The application has been tested with all major browsers on all main platforms.  MS IE v.8 is not recommended (sound delay issue).

Message to all Participants

As the creator and developer of the software, I’d like to invite you all to a discussion. We can start it now or simply wait until May 16th.

“Learning Now v1” should only be considered – for now – in order to visualize a concept which I feel is needed when bringing computer equipment to young people or adults in need of training (such as alphabetization, literacy, general training courses, high tech courses, etc…).  We all want for these computers to be used to bring people together and closer to each other, to learn about other cultures and systems and to establish links and relationships with people from their own community, surroundings and many other communities worldwide.

We want these computers to be used to preserve the people’s culture and environments, to archive their knowledge – savoir et savoir faire – and their art.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to load on an XO or on any computer – full of dust somewhere (or not!) – a piece of software that allows to do just that?  Educate, offer ways to open up to the world, to archive cultures, and to be able to evaluate the progress of each young one, to modify content when the response is not as positive as desired, to establish a global network where every single unit it connected?

Even the best computer fully loaded with all the best software won’t get us very far if we do not find a way to get the young users – via a “central nervous system” – to receive the education needed and to use the machine to create active and positive projects for themselves and their community. We need some piece of software here to get all these pieces linked together to hold their hand and guide them step by step until they can fly on their own. We also need to load the best GNU multimedia software available.

I’ve been working on this concept for 4-5 years – kind of my “personal obsession” – and the software that came out of my work – Learning Now v1 “ is offering a possible solution – although still not perfect nor completed. With it, you can:

- Use any type of computer (Windows, Linux or Apple).
- Create interactive Training Courses and Presentations of all types and for all ages (5 to 90 years old) – with tracking system of progress.
- Build Free Internet or Intranet Training Centers.
- Distribute courses and presentations on the web or on CDs to reach those who need free education worldwide.
- Create Electronic Community Centers (“local” web sites) filled with collections of cultural archives, story books, catalogs and interactive training courses developed and updated with the support of local educators and reflecting your own cultural identity.
- Easily adapt existing single or series of training courses to other languages, other cultural environment, respecting local belief and traditions.
- Motivate local community groups to join their efforts to preserve [digitize] their own culture, and to offer high tech training courses to young adolescents and adults to learn all the software tools required to feed the archive, personalize existing courses, etc…

I invite you to think about this and to get together at the SugarCamp for a brainstorm session. The more brains the better!

I like to think often that “there are no problems, only solutions”. Team work is a very powerful tool. And when one needs to move a big mountain, it’s easy when moving one stone at a time.

SugarCamp Link here.

Cheers and see you à La Cantine,

Fabrice

The web site has been updated with new information and improved layout.

Learning Now v1 welcomes the new Library of Endangered Languages’ Project at http://endangeredLanguagesLibrary.org, an ambitious humanitarian project that will bring life to a new Web Service which task will be to link together all available resources on disappeared and endangered languages, currently spread all over the Internet. This Center will bring new value and interest to all of these resources and offer a massive library of resources that can be integrated into educational courses and electronic booklets, such as Languages Courses, Literacy, regional culture, Arts, etc.

The demo and the site now require Adobe Flash v.10 or higher. I am currently updating and recompiling the two modules to support Adobe Flash CS4 new features.

On December 16, 2008, I finished recompiling all pieces of both modules with CS4 and for Flash Player 10. I also reorganized all the project files for easy sharing with other developers.

Since all files have been recompiled with Flash CS4, I’ve noticed a problem playing sounds (streamed MP3s) with the new version. Sounds are no longer in synch with the help figure and start too late in general. I am running more tests and will upload the new version when all tests are successful.

Update January 9th, 2009: After running many tests and trying many different procedures to load sounds, I discovered that there is a bug with Flash CS4 compiler. When a file is compiled with Flash CS3, the sound delay does not appear. However, if the same file is compiled with Flash CS4, a sound delay is noticeable. This is especially noticeable on older models of computers with slower processor.

Update January 18th, 2009: The solution – for now – has been to compile all the files with Flash CS4, except for the file that loads the application, which is still compiled with Flash CS3. I am running the last tests and will upload the new version shortly.

I am preparing a report on this subject. I will present it here as soon as it’s ready. Meanwhile, if you have a few advices and/or information that could be useful to share, do not hesitate to let me know.

Although the Internet offers a huge amount of information about Linux, I could not find any simple explanations on the Internet to install multiple Linux distribution packages on a USB disk and make it a bootable disk, I decided to share with you what I learnt. I hope you will find this information useful. Read the complete report here.

For MS Windows (98, XP and Vista), the CD includes a Startup menu which offers the following options:

• Installation of the software on user’s computer. The Installer was created using “Inno Setup”. It follows Microsoft Windows Industry standards including the creation of a Desktop and Quick Launch shortcuts, and an “Uninstaller”.
• Option to run software directly from CD. With this option, you can run Easy Skanking v1 without installing it on your computer. This requires a fast CD or DVD drive.
• Direct access to the Free Education Center web site.

CD Startup Menu

This new CD offers a bilingual menu and installer (English and French).

Easy Skanking v1 installer

The CD includes as well all files and information needed to install the software on an Intranet or Internet web site supporting php and mySQL.

Also included is the new Easy Skanking v1 Applications Launcher which gives the user fast and easy access to the software main applications.

Easy Skanking v1 Launcher

This CD is offered to all NGOs which do not have a broadband connection to the Internet. The content of the CD is identical to the demo offered online.

Microsoft Vista users are invited to read this special note [pdf document].

For more information about this CD and how to receive a free copy, please contact the author.