LearningForward

Kent Chesnut's technology in education blog.

The ability to run programs directly from a USB Flash Drive - without installing them on a computer - is useful in a number of circumstances.  I’ve got several programs installed and running on my flash drive.

I have a U3 style flash drive - but most of the programs I’m describing here are not loaded as U3 programs.

Why would this be useful?

• Some time back I was looking for a venue for a Scratch class for kids.  A local library expressed interest… but they couldn’t install software on their computers.  I’ve now found that Scratch can be installed and run from a USB Flash drive.  I can’t find a link describing how to put Scratch on the flash drive at the moment - but if I remember correctly I downloaded the .zip version of Scratch and unzipped it.  Then I just copied the whole Scratch folder onto the flash drive (I actually put the folder into a folder named Programs on the flash drive to keep the root level from getting so cluttered) and then put a Shortcut to the program onto the root level.  Note that you have to start Scratch and then open your projects.  If Scratch is not installed on the computer you are using, it won’t recognize the file extension.  Maybe that Scratch class at the library is possible now.
• When using someone else’s computer (or a public computer), you may need access to a wide variety of utilities.  I’ve found that IrfanView (photo editing), Audacity (audio recording and editing), and jZip (a compression / decompression utility) all work fine from the flash drive.
• So, maybe your into teaching kids a programming environment but don’t like Scratch (I can’t imagine that!).  I’ve found Squeak and NetLogo also run fine from a flash drive.
• If you’d like to do a little multimedia authoring, I’ve found that Xerte will also run from my flash drive.
• U3 programs I’ve installed include Skype (communications), Gimp (another photo editor - I really haven’t tried this but it did install correctly), and WinSCP (ftp utility).
• Do you think you’d like to investigate the Sugar user interface (the shell that runs on the OLPC XO laptop)?  You can even get Sugar on a flash disk.  One note - to get Sugar to run you actually reboot your computer into Fedora linux (which is also installed on the flash disk).  This could also be very useful if you have small children and are looking for a good user environment for them.  One more note - as best as I can tell, when I boot into Fedora / Sugar, my hard drive is NOT mounted.  If I’m correct, this would mean that nothing a child (or anyone else) could do from Sugar could affect the data stored on your hard disk!

Well, that’s just a few programs that I’ve found to work on a USB Flash drive.  There are many others.  While access to other Authoring environments, etc, on a flash drive may be useful, many of these programs are licensed in such a way that (in my reading) would preclude such use.

My philosophy at this time is; if it’s licensed such that it’s not a violation to run it on multiple computers (Open Source, for example), and I think it might be a useful tool to have with me at all times, then I put in on the flash drive and see if it works.

One of the things I would really like to achieve in my lifetime is to improve the educational outcomes for a significant number of kids.  To this end I read and study educational theories.  I teach informal educational classes (like the Scratch Class last week).  But I’m not making the impact I’d like to have.  So I continue to look for groups who have similar / compatible goals - maybe I could work with them???

A few weeks ago I read about e-Learning for Kids.  The following quote is from the e-Learning for Kids about us page…

“In today’s complex world, children’s futures are determined by their ability to master the basics of reading, science, math and computers. Yet costs, class sizes and other issues often prevent children access to quality online learning that can support and reinforce these essential skills.

Our vision is to be the source for childhood learning on the Internet – available from anywhere and without charge. Established in late 2004, e-Learning for Kids is a global, nonprofit foundation dedicated to fun and free learning on the Internet for children ages 5 - 12.”

Wow!  Global vision.  Improved educational outcomes for significant numbers of kids.  On the surface, this group appears to be working in the direction I’d like to pursue. 

I’ve worked through 6 - 8 of the short (20 - 30 minute) courses available on the website.  The lessons appear to be pretty well designed, very supplantive (all of the instructional strategy appears to be built into the lesson itself - as opposed to a generative strategy), and supply very little user control (some do allow user to select the order that information is encountered, but some basically lead the user through the material).

 For example, the featured course at this time is “Science - States of Matter” about solids, liquids and gases.  The lesson is designed as a pretty straightforward concept lesson.  The lesson proceeds as follows:

• Objectives are listed and read by a narrator.
• Professor Beaker introduces himself.  Professor Beaker narrates the remainder of the course.
• The student signs in with his name and age.
• The lesson proceeds along a path, encompassing: “What is Matter?”; ”Changing States of Matter.”;  and “Identifying States of Matter.”  The lesson will progress through these sequentially - or you can jump to a different section at any time.  I’ll assume you allow the lesson to proceed along sequentially.
• What is Matter?  The student is presented with examples of solids, liquids, gases.  The student is not specifically given a list of criteria for determining the state of each example, but hints are given… for example, it is noted that the example liquids will run through your fingers.
• Changing States of Matter.  The student drags a beaker of water to a freezer and then onto a burner to observe it changing states.
• Identifying States of Matter.  The student practices identifying states of matter by dragging items into Solid, Liquid, or Gas category.  When the student presses submit, he is shown the incorrect classifications and allowed to try them again.  When all the items are categorized correctly, the program proceeds to the Summary.
• Summary.  A short summary of what the student has accomplished is presented.

Analysis

• If you’ve read this blog, you know I lean toward constructivism / constructionism.  I would like to see students creating projects that are personally meaningful.  I would like to see students pursuing authentic real world tasks in their studies.  (See my about page here for more details.)  I really don’t think the e-Learning for Kids courses I’ve viewed do this very well.  But is it possible to pre-package such projects and authentic tasks when considering the widely varying cultures of the world?  Or are projects even practical in individualized (no feedback from peers or instructor) eLearning?  I’ll need to do some thinking and investigating on this topic.
• Would such a group even be interested in my participation?

Conclusion

I’ll forgo any decision about instructivism vs. constructivism in the e-Learning for Kids courses for now.  I’d like to see the group’s course development criteria for information / direction on this.

I’ve e-mailed the e-Learning For Kids organization to inquire about their course development criteria.  I assume if they would be interested in my participation, they’ll provide some documetation on how their development process works. 

Note for XO users - OLPC is listed as an NGO Partner on the e-Learning for Kids website.  All of the courses I’ve worked through are Flash based.  I’ve tried several on the XO Laptop.  In most of the courses I’ve tried, the animations are too slow on the XO.

While I was trying the new version of Runtime Revolution on the XO this weekend, I also did a Software Update for the XO.  A new version of Scratch was downloaded and installed.

 The new Scratch is version 1.3.1 - just like for the PC and Mac!  I decided to give it a try.  In an earlier post, I tried Scratch on the XO - and couldn’t recommend it!  See the article here.  For completeness sake, I’m running build 767 on a standard G1G1 XO.

My impressions were somewhat improved this time:

• Performance when dragging programming elements was good.  In my previous test, I noted that the dragging was so jerky that it was almost impossible to place the programming elements.
• The screen elements are still very small.  This is probably just an old man problem… and it didn’t seem as bad without the jerkiness when placing programming elements.
• I tried a pretty challenging (processing wise) flight simulator game from the Scratch website, see here.  This has several scripts running in parallel in forever loops with short delays (I think they are at about .1 second).  This game was very sluggish - but it did play!
• The flight simulator game sound played for a while and then stopped.

Although I would still choose a full powered computer over the XO to work with Scratch, it is clear that the Scratch Team is working to make the XO a viable Scratch development platform.  And, for simpler projects, I think the XO would be fine with this current version of Scratch.

A few additional notes:

• I don’t know if it is a Scratch or XO issue, I could not download the Scratch projects from the MIT website and open them in Scratch.  Although the files would appear in the Journal, they were not associated with Scratch.  I was able to move files to the XO using a Flash drive and the Terminal activity.
• Suspend / Resume does work now.
• I didn’t note during my original review that the version of Scratch for the XO doesn’t include all of the backgrounds, sprites, … available in the Windows version.  Some are included - but not all.

I’ve been really busy… a consulting project with a short fuse came up and I haven’t been getting my blogging in.  Anyway, this consulting job seemed geared toward a high level development environment like Runtime Revolution.  Why do I say that?  I needed the following:

• Quick and easy database support (I’ve done a little with databases using PHP - that’s all).  Of course I could have done this with Visual Studio in C++, but I didn’t want a big learning curve to get this project up and running.  Runtime Revolution has built in support for several databases, including SQLite.  SQLite requires NO installation or configuration.  Sounds perfect for my needs.
• I had a need to have buttons that act like both buttons and editable fields.  In edit mode, I wanted the user to be able to click in the field and edit it within the program.  When in normal mode, I wanted the field to behave like a button.  As before, I’m sure this is possible in Visual Studio / C++, but I’ve never tried it.  It’s straightforward in Runtime Revolution.

So I purchased Runtime Revolution Studio 3.5 for this development (happily, the price had dropped from $399 as mentioned in my earlier post to $250).  I would say it took about 10 hours of effort to get pretty proficient using it (of course, I used HyperCard quite a bit in the 90’s and also have trialed Revolution for the previous post).  The previous post is here.

At the time of my earlier post (May 2008), I found that Revolution 2.9 wasn’t a very good development environment for the XO laptop.  I thought it’d be interesting to see if 3.5 was better.  I opened the Spanish practice stack I had worked on before and created Windows and Linux executables.  Just for the record, I’m running Windows XP Home on the PC and build 767 on the XO.  My perception is very much improved over my previous encounter.

Improvements:

• I didn’t see the delays I mentioned in the earlier post.
• The XO performance was fine.
• The XO / program were stable during the test.

Continuing Issues

• Text and button sizes on the XO are very small compared to Windows.  The image shown was taken as a screenshot using TightVNC and scaled such that the text appears about the same size as on the XO screen.  I think this can be resolved - and it’ll be a worthwhile effort since the program appears stable. 
• I have to start the program from the terminal activity.  Again, I believe this can be resolved… but it’ll probably take some time.
• You cannot “save the stack” in a standalone application.  I use this to save the stack after editing (creating new word cards).  To get “save the stack” to work, I use a different standalone “home” stack and use it to “open stack …” the stack I’m actually using.
• Sometimes when I stop a program on the XO, the programs icon remains in the active program tray at the top of the screen.  It doesn’t seem to hurt anything… just sits there.

Note that I also tried to run the program I mentioned above (the consulting project).  It’s much more complex, didn’t run correctly, and did crash occasionally.  I probably used something the doesn’t work in Linux or Sugar.  Not to mention, the program isn’t completely stable on Windows at this point ;-) 

I think it’s time to write a usable XO application in Revolution.  Anybody have a good idea for a project???

The year was 1990 (give or take a year).  I wanted to replace my PC - an old CPM80 based Xerox.  My oldest son was 3.  I asked a few of my coworkers if there was a computer he would be able to use.  There was only one answer - the Apple Macintosh.

So I bought a Mac Plus.  It came with HyperCard 1.x.  I had never seen anything like it.  It was a programming environment where you actually started with a screen and worked downward.  As a System Engineer versed in assembly language and C (for embedded applications - which usually had no user interface at all), it was a real eye-opener.  I was teaching a Sunday School class for early elementary students and soon found myself lugging the “portable” Mac + to Church regularly for use with my class.  I could put together a lesson stack or a review activity in HyperCard that the kids could actually use productively! 

I upgraded to HyperCard 2.2 for about $100.  It was a good investment.  I continued to use HyperCard as I moved to a Mac Quadra 605.  My interest in education grew and I started working on a Master’s Degree in Instructional Psychology and Technology  at the University of Oklahoma in 1995.  Guess what tool we were using in our first class… HyperCard.

Many moons have come and gone and now I use PC’s.  I currently do my educational programming in Authorware or Flash.  Both are more powerful in some ways than Hypercard.  But in terms of putting together a simple database with a simple user interface, HyperCard still has its advantages.  I have followed the development of some HyperCard offspring over the years… SuperCard (Mac only), MetaCard (PC & Mac), and most recently Revolution (PC, Mac, Linux) - but hadn’t really worked with them.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve recently acquired an XO laptop.  I thought it would be nice to be able to write programs for it… a high level authoring system would really be nice.  Especially, if it allowed the kids to expand the knowledge base - which would be a constructive activity in line with the XO’s goals.  HyperCard came to mind.

Of course, HyperCard wouldn’t run on the Linux based XO (well, maybe with an emulator, see here).  I tried a program called PythonCard which was billed as a HyperCard-inspired development system with Python as the scripting language.  I didn’t see the heritage!  I then downloaded the 30 day trial version of Runtime Revolution’s Revolution 2.9 Studio and started to put together a simple stack based application (English / Spanish vocab stack with tags and sorting) to try out on the XO.  I chose the Studio version (retail $399) instead of the Media version (retail $49) because Revolution has no player for Linux at this time (the website indicated that one is in the works) and the Studio version was required to save as a standalone application.

Running the stack on the XO turned out to be disappointing.  The XO was very sluggish and also tended to lock up occasionally.  So for now I’m not considering Revolution a good development system for the XO.  Maybe I’ll look into this a little more later.

However, I am very impressed with Revolution and do want to talk a little more about it. 

• If you are running Windows or a Mac and don’t need to generate a standalone program (i.e. you don’t mind running via a player program - much like the original Mac HyperCard), you probably don’t need the $400 Studio version.   The Revolution 2.9 Media edition will likely fill your needs.  And at $50 it is half of what I paid for HyperCard 2.2 in the early 1990’s!
• The documentation noted that Revolution can import old HyperCard stacks.  To give this a try I pulled an old Mac laptop out of the closet and booted it up… yep, it still booted!  Then all I had to do was find a PC diskette (getting harder each day!) and I had a couple of HyperCard stacks on my Dell.  Revolution did indeed open the stacks - but they did require some massaging to get them to work.
  • I used messaging a lot in my stacks.  In HyperCard, the construct looked like “send <messagename> to stack”.  In Revolution, this must be changed to “send <messagename> to this stack”.
  • Some of the message names I used turned out to be key words in Revolution.
  • Fonts and graphics have to be adjusted - mainly due to the much larger screens available today.
• HyperCard graphics were all bit-mapped (think Paint).  Revolution supports both bit-mapped and object based graphics (think of a drawing program).  Object based graphics are much easier to change or resize later.
• The capabilities of Revolution are extensive.  Database interfaces, XML Support, internet support ranging from http and ftp down to socket level communications (which I haven’t tried any of yet).

I only see a few downsides to using Revolution.

• I’ve noticed short pauses when running stacks on PCs (running both the player and the stack from a USB flash drive).  The only time I’m sure I’ve seen this is in delayed response to button presses.  I’m not sure what causes this - it may be something I’m doing wrong.
• I don’t think there is a browser based player to permit easy delivery via the internet.  Note that the Studio ($400) version says it will ”run as CGI process on web servers”.  This may allow for internet delivery, but it doesn’t seem as straightforward as flash. 

I’ll keep at this a while.  I’ll try to finish my Vocab stack before my 30 days expire.  I’ll supplement this post if I run across any major problems or really impressive features.

I know, I know, the XO laptop was designed as a constructive platform for kids in the developing world.  And I’m not one!  When OLPC anounced the Give 1 Get 1 program near the end of 2007, I wanted to find out what this little computer was like.  But… I didn’t have the money to spare at the time.  But I was able to get one of these G1G1 machines a couple of weeks ago on eBay.   

I believe a laptop computer with appropriate constructive software could be the most important piece of technology a student can have.  But I do have some issues with standard laptops for education:

1. They are bulky and heavy (you would need to replace stuff from the heavy kids’ backpack, not just add to it).
2. They are fragile.
3. They are pretty expensive.

The XO appears to address all of these concerns. 

I’ve been evaluating the platform for 3 possible purposes:
(BTW - I recognize that none of these are the specific design goals of the XO.)

1. A platform for learning Scratch
2. A school laptop for my younger kids
3. A backup business laptop

I’ll discuss my general perceptions before looking into these 3 specific purposes.

• It’s small!  Much smaller than I expected.  The small screen is fine for young eyes - and even for me (when I get to the right spot on my bifocals ;-)  The keyboard is a little more problematic.  It is both small (see dimensions below) and covered with a rubber cover that makes the feel a little strange.  I don’t have large hands and I am getting used to typing on it (not touch typing yet).  The size is OK for my teenage daughter (rather petite) - but she hasn’t used it enough to be touch-typing yet.  The size and feel would be fine for smaller kids - especially for those not yet touch typing.  
  The picture at right shows the XO up against a Dell 1505.
  I’ve done a few measurements on other computers.  
  From the left edge of the A to the right edge of the semicolon:
  • Standard keyboard - 7.25″
  • Dell 1505 laptop keyboard - 7.25″
  • XO laptop keyboard - 5.125″
• It’s a little slow.  The XO takes about 2 minutes to boot up.  Activities (programs) take about 20 seconds to start.  Inserting a picture into the word processor takes about 10 seconds to open the file dialog.  Internet browsing seems sluggish.  Scrolling through large PDF files also seems sluggish.  However, switching between activities is fast.  See Wesley Fryer’s blog entry about the XO’s performance here.
• The software is still in work.  A big missing feature is suspend and resume (which would obviate the slowness of booting).  Some activities aren’t quite finished.  The good news is that the software is operational, pretty robust, and development is ongoing.  Also note that shortcomings and problems are documented in the OLPC wiki.
• As I only have access to 1 XO, I wasn’t able to evaluate the collaborative capabilities of the XO.  Too bad, they appear to be some of the most interesting and innovative aspects of the laptop.  For the same reason, I can’t say much about the mesh networking.

On with the evaluation!

XO as a platform for learning Scratch

• Positive
  • There is a Scratch activity version for the XO laptop.  It is very easy to install (just navigate to the activities web page and download the Scratch-1.xo file using the Browse activity).
  • The Scratch activity launches quickly.
  • Scratch on the XO looks / acts just like on other platforms.
  • Unlike on other Linux platforms, the Presentation Mode works (see my earlier post here about Scratch on Puppy Linux and Ubuntu).
• Negative
  • The standard Scratch screen has been scaled to fit on the XO.  This creates a real challenge for the eyes.  Buttons (especially on the dialogs) are very small.
  • MIDI sounds don’t work (same as on the other Linux platforms).
  • It is a little sluggish.  Dragging script components can be a little jerky making it hard to place them.
• Overall
  • I would not recommend using the XO as a platform for learning Scratch at this time.  The screen is just too small to support the standard Scratch user interface (in my opinion).  According to the Scratch website, there is a plan to adapt Scratch for the XO (see here).  I’ll be happy to give it another try at that time!

XO as a school laptop for kids

• Positive
  • The XO is small, light, and tough.
  • The XO has long battery life.  If I remember correctly (sorry, I couldn’t find a link), the OLPC web site estimates between 3 hours (backlight on) and 5 hours (backlight off).
  • The XO is usable both inside (with backlight) and outside (reflective screen mode).
  • Good range of constructive activities installed on the computer.
  • Many additional activities available on the OLPC website activities page. 
  • All the activities (and the Operating System as well) are Open Source and available at no cost.
• Negative
  • Slow bootup and activity start times.  No suspend and resume (at this point in time).
  • It’s not fast enough for gaming (such as flash games on the internet) and videos (like You-Tube).  Although these activities are not typically considered to be “school work”, most U.S. students will expect a computer to accommodate such uses.
• Overall
  • I think the XO will prove to be a very good school laptop. 

XO as a backup business computer (way outside the scope of the OLPC project)

• Positive
  • The XO has long battery life. 
• Negative
  • I haven’t been able to get it to connect to my corporate network (WPA, Leap, hidden SSID).   I bet this is possible (or will be in a future system build) but it’s not automatic.
  •  Slow bootup and activity start times.
  • Screen size is pretty small.
  • Keypad size too small for many men. 
• Overall
  • I got quite a bit of ribbing for having the XO at work… it’s small size and color scheme attracts quite a bit of attention.  Not really a positive or a negative - just an observation.
  • I probably won’t be using the XO much as a backup business laptop.

In conclusion, the XO is optimized as a very low cost platform for constructive student activities - particularly in developing countries.  As such, it’s not really optimized for the uses I’ve evaluated.   

• I consider the XO to be a good platform for a school laptop for kids - provided they understand its limitations in games and videos.  It will be an even better school laptop once suspend and resume are implemented.  I’ll know more on this as my daughter uses the XO for school work (assuming she’s able to wrestle it away from me ;-).
• I think the XO may well be a good platform for learning Scratch once Scratch has been optimized for the XO’s screen. 
• The XO is probably not a good platform for a backup business laptop.