Projects/SqueaklandTesters

This is the site for Squeakland's Testing Team.

Below is the contributor's proposal for this project:

• Name of Project: Squeakland Etoys Testing

• Cherry Withers (Team Representative) cwithers@ekindling.org

• Number of Laptops (or other hardware) You Request to Borrow: 4

• Loan Length—How Many Months: 3 months

Team Participants

Stephen Thomas: sthomas1@gosargon.com

Randy Caton: rcaton@cnu.edu

Kathleen Harness: kharness@illinois.edu

Developer guidance will come from Bert Freudenberg: bert@freudenbergs.de

Employer and/or School: Squeakland Foundation

Past Experience/Qualifications:

The people above are members of Squeakland’s education team and have been teaching and creating content in Etoys for a significant amount of time. Some of their work is being (will be) used in deployments such as Haiti and Philippines. Short BIOS can be found on http://www.squeakland.org/about/people/

Objectives

Project Objectives: Note: Currently, there is no dedicated user testers/group for Squeakland. The education team, being the most active in the Squeakland community has been put to task to test the Etoys program prior to its release.

The main objective of this project is to do a rigorous test of the beta version of Etoys against the planned release of Sugar and XO 1.5.

Plan of Action

Plan and Procedure for Achieving the Stated Objectives:

Install beta versions of new Etoys release against planned production release of Sugar and XO 1.5. Test projects that were used in older versions of Etoys and run them in new release to make sure that they still work accordingly. Test new changes in Etoys and other GSOC additions on the program. Follow a test plan set forth by Squeakland's developer team.

Needs

Why is this project needed? There is currently no dedicated user testers for Etoys. Projects and content (some of which already used in Pilots in places such as Haiti) that were done using older versions of Etoys need to be tested against the new version. Historically, projects that were done on older versions of the program undergo some changes when run on newer versions. The Squeakland team would like to know of these problems to document them properly and to make the necessary changes prior to the new version’s release.

Locally? In the greater OLPC/Sugar community? Etoys is widely used globally. It is one of the major activities in Sugar and OLPC.

Outside the community? Etoys is also used in different systems and OS and is run on USB using its Etoys-To-Go format, which will also include the new changes.

Why can't this project be done in emulation using non-XO machines? While Etoys can run in different machines, there are inherent dependencies with Etoys and the hardware used to run it. There is a need to test Etoys with the new hardware particularly the user interface because it heavily relies on a child’s input (screen resolution, trackpad responsiveness, voice recording, etc.). Projects that were done using the older version may need to be adjusted and projects that will be created need to be done with the hardware’s constraints in mind.

Why are you requesting the number of machines you are asking for?

Will you consider (1) salvaged/rebuilt or (2) damaged XO Laptops?

We need full coverage testing of the tool to make sure we cover all the bases. Each member of this team has used Etoys in projects that they designed personally and each have utilized parts of the program that the other person may not have. The new version of Etoys is planned to be released at the same time as the Sugar release. We would prefer not to work with damaged hardware as we currently don’t have a whole lot of expertise to deal with the issues.

Sharing Deliverables

Project URL—where you'll Blog specific ongoing progress:

Please web-publish this entire completed proposal, removing any sections affecting your personal privacy. Ask if you want help -- communicating with our OLPC/Sugar global community is core!

Any progress/bugs found will be posted on Squeakland’s community list as well as its bug tracking page (which is also public)

Bug Tracking: http://tracker.squeakland.org/

How will you convey tentative ideas & results back to the OLPC/Sugar community, prior to completion? Yes, it will be posted on http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Development_Team/Release/Modules#etoys-activity

eToys-activity

Lead Maintainer: Bert Freudenberg

Co-maintainers: Squeakland developers

Code Repository: http://dev.laptop.org/git/projects/etoys/

Release tarballs: http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/fructose/Etoys/

Bug Tracking: http://tracker.squeakland.org/

Home page: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Etoys, Activities/Etoys

How will the final fruits of your labor be distributed to children or community members worldwide? Etoys release follows the Sugar release roadmap. The tested version of Etoys will be released along with the new Sugar release.

Will your work have any possible application or use outside our community?

Yes

Have you investigated working with nearby XO Lending Libraries or Project Groups?

No.

Quality/Mentoring

Would your Project benefit from Support, Documentation and/or Testing people?

Teachers' input into Usability?

How will you promote your work?

Can we help you with an experienced mentor from the OLPC/Sugar community? (WEB-PUBLISHED)

If YES: specify the kind of Ongoing Mentoring that will benefit you most.

If NO: specify who will help you share your progress, creations & results.

No. We will document our progress on an Etoys user manual as we go along, which is also open source and freely available to the community. Promotion of the work will be done on Squeakland’s site as well as various OLPC/Sugar related mailing list.

Timeline (Start to Finish)

Please include a Proposed timeline for your Project life-cycle: (this can be in the form of Month 1, Month 2, etc rather than specific dates)

Please see the Etoys development team’s site above. After the 3 months the XOs will be used to create content using Etoys. There has been on-going requests for Health, Science and Math content development. Both Randy and Stephen are involved with OLPC-health and Cherry for eKindling’s content development.

Specify how you prefer to communicate your ongoing progress and obstacles! Along with this wiki: Bug Tracking: http://tracker.squeakland.org/ Home page: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Etoys, Activities/Etoys