cI just left the morning presentation on Sugar on a Stick here in Maine at FOSSED. The small size (around 80 people), out of the way venue (Bethel, Maine -- an hour an a half from anywhere), and the high level of interest and dedication of the attendees make this special conference to attend.
I got to hang out with Walter Bender and Caroline Meeks of Sugar Labs. Walter was everything I had hoped he would be. Let me just say that when he listed Paulo Freire in the slide containing folks who inspire his work, I knew I was in the right place. Caroline has her own educational technology consulting business, Solution Grove. I'll be attending her other talk on Moodle and LAMS on Friday, but I already got to talk to her about SchoolTool.
There is work planned to integrate Sugar on a Stick with Moodle, so that when children connect their sticks to a machine at school, automatic backup and recover is made possibel through synchronization of their data with the moodle server. Given the work underway in California this Summer on Moodle / SchoolTool integration, I was struck by the possibilities for a powerful free software platform for schools combining SchoolTool, Moodle, Mahara, and Sugar.
Learning Inkscape
The 2nd edition of How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python is progressing fast enough that I had to start thinking about improving the illustrations. Sphinx once again proved itself to be the tool of my dreams! I am able to create SVG illustrations using Inkscape, save them in Inkscapes own svg format, and link to them in the Sphinx source. The resulting html looks great! I spend the day in the Portland airport yesterday learning my way around Inkscape, and I've already completed the two illustrations from Chapter 1 of the book.
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Sounds like a great time! I can't wait to hear more about when you get back. --Mike
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