Re: [Slightly OT] Philosophy (was Re: Replacement for Abiword: LyX? Openoffice?)
On Wednesday 22 October 2003 06:15 am, Angelo Marcos Rigo wrote:
> I have an example of my sister with 4 years that knows only to write his name
> (do not know to read yet) but i do create an acount on a debian system where user and pass is his name
> and she like to use xletters, abyword, memory and others games
>
> So she enter on the computer alone and play a lot learning about new letters and turn the computer off
> at the end like any experienced user. Just knowing to write his name.
Both of my sons learned how to spell and type their names, because they
had to do so to log in and play their favorite computer games on the Linux
machine. Both started computers banging on the keyboard before they
could walk. The older one loves to read books and magazines at 8, while
the younger is now learning to read at 5 (a little later than his brother).
Their little sister is now at the keyboard banging stage. Like them, she
sits on my knee at watches me do stuff on the computer.
Except :-( I haven't found a "keyboard banger" program for her! The
boys learned on DOS/Windows systems, for which there are shareware
or freeware keyboard banger programs -- i.e. programs that respond
with random graphics when you hit keys on the keyboard (some are
sensitive to which key you hit, while others just respond randomly to
any key).
I've been trying to figure out how to resolve this gap. I'm currently thinking
that a really nice one could be made by scripting the xscreensaver
"screen hacks", but I haven't figured it out yet. For some reason, the
hacks don't run independently in a KDE session. I think maybe this has
something to do with KDE using the X root window -- must be that
xscreensaver tells KDE to shut down or something (???).
Much has been said in this thread about the computer as "just
another tool", but what about the computer as "just another toy"?
Are you trying to raise workaholics? ;-) Seriously, I use the computer
for both fun and work, and I don't see why the kids need to do
otherwise.
I appreciate the "why don't they run and play outside?" argument, but
you must realize that the availability of such activities varies *a lot*
depending on where you live and how much money you make. For
my kids, this availability has varied from "virtually none" to "lots" in the
last couple of years, which I feel is a real improvement! But other
people's experience may be completely different. More to the point
though, nobody runs and plays outside *all* the time.
On Linux, the game-playing route has taken a cool twist, too. My
sons *love* "Rocks & Diamonds", and thanks to the genius of packaging
the level-editor with the game, they discovered it, and have made,
I believe, about 200 levels! In fact, about a year ago, I helped my
older son send his first 50 or so levels to the upstream author, thus
getting him started on the sharing ethic of open source. What a coup!
And, now they look for level editors in every game, from Pingus to
Tux Racer (for which the level editor is Gimp, and a lot harder to manage,
but he's learned to do it, although his Tux Racer levels can be bizarre --
do you know what happens if you paint an entire block of "herring" color
into the trees.rgb file? -- let's just say it makes a cool "machine-gun"
sound when you go though it. We also got Tux up to 700 kph, which I
think proves the physics ignores air-resistance.). The leap from this, to
contributing code is not so huge. I'm hoping they'll get into that when
they're ready.
I think the bottom line is that kids want to learn how to do what their
parents are doing, and unless there's a compelling safety reason for
them not to (such as there is with driving a car), I think that's a healthy
thing to indulge. At least, if you're fairly happy with how you turned out.
Cheers,
Terry
--
Terry Hancock ( hancock at anansispaceworks.com )
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.anansispaceworks.com
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