[Server-devel] [sugar] sugar roadmap

[David Van Assche]

Hi,
   I want to second the opinion that Moodle is definitely the right tool for
content distribution, though a localised broken down wikipedia as a global
reference to information is not a bad idea. Coming from a teaching
perspective, children students need to be led, they need to be shown what to
do. It is not at all the same as at Universisty level where the student
often takes in the informtation they are interested in. For example, not
everyone likes mathematics at a school level, yet it is an essential
teaching philosophy and must be pushed to the student, rather than pulled by
the student. Moodle allows for this, and I have successfully used it in this
enivornment for several years. It is extremely easy to create content and
assignements of any nature, though they willl of course all be web based,
but that doesn't mean you coudln't integrate a core moodle program centred
around the sugar array of software and how to use it.
   Another thing I've noticed on this list is the insistence on recreating
the wheel, and the amount of good FOSS that is already out there reallly
makes this a waste of time. We should be talking about integrating existing
tools rather than recreating new ones. Just my 2 cents...

Here is a list of eductational FOSS compiled by an organisation in the US:
http://www.osv.org.au/index.cgi?tid=155

David

On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 12:58 PM, Bryan Berry <bryan.berry at gmail.com> wrote:

> Martin: I have cc'd you because I think Moodle is the right tool for
> relating activities in a logical narrative, i.e. a 'lesson' or a
> 'tutorial'
>
> >  >  7. Need graphical activity manager for removing and adding
> activities
> >>
> >>  Could you detail the requirements for this? Perhaps in the wiki?
>
> >This is a good point.  The activity list in Home is intended to take
> >care of this.  Tomeu, we should probably add little delete buttons at
> >the right of each entry in the list to make this a simple process.  A
> >non-modal alert should appear to confirm the deletion, of course.
> >This should be relatively easy to add.
>
> Being able to remove activities w/ an option from the activity list is a
> good short term option. Long term we quite need a activity/package
> manager. Right now it is more important to have a good media player than
> a great activity/package manager.
>
> Ben Schwartz wrote:
> >They present a window saying "You are
> >downloading a file of type "PDF".  Would you like to open it using
> >"Document Viewer"?"  They also offer a drop-down list of alternative
> >applications.
>
> This sounds good to me. One problem kids will access file types from
> many sources, such as their local Moodle server or a regular Internet
> site. It will be annoying if they have to confirm that they want to
> launch an activity each time. It would be good if they could choose the
> default action to launch activities from the local moodle server but
> this decision shouldn't apply to files of the same type on non-trusted
> servers -- ugh this could get complicated.
>
>
> Another issue related to the Roadmap . . .
>
> ==The Problem of Building an Open-Source community around Sugar==
>
> I foresee problems building an open-source community around Sugar
> because most successful open-source projects are ones that allow
> programmers to "scratch their own itch" that is build or improve tools
> they themselves use. Sugar will primarily be used kids and adults w/ low
> literacy. I can't see programmers using it as their own desktop. A good
> case in point is GCompris which addresses a critical need of millions
> (basic math and English) but has very few contributors from what I can
> tell. Contrast this w/ something like git or the gnu utilities. I
> believe that Sugar will need longterm financial support to be viable.
> Perhaps that could come from some of the more enlightened pilot
> countries once they are heavily invested in Sugar.
>
> Another option would be to create a version of Sugar that appeals to
> programmers. But I can't imagine creating such a version that wouldn't
> require a lot of programming resources.
>
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