To New Beginnings

It has been a fun time at RIT, but the chapter of my undergraduate career is now being closed. With that in mind, I will have time to focus on my personal projects. For those who have been following me, the intent of this blog was mainly to document projects that I found interesting that are going on in school. Now that I am leaving school, I will be looking to change the direction of my blog or even creating a new one that focuses on more of a broader spectrum of ideas and topics. But, it should be known, that I will not stop blogging. I enjoy documenting my life, and having the ability to share new things that I have learned. With the new skills that I have obtained at RIT, I feel empowered to move forward in life and make something of myself.


This post is to celebrate and share that potential for a new beginning, and to ask you all to please bare with me, as I do some "web" housekeeping.


Till then,
Ihudiya

Creating a Wiki

Today I began working on a new side project. It's a wiki! I am using a template called TikiWiki. I decided to host the wiki myself instead of using a free platform as it would be a great learning experience and I liked the ability to have total control when editing the wiki. My target users are teachers, parents, and students. The purpose of the site will be to post lesson plans or activities students can use when working with a tiny computer called a Pico Cricket. As a Women in Computing Ambassador I was responsible for making mini games with Pico Crickets. Making the games were fun, but I began to realize that there wasn't a specific source that included plenty of options to use the Pico Cricket. So here I am today creating wiki to do just that! Once the wiki is set-up I will be emailing schools and websites that have posted one or two lesson plans and ask if they can post to my site. Collaboration is key, so I am excited to see where this venture will go. I will keep you posted :D

10 Things You Should Know When In an RIT OLPC Course

Here is a list of 10 Tips in order to be successful in OLPC at RIT.

This is in no particular order:

1. Know the basic commands to freenode
2. Know who Richard Stallman is
3. Become familiar with the history OLPC
4. Learn the basic commands to build a wiki page
5. Know how to write an email [that can motivate and is understandable]
6. Become familiar with Python
7. Keep HCI in mind when designing a program
8. Be persistent
9. Be patient
10. Work Hard

10.1 Above all have fun and gain from this experience

Created by the Blocku Team: http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Blocku

Blocku

Have you heard of Blocku! My Team in OLPC is currently working on a game called Blocku. Blocku is a puzzle game geared towards 4th grade students around the world. Students have the opportunity to play the game independently, and with friends. Teachers can use it to evaluate learned concepts in their classroom. It is easy to learn, and we have been working hard these past 10 weeks to present our project. From creating the name, creating lesson plans, and coding the material, the Blocku team (Mark, Fran, Ariel, and myself) have been working hard to bring this game to fruition. While we have a long path ahead of us, we have made many achievements this quarter.

Check us out sometime on our wiki: http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Blocku