Sugar Labs Nonprofit Announces New Version of Sugar Learning Platform

[SugarLabsPR-en]

Sugar Labs Nonprofit Announces New Version of Sugar Learning Platform
for Children, Runs on Netbooks and PCs


Cambridge, MA, March 16, 2009: Sugar Labs announces the availability
of version 0.84 of the Sugar Learning Platform for the One Laptop Per
Child XO-1, classroom PCs, and netbook computers. Designed from the
ground up for children, the Sugar computer environment is used by
almost one-million students aged 5 to 12 in over 40 countries every
school day. This improved version features new collaborative Sugar
Activities and, in response to teacher feedback, the ability to easily
suspend and resume Activities, saving time in the classroom.

Walter Bender, Executive Director of Sugar Labs, commented: "We're
excited about this release, which runs on more PCs than before and has
great new Activities for kids to explore together such as a Mindmap
Activity, a critical-thinking tool used to create diagrams
representing words and ideas around a central keyword, and a Portfolio
Activity, an assessment tool that makes it even simpler for teachers
and parents to review a child's progress. The Sugar Journal, which
provides automatic backup and history of students' work, has new
features to make it easier for students to annotate their work and to
revisit and revise past projects. The new Infoslicer Activity enables
teachers to quickly and easily select web-based content to edit,
package, and distribute as teaching materials. And for older students
curious about how computers work, the View Source function is now
universal to all Activities."

The Sugar Learning Platform is free open-source software; it is
available for download at www.sugarlabs.org. The native interface of
the One Laptop Per Child project's XO-1 in daily use around the globe,
Sugar has been translated into 26 languages with 50 more languages
underway. 24/7 community support is available online. Sugar is
available on major GNU/Linux distributions, recent Apple Macintosh
computers with virtualization, and Windows PCs via a GNU/Linux
liveCD, which doesn't touch the hard disk. Sugar on a Stick, a liveUSB
version designed to simplify classroom use of Sugar, is scheduled for
release in Q3 2009.

The Sugar Learning Platform is part of the permanent collection of the
Museum of Modern Art in New York and was awarded a silver medal in the
International Design Excellence Awards '08. Its innovative
"learning-centric" approach has earned praise from educators
worldwide. Sugar Activities, unique to the platform, allow students to
study and create together; students learn both from the teacher and
from each other.

Mr. Bender commented, "Sugar 0.84 is an important step as we work
toward version 1.0 of Sugar on a Stick, which will greatly simplify
evaluation and use of Sugar in the classroom. Sugar on a Stick will
start Sugar from a simple USB memory stick on nearly any recent
computer from netbooks to desktops, and most older PCs as well,
without interfering with pre-existing software installations."

"As we approach the one-millionth child ?learning to learn' with Sugar
on the OLPC XO-1, we call for volunteers to join us-a challenge to
educate for developers, designers, translators, and deployers," Mr.
Bender said. "In particular, we need testers to help us make Sugar on
a Stick a robust solution available anywhere there is a computer."



For more information:

Sean Daly, Marketing Coordinator
website: http://www.sugarlabs.org
e-mail: pr@sugarlabs.org
telephone: +1-857-254-1100

mailing address:
Sugar Labs
c/o Software Freedom Conservancy
1995 Broadway,17th Floor
New York, NY 10023-5882
USA


Sugar Labs Logo: http://www.ereleases.com/pr/2009-SugarLabs-logo.png


About Sugar Labs

Sugar Labs, a volunteer-driven, nonprofit organization, is a member
project of the Software Freedom Conservancy
(http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org). Originally part of the One
Laptop Per Child project (http://www.laptop.org), Sugar Labs
coordinates volunteers around the world passionate about providing
educational opportunities to children through the Sugar Learning
Platform. Sugar Labs is supported by donations and is seeking funding
to accelerate development. For more information, please visit
http://www.sugarlabs.org.

Sugar Labs is a registered trademark of the Software Freedom
Conservancy. Other names are trademarks of their respective owners.