Beta Release 1.1

BETA 1.1 RELEASE NOTES (JULY 17, 2007)

Activities:

• Six activities: Cartoon Builder (NEW), Story Builder (NEW), Slider Puzzle (Updated), Teacher Center (Updated), Poll Builder (No changes from Beta 1.0.) and the MaMaMedia Activity Center (No changes from Beta 1.0).
• Runs on Build 432 (Note: Last release to use this build. Future releases will run on post Trial 2 Builds, TBD.)
• Story Builder does not run under SUGAR yet, so it must be launched from the XO Developer console (See instructions below.)
• MaMaMedia Activity Center launches Cartoon Builder, Slider Puzzle, Poll Builder and Teacher Center.
• Partial Mesh functionality added to Slider Puzzle to allow sharing of puzzles.
• "Make Your Own" functionality works in Cartoon, Story, Slider and Poll.
• Updated Activities tab in Teacher Center describes each activity and their key learning values.

Lesson Plans:

• A full set of customized Lesson Plans are integrated in Cartoon, Slider and Poll.
• • Cartoon and Slider offer Lesson Plan tips for creating media with Paint.
• Lesson plans written for Story Builder, but not yet integrated in the activity.

Translation:

• Spanish and Portuguese translations are in progress for all activities, with the help of OLPC volunteers like Xavi Alvarez (Argentina) and Paulo Drummond (Brazil).
• Translated content in this release includes: Cartoon Builder (Spanish buttons and instructions), Poll (Spanish buttons and instructions), SliderPuzzle (Spanish and Portuguese lesson plans, buttons, and instructions).
• Translating Activities - A new wiki-based project to establish a standard developmental procedure for building in translatability for all activities and for adding translations and other content updates to Activity bundles. We have just begun mapping out a process. We will test and refine it, then add it to the OLPC wiki.
• We just received a Korean translation for Slider Puzzle, wow! Look for that in Release 1.2.

XO bundles (please download and install on BUILD 432)

Cartoon Builder

Cartoon Builder Interface

Version 1.0 Functionality:

• Can place 6 character poses in the filmstrip by selecting the cell/frame and then select the character pose you want to go in it.
• Character, Background and Sound selectors (Scroll through background options using "Back" and "Forward" buttons. The one in view will be used in the cartoon.)
• Three starter characters (Space Blob, Elephant, Turkey), 12+ starter backgrounds, and four starter sounds
• "Add Character," "Add Background," "Add Sound," "Open" and "Save"
• Changing the animation speed -- fast and slow range
• Clear All (removes images from all cells of the filmstrip)
• Play/Pause
• Saving/loading animations (locally on the XO)
• Can take drawings created with the XO Paint activityand make them into poses and background images in Cartoon Builder.
• Can take photos with the XO camera and use the photo files as images in Cartoon Builder.
• Can take sounds recorded with the XO microphone, TamTam, or other sources and use them in Cartoon Builder.

Story Builder

Story Builder Interface

Version 1.0 functionality

• Full activity logic and interface
• Select a background / theme (from fixed set of provided themes and images)
• Place the animated characters freely on the background
• Select placed characters and move them around or remove them
• Selecting a character which overlaps with others also brings it to the front
• Clear Picture
• Add the story title and text
• Save (Store the story in the Journal) – a file format will need to be developed which stores the story as compactly as possible so that the graphic components are not duplicated multiple times on the Data Store, if possible.

1. PyGame/Sugar: The biggest issue at the moment is that the PyGame/Sugar interface olpcgames crashes when you run StoryBuilder through it. The code that makes a PyGame game launch under Sugar as an activity is under development. This activity is pushing beyond olpcgames' limits at the moment. At some stage, hopefully soon, we will be able to run the activity in Sugar but for now we have to launch it in the console terminal (Alt 0).

Alt+0 and select Terminal tab, then type the following:

• su
• mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
• cd /mnt
• cp Storybuilder-2.xo-20070705.zip /home/olpc
• cd /home/olpc
• su olpc
• unzip Storybuilder-2.xo-20070705.zip
• sugar-install-bundle StoryBuilder-2.xo
• cd Activities/StoryBuilder.activity/
• python ./StoryBuilder.py
• Alt 0 to see the activity
• Press Esc to quit Story Builder

2. PyGame vs GUI: PyGame is designed for producing games, not application GUIs. In our activity we have both - the animated characters on the one hand, and the story text and saving/loading on the other. PyGame development is all about working with images, and does not have widgets - buttons, radiobuttons, text entry fields etc like a normal GUI. I am integrating PGU, a GUI extension for PyGame, but right now the following aspects of Story Builder are not working the way they should:

• Text area - at the moment anything you type appears in this area. However you cannot move the cursor around and edit, you can only use backspace to remove from the end.

3. Language: At the moment, all the text on the screen - SAVE, Add my character, Add my background - are displayed using images, so they cannot be translated. Once the GUI code is integrated, it will be displayed as text and therefore translatable. Until then the Language button won't do anything.

Slider Puzzle

Slider Puzzle

Slider Puzzle is a classic logic game that challenges a player to slide tiles around to form a picture or pattern. This digital version provides a fun context for learners to explore basic functions of the XO, learn problem solving skills, and develop creative projects that reflect understanding of a topic they are studying.

In the Beta 1.1 release, Slider has been updated to Version 1.3:

• Sequencing puzzles and corresponding lesson plans were added
• The interface was enlarged
• Functionality added to let users share puzzles via the Mesh.

Features from previous release:

• Based on MaMaMedia.com activity “Jumbler” -- re-written in Python to run locally on the XO laptop
• Full game logic and interface integrated with the OLPC framework
• Puzzle functionality includes number of pieces (9, 12, 16), timer, solve, jumble
• A filesystem based directory structure for image storage, having an intermediate directory for subject grouping
• Fixed set of starter images, organized by subject
• "My Own Pictures" subject allows user to build a set of their own XO-made images to solve as puzzles
• User can select an image made with the XO drawing tool or camera and saved locally on the laptop, open it in the Jumbler activity, and solve it as a puzzle.
• Multiple translations avaiable (user selectable on-the-fly.)
• Set of 6 customized Lesson Plans accesible in-app via "Lesson Plans" buttons
• Keyboard shortcuts for all game interface buttons:

 '1' - select 9 pieces
 '2' - select 12 pieces
 '3' - select 16 pieces
 'enter' - jumble selected image
 ',' - show previous image in category
 '.' - show next image in category
 '/' - show/hide Category Selector
 '?' - My Own Picture
 '=' - Solve
 'Escape' or 'q' - end activity

Teacher Center

In the Beta 1.1 release, content has been updated in the Activities tab.

Teacher Center is a space for educators filled with starter ideas on how to integrate the XO laptop and the MaMaMedia activities into the their classrooms. It offers five tabbed sections:

• Welcome - orientation and explanation of what to expect
• Explore the XO - lesson ideas for exploring the XO as a class
• Activities - List of MaMaMedia activities. (In next version, each entry will include learning goals and links to download the Lesson Plans.)
• Glossary - definitions of key terms from lessons and XO interface
• About - Background on Constructionist educational philosophy

This version is a simple framework to showcase some initial content ideas. The Beta 1.2 update will incorporate more visual design elements, additional translations, and links to an Educators wiki for those with an internet connection.

Poll Builder

Choose a Poll

Vote

Build a Poll

A poll is a research tool that helps explain what a group of people think about a topic. Poll Builder allows you to create your own poll, collect votes, examine the results and think about what they mean.

No changes from Beta 1.0 release. Next update will happen in Beta 1.2 (August) and will include Mesh-based voting.

Version 1.0: Build and vote in polls that run locally on your XO

Create a poll question with up to five answer choices and publish it on your XO; Multiple votes can be cast locally (on the same machine) in this version. Once Mesh functionality is added, only one vote per laptop will be permitted.

Functionality:

• Ability to create multiple polls, each with a title, question, 2-5 answer choices and a "votes to collect" limit
• v1.0 (temporarily) allows for multiple votes on one laptop, since you can't vote via the mesh yet. This will be changed in v 1.1.
• Display running total with number of votes (numeric tally) and percentage of total votes cast (bar graph) for each answer
• Ability to “Delete” the Poll
• Ability to “See Results’ after the Poll closes
• Polls will be stored in the Data Store to be accessible via the Journal
• Multiple translations avaiable (user selectable on-the-fly.)
• Set of 4 customized Lesson Plans accesible in-app via "Lesson Plans" buttons

MaMaMedia Activity Center

MaMaMedia Activity Ctr

MAMAMEDIA ACTIVITY CENTER is a colorful Menu Page and activity launcher, for introducing all the MaMaMedia activities.

In the Beta 1.1 release, four activity bubbles are active: Cartoon Builder, Slider Puzzle, Poll Builder and Teacher Center.

FEEDBACK

Please send your feedback and ideas about Beta 1.1 to info at WorldWideWorkshop.org