1 Learning to learn Raising the next generation of problem-solvers Walter Bender, Sugar Labs a member project of the Software Freedom Conservancy

2 Agenda Sugar Labs and One Laptop per Child Education culture vs learning culture Designing for change

3 0, 1, 2,...

4 0, 1, 2, 720!,...

5 720 ! = 720 x 719 x … 2 x 1

6 720 = 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 6!

7 6 = 3 x 2 x 1 = 3!

8 720! = 6!! = 3!!! 2 = 2 x 1 = 2! = 2!! 1 = 1 x 1 = 1!

9 0, 1, 2, 720!,... 0, 1!, 2!!, 3!!!, 4!!!!,...

10 21 st century skills Programming should be on every child's low shelf.

11 Turtles all the way down

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23 Sugar is a Free Software platform that is designed for children for learning. Our goal is to raise a generation of critical thinkers and problem-solvers by establishing a culture of independent thinking and learning. a generation of problem-solvers

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26 Sugar foundations Each of us is: a teacher and a learner; expressive; and social.

27 Sugar foundations Knowledge is a noun; learning is a verb.

28 Sugar foundations Love is a better master than duty.

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30 tamtam

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32 Through Sugar, we strive to provide every child with the opportunity to learn learning within a context that will allow them both to engage in an on-going critical dialog with others and to develop independent means towards their personal goals. learning to learn

33 learners engaging in a process of expression, critique, and self-reflection ● What am I learning? ● How did I learn it? ● Why is it important? ● Can I teach it to others? ● Did I get an insight while teaching it?

34 Seymour Papert “The context for human development is always a culture, never an isolated technology.”

35 s^LOGO^FOSS “If you ask, 'What does a LOGO practitioner need to know?' the answer goes beyond the ability to use and teach LOGO. The practitioner needs to be able to talk about LOGO, to criticize it, and to discuss other people's criticisms.”

36 Free Software developers go beyond consuming: ● they create and they share their creations; ● they “talk about” Free Software; ● they “criticize it”; ● and they “discuss other people's criticisms.”

37 Sugar parallels to the Free Software ● tools of expression, children create content as well as consume it; ● collaboration, children share their creations and help each other and they engage in self- reflection and group critique.

38 They chat, socialize, play games, share media and collaborate on media creation and programing. They look over each other's shoulders. They engage in “reflective practice”, applying their own experiences to practice while being guided and mentored by “domain experts”. software developers and young learners

39 Free Software is no longer an option; it is “indispensable.” Software that is “reliable and has a unit cost of zero” presents new opportunities. Eben Moglen:

40 The General Public License (GPL) guarantees that all Sugar can be modified by the end user, but for most users, this is just a theoretical freedom if the complexity of the software presents an insurmountable barrier. from theory...

41 The usual metrics – robustness, efficiency, maintainability, etc. – are necessary but not sufficient for learning. We take an additional step by ensuring that our code is both free and open but also “amenable to end-user manipulation.”...to practice

42 ● setting expectations; ● articulating the freedom to modify (Freedom 1); ● ready access (e.g., View Source); ● using scripting languages; ● providing scaffolding; ● reducing the risk (e.g., “crumple zones”) to encourage and facilitate end-user modifications

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44 modifying physics elif event.key == K_heavy: self.set_density = 10 elif event.key == K_normal: self.set_density = 1 elif event.key == K_light: self.set_density = 0.1

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57 Sugar is “an emergent, collaborative environment, where the Sugar Labs community identifies, codes, uses, and re/designs its own tools” and where community members “innovate along their own paths.” Carla Gomez Monroy

58 Choices

59 Sugar is “a participative collaboration for “learning to learn” with self-made tools.” learning from FOSS

60 Thank you