Talk:Software ideas

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Also, we don't want kids to be punished by rewards.

Will there be terminal software of any sort? I can't imagine using my own Linux computer without the console, rxvt, or xterm; there is such a wealth of undemanding applications available for use at this level.

  Don't see why not.  Maybe that is your contribution...a terminal editor.  Be sure to make it social.  
  Like maybe a button that lets a user invite some other user to share the terminal window so the 
  kids can show stuff to one another easily...  Lee.Sailer 22:10, 23 June 2007 (EDT)

Most of these ideas on the article page seem so solitary...calculator, units converter, and so on. I am trying to think social software and virtual community...like Wiki optimized for kids drawings, or tagging services, or *gasp* something like MySpace. A local do-it-yourself Music Genome project for local music (or teachers, or uncles, or whatever the kids want to rate). Maybe just Usenet-like, optimized for kids, pictures, voice, drawings, or whatever the kids decide is cool. Lee.Sailer 22:11, 23 June 2007 (EDT)

Some software that kids liked

Following is some software that worked with 25 children in a children's home in Metro Manila, Philippines. The children were aged 4 to 11 and this was their first experience with computers.

1. Kids Without (Iceberg v1.0), an Edubuntu derivation. They almost exclusively used gcompris. The children especially liked motor movement activities such as clicking the mouse on pictures and moving pieces around the display. The distro was obtained from: http://kidswithout.homelinux.net/doku.php

2. Davidson's Learning Center Phonics, a commercial CD for Windows 95, Windows 3.1 and Macintosh. It was donated, so was "free" to us. They liked the creative voices and creatures displayed, and the rewards given for correctly identifying phonetic combinations (rewards such as sentence builders and some new things that appeared on screen).

3. Much of the JumpStart series (http://shop.knowledgeadventure.com/Departments/JumpStart-Series.aspx). Commercial again, Windows/Mac again.

Some JumpStart CDs that they liked:

• Advanced Preschool (liked colors, sound effects, music, pretty artwork)
• Preschool Fundamentals
• 2nd Grade Fundamentals
• Mystery Club Vol. 1

wandgo

Some software that kids did not like

Some JumpStart CDs they did not like as much:

• Preschool Art For Fun (limited number of activities; few visual/sound effects)
• Preschool Language Club (this focused on teaching three or four specific languages, including English)
• 2nd Grade Field Trip Adventure (complicated navigation; too much work to obtain rewards; rewards were not much to brag about: e.g. put a sticker in a scrap book)

Sorry to break the news, but they showed little interest in any word processing or reading activities.

wandgo

• word processing is of course uninteresting until it serves a need. Possible need: write a letter to grandma, write a letter to a boyfriend, make a party invitation, make a sign to taunt another student (sadly, such is life), make a sign to post about a lost dog, etc.
• reading suffers much of the same, except that the learning curve and benefits are both more extreme. Little nerd kids will read though, and that is really what one should hope for. For political reasons, one can not give laptops only to the kids who will make the best use of them.
• Of course the reading was uninteresting; you provided addictive video games as an alternative!