[Nepal] sugar activities

[Wade Brainerd]

Sounds cool!  How far along are you with making your keyboard
automatically determine the current layout?  That's something I
haven't tackled yet in my onscreen keyboard.

And I definitely think it's worth having a variety of tools for
learning touch typing, across the spectrum of complexity.

Cheers,
Wade

On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 5:43 AM, Tony Anderson <tony_anderson at usa.net> wrote:
> I am working on two related items.
>
> One is an svg image of the OLPC keyboard since most of our XOs in Nepal have
> English keyboards. One advantage is that the kids will have an incentive to
> learn touch-typing.  However the image will help them get started on
> learning. I am trying to make the keyboard image so that it will
> automatically display the correct glyphs based on the currently-selected
> layout.
>
> Second is a pygame typing activity which displays random streams of
> characters for keys based on the fingers used to press them. For example,
> two characters for the index finger of each hand. Since these streams are
> random, they should work in any keyboard layout. I expect this game would be
> a starter leading up to yours which will feature meaningful content to type
> (and, hence, will be language-specific).
>
> Tony
>
> Bryan Berry wrote:
>>
>> Wade, great to hear from you.
>> We would love to test out your activities. Our deployment team will be
>> going out to deploy a small school next week. I will ask to try out
>> these activities and see how the kids react.
>>
>> I can't emphasive enough how interested we are in the Typing Turtle
>> program. A typing tutor program is probably the most requested program
>> by teachers and kids.
>> On Thu, 2008-11-13 at 12:33 -0500, Wade Brainerd wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Bryan,
>>>
>>> I am seeking feedback about activities I am devloping from those who
>>> are using XOs in an educational environment.  I'm also interested in
>>> helping out if there are specific, simple activities needed.
>>>
>>> My activities:
>>>
>>> Colors! - Natural media painting activity.  Currently in alpha stage.
>>> Includes recording and playback of individual strokes, and some sample
>>> paintings to watch.
>>>
>>> Finance - A simple Quicken-like activity, intended for kids, teachers
>>> or parents.  Currently pre-alpha.  It could be used to handle finances
>>> for a school club, or a small business.
>>>
>>> Typing Turtle - An interactive touch-typing tutor with lesson and game
>>> components.  Currently pre-alpha.  Note- I need native language
>>> writers to develop lesson content for each deployment.
>>>
>>> If you have time to review these activities or know someone who would
>>> be willing to help me out, let me know!  I'm basically just looking
>>> for some contact with people who might actually use my software :)
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Wade
>
>