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Show HN: A storybook designed to teach kids about how computers work

lostlanguageofthemachines.com

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Re: Show HN: A storybook designed to teach kids about how computers work

#41

Post by Aeolun »

xandrius wrote: post #39
geraldwhen wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can hand a teen a college textbook and they’ll flourish if they have interest. There’s no audience here, sadly. Kids are smarter than you think. A 7 year old could certainly follow anything, given the right instruction. If I can teach a 7 year old long division, I can teach them how a JK flip flop works.

The main question would then be: why would anyone want to learn about flip flops. I dabble in Embedded Systems, prototype boards and the likes and still never really needed to know electronics as deeply as I had to study it at school. The need started and stopped at intellectually pleasing my teacher enough to get the grades I wanted. Same with knowing how to use binary, I'd say outside of the education system, proba…

It’s probably be interesting to teach binary in conjuction with decimal just for the knowledge that there’s nothing special about base 10? All your math still works fine when you have fewer symbols.

Re: Show HN: A storybook designed to teach kids about how computers work

#43

Post by xandrius »

Aeolun wrote: post #41
xandrius wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main question would then be: why would anyone want to learn about flip flops. I dabble in Embedded Systems, prototype boards and the likes and still never really needed to know electronics as deeply as I had to study it at school. The need started and stopped at intellectually pleasing my teacher enough to get the grades I wanted. Same with knowing how to use binary, I'd say outside of the education system, proba…

It’s probably be interesting to teach binary in conjuction with decimal just for the knowledge that there’s nothing special about base 10? All your math still works fine when you have fewer symbols.

Yeah but I wonder if that is that an interesting realisation for a kid or perhaps it's better to wait and, if interested in mathy thing, blow their mind later on?

Re: Show HN: A storybook designed to teach kids about how computers work

#44

Post by yawl »

getwiththeprog wrote: post #38

I like the motivation. I do not think the 'story' adds to the goal you seek to achieve. The characters you have invented would suit a picture book. Yet the math and concepts you offer suit an older teen or adult. Think again about your audience, and either offer a very simple and well explained text for upper teens, or a really dumbed down picture book for primary school. Keep with it, go iteratively to seek regular…

At very beginning I want to do it in comic style, kinda like “beast academy” style. But my art skill sucks, and ai image generator is not as good as I hoped. So I settled with chapter book, at least something I can produce. May be I should go game style "book" to be able to reach younger readers.

Re: Show HN: A storybook designed to teach kids about how computers work

#45

Post by yawl »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #35

Nice idea but I think it’s going to be pretty tough going for a kid. Have you had any children of your target age group read it? Ultimately our opinions don’t matter, those of your target demographic do so you need to get feedback from them before you do any more writing. To give you a concrete example of where I think you’ll miss children would be using the phrase Number System. I get what that means but to children…

Thanks, that is good advice. You totally get it that I am trying to paint a future scene, but somehow did not deliver. This is the first time I wrote any long story in my life. I tried on my own kids but that is too small sample size.

Re: Show HN: A storybook designed to teach kids about how computers work

#46

Post by yawl »

kjellsbells wrote: post #13

I really like it. And, please, don't be discouraged by any HN commenters. Creation is the important act, not commenting. Side note: I get a very Usborne vibe from your story. If you are not familiar, Usborne published a series of introductory computer books for young readers in the late 1980s that were well loved by a lot of us here on HN. You can probably find threads and links to copies of the material here.

Thanks. I will check it out.

Re: Show HN: A storybook designed to teach kids about how computers work

#47

Post by yawl »

Thank you all for the feedbacks, and extra thanks for those who read all three chapters. The consensus is the content is too hard for younger readers and I agree. I do have some ideas to improve, and will work on them in the coming weeks.

And I will probably ask for feedback again soon.

Re: Show HN: A storybook designed to teach kids about how computers work

#48

Post by RIMR »

citizenkeen wrote: post #7

Key question on children’s books: Who’s the illustrator?

Look at those pictures. Pretty obvious that they came from DALL-E.

Just like most of the text came from ChatGPT.

Blown away by how many people here are complimenting this awful project as if any real thought or effort went into it. It's just AI blogspam.

Re: Show HN: A storybook designed to teach kids about how computers work

#49

Post by thealistra »

Seems like a rough place to start.

Best start with like UX basics of a computer or a phone.

This is how you turn on a desktop, this is how you turn on a laptop and this is how you turn on a phone.

On phone you touch the screen or use buttons. On laptop and desktop there is a keyboard. On a laptop it is attached to the rest of the computer.

Desktops have monitors and everything is connected by cables.

Stuff like that.

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