EVALUATION OF SUGAR PART TWO: USER INTERFACE

Complete a variety of labelled screenshots which illustrate the differences between these user interfaces.

Windows (WIMP – windows, icons, menus, pointers – as in MSOffice 2003)

Windows (ribbons, contextual tabs, galleries – as in MSOffice 2007)

Sugar (Frame replaces menubar, Journal replaces file system hierarchy, Community – didn’t work for us,)

Linux command line (similar to DOS)

My first preference is Windows (ribbons, contextual tabs, galleries – as in MSOffice 2007) because it is the one I am most familiar  with and find the easier to use.My second preference is Windows (WIMP – windows, icons, menus, pointers – as in MSOffice 2003) even thought there really isn't much of a difference overall between them I like the graphics  on the 2007 one better.My third preference is

Linux command line (similar to DOS) because I use Ubuntu at home and I find terminal easy to use if i want to customize Ubuntu .My forth preference is

Sugar (Frame replaces menubar, Journal replaces file system hierarchy, Community because it is my least favorite I don't like the design of it and constant freezing when you open more then 2 tabs.I found out that it is because the memory is not powerful enough to support more then a couple of tabs without freezing that's why it is my least favorite. 

EVALUATION OF SUGAR PART ONE: WHAT WE DID

1)Rate each of the following out of 5:
Guest speaker: Rosemary about Timor Leste 4/5
Guest speak: Joel about the xo 4/5
Physics 4/5
SVG icon and Linux command line 3/5
Turtle Art 3/5
Other activity evaluation 5/5
Etoys 2/5
Scratch 4/5

2)Now write about
Three things that you learnt: Three things I learnt were how to create my own svg icon using html kit and then use terminal to upload it to sugar, taking notes while a guest is giving a talk and then use my notes to write a blog about the talk and creating variable shapes using turtle art.

Three things that you enjoyed:
Three things that you didn’t like: Three things that I didn’t like were making shapes on Turtle art, using terminal on sugar to upload svg image, I think they should make it more simpler to use and the scripts on Etoys because I was always deleting my scripts by accident and no being able to restore them I had to start again.

3)State which was the following with reasons:

Best, the best activity was Physics because it was easy to learn how to use and there where many fun things to do on there.

Worst, Turtle art was the worst activity because I didn’t really enjoy the math’s and angles aspect of turtle art and found it really difficult to operate.

Most interesting, the most interesting activity was the food force 2 activity which I download from the internet. I found it interesting because I was able to learn to learn information about world hunger while having fun playing the game.

Most difficult, Turtle art was the most difficult activity because unless I asked for help I really didn’t know what to do. I think a manual should be included with turtle art so it would be easier to operate


4)XO
Is the xo or olpc a good idea for the children of the developing world? State your opinion and give reasons:
I think the xo is a good idea and great learning tool for the children of developing world because it is simple to use, compact and cheap to manufacture the only real problem with the xo is the sugar os which is loaded on it. Sugar os has many bugs in it that can ruin experience of using the xo otherwise its great.

Food Force 2

Today in control technology,Mr Kerr told us that we would be using some new activities which he had downloaded onto the L drive. I chose Food Force 2 as my activity.This game was designed to educate and motivate people to solve world hunger.The aim of the game is to make a village that is self sustainable in terms of nutrition, housing, health, education , trading and selling of resources and upgrading infrastructure. There are six different key learning areas that are focused on in Food Force 2.They are strategy,sustainable development, trading,technology ,crisis management and collaboration.

There are many positives about Food Force 2 such as being able to download it free as it is open source software,being able to easily modify it and add extensions.It also has many negatives such as not being able to save on the xo version and not giving a clear direction on each level to what is needed to pass the level.Some interesting facts that I found that even thought the game is called food force when you search for it on Google you have to search for food force 2 or you will not find it,that the game was created by the world food program and that you can only save on the windows version game which seems strange to me because it was designed originally for the xo.I think the games is meant for children aged 8-12 but if you want to learn more about world hunger I think it is a good idea to play this game

Creating svg sugar icon using HTML kit

Today in control tech we had to create our own svg icon for our Sugar OS using HTML Kit.I decided to make smiley face icon.I found it hard at first to use HTML Kit because I had never done HTML coding before but after a while I got the hang of it.
Once I had finished my svg I had to upload to sugar using terminal which is like Linux version of command prompt and then screen capture to take a photo of my icon and then write a blog about it.

Guest Speaker: Joel Stanley

Today we had Joel Stanley Student from the university of Adelaide who is currently studying computer system engineering come to our class to give to speak to us.This was different to the previous guest speakers David and Rosemary as we add to ask questions to Joel instead of him just speaking.One of the things i learnt bout Joel was that he became interested in computer system engineering when he went on a camp in year 11 to Adelaide university and they where promoting computer system engineering.

I also found out that he did his interim at Massachusetts institute of technology.While there Joel did an experiment where he put xos in oven to simulate the temperate of the sun in Thailand where the xos were to be distributed .Joel stayed in America for three months. He didn’t think of it as a job because he was having fun and was satisfied that he was helping disadvantaged children.

Joel told us he is a fan of Linux because windows annoys him and because Linux is free to use and change.He then show us some pictures on the projector of the conference in Romania where gave a speech about the xo.Joel's favourite thing to do with the xo is a drop test in which you drop the xo on the ground and see if it breaks.Luckily for Joel he hasn't broke an xo yet.

In his free time Joel likes to read web comics called Xcase.Which he told us is very popular with fellow nerds like himself.Currenlty he is working on Linux version of Google chrome which is s web browser. One interesting thing that I learnt from joel was that the xo has a wireless antenna that will cushion the blow if you drop it.I enjoyed Joel coming in because I learnt many interesting things about him and the xo.

David and Rosemary Talk

Today My Kerr organized to have David and Rosemary who had just came back from a trip to
Timor Leste to be able to come and visit us and give a insight in to the XO Laptops and the work they had been doing in Timor Leste which is also known as East Timor.They come in on thursday which is a double lesson so they would have enough time to talk to us during the talk Rosemary showed the class pictures of their trip on the projector.

Timor Leste is the east side side of an island that is just above Australia the west side is a part of Indonesia.Timor Leste is a very underdeveloped and is a third world country as Rosemary explained.The main language spoken in Timor Leste is Portuguese because Timor Leste was once a Portuguese colony.But more people are starting to speak Tetun which is local dialect in Timor Leste.

Most children in Timor Leste do not even attend school because it is not compulsory and instead stay home or roam the streets.The children who attend school have have very poor resources to help them to develop an education.

Most of the buildings in Timor Leste are badly damaged because of ongoing civil conflict in the region on top of that the building's are supplied with only 6 hours of electricity each day.

During their trip Rosemary had told us some of the things that David had done during the trip to Timor Leste . He taught the adults and the children how to use XO laptops and the VoIP phones which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol .Voip is when you make calls over the internet and is cheaper alternative to the normal landline which is hardly seen in Timor Leste because it is too expensive for the people living there.


The whole reason David and Rosemary had gone to Timor was to promote the XO laptop , to make the people in Timor Leste more familiar with the XO and to show them how it could be used to help them.


I quiet enjoyed this talk and apppicate the time David and Rosemary speaking talking with us. I learnt many things from the talk and I now have a better understanding of Timor Leste and what people like David and Rosemary are doing to improve it.

Physics Activity

Today in class I was playing around with the different features of the Physics activity on the Sugar Operating System.This activity is very enjoyable because there are many things to do on there and many different tools to use.My favorite tool is the grab tool.I hope to be able to make a game using the physics activity.