An educational PC for the Kids

An educational PC for the KidsOnce my kids were two and a half I introduced them to the computer. The first attempts were made to try the mouse and pictures were shown on the screen. It wasn't until I heard the Linux Link Tech Show guys interview the lead developer of gCompris that I saw that there's a lot of good educational stuff out there that can greatly benefit my children. The sooner a child grasps certain concepts a better base he or she has to understand more. It's a snowball effect you start the sooner the better.

I set up a PC specifically for the kids and spent some time introducing them to some basics. Bit by bit I added more applications and features. The results were pretty good with my oldest daughter. She got an exceptional score in her last year in kindergarten. She is a very bright kid, but I'm very much convinced the Kids PC has helped her with concepts like groups, numbers, shapes, colors, dexterity, language and abstract thinking.
There is one rule I live by and I want to pass on to my children: Try things that are above your level, it's the only way you will learn new things. I try to have my kids see learning as a positive thing by having them associate it with fun. At the same time I do the reverse by using “not showing a new thing on the computer” as a punishment.
    The games I show my children are at or slightly above their level. I don't mind if they can not complete a level or even play the game as it should at first. The first goal is that they try the new software, all the rest is irrelevant. Always keep your primary goal in mind!
    I fail to understand parents who teach their kids that learning takes effort and anything that takes an effort is not good. Those children are destined to become lazy, fat and dumb. Not a very good start in live, is it?
If you invest the time and energy to set up a computer with educational software and help your kids use it I'm sure they will benefit from it in one form or the other. Once you get them going you will benefit on the short run - the kids have something to do - and on the long run - they will become brighter people.

    What is educational software?

Any software that improves a person's mental level, logical reasoning, dexterity and cognitive perception is regarded by me as educational software. This can be as variable as puzzle games, an audio recorder, a web cam application, a technical challenge or a drawing program.
Applications that focus too much on competitiveness and quick responses, like race or first person shooters, do not fully fit in this category as they tend to be too repetitive and don't really stimulate mental challenges. Does this mean they should be banned totally? I don't think so. The main focus of an educational PC is to stimulate children into learning new things and to develop mentally. If this means a less educational application is used to keep the child interested, that application serves its purpose. It would be less favorable if the child looses all interest in the PC and doesn't get any advantage from it at all. It has to be fun!

    How do you use educational software?

So you want your child to learn a lot of things as early as possible to give it a good start in life. You decide to try educational software and set up a PC for this purpose. You show the child how to switch the PC on and let it have a go. You think this is it and let the child take advantage of all the good stuff - or so you think. After a week or so you will notice the computer is hardly ever touched any more and the child has lost all interest. All your efforts to set up the PC proves to be fruitless. What went wrong?
You can not and should not expect the kid to be interested in things it doesn't know yet. You can not expect the kid to go out and discover all applications and know how they function. Most children are eager to learn new things, but also loose interest fast if it's not fun. I have yet to find a child that didn't focus when I said “Watch carefully, I'm going to show you something fun”. Of course this has to be done in the right circumstances, not with a hyperactive child or a very stressful situation. A parent has to be engaged and not expect things to go by itself without investing any energy at all. Educational software only gets to its full potential when the child is educated on how to use it. You have to invest the time too!

    Operating system requirements

There are many operating systems available for a home computer. Microsoft Windows and Apple OSx are not the ones available. There is also GNU/Linux and OpenBSD at the forefront. These last two are totally free and open and can be downloaded from the internet. Not only because of the freedom, but also because of the security model they use will I focus on those two. There are hardly any viruses or malware present for these OSes. Next to that you have to look at the available software and this is where GNU/Linux truly shines.

Screen Children

As you see from the photo above, my kids are screen children. They know their way around an iPad. When Daddy takes his toy to work, however, they make do with a good old fashioned computer.

Jadzia's favourite games site is Sesame Street, which doesn't give up trying to get you to press a key, or pick an item from Big Bird's shelf, or choose another outfit for Grover, even hours after you've left the computer.

William enjoys many gaming sites, though he is quite partial to Armor Games, which has the most inappropriate bloody shoot 'em up zombie games. This lead to his famous line: "It is appropriate because I'm not scared."

Occasionally, they forgo the technology and we play an old fashioned board game together.  Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders are the crowd favourites, while Jadzia loves Hungry Hungry Hippo the best.  In the latter we never count the marbles to determine a winner, which makes me crazy.  Not that I care who wins, me or my three-year-old, but somehow when nobody wins it feels like an exercise in futility (I mean, more so than normal).  The other two games are better, until you realize that there is absolutely no skill or strategy involved.  Also, while both games last an average of fifteen minutes, either could theoretically continue forever if you choose to wrong card or land on a chute which brings you back to the beginning.  A game can last anywhere from two minutes to a hundred years.

Technology News for Children

                            

Children’s Stories App MeMeTales Comes To Android, Offers Free Books All Summer

                                                                                                      
MeMeTales, a super-cute (and guilt-free!) children’s books application arrives on Android today, following its iOS release and public debut at 500 Startups’ demo day last October. Originally from Seattle, now a San Francisco-based operation, the company was founded by husband and wife team Maya Bisineer and Pree Kolari, and offers a library of picture books designed for preschool and elementary-aged kids and their parents.
Through partnerships with publishers like PBSKids, HarperCollins, Little Pickle Press, Shen’s Books and others, the platform includes access to a variety of quality books to choose from, but unlike other e-book libraries for kids, it also “gamifies” the experience for the young readers.
In MeMeTales, kids earn points and stickers for reading books and get to unlock book-related games, when available. Parents are kept in the loop and notified of their child’s progress, as the kid racks up the rewards, too. For publishers, MeMeTales is also offering an online publishing platform that allows them to share their books with the MeMeTales community.
Since its launch, founder Maya Bisineer tells us that MeMeTales has reached 81,000 app downloads, 37,000 registered users, and has seen nearly 400,000 complete book reads through the app. They also saw an average of 1,800 complete book reads per day in the past week. Plus, says Bisineer, over 20% of the app’s users return the app daily. All good metrics for a relatively new, education-focused app.
Becoming a connoisseur of these type of apps myself, I enjoy the stories and illustrations in MeMeTales quite a bit, but the actual reading experience still needs a little work. The nav bar remains when reading, font choice is kind of boring, and sometimes the font overlays the picture (on iPhone, that is – it looks better on iPad). I love the more immersive feel of something like Farfaria, for example. But MeMeTales is young and improving.
Alongside the Android launch, the company is updating its iOS app as well, and is partnering with PBSKids and several children’s publishers on Readathon 2012, a special summer reading initiative. The company will be giving kids access to free books and learning materials from its publishing partners every week for six weeks during the summer. (Normally, MeMeTales sells the books it offers, after the first 20 which are free at sign-up).
“We are big believers that technology, combined with community can push the envelope on making a real difference. We really hope we can inspire other app developers to look beyond being ‘just an app,’” says Bisineer. “We have built technology that makes it possible for publishers to let kids ‘borrow’ their books for free via the app and website during the Readathon,” she explains, describing how the summer reading program works. “At the end of the week, the books go right back into the store for people to purchase,”
In addition, for every child who joins the Readathon, MeMeTales is donating a meal to a hungry child via FoodForEducation.org. (They’ve reached 1,256 meals donated so far.) The goal is to donate 10,000 meals if they reach 10,000 readers or 100,000 book reads. The Readathon curriculum has also been integrated into several existing preschools, summer camps and weekly Mommy and Me Storytimes across the U.S., says Bisineer.
The company raised $100,000 from 500 Startups and others last year, and is looking to raise another round in the upcoming months. Bisineer says they have a couple of investors committed, but nothing they can announce publicly at this time. You download the mobile app here on iOS or the newly launched Android app here.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/26/childrens-stories-app-memetales-comes-to-android-offers-free-books-all-summer/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

 

Reading Rainbow Might Stop the iPad From Ruining the Brains of All Children

            Sam Biddle                                         
                                                                                                    

For a generation now creating advanced things and placed in corridors of power, LeVar Burton was a god-king: both Star Trek's Geordi La Forge, and the guy who taught us to like books on Reading Rainbow. Now, the two Burtons are fused—and it's pretty incredible.
LeVar Burton has an app—it's available starting today. Sure. Lots of people have apps. But it's doubtful anyone cares as much about their app as LeVar Burton. I step into an expensive hotel room in Midtown Manhattan, and Burton springs up, greeting me by name, shaking my hand, talking almost immediately about reading. There's an iPad in front of him.
But this isn't just any product pitch—which is good, because Burton lacks all the unctuousness of a salesman or marketing player. He just... cares. His enthusiasm for an app designed to encourage little kids to read is almost overwhelming. How many people care about anything this much? And how much can I possibly properly appreciate an app designed for tiny kiddo brains? I can't—so we brought our own: two boys, 3 and 5-years-old, stuck in that valley of super-hyperactivity spanning the end of school and the beginning of summer camp. As Burton lays out the app's basics—a free download, a $10 per month subscription for unlimited kid-friendly titles, a vibrant cartoonish interface with hot air balloons and floating islands that capture the original series' acid trip charm—the kids fidget. The older immediately covers himself in pretzel crumbs, the young starts chirping for mom's attention. The kids are kids. It's summer and they'd rather not be in a Midtown Manhattan hotel room on a beautiful day. Nobody would.
But then something incredible happens. We hand the older boy the iPad and fire up the Reading Rainbow app. He's transfixed. The only word is transfixed. The fussing and pretzel-crunching stops, and his little brother curls next to him. They don't fight over who gets to hold it. They both know intuitively how to use it—complete naturals. He picks pirates, animals, and space as his three preferred topics to generate recommended books. He starts reading along with Burton's pre-recorded narration. The Wi-Fi sucks and the download stalls. He doesn't care. The kids are—patient? Attentive? About a book.
I ask Burton if he thinks this is ultimately good, this sticking of LCDs under the eyes of children. Having seen lots of absentee parenting by way of iOS—kids handed a stray iPhone as they might be handed a pacifier, to shut them up in public—could the ubiquitous computer hurt little heads? Can the touchscreen warp fingers that've been flipping (and smearing chocolate on) paper for hundreds of years? "We can try to sequester ourselves from technology," Burton shakes his head. But this is pointless, he explains. Kids like those two mesmerized by an app are an inevitability—and if we can make them mesmerized by a book instead of a game, we have to take the chance. We must. Burton is emphatic. "Ed[ucational] tech!" Burton grunts, pounding his palm with his fist. It's imperative to him that we get kids using these everywhere-screens to become readers, writers, and thinkers, before they become something else. "We've already lost an entire generation of children. Maybe two," he laments. This one, for whom touch screens are a given, should be different. It must be different, and you can see in LeVar Burton's almost crazed eyes that the dude really, really, really wants kids to read more. And it seems like they will—if there's one young charm you can count on, it's that a little boy will tell you something is stupid and is bad and smells like poop if he thinks so. They're a brutally honest lot. But our kindergarten demo team gave shy smiles and thumbs up.
Burton doesn't act surprised in the slightest. And why should he? He lived this world 30 years ago: "I mean, come on—Geordi was carrying an iPad around the Enterprise!"

http://gizmodo.com/5919771/reading-rainbow-might-stop-the-ipad-from-ruining-the-brains-of-all-children