(photo by USB Braclet)

Today is Blog Action Day and the topic is Poverty.

My topic choice is the advantages of Sugar on a Stick in providing education and computing to urban poor students. 

Let's talk about Sasha, a fictional 2nd Grader in Dorchester.

Sasha's school uses  a USB device in the form of a bracelet. There are different colors and different words printed on them.  Sasha has a Yellow one that says "Knowledge is Power"; it also has a logo and in smaller print "Acme Corp Cares about Kids".  Acme pays for the USB bracelets and the school server. They are only $5 each in bulk and many schools choose not to have advertising but Sasha's school feels that is money the school can spend elsewhere and the connection to the Acme Corp has also lead to Acme Employees volunteering once a month to read to the kids.

Sasha lives in a community rich in connections.  Mom is not always home but Grandma lives nearby, as well as aunts, uncles and friends and Dad is only a bus ride away.  Sasha does not always go home to the same place, but all the places he stays have a computer.  Many people in his community had computers before the School's program, and for those who didn't the School had older donated computers from Acme. Sasha  also lives near a branch libary and a community ICT center and sometimes he goes there.   Sasha goes to an afterschool program 2 days a week located at the YMCA.

In the beginning the adults in Sasha's life were concened about a child so young using the Internet but the information from the school showed them how they and the teacher could see everything that Sasha did when he was using Sugar.  The Sugar interface is colorful, easy and fun and the adults in Sasha's life now enjoy looking over his shoulder to see what he is doing in School.

At any of these places Sasha can use his USB Key to load up Sugar.  Sugar has his homework; the teacher almost never sends home books or worksheets anymore.  Sasha does not really like doing homework, but he does like connecting with his friends.  When the computer he is on has internet he sees an icon for everyone in his class.  Students often do homework together because everything in Sugar can be shared with other students in the network.  They can play and create games too.  Sasha loves the paint program and his Grandma thinks he is a gifted artist.  Today's homework is to work in a team to make a new math matching game using pictures the kids create themselves, then play it.

In Feburary, Sasha moves from Dorchester to Alston. Urban kids move between districts a great deal and in the past the new teacher would have almost no information; often the school system can't even keep track of the fact it's the same student.  This time Sasha brings his bracelet to his new school. The new teacher has access to his journal and can see all of his work for the year.  From the information on the bracelet the school can also easily match up the student records.

The internet isn't working yet in Sasha's new apartmet. He really misses working with other kids but he can still do his homework assignments, including reading a book the teacher assigned that was automatically downloaded to his bracelet.

In March Sasha loses his USB bracelet.  The school secretary puts his name into the computer and initializes another one for him. The software on the server turns off the old one, if someone finds it and turns it in it can be reused.  When Sasha is next at an internet connected computer, for instance in his classroom, his old files are downloaded and he has exactly the same environment.

Mobility is a key issue for urban schooling.  Even when laptops get down to $100 schools will have to track them far more carefully then a $5 USB device and at that point the USB braclet will probably be down to $1.  Sasha's computer access is community based and distributed; there is no single point of failure. Many different groups can provide computers in different ways without a lot of coordination and as Sasha gets more access so does everyone else in his community.