Tag Archives: Sugar

JAMedia streams television to XOs in Uruguay

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Thanks to Flavio Danesse, one of the CeibalJAM developers, children can now stream TV and radio to their XOs using the new Sugar activity called JAMedia. This Sugar activity is a music and video player that can stream online TV or radio broadcasts, or play local media from the Journal. The result offers quite a fine video-watching experience, and for now offers access to over 25 television and 70 radio streams.

CeibalJAM recently made headlines by receiving an honorable mention from the Prix Ars Electronica annual awards for “Digital Communities”.

Sugar and OLPC in rural Argentina

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The La Rioja pilot is underway, with the first of 60,000 XOs being distributed and field reports coming in from reactivated’s Daniel Drake. Local news are reporting on the need to bring laptops to places where noone comes, and the value of Sugar to young learners.

The latest article in La Nacion includes an intro video by Ariel Torres about the OLPC project, with a nice Wikipedia cameo.

FoodForce2 update: facelift and new website

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Foodforce2 team has released a stable release of FoodForce2 activity, and has refreshed its website at www.foodforce2.com.  (Aside from the delicious but lapsed Rollca Rollcats, this makes it the first Sugar activity to develop its own site!)  FF2 saw a great response this summer, with close to 150 thousand downloads over 6 months after the Beta version was released in May. This game has been developed to make the children learn to apply their education to build a self-sustainable village and learn to trade and strategize in a fun way.

You are given responsibility of the village during an important wedding.

You are given responsibility of the village during an important wedding.

The team welcomes your feedback and would like to encourage you to give the game a try. The new release has lots of improvements, with an improved story and interface, better save/resume, customizable building placement, and the fantastic panoramic photographs from its earlier versions.  Details after the jump.

XO 1.5: Create, Collaborate, Contribute

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As the mystery around the XO-1.5 unfurls, take part in something historic! Approximately 30 XO-1.5 B2 units are now available at OLPC in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Given that our supply is limited, we want our allocation to be fair and meritocratic. Here are some key points to remember for this round:

  • Hardware and software developers will get priority over educators.
  • Educators will get in on the next round – the hardware and software need to work first!
  • Certain projects may possibly be vetoed if they are violent or unsuitable in nature.
  • Worldwide shipping and customs/import fees are included in this participation.

Don’t know where to start? Use the following as general starting points for your ideas:

Need something more specific? Here’s a list of suggestions based on notes from Daniel Drake:

  • Voice chat (maybe even VoIP? Imagine the XO doubling up as a phone!)
  • Project Karma, the superb endeavor led by the OLE Nepal team.
  • Physics activity – Can the make-believe “Physics” world interface with the real world? Think sensors!
  • Media editing activity – Going beyond simply “Record“ing on the XO.
  • Programming activities – Building upon Pippy, Develop and maybe even an activity for LOGO.
  • Sustenance activities – Build/improve upon Simcity, FoodForce II, or be inspired by  The Incredible Machine!
  • Ebooks – take a look at the latest Read activity and its support for annotations and formats, and build upon it.
  • Touchpad activity – How do I use the touchpad? A simple but much needed activity.
  • Low level stuff – the new video driver, for instance.
Create, Collaborate, Contribute

Create, Collaborate, Contribute

The Contributors Program is a thriving program that has seeded a whole set of unique and interesting projects around the world. Dare to contribute a Project ranging across educational, technological, and/or outreach initiatives… Want to know more about Contributors Program? Read our FAQ at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Contributors#FAQ

Further XO-1.5 test units will likely not be available until December (around release time of the XO-1.5) so find your muse, get your ideas together, and send them in! Interested folks need to email contributors@laptop.org explaining how their software/development or other projects impacts children. Take a look at this form http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Contributors_program/Project_proposal_form and submit your proposal!

Sugar goes mainstream… on a stick

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A recent publicity push and a number of public demonstrations of Sugar on a Stick (which recently released its Strawberry edition) have attracted many interested new developers and a lot of intrigued parents and teachers.  I’ve seen it mentioned on digitial library lists and public education channels, in contexts that wouldn’t normally be discussing laptops or computers.

Sean Daly writes about a recent round of feedback from a local community of children and parents.  Chat and Maze seem the most immediately attractive to this community of computer-savvy children.  Some comments of interest:

The principals were interested in jabber collaboration which they had never heard of.

One mom expressed frustration that dropdown menu choices found by mouse rollover could not be validated with the Enter key.

Several parents and a teacher asked about translation tools.

Some parents who had already heard of OLPC asked where the crank was. [still!]

It’s worth a read.