[IAEP] [support-gang] FW: Lots of Links!

[mokurai at earthtreasury.org]

On Sun, May 15, 2011 9:48 pm, Yamandu Ploskonka wrote:
> wow, this is a fun coincidence.  I did something very similar years ago,
> when I was a new immigrant to the US.  Ran computer activities for the
> YMCA of Austin, including kids building/repairing computers and then
> those went to local families who could drop by for further training.
> Lots of fun!

There is a lot of this going on around the world now, such as the Laptop
Hospital organized in Nigeria by six-year-old girls.

> On 05/12/2011 11:10 AM, Lori Barfield wrote:
>> gonzalo and tracy, thanks very much, i'll get all these ideas over to
>> the district music teacher.
>>
>> there is other news.  i have done program development before for my
>> local YMCA, and yesterday the Program Director expressed a great deal
>> of interest in having me give an introduction to computing course for
>> children,

Lori, would you take a look at my draft of Discovering Discovery, at

http://booki.treehouse.su/discovering-discovery/

and tell me whether you would be willing to work on this idea with
children? This version is aimed at older children and adults. I need to do
a teacher's version for those teaching children, who don't need a textbook
for this purpose. I don't know at what age we can get children to create
and maintain discovery journals, but they would be enormously helpful for
improving the XO, Sugar, and our training materials.

For pre-literate children, some method of recording their explorations,
preferably with them talking about everything that works and everything
that doesn't, would be even more helpful.

>> and computer workshops for senior citizens.  this YMCA is
>> one of the top ranking facilities in the country, and if i do any
>> class for them it is likely the other YMCAs in my area will also want
>> to participate.  i'm not sure how many i can fit in before august, so
>> we'll see. :-)
>>
>> if i do work up a few classes for seniors, i think we'll need to stay
>> inside the browser, since that skill will translate to other computers
>> they are likely to have access to.  the XO screen is so tiny i expect
>> there to be some challenges.  has anyone out there tried this before
>> with the elderly?  do any of you have any suggestions?

I used to teach Internet browser classes at the local public library. We
got a lot of seniors there. Generally, I let them ask the questions, and
then demonstrated how to find and use what they were looking for. If I had
to do it again, I would make them do the searches, and think out loud
about what they were doing. The trick is to recognize when people are
working out something for themselves, and when they need a hint about
something they can't very well discover on their own.

I also taught minimal word and text processing, and I do mean minimal.
Turn on the computer, open the program, create a file, type something in
it, save the file, close it, open it again, double-click to select words,
cut, copy, paste, click-and-drag, drag-and-drop. In less than 15 minutes,
all in command mode with adults who had some computer experience but no
real training.

OK, now you can write and edit. You can take notes on what we are going to
do next. Formatting, styles, document structure, all the rest comes later.
(You can learn it by taking a class, reading a book, or just exploring.)
This was necessary preparation at the time. Then we spent the rest of the
hour on job-hunting tools.

I must write this up.

>> ...lori
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-- 
Edward Mokurai
(默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر
ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://www.earthtreasury.org/