LubutoLiteracy Lessons Production Notes for Lubuto Volunteers_v1-1

8/3/2019 LubutoLiteracy Lessons Production Notes for Lubuto Volunteers_v1-1

1/43

LubutoLiteracyEtoys Lessons Production Notes for Lubuto Volunteers

LubutoLiteracyEtoysLessons Production Notesfor Lubuto Volunteers

Doc v1.1, November 22, 2011

Mike Lee, Sugar Labs DC, [email protected], [email protected]

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... ...........1

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ .....2

SECTION 1: PREPARING TO WORK WITH THE ETOYS FILES AND AUDIO RECORDINGS

.....................................................................................................................................................................2

SECTION 2: PERFORMING THE TEMPLATE COPY PROCESS ................................................. ..6

SECTION 3: UPLOADING THE COMPLETED FILES TO DROPBOX .........................................31

SECTION 4: ONGOING SUPPORT .................................................................................................... .43

SECTION 5: DOCUMENT CHANGE HISTORY .................................................................. ..... ..... ...43

1
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


2/43


Introduction

The instructions that follow will guide you through the process of adding finalelements to the 700 lesson files that were in development in Lusaka, Zambiasince early 2010. The lessons were developed by Lubuto staff, volunteers,teachers and the street children using the Squeak Etoys media authoringsoftware that is on every one of the 2.5 million One Laptop per Child (OLPC)XO laptops deployed around the world. Because Etoys runs on Windows,Macintosh and Linux, the lessons will be accessible on virtually all computersand laptops.

Each of the 100 unique lessons has been authored in seven Zambianlanguages. Every Etoys lesson file consists of a book object with 2 or more

pages of illustrated language literacy material. The task you will perform willbe to copy the book object into a new Etoys template file, import a pre-recorded audio file of spoken language, associate the audio file with a playbutton and resave the template with a new file name.

You will work on either a Windows XP, Windows 7 or Macintosh OS Xcomputer. It is not necessary to have a souped-up computer as the data sizeof each of the lesson assets is pretty small.

Section 1: Preparing to work with the Etoys files and audio

recordings

The following materials are provided in your clasp envelope:

A paper copy of these notes

A paper printout from Excel of the inventory of the lesson files

A CD-ROM containing:o Windows and Macintosh installers for the current version of Etoys

(4.1.1)o 700 Etoys lesson files (with the .pr file extension)o

700 .aiff format audio recordingso The Etoys template file (with the .pr file extension)

There is only one version of the CD-ROM as it contains the necessary assetsto produce all 700 lesson files. You will copy off the files assigned to you asindicated on the Excel printout.

If working with a CD-ROM disc is not possible, arrangements can be made for

2


3/43


you to download the files as a large ZIP archive.

Fig. 1: The top two directory levels of the CD-ROM.

The steps to prepare your machine for working with the lesson file assetsare:

1.) Insert the CD and open the Etoys_Installer_2011 folder (Fig. 1).2.) Double-click on the Etoys-4.1.1.exe installer if you are working on a

PC (Windows) or the Etoys-4.1.1.mpkg if you are on a Mac. Click

through the installer dialog boxes and you should have the Etoysprogram installed in your Macintosh Applications folder or WindowsPrograms folder. The installer will create an Etoys folder in yourDocuments folder.

3.) Find your name in the printout of file assignments from Excel and copythe 35 or so .PR files that have been assigned to you from thePROJECTS folder on the CD-ROM into the newly created Etoys folder inyour computers Documents folder. Though your assigned files maycome from two different sub-folders in the PROJECTS folder, put themall on the top level inside the Etoys documents folder.

4.) Copy the similarly named .aiff audio recording files from the

RECORDINGS folder on the CD-ROM to the top level of the Etoysdocuments folder (Fig. 2).

5.) Copy the Lubuto Template file.6.) Start Etoys to make sure it is installed properly. The Etoys start screen

will present a toolbar at the top, a workspace below with some largebuttons and an animated red car (Fig. 3).

3


4/43


Fig. 2: View of the Etoys directory with some Etoys lessons (.pr files), audiorecordings (.aiff files) and the Lubuto Template (.pr file) copied in from theCD-ROM. Note the default Squeaklets folder which should be left alone.

4


5/43


Fig. 3: The Etoys 4.1 start screen.

For the purposes of this production task, youll only have to be concernedwith, at most, four of the buttons in the toolbar (Fig. 4). You will also access

two pop-open flaps with production tools and activate small halo buttonsaround objects in the template. Flaps and halos will be covered in the nextsection.

Fig. 4: Etoys main toolbar-- The Open, Save/Save as and Quit buttons arethe buttons youll use in the main toolbar for the production work in Etoys.Optionally, you can click on the Toggle Screen button to fill your monitorwith the Etoys workspace and black out everything else.

5


6/43


Section 2: Performing the template copy process

Next Ill describe the cyclical steps that comprise the bulk of time youll bespending on this project. Lets dive into a series of screenshots depictingwhat one file work cycle looks like.

Fig. 5: Launch Etoys 4.1.1 and click the Open Project icon in the maintoolbar at upper right. The Load A Projectdialog will appear. Click to selectthe file Lubuto_Template_v7.014.pr. Click OK.

6


7/43


Fig. 6: Next, well focus on changing a setting on the green Production Toolsflap. You also see the purple Sound Buttons flap that will be used later. (Theorange Lubuto flap at upper left will be left alone throughout this process. Itcontains the project credits and Creative Commons declaration.)

7


8/43


Fig. 7: Click on the Production Tools flap to open it. The red arrow in the flapcalls attention to the Load button that well use later.

8


9/43


Fig. 8: Control-click on Mac (right mouse click on Windows) on the green tabof the flap to exposed the Halo of buttons for the flap tab.

9


10/43


Fig. 9: Note the white Menu button in the halo that provides access to manyattribute settings for the flap tab.

10


11/43


Fig. 9: Note the black Pick up button. This is a critical click target as it shouldbe activated by Control-click (right mouse click) and used any time an objectis moved around the Etoys workspace.

11


12/43


Fig. 10: Control-click (right mouse click) on the flap tab to expose the halo.Click (normal click, not Control-click) on the white Menu button as in Fig. 9to show all the choices. Click the shared by all projects checkbox. This willmake this flap appear on subsequent files open during this session in Etoys.Ignore the soundReverb button at lower right. That is there for diagnosticpurposes.

12


13/43


Fig. 11: Click on the Open Project button at upper right in the main toolbar

to show the Load A Project dialog box. Select a .pr file you wish towork with. Keep track of files youve completed on the Excel inventoryprintout. Click OK to load the file. NOTE: The tab for shared Production Toolsflap jumped to the far right. This is OK.

13


14/43


Fig. 12: Now the Etoys lesson file is loaded behind the shared flap.

Fig. 13:Control-click (right mouse click) once in the light grey bar at the top

of the book object (either side of the black page turn arrows) to activate thehalo buttons. We will be using the black Pick up halo button for the bookobject.

14


15/43


Fig. 14: While continuing to press the Pick up button, drag the book objectdown into the Production Tools flap to store it there. Make sure the Pick upbutton is inside the flap before releasing. As in the figure, be sure that someof the image is still showing inside the flap or you wont be able to grab itagain.

15


16/43


Fig. 15: Click the Open Project button in the main tool bar again. In theLoad A Project dialog, select the Lubuto Template file again and click OK toopen it behind the shared flap.

16


17/43


Fig. 16: Its OK that you see two Production Tools flaps (and OK if you dont).The one with the tab at far right should have the stored book object.

17


18/43


Fig. 17: Control-click (right mouse click) on the book objects grey bar toactivate the halo. Press on the Pick up button and begin to drag the bookobject out into the Lubuto template.

Fig. 18:Continue to drag the book object by its Pick up button towards thetop of the Etoys workspace and completely out of the shared flap.

18


19/43


Fig. 19: Center the book object under the Etoys main tool bar and click todrop the object. Click in the gray to clear the halo.

Fig. 20: Control-click (right mouse click) to reactivate the halo and select

19


20/43


send to back in the pop-out menu of white Menu button. This shouldensure that the Lubuto tab at upper left stays visible.

Fig. 21: In either of the two Production Tools flaps, click on the green Loadbutton in the Sound Library to open a select file dialog. Only the .aiff audiorecording files will be listed. Select the audio file that corresponds to thislesson. The Sound Library does not update with the new file. This is a bug.

20


21/43


Fig. 22:Next, click on the purple Sound Buttons tab to open it. An array of 10pre-configured buttons and watcher panels will appear. Decide on a buttonwith a color scheme that compliments the lesson artwork. In this case, wewill select the dark blue btn_sky button third down the right column.

21


22/43


Fig. 23: In the watcher panel labeled btn_sky to the right of the desiredbutton, click on the chirp tile to pop-up a list of available sounds. Selectthe audio file loaded previously.

Fig. 24: Then, Control-click (right mouse click) the button to activate its haloand drag it to the upper left by its Pick up button.

22


23/43


Fig. 25: Position the button in the upper left corner of the book object. Theplacement can vary somewhat as you need to make sure button doesntcover any lesson text.

Fig. 26: Here is the sound button in place. In some cases, if the button

23


24/43


overlaps the book objects light grey navigation bar, the button may appearagain on subsequent book pages of the lesson. That is OK.

Fig. 27: One after another, Control-click (right mouse click) on each of theflaps along the bottom to expose their halos and click on the pink X halobuttons to delete the flaps. Dont worry, well be doing a Publish (Save) asso the template wont be destroyed.

24


25/43


Fig. 28:Press and hold on the Publish (save) button.

Fig. 29: Select publish as in the options menu.

25


26/43


Fig. 30: A dialog titled Please describe this project will appear. Enter theproject name based on the name of the original lesson (refer to your Excelprintout), butomit the parens and replace the blank spaces withunderscores.Do not add the .pr file extension as Etoys does that.

Fig. 31: Leave the other fields as they are and Click OK. The other fields holdmetadata specifically for uploading the file to the Squeakland (Etoys)Foundation web site, which we will not be doing.

26


27/43


Fig. 32: In the next Publish This Project dialog, click Save.

Fig. 33: Then click Yes in the next pop-up menu to save all changes in thechange set.

27


28/43


Fig. 34: Click on the Open Project button in the main tool bar to load theLubuto Template again.

28


29/43


Fig. 35:The Lubuto Template file will reload with the two shared ProductionTools flaps.

Fig. 36: Etoys auto-versioning of file names when saved multiple times.

Note that Etoys will append a three-digit version number (Fig. 36) beforethe .pr file extension if you end up resaving a lesson file. Simply submit thehighest version number and check the date too. This is of course handy ifyou need to roll back to an earlier version.

To summarize

The process for working on the lesson files at a high level:

29


30/43


1. Get the template ready for a work sessionConfigure Etoys file preferences for the particular work session (seteach time you open run Etoys).

2. Open the Lubuto template file from within Etoys.3. Set the Production Tools flap to shared.

4. Move the book object from a lesson file into the LubutotemplateOpen your first lesson file.

5. Grab the book object and drag it into the shared Production Tools flap.Send it to the back.

6. Open the Lubuto template file again.7. Drag the book object into the template and fit evenly .

8. Import the audio file and configure the sound buttonLoad the audio recording file of the same name using the Sound

Library palette in the Production Tools flap.9. Switch to the Sound Buttons flap and pick a button.10. Set the previously loaded audio file to the button and drag the button

to the upper left of the book page.

11. Clean up and save as with new file nameDelete all the flaps and Publish as (Save as) with the new filename.

12. Open the template again to get ready to work on the next file.

As with any process, especially in an unfamiliar software program, it looks

like a lot. But after working through a couple files, youll pick up speedquickly. Im guessing that cycling through these steps 35 times with careshould take 3 4 hours.

Here are a few tips to ensure stability when doing production work on yourcomputer:

1. Before starting a session with the Lubuto files, its best to restart yourmachine fresh.

2. Besides Etoys, keep the number of other programs running at a

minimum.

3. Be sure to set the Production Tools flap to shared in your template.

4. Be very deliberate when clicking on the buttons in Etoys. The bookobject has a bug which causes it to easily stick to your cursor. (Clickagain to unstick.)

30


31/43


5. If you if you disrupt the layout your lesson file or accidentally deletesomething, its best to quit out and start over.

6. Remember to press and hold the Publish button to Publish as whensaving a completed template file.

7. Good music helps.

8. Be sure to back up your files!

Section 3: Uploading the completed files to Dropbox

When all your files are done, we recommend returning them using the freeDropbox service. Dropbox is a great way to share folders full of files with

others, even if they dont have a paid account. In addition to the web siteaccess, which well show below, there are Dropbox apps for virtually everydesktop and mobile operating system. You may already be a user!

The free account offers 2gb of storage and there are various paid plans:http://www.dropbox.com/pricing

If you dont want to use Dropbox, well work with you to decide on anotherway to transfer the files.

Below, well go through the steps to get a free Dropbox web account.

31
http://www.dropbox.com/pricinghttp://www.dropbox.com/pricing


32/43


Fig. 37: Heres the Dropbox web site athttp://www.dropbox.com before sign-up or log in.

Fig. 38:Click on the Log in dropdown menu. Click on the Create an accountlink.

32
http://www.dropbox.com/http://www.dropbox.com/


33/43


Fig. 39: Click on the Create an Account tab.

Fig. 40: Fill in the requested information including a valid email address.

33


34/43


Fig. 41: The web site will immediately start a download of the Dropboxinstaller into your downloads folder. This installer is NOT necessary for thepurposes of this project as well just use the web interface. If you dont planto stick with Dropbox, delete the installer.

Fig. 42: Dismiss this installer dialog.

34


35/43


Fig. 43: Here is the Dropbox console once logged in.

Fig. 44: Click on the Files tab.

35


36/43


Fig. 45: Click on the New Folder button.

Fig. 46: Enter a folder name with the word Lubuto followed by a hyphen andYOUR last name. Click Create.

36


37/43


Fig. 47: Youll see an empty folder page. Click on the Upload button.

Fig. 48:A dialog box will open with a button to choose some files from yourhard drive.

37


38/43


Fig. 49: Navigate to your Documents >Etoys folder and shift-select the filesyou want top upload. It may be best to sort by date.

38


39/43


Fig. 50: Click Start Upload.

Fig. 51: Dropbox will confirm successful upload and list the uploaded files inthe remote folder.

39


40/43


Fig. 52: Click on the Sharing tab.

Fig. 53: The dialog to share the folder will appear. Click the radio button next

to share an existing folder. Click Next.

40


41/43


Fig. 54: Choose the Lubuto folder (labeled with YOUR last name) you createdto share.

Fig. 55: Enter Mike Lees email address: [email protected].

41


42/43


Fig. 56: At the top level of Dropbox, you can open a menu next to the Lubutofolder the change your shared folder options.

Fig. 57: Mike will receive an email with a link to your shared folder.

42


43/43


Section 4: Ongoing support

Again, feel free to contact me via email at [email protected]. I checkthat account frequently every day. If you run into an unexpected problem,its better to pause, take a note on your spreadsheet printout, and contact

me rather than trying to figure out Etoys.

I will make this handout available from a Dropbox public link. I would also behappy to share the electronic versions of lesson inventory spreadsheets.

I will likely send one or two email updates to the entire group of volunteers,especially if anyone discovers a shortcut in the process or an error in mydocumentation.

Section 5: Document change history

v1.0 - November 20, 2011

Paper copies of the this document printed and distributed to Lubutovolunteers at St. Pauls Church.

v1.1 - November 22, 2011

Added this document change history section.

Implemented caption styles and cross referencing for the figures.

Fixed typo in document header. On p. 3 of v1.0, in the part about steps to prepare your machine, I had

omitted mention of copying the Lubuto Template file.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]