Frequently Asked Questions
  1. What is Sugar Labs? +
    Sugar Labs, a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation, serves as a support base and gathering place for the community of educators and software developers who want to extend the Sugar platform and who have been creating Sugar-compatible applications.
  2. What is the mission of Sugar Labs? +
    The overarching mission of Sugar Labs is to support the Sugar platform through software development, and community outreach and support. The purpose of the Sugar platform is provide a software and content environment that enhances learning. Towards this end, Sugar is designed to facilitate learners to “explore, express, debug, and critique.”
  3. What are the principles that guide Sugar Labs? +
    Sugar Labs subscribes to principle that learning thrives within a culture of freedom of expression, hence it has a natural affinity with the free software movement.
  4. What makes Sugar different from other educational software platforms? +
    The Sugar interface, in its departure from the desktop metaphor for computing, is the first serious attempt to create a user interface that is based on both cognitive and social constructivism: learners should engage in authentic exploration and collaboration. It is based on three very simple principles about what makes us human: (1) everyone is a teacher and a learner. (2) humans by their nature are social beings. (3) humans by their nature are expressive. These are the pillars of a user experience for learning.
  5. Who can use Sugar and how do they benefit? +
    Sugar is a free software project, freely available to anyone who wants to use it or improve upon it. The Sugar platform was designed for young children (K–6), but it is finding applicability in a number of different venues where the simplicity of design maps is an enabler, e.g., mobile applications, the elderly, etc. Sugar will engage even the youngest learner in the use of computation as a powerful 'thing to think with.' They will quickly become proficient in using the computer as a tool to engage in authentic problem-solving. Sugar users develop skills that help them in all aspects of life.
  6. Are there any platforms where Sugar runs on? +
    The Sugar Learning Platform is a leading learning platform that began in the famous One Laptop Per Child project. It is used every day by nearly 3 million children around the world. Sugarizer is a web implementation of the platform and runs on every device - from tiny Raspberry Pi computers to small Android and iOS phones to tablets and to laptops and desktops. It has 3 broad components: (1) Web Application: a web application that runs in modern web browsers. (2) Application: an installable app for every operating system. (3) Server: a nodejs/express server for applications to connect with. Enjoy the experience and help us reach every child on every device in every country.