• Moved to Sugar Labs
• Dedication
• Introduction
• I discovered this discovery
• Discovery: Preparation
• Discovery: Open your XO
• Discovery: Buttons and bits
• Discovery: Turn XO on, and observe
• Discovery: Turn XO on and start trying things
• Discovery: Button functions
• Discovery: Other bits of the XO
• Discovery: Icon Ring
• Discovery: List view
• Discovery: Help
• Discovery: Frame
• Discovery: Wireless networking
• Discovery: Browse
• Discovery: Good questions
• Discovery: Journal
• Discovery: Record
• Discovery: Paint
• Discovery: Write
• Discovery: Collaboration
• Discovery: Frame Again
• The Undiscoverable: Terminal
• Discovery: Utility Menu
• Pause
• Discovery: More Activities
• Discovery: Puzzles
• Discovery: Games
• Discovery: Turtle Art
• Discovery: Calculate
• Discovery: Measure
• Discovery: Etoys
• Discovery: Music
• What do I want to discover?
• Discovering childhood education
• Discovery: Hints
• Resources
• Discovery: Glossary

[view all chapters]

Discovery: Record

Go to the Home View, and find the Record icon. What does it look like to you? Does that fit with the name of the activity, "Record"? Write down your questions.

Click Record. What do you see? Does that make more sense of the icon and name? Do you still have questions about that? Go ahead, write them down.

I will assume that you can tell what this activity does, more or less, whether or not the name and icon help explain that. Can you tell where the camera is on the XO? Not only can you find it, you can prove that that's it with one finger.

What do the toolbar and other controls in the program do? What are they called? Do the names make sense? What about the different areas on the screen? Can you tell what each is for yet?

We hear that Record is a wonderful activity for two-year-olds, who will aim their XOs at everything and everybody in sight, and demand that everybody look at what they did. Of course, we do not expect two-year-olds with no prior experience of cameras or computers to figure all of this out, but we do expect that with many, you won't have to show them twice. How did you do?

Can you take a picture and look at it again? Full-screen? How do you get back out of full-screen view?

Can you take a video? For how long? Does it include sound? Where is the microphone? How can you tell? Do you know where the sound port is for an external microphone?

After you record something and quit the activity, do you know where to find your recordings again?

How do you aim the XO at the subject you are interested in? Does this make sense?

What you cannot discover within Record is that the camera is meant for videoconferencing. This is why it is on the screen side, pointing at the user, not on the outside, pointing at the rest of the world. Some computers, phones, and cameras have a swivel segment holding the lens assembly and sensor chips, so that you can turn them either way. This might have been a good idea for the XO, but it would have added to the cost, which is critical for its intended use by the poorest children in the world.

Later on, we are going to take a video of a ball being dropped from a roof or second-story window, and think about what we get. If you have had a physics course, or read about Galileo, you should have an idea where we will be going with this. If not, no worries. All well be revealed, and not on a test.