<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 3:09 AM, Mel Chua <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mel@melchua.com">mel@melchua.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
John Tierney (calling in remotely), Evangeline Harris Stefanakis, and<br>
myself had a great conversation on Monday, and I'm posting the notes<br>
from our conversation with permission. (There are some details that<br>
can't be public yet, but should be pretty soonish.)<br>
<br>
Enjoy, comment, and feedback is welcome as always. ;) Note that I<br>
haven't done my action items in the notes yet, I hope to get to them<br>
tomorrow night (I'm pretty hosed right now) but pinging me on things<br>
that might concern you is totally welcomed.<br>
<br>
-Mel<br>
<br>
----<br>
<br>
Problem: We don't know how well we're doing helping kids learn; we need<br>
to measure the impact of our work.<br>
Proposal: Evangeline and her students will do a study of the impact of<br>
XOs/Sugar on local Boston-area pilots.<br>
<br>
This is particularly timely in terms of looking for funding because the<br>
new administration is actively looking for alternative methods of<br>
assessing student learning (says Evangeline).<br>
<br>
Priorities of pilot/study, in order<br>
<br>
1. Provide a good educational experience for the children participating<br>
in the pilot<br>
2. Serve the teachers, administrators, and volunteers (including parents<br>
and Sugar developers) facilitating the pilot by giving them feedback on<br>
the project's ongoing impact on the children<br>
3. Be a good learning experience for the graduate students assisting<br>
with the study<br>
4. Disseminate good, solid results on the impact of XOs/Sugar to a wider<br>
(national, if not global) audience.<br>
<br>
Funding for the study will be needed due to institutional requirements.<br>
This can be viewed as a plus, as funded research will give both the<br>
study and the thing-being-studied (grassroots deployments, XOs, and<br>
Sugar) further legitimacy.<br>
<br>
Concerns on demographics: CFS is not the target demographic that we want<br>
to reach eventually (there is a much greater need in low-income public<br>
schools, for instance). Mel explained that given the resources situation<br>
when the "we should do a local pilot" conversation started some months<br>
ago, tackling anything beyond a small-scale trial at a supportive school<br>
was seen as overly ambitious back then, but with increased local<br>
activity and interest now, we *should* look for at least one comparison<br>
public school.<br>
<br>
Fletcher/Maynard, in Cambridge with a 99% minority population, was<br>
suggested. Since CFS is doing 6th grade saturation, F/M doing 6th grade<br>
saturation would provide a nice comparison sample.<br>
<br>
* Evangeline will talk with Robin Harris, F/M's principal, to see if the<br>
school was interested.<br>
* Mel will find an university chapter to work with F/M as their loop<br>
team; first place to check will be with the BU team.<br>
* Caroline Meeks may also be a good person to ask about the local Sugar(non-XO) pilots and the feasibility of expanding the study to those<br>
schools as well.</blockquote><div><br>We will we working with the Gardner Pilot Academy, a public school with diverse demographics, in Boston about a 20 minute walk from Harvard Sq. We would definitely like help with evaluation. I am putting together the project plan in the next month or so.<br>
</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>
<br>
Timeline for deployment is Jan/Feb 2009 (at CFS, with workshops in<br>
January and physical XOs being handed to children in February).<br>
<br>
* Mel will see if local engineering students might be interested in<br>
doing tech development work on Sugar/XOs for the pilots and this study<br>
specifically - making modifications needed for researchers to carry out<br>
their work. The main concern is whether Sugar gathers the data needed<br>
already, or if it can be made into more of a portfolio-capturing tool.<br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Caroline Meeks<br>Solution Grove<br>Caroline@SolutionGrove.com<br><br>617-500-3488 - Office<br>505-213-3268 - Fax<br>