Aug
9
Submitted by Jeffrey on Sun, 2009-08-09 21:46
Each of my children relates to computers differently. While age plays a part, most of the differences are psychological. Some of my children are puzzlers, thinkers, explorers. Others are quickly frustrated and want others to make tech work for them. But all of them love keyboards, mice, and mischief.
The most precocious of my children are my new, adopted daughters. They are still testing their boundaries, which means lots of annoying behaviors repeated for reactions and discipline. On our first day with them, we brought out our netbook computer to show them a small learning cartoon, in Amharic. They were more interested in the computer than the show!
Once they noticed that the keys did things, they couldn't stop touching them. They shut down the machine numerous times, quit programs, deleted shortcuts and eventually figured out a few basic functions on the computer. The only problem is that they still want to kit the keys when I'm working on the machine. They're as bad as my toddler, only they know their activities are not always welcome!
When we returned home and I began to use my Mac again, their antics became more dangerous. I knew I had to find an answer that didn't discourage their use of computers, while safeguarding my digital assets! A quick web search revealed this cool, free, little app called Alphababy (also a SourceForge project).
This freeware application takes over your machine, making all key presses and mouse movements generate shapes, letters, numbers, and sounds. Only an multi-key combo will exit the program (Command+Option+Control+q). Hopefully this is complicated enough to contain children in this sandbox program.
Alphababy also has a screen saver portion that will load Alphababy after a few minutes of idle time. Nice!
Safeguarding my work and systems is only part of the solution. I'm also taking an active role in training them on these systems. Yesterday, I spent time showing how a mouse works, guiding hands and button clicks on pbskids.org.
Next, I need to setup an educational system that's all theirs. Some links I've gathered to this end include:
GCompris is a set of educational programs and games for children (2-10 years).
Linux Journal article on children and Linux.
Tux4Kids suite of educational games.
ubuntu for education (use appget to install GCompris too).
http://www.layhands.com/FreeGamesForKids/Page2.htm
The only problem is that I don't have a spare system (with enough power) to dedicate to this goal. Our current family computer is a ten year old PC dedicated to videos, music, and television watching. I would like to replace it, but that priority is so low, it doesn't really exist. I might make a virtual machine for this and run it on my own laptop for a while, just to show what it can do. If I can show its educational worth, maybe my wife will agree to elevate the priority of our "replacement computer" budget category...? [hope, hope]
Oh, while looking over the GCompris site, I see that it is included with the latest Knoppix Live DVD. I'll have to try that first, just to see how it runs on our old hardware. A live DVD is also better because kids can't mess it up!
Anyway, this project is more urgent with more kids craving computer contact. Maybe I can whip something together during my "paternity leave" these next few weeks? Stay tuned!
