[Olpc-open] Grassroots bootcamp, Day 2

Mel Chua mel at laptop.org
Tue Jun 10 23:19:40 EDT 2008


The grassroots bootcamp continued today with:

* A discussion led by Jonathan Austin (from the upcoming Birmingham, 
Alabama deployment) on training volunteers, getting funding, and 
building local communities. This led into side discussions on grassroots 
finances and more...

* Chris Ball gave us all a crash course on Pippy, a learn-by-example 
programming Activity, and how it can be used to develop Activities and 
scripts for the XO. Again, the topic was so compelling that a cluster 
could be found huddled in the back corner talking about 
internationalization of Pippy, even after plates of food had been placed 
less than 10 feet away.

Special guests included Pam Cooney from World Computer Exchange and 
Cynthia Solomon from the OLPC Learning Team, one of the co-creators of 
Logo. Cynthia and Francesca Slade also led a roleplay during the 
afternoon where the rest of us pretended to be 8-year-olds learning 
Scratch (actually learning Scratch in the process). I don't know about 
the rest of the "students," but Chris Carrick, Nikki Lee, and I ended up 
engrossed in exploring forensic ballistics* with a Scratch activity that 
Chris had created to go alongside...

All this and more (including - yes, you guessed it, transcripts!) are at 
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Grassroots_bootcamp/Results#Tuesday

All errors/emissions/typos in these notes are almost certainly my fault. 
Please correct/clarify if you see an occasion to improve any of these notes.

Cheers!

-Mel Chua

*we were strange 8-year-olds, yes.


More information about the Olpc-open mailing list