[Sugar-devel] Should we care about non readers and kids with motor skill issues? was - Re: RFC: Kill the delayed menus for good

[Tomeu Vizoso]

On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 03:28, Caroline Meeks <solutiongrove at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> > Perhaps. What would you define as the ailment, yourself? The primary
>> > intent was to encourage use of a direct interaction model, in which
>> > palettes we're supposed to play a big role. When it turned out that
>> > young kids, who didn't read, and who didn't have motor skills for
>> > selecting form the palettes, we aimed to reduce accidental invocation
>> > of them without entirely eliminating discovery by increasing the
>> > delay.
>>
>> Many kids have motor skills, and the ones that don't initially are
>> remarkably good (being kids) at developing motor skills that they don't yet
>> have. Many kids also read. In fact, let's cut into some real deep philosophy
>> stuff here...
>
> True. But all kids matter. Including the nonreaders, the ones going to
> schools that are not taught in their native language, the ones for whom
> reading is a struggle, the dyslectics.
>
> Also I really disagree about the developing motor skills.  I think
> developing motor skills is a developmental thing that goes at different
> paces. I see kids that can get the concepts of Sugar but who struggle with
> clicking the blocks together in Turtle Art.  I think they are perfectly
> normal kids who will eventually have perfectly adequate motor skills for
> normal computing.  Providing them with a system that is as easy as possible
> for them while those motor skills are developing should be one of our
> missions.
>>
>> The idea that the XO laptop is mainly for kids who can't read is
>> completely bogus. Now, maybe you're thinking of other children when you say
>> this, but I prefer to first consider the main existing userbase. Laptops
>> which have Sugar installed on them are primarily located in schools and are
>> used for education. It is kind of ridiculous to say "Well, you don't
>> actually need to know how to read to use the laptops, so we should make the
>> interface not require reading." when the truth is that, for most activities
>> that have any educational merit, you DO need to read and you need to read
>> things significantly more complicated than activity names. Most of the
>> people who use Sugar for most of the time WILL know how to read.
>>
> I disagree on this too. I think there a host of activities that nonreaders
> could use in Sugar. Paint, Colors, Jingsaw, Flipsticks, Write (writing a
> great way to learn to read), speak, many GCompris Games, Calculate, books
> that are read to you, Browse if you share a favorited website.  In fact if
> you share a started activity then you further expand the number of things a
> nonreader could do.

I agree with this, that's what I think of when I hear "low floor, no ceiling".

Regards,

Tomeu

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