9.1 Proposal: Textbooks (was Fwd: Call for Proposals for OLPC miniconference November 17-21, 2008)

[Edward Cherlin]

As requested.

On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 11:52 AM, C. Scott Ananian <cscott at laptop.org> wrote:
> I would suggest that people cc' devel@ and sugar@ as well, so that we
> can see what has been proposed (and encourage people to make proposals
> who have not already).

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Oct 18, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Subject: Re: Call for Proposals for OLPC miniconference November 17-21, 2008
To: xocamp at laptop.org


On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 3:05 PM, Greg Smith <gregsmitholpc at gmail.com> wrote:
> An OLPC miniconference will be held November 17-21, 2008 at our
> Cambridge offices (10th floor, 1 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA, USA)
>
> This week-long event will help frame our long-term software development
> efforts. In addition, we will work on prioritizing requirements,
> features and goals for the next major feature release called XO Software
> Release 9.1.0.

I think I can attend.

> Please submit proposals for topics to cover. These may include, but
> are not limited to:
> - Top concerns and requirements of users and countries including reviews
> of available feedback
> - Learning priorities and tools needed to support them
> - Technologies, applications and software design proposals
> - Process and infrastructure proposals
> - Current and needed research


> For details about the event and submission process, see the XOcamp
> description online. [1]
>
> Please submit < 200 word descriptions of topics or sessions on the
> event page [2] or by emailing your ideas to xocamp at laptop.org .

What does an electronic textbook look like?

Since the 1960s there have been experiments in high-powered
educational software, but not a lot of textbook development that
integrates this software into the text, and very little classroom
experience. This session will look at the available materials, the
types of software and content available, and the implications for
future curricula.

What do we know? What examples do we have and what do they show us?
What opportunities can we see? How do we make this happen? What
questions should we ask next?

Examples:

o Edison Talking Typewriter to teach reading and writing to pre-school children
o Ken Iverson's textbooks, Arithmetic, Algebra, and Calculus
o Smalltalk and the Dynabook concept
o Matlab, Mathematica, and other powerful software
o Notebook and workspace formats and capabilities
o Teaching programming to children: Smalltalk, Logo, APL, others


> Thanks,
>
> Greg Smith
> OLPC Product Manager on behalf of the OLPC development team
>
> [1]  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XOcamp
> [2]  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XOcamp_2#Sessions
> _______________________________________________
> Devel mailing list
> Devel at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
>

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