work with latest builds of Sugar
• anyone interested in helping out with the content and volunteer mailing lists should contact me or SJ
• if you have ideas for cool OLPC shirts, make them! (designs can be submitted to Wikimedia Commons, see the Wikimedia upload tutorial)
• anyone who makes a VoIP or video chat application for Sugar is super cool

11/9/07

Lynne

• Lynne works with special ed kids
• Lynne is only deaf person at school, everyone else can hear
• Got them involved with robotix (2002)
• Do it after school
• Saw Olin's website
• Creative things with few materials
• So far lego robotics and math
  • want to move to not-lego robotics
• kids not quite making the grades for standardized tests
  • mcats (MA state preformance tests)
    • reading
    • writing
    • social science
    • science (lowest score in science))
• school is restructuring
• data analysis - look at mcat scores, see if doing well at math, etc
• students want project-based learning
• maybe do curriculum, with projects, focus on some data results (students scores)- ie bark-meter to see what dog is saying when barks
• interested in art, music, etc, try not to downsize
• K-5, ages 3-12
• VHP person came to school, gave school $10,000
  • mentors keep kids from giving up
  • especially girls give up
  • not enough people

want:

• come to look at school, see if it's what we want to do
• implement project-based learning

• tag with Engineering Discovery (Needham, Heena)
• Steve is working in Hyde Park (FIRST)
• Andy P remedial math programs
• Wellesley connection:
  • Andy P has connection
  • SWE may have connection
  • want to activate this

we should:

• meet with Engineering Discovery
  • maybe semester-long project to integrate
    • robotic puppets, keyboards, etc
    • Fred Martin at UMASS develped the "cricket" (robotic computer)
    • can create puppets and interactive art, carwash

Haruna

• from tech boston
• size people department
• try to support schools in advanced projects,
• second year involved in robotics
• city-wide involvement
• middle school kids do FIRST

VEX:

• aluminum/steel
• halfway between lego robots and FIRST

• november 19th good time to visit principal?
  • possibly in morning, at 10
  • have a lot of data of student progress that we could look at for inspiration
  • lots of % of students who don't understand this or that

• perfect solution:
  • students think of a project to build and create
  • brainstorming
  • how to get a car to levitate?
  • In the end, the kids say "I did this"
  • mentorship seems to be key component
  • sucessful, sucess often, sense of acomplishment, role model and content expertise
  • emphasize student-built curriculum, less teacher talking, more student talking
  • we can brainstorm projects for them, interesting ideas (solar cars?)
  • Greg had Invention Convention in middle school
• grant is for MCATS, follows them from 3rd grade to 5th grade, for science classes.

10/20/07

• working with Lynne Robbins
  • arranging a meeting with her
  • discussing possible content/projects
  • mentoring students
• discussion on give 1 get 1 program
• developer app still stalled
• Ben's project
  • audio editing and synthesis for kids
  • already mostly written - command line/basic GUI
  • python based - can't synthesize in real time
  • plans to design a better GUI/interface
  • interface design ideas welcome - we'll have a interface design/brainstorm session sometime next week

To Do List

• contact Lynne Robbins (done)
• schedule Yalp interface design meeting (done)
• documentation

8/29/07

Olin students visited the OLPC office on August 29, 2007. Here are the notes as transcribed from the board.

Random

• Community service group led by Nikki
• Mel is OLPC liaison, will be on IRC (nick mchua) every Friday 3-5, and available through email.
  • What IRC channel on what network, and what e-mail address? GregMarra 16:19, 4 September 2007 (EDT)

Why University chapters are great

• Cutting edge technology
• Variety of perspectives
  • catching details
  • more dedication
  • more experience
• publicity
  • awards

Standards

• Financial independence
• Professional quality

Impact

What you do goes beyond your classroom walls - instead of making your software design project available to... say, Allen Downey, you make it available to thousands of children. "You're going to do it anyway... why not release your work in a way that other people can benefit from it?"

Continuity

• easier to make big things, long-term projects - can "pass it on" to

later students

• "apprenticeships" with students learning from those with more experience
• transfer of information between colleges
• development communities keep people motivated

Networking

• between schools
• between students at Olin
• between students and profs at Olin
• between Olin profs and profs from other schools
• between Olin students and students at other schools
• between all of the above and the free culture development community

What you can do

• development
  • hardware
  • software
  • content
    • textbooks
    • pictures/art
    • curriculum
    • games
    • lessons
    • music
• translation
• outreach
  • to local businesses
  • give demos
  • work with local kids
  • to government
• research/IS/passionate pursuits
  • in education
  • in engineering
  • in computer science
  • in sociology...
  • you want to do it, we'll find a way to make it happen

General Tasks

• administrative support - serv/core/"hey president miller, dr m., et al, we're doing this!" (greg, ellen, andyp)
• outreach program - running demo requests (ollie, once Olin gets some XOs; ollie, ping mel when the XOs arrive)
• flash conference through ideatree (molly)
• wellesley liason - do they want to help? start their own chapter? (andyp)
• talk to professors about advising projects, helping out, and especially about allowing Olin students to do OLPC projects for course assignments
  • POE (abarry) done
  • SCOPE - coordinate student interest in a team (sallen)
  • ECS (steveo)
  • ICB (velin & ollie)
  • focs (yifan + ilari)
  • wired ensemble (?)
  • analog digital (steveo)
  • discrete (?)
  • software design (greg) done

Olin todo for OLPC

• apply to Developers program (Nikki coordinating)
• Olin chapter blog (kelliott coordinating)

OLPC todo for Olin

• development image (w/ Steveo) - standing by for questions
• swag - for expo; nikki will ping with how much is needed.
• documentation (w/ Molly, Yifan, Sallen) - waiting for projects to start
• "volunteer day" at the office - postponed til spring.
• spring OLPC conference w/ other area schools (later) - postponed til spring.
• university chapter blog (later) - postponed til more chapters come.

Talking to People

Software Design

Greg Marra met with Matt Jadud, the professor for Software Design F2007, and discussed possibilities for producing something for the OLPC as part of SD. Matt was intrigued by the possibilities of tying into POE, and went to speak with Oscar/Brad. SD will likely be tailoring our final projects to be something for the OLPC in (Scheme/Python), pending the class generally liking this when we ask on Weds, Sept 5. The final decision will likely be ready on Friday, and Matt wants to talk to Mel more in-depth. Also, Matt knows lots about OLPC-ness already, which is awesome. GregMarra 16:22, 4 September 2007 (EDT)

As of Thursday, Sept 6th, word from Matt is that we will have the option of working with the OLPC for our final projects, including working in conjunction with kids in POE, as part of Software Design GregMarra 00:09, 7 September 2007 (EDT)