Computers for children

From: Miles O'Neal <meo_at_netads.com>
Date: Tue Jan 12 16:52:20 1999

Fred Cisin said...
|
|This'll probably offend many.

Maybe. I simply disagree - to an extent.

|I think that an 8 year old would be best off with a machine with CD-ROM
|capability. And a good size stack of reference disks, including
|Encyclopedia Brittanica, atlases, and several collections of literature.

What has that got to do with learning BASIC, or graphics?
The nice thing about a Commodore, CompuColor, Mac II, etc,
is the instant feedback. I realize the WWW can provide this
(so long as you have a clear T3 path between systems 8^), but
that's not the same. With a graphical basic, you create, you
play. It's more like Legos(tm) or Tinker Toys (tm) than using
a computer application.


I agree that what you propose is a good thing for a kid to have,
but it's a completely different topic - using the computer as a
general purpose learning tool, or playing on a computer. What
we were talking about was playing *with* a computer.

|For programming, I would recommend BASIC, TO START WITH, followed by an
|introduction to C and assembly as soon as basic principles are understood.

I've yet to see a BASIC that runs on top of an OS that's as
easy to get into and provides direct feedback as well as a
graphical BASIC DOS.

|Once the kid has gotten thoroughly into it, THEN maybe a birthday present
|of a set of Linux disks?

Hah. My kids started on Linux, at about 8 and 10. Yeah, I
intend to (God help me) get a Win or Mac system soon, but
only because there are too many things not yet available on
Linux.

But Linux is just fine as a newbie OS for a kid.

-Miles
Received on Tue Jan 12 1999 - 16:52:20 GMT