OLPC and Sugar on HASTAC

I am working on a project called Fargo XO; Chris Lindgren and I from North Dakota State University are collaborating with a K-5 school, Madison Elementary, to explore the possibilities and place of the Sugar Operating System, and specifically Sugar on a Stick, within that (and potentially other) K-5 schools in Fargo.  We did a pilot in 2010-11; we won a $20,000 local grant competition to fully implement SoaS at Madison in 2011-12.  We have joined the HASTAC collaboratory, looking for work already done in this area and hoping to expand our network.  

Michael Widner's post Linux, Learning, and Sugar Kids (Sept. 8, 2009) is a bit of a review. He says he found Edubuntu and Qimo to be good, but Micheal found Sugar on a Stick to be the best and most promising.  He was looking at the software through the eyes of his four year old, and not a classroom deployment, where the dynamics get a little bit more complicated. But the classroom deployment is also where we and other university researchers can get more involved in the Sugar and OLPC communities as technical experts, software developers, and researchers. 

Dr. Jose Icaza blogged about an Sugar deployment (installed on Intel's Classmate!) in Mexico funded by the MacArthur Foundation and supported by him and colleagues from Monterry Tech, 2009-10.  The project website is probably easier to navigate and gives a more complete picture of their work.  Their findings were positive: 

The research results indicate, with relation to the infrastructure and use of

equipment, that it is necessary to provide a charging station for the computers

when these do not leave the school, so that the battery will last the whole school

day; also that the mouse pad is a better tool than the mouse for children who have

had little contact with computer equipment, and that the combination of Classmate

and Sugar is an effective learning environment based on technology. For the

students, there was a positive impact on the development of both technological

and cognitive skills as they increased the mastery of the Sugar educational

activities. The community Instructors enriched their teaching by incorporating

on a systematic and daily basis the computer and Sugar activities. Further, they

incorporated both individual and collaborative activities with the computer to

strengthen the thematic content of the curriculum. It is clear that the objectives of

the research were fully achieved.

The research results indicate, with relation to the infrastructure and use of
equipment, that it is necessary to provide a charging station for the computers
when these do not leave the school, so that the battery will last the whole school
day; also that the mouse pad is a better tool than the mouse for children who have
had little contact with computer equipment, and that the combination of Classmate
and Sugar is an effective learning environment based on technology. For the
students, there was a positive impact on the development of both technological
and cognitive skills as they increased the mastery of the Sugar educational
activities. The community Instructors enriched their teaching by incorporating
on a systematic and daily basis the computer and Sugar activities. Further, they
incorporated both individual and collaborative activities with the computer to
strengthen the thematic content of the curriculum. It is clear that the objectives of
the research were fully achieved.

Jonathan Tarr offered a positive assessment of the XO and OLPC when the Give One, Get One program was running. 

I don't see any other OLPC / Sugar / XO activity on HASTAC, but maybe Chris and I can change that.