ICT

The keyboard is the part of a computer whose role is to receive keystrokes as text,
characters and other commands into a computer or any other similar device.
The figure below shows an XO laptop keyboard

Here is a list of special keys found on an XO laptop keyboard and their roles functions:








                                                                                 Table 1. 1. XO Laptop special keyboard keys 

Those buttons play the role of the left and right buttons of a mouse.

and a List view mode in which the installed Activities are presented in a list.


Figure 1. 3.The Sugar interface main window with activities icons

Click on my settings,

Figure 1. 5. The My Setting option of the Sugar interface

Once My Setting is clicked on choose Switch Desktop in the window that will appear


             Figure 1. 6. My Setting main options

below that will appear:



                                                   Figure 1. 7. Switch to GNOME window
Click on Restart Now

The Gnome interface that will appear after restarting will look like in the image below:

• Go in the Gnome interface
•  Go to applications,
• In the drop down list that will appears choose and click on Office,
•  Choose and click on Abiword. The window below will pop up:

Figure 1. 10. Application Places window from where to start Abiword

                               Figure 1. 11. AbiWord main window

B. Opening, saving and renaming an Abiword document

B.1. Opening a document

To open an Abiword go through these steps:

• Click on the Open option available under the File menu,
•  Browse in the files/folders in order to choose which Abiword file to open. 
• The Abiword document to open has to have a .doc document
• Double click the located file to open it

B.2. Saving a document

Once an AbiWord user has written text in the Abiword main window, there is

a need to save so that the text written does not get lost once the XO laptop is switched off.

To save an Abiword document do the following:

• Click the File menu
•  Select ‘Save As’ option or click on the Save icon,
• Write the file name
•  Choose the folder in where to save the file
• Then choose the file extention which is by default an AbiWord extension (. abw; zabw; abw.gz) and click Save

                   Figure 1. 12. Window for saving a file in AbiWord

B.3. Renaming a document

Renaming a file requires first to locate it and once it is located select it then

do a Right Click and choose Rename in the drop down list that will appear.

Write the new name of the file and press the Enter Key.

Application activity 1.3

      1) Open Abiword program and write an essay on the history of XO 

                laptops and save it under your name on the desktop

1.4. Programming for children

1.4.1. Turtle Art

ACTIVITY 1.4:

Write a Turtle Art program to draw:

              a. A rectangle

              b. A pentagon

              c. Letter B

Turtle Art is a program found in an XO laptop with which one can draw colorful artwork by 

dragging and dropping programming blocks which fit into one another in order to create a Turtle Art program.

 The artwork or shapes are drawn by repeating instructions and conditionals following instructions.

To open Turtle Go to home page of the Sugar interface and click on turtle

art icon        then select it and click on Start or start new. The Turtle Art main

window will appear

A. Elements of turtle art window

The turtle Art environment has got different tools including toolbars, palettes,

A.1. Turtle Art Tool bars:

This has all the tools that a Turtle Art programmer uses in order to assemble

instructions which create an Art program.

When each of the toolbars is clicked on, a number of available instructions is

displayed. The programmer will choose one or another instruction depending

on what is to be produced as an output of the program.

A.2. Turtle Art palettes

There is a number of palettes used for program construction. Programming

in Turtle involves adding blocks to a program by dragging an instruction from

the palette to the main area. Blocks can also be deleted by being dragged

back to the palette. The main principle is that the program blocks have to fit

into one another.

The main palettes found in the Turtle Art are displayed on the image below:

A.2.1. Instructions available for each palette

B. Example of different instruction use in Turtle Art programs

1.A program to draw a Square

A square is a geometric shape with four sides of equal size and four angles of equal size.

 The window below shows program blocks and output for a program to draw a square.

             Figure 1. 16. Program to draw a Square

Program interpretation

• The program starts with the Start instruction symbolizing the beginning of the program
•  The forward command that follows instructs the turtle to move for a specified distance (300)
• The Right command instructs the Turtle to turn right by 90 degree
•  The two instructions are repeated four times to draw the four lines

The program in the screenshot above can be rewritten by using Flow Palette

instructions to remove instruction repetition

     Figure 1. 17. Square program with Flow Palette instructions

2. A program to draw letter A

The screenshot below contains program blocks and its output which is letter

A. Blocks have been assembled by dragging them from the palette. Blocks

that can work together have gaps that can fit into one another. Blocks from

the same palette are of the same color.

      Figure 1. 18. Program to draw letter A

Program interpretation

•  The program starts by cleaning everything
• Then the screen is filled with a light blue color by the use of Fill Screen command
•  The line to be drawn is made to have a bigger size by the Set Pen Size
• command which is set at 10. The Set Color command changes the line’s color
• The Turtle start drawing under the instruction of the Forward command
• which instructs the Turtle to move by a distance specified in its arguments
• The Arc command will create part of a circle by specifying the angle size and the radius of the circle. After drawing this circle, the turtle will move forward as instructed by the Forward command that follow the arc command
•  The Pen Up will pick up the pen so as not to continue to draw
•  The back command will make the turtle return using the same route. As the pen is already up nothing will be drawn
• The pen down will make the pen ready for drawing. This is followed by the right command which will to make the turtle turn to the right with an 90 degree angle
• The Forward command will then draw the horizontal line found in the letter A

Note: For Turtle to draw and shape on the screen the pen needs to be down by using the Pen Down instruction block. 

The Turtle Art pen may be not down as a result to the previously run program which made the pen up

Application activity 1.4

1. Using Turtle Art program write a program

     a. To create a star on a green background

     b. To write your name

2.

1.4.2. Scratch

ACTIVITY 1.5:

1. Start Scratch program by clicking on its icon located on the Sugar

interface, open two preexisting examples and execute them

     a. Summarize your observation on the program you have opened

     b. Referring to the observed examples explain the role of Scratch and what one can do with it

A. Starting Scratch

Scratch is a block-based visual programming language and online community

targeted primarily at children.

To start Scratch go to the Sugar interface and click on the Scratch icon

then choose Start new (or Start) or just click on the Scratch icon. The

window below will appear as the Scratch home page:

                 Figure 1. 19. Scratch main Window

The Scratch interface has three main sections: a stage area, blocks palette, 

and a coding area to place and arrange the blocks into runnable scripts. 

The Scratch main window has these menu: Motion, Control, Looks Sensing, Sound Operators, Pen, Variables.

An open program can be edited using the three main options to name Scripts which is used to write instructions, 

Costume used to choose a Sprite or an image to use in a program and Sound for adding sound to be played while

the program is being executed.

B. Object animations

Objects are animated using programs that are created by dragging and

putting together program blocks while in the Script area. Before animating

an object first it is chosen as a costume. The common costume is Sprite but

this can be replaced by a custom made costume.

To choose a costume while in the scratch program Click on Costume, then

Import and browse folders for the new image to use as a costume. When

the programmer wants to have many images that will follow each other as

they are being played, it will be necessary to click on Import and browse for

those images many times

Figure 1. 20.Illustration of steps for choosing a costume image

A chosen image can be edited in the paint editor or copied so as to have many same costumes.

A sound can be added to the image by clicking on the Sound menu then Import and again browse

 the different sound available in the XO laptop this sound can also be recorded by clicking on the Record menu 

next to the Import menu. The window for importing sounds is much like the one above.

The table below shows the different options available with costumes and sound

Example1:

Consider a scenario in which we want to have an aeroplane in the air which

is in motion and making the usual aeroplane noise and when this aeroplane

is clicked on it changes the direction by 30 degree.

Step 1: choose the costume by clicking on Costume then choose the Import option then browse for an aeroplane image

Step 2: Choose the sound to be produced by the aeroplane in motionpreferably choose an aeroplane sound. 

To do this go to Sound click on Import

Step 3: now that the costume and sound have been chosen, arrange code

blocks depending on what is expected as an output from the program. In this

case simply the aeroplane will move and will produce aeroplane sound.

Figure 1. 21. Scratch program to animate an aeroplane

Program interpretation:

• The program above is ready to be executed after the up arrow key is

               hit and the plane moves to the specified coordinates (x=-200, y=-150).

• The plane gets inclined at 80 degrees and waits for the “1” key to be hit

            after at least one second. When “1” keys is hit the plane ascends

• The plane roars (plays sound) and move forward
• The plane is inclined at an angle of 90 degree as the space key gets hit
•  Now that the Down Arrow is hit, the plane gets an inclination of 100 (descent-landing)

C. Drawing geometric shapes

Geometric shapes are drawn using the Pen menu which is made to make

motions by using the Pen’s own instructions and those found in other

menu namely Motion, Looks, Sound, Control, Sensing, Operators and Variables.

C.1. Example of a program to draw a Triangle

A triangle is a geometric shape having three sides and three angles meaning

that each angle has 120 degrees. The angle size here is important as it

is specified to set the turn angle of the pen. When a wrong angle is set, a wrong shape is drawn.

C.1.1.Program interpretation

Before writing this program, a dot has been set as a new sprite as the current

sprite cannot be used, the changing of the sprite has been done manually; it is not in the codes.

• The Set Pen Color to instruction changed the color of the pen, in the above program the color has been changed to blue
•  The Set Pen Size increases the size of the pen or decreases it
•  Sides can be drawn by using the Move and Turn instructions and this must be done many times depending on the number of sides to draw.

To avoid that a program be too long the Repeat instruction found in the Control menu is used.

C.2. Examples of other geometric shapes

D. Background setting

A background is an image or scene that constitute a setting to the main figure or objects. 

The outputs of the programs so far seen are on a white area, this area can be of a different color, can have an image 

embedded in it. A background is set as a stage and before a background be used the image to use can be imported by 

browsing for it in the compute, painted by using the tools available under the paint tab or taken using the XO laptop camera.

Steps for changing the background:

Step 1: Click on the existing stage image so as to get the stage’s tabs (Scripts, Backgrounds and Sounds)

Step 2 : Click on the Background tab

Step 3: Choose one of the options (Paint, Import and Camera) depending

on where to get the background from and follow the prompts.

    Figure 1. 22. Scratch window with a stage having a white background

A program illustrating background setting and other functionalities available in scratch:

           Figure 1. 23.A program to animate a Sprite so that it moves to the bed

E. Sound

For adding more life to an animated object in Scratch motion is not enough.

An animated object can produce sound and a background sound can be set as well.

The sound produced by an animated object (Sprite) or to be used as a

background (stage)sound can be regulated using instruction blocks.

Application activity 1.5

     1. Using the Scratch program paint at least two cows.

         Make them graze in a pasture and as they do so they make cow sounds

1.4.3. Etoys Projects:

ACTIVITY 1.6:

1.   Open Etoys by clicking on the icon and do a right click and click

on Start. Click on the “Gallery of Projects” and open the Car and Pen Project (or any project)

a. Interpret the output of this project in relation to its program code

b. Edit the program code, observe the change in the object’s animation and interpret them

Etoys is a GUI (graphical user interface) environment software that allows to program by joining together code snippets 

that are already written hence making programming with very easy. 

With Etoy one can make games, multimedia presentations, computer art, animated storybooks, computer simulations 

and many other projects.

A. Starting Etoys

To start Etoys go to the Sugar interface and right click on the Etoys icon and

choose Start. Immediately the Etoy main window below will appear:

                                    Figure 1. 24. Etoys project main window

Now that the main window is opened, the programmer may start a new project by clicking on the “Make a Project” 

balloon then click on the paint icon to draw an image to use in the project or choose from existing projects and then

 paint the image by choosing appropriate tools.

B. Create animations: project to animate a car

Consider a project in which a car is going to be drawn in Paint then animated using program blocks.

 For starting this project first the Etoys project will be opened as explained in the previous page then start painting 

the car gothrough the steps below:

Step 1: draw a car using the the paint tools

                                        Figure 1. 26.Painted car

Step 2: Write program codes using the available blocks in order to animate (make move) the car

To do this select the painted object (car) then do a right click and immediately

the image handles appear. Click on the little Eye handle to get the program Viewer

                          Figure 1. 27. The image with its Script

In the Script block there are two types of tiles; those with an exclammation

point in front of them called Action Tiles and those without that.

Figure 1. 28. Car objects with its animation scripts

With the scripts in the image above, the car can be made to move forward by

running (executing) the script1 like it can be made to turn by using script2.

Running a script is done by clicking on the clock icon and once the clock is clicked on the script is now being executed

 the stick starts moving and the script status shows “ticking” instead of “paused”

C. Save, Open, Delete and Rename a project

Once a project is done it can be saved in the Journal by clicking on the “Keep a Copy” icon  and the project will 

then be saved in the Journal.

That same project can be opened by locating it where it is stored and clicking on it. It can also be opened by using the 

main Etoys menu “Find an Entry in the Journal” icon  which will direct the user to the Journal on the file that need 

be clicked for opening.

To delete a project locate it in the Journal do a right click and choose Erase. For renaming a project also locate it and click 

on its name and immediately the name will be highlighted; you can now write the new name. It is also possible to rename a project directly from Etoys main menu. The window below shows how to delete and rename a file/project.

Application activity 1.6

1. Observe this image and its accompanying code. What does this program do?

2. Draw a roundabout (road) and make the car move in it. This car should make a car noise as it moves

End unit assessment

1. Take screenshots of the projects (Turtle, Scratch and Etoys projects) you have opened and save them on your flash disk

2. Using Turtle, Scratch and Etoys create a program to draw a house. Houses to be drawn are three (one for each project) and

the one created using Etoys has to be animated in such a way that the door opens and closed itself.

3. Through manipulating special keys found on an XO laptop keyboard explain their functions,