"giving kids a platform to create their future"

[Rodolfo D. Arce S.]

I'm not sure what you're saying is completely accurate.. I've seen
versions of sugar (i just can't remember which version) that has in
the activities option (run, erase, etc) has the "modify" option which
allows you to modify the source code.

I'll have to admit that none of those things are available in the
stable branch so far, but they will

Regarding the journal and file system, well, the logics of "date" and
"type" are a lot easier to understand than the filesystem structure,
for a kid.. at least for my 5-years-old son.

I think you should look at it this way.. the XO primrly designed for a
kids between 6 to 12.. from 12 years to a work-type envoiroment, i
think there are a couple of grades in between.. in which we
(developers) can certainly put a different OS in the XO, to suit their
need

I must admit that some issues really bug me about sugar.. but perhaps
insted of placing the sugar in my context, i should put mi mind in the
sugar context, like my kid does. Sometimes we try to make everything
look more like the things that we know, but sometimes, reordering,
although slow at the beggining, it could lead to more efficiente work,
like the KDE4 project for example

By the way.. i use gnome.. hehehe :-)

cheers.. R


On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 7:18 PM, John Gilmore<gnu at toad.com> wrote:
>> > Personally, I feel it is a mistake for the OLPC project to continue with the
>> > concept of the Sugar platform as its exclusive model for an educational
>> > computer.  The Sugar applications (activities) could just as well be run
>> > from the Ubuntu desktop.  Then students would actually be learning in an
>> > environment that can take them into the real-world that grown-ups occupy on
>> > computers, when they are ready to go beyond the Sugar applications.
>> ...
>> Instead of making children do what *we* think is right (I am running
>> 34 years behind my daughter), how about giving *them* a platform and
>> asking *them* to create what they think will be their future?
>
> Sounds like a great idea.  OLPC hasn't done that.
>
> Kids who have never heard of a "file" or a "file system" are not going
> to be able to edit source code.  Source code exists in files which
> exist in file systems.  The Sugar interface deliberately obscures the
> file system in favor of blog-like chronological ordering of "activities".
> No source code control system or interpreter works like that --
> including the one the OLPC software is written in, Python.
>
> If Sugar taught the kids how to navigate among and examine the
> thousands of files already sitting on their laptops -- or merely
> enabled the kids to explore it on their own -- then there might be
> some case for the Sugar XO being a "platform for kids to create their
> own software".  Today that promise remains unfulfilled.
>
>        John
>
> PS:  The kids can hack in little, quirky, restrictive environments
> like TurtleArt or eToys, and what they learn there is useful.  But
> it certainly doesn't prepare them to hack the Python GUI (or any
> other conventional interpreted or compiled program), nor to take
> over some or all of the job of evolving the XO operating software.
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