[sugar] Sugar Digest 2008-10-06

[Edward Cherlin]

On Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 8:33 AM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com> wrote:
> === Sugar Digest ===

> 2. Narrative: Bryan Barry and Michael Stone have initiated a discussion
> about inadequacies in the Sugar tool chain (See
> http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/sugar/2008-October/008863.html and
> http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/sugar/2008-October/008864.html).
>
>  Sugar offers an excellent mode for discovery but no excellent way to
>  manipulate narratives. Both discovery and narrative are essential for
>  learning.—Bryan Barry
>
>  This statement seems to me both indisputable and damning; if true, it
>  strikes to the core of the claim that Sugar is appropriate for learning.
>  —Michael Stone
>
> I questioned the dichotomy between manipulating narratives and modes for
> discovery. When I think about Sugar, I think about its providing a
> scaffolding for discovering, expressing, critiquing, and reflecting.
> Manipulating narrative seems to cut across all of these area (as does
> collaboration). We don't yet support (natively) much in the way of
> organizing data to make an analysis or argument. But it seems overstated to
> say that these deficiencies mean Sugar is not appropriate for learning.
> There is certainly a paucity of lesson plans developed around Sugar to help
> teachers answer the question of how one best leverages the Sugar toolkit for
> learning. And undoubtedly, there is a dearth of readily packaged and
> categorized content. But I don't see these as fundamental flaws in Sugar as
> much as a place where more effort needs to be invested; Sugar is reaching a
> point of maturity where such investments make sense. Sugar is an appropriate
> component of what needs to be a larger learning ecosystem.

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