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Doudou Linux – For children from 2 to 12 years old

doudoulinux.org

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Re: Doudou Linux – For children from 2 to 12 years old

#81

Post by baseh »

urlwolf wrote: post #68

I have a soon-to-be-4. Is touchscreen a must? I'm not sure he will be very good with mice or trackpads.

My son just turned 4. He doesnt seem to mind using a keyboard occasionally, though searching for the keys leads to losing his interest quickly. He still finds it amusing typing words in a text editor and seeing them appear on the screen.

Touchscreen seems to be easiest be it for playing games or navigating youtube. He uses google voice quite a bit on an Android smart phone, since he found the "mic" button.

I have a 23-inch touch monitor hooked up to an intel nuc with Win10, which he seems to like a lot. Though the educational apps in windows store are very few. I was not able to find a way to hook up an Android variant to the touch monitor.

Re: Doudou Linux – For children from 2 to 12 years old

#83

Post by lucb1e »

maruhan2 wrote: post #29

Personally i don't understand why you need a 7 and under child to use a computer. And 7 year olds pick up computer just as quickly as an adult would if they used computers for the first time

> I don't understand why you need a 7 and under child to use a computer

I suppose you don't need to, they don't have to fill out taxes or look up a grocery store's opening hours, but might they not have fun playing some games or learn something?

Re: Doudou Linux – For children from 2 to 12 years old

#85

Post by jonbarker »

alan_cx wrote: post #79
jonbarker wrote: post #77

What does the research on computer literacy (if any) say about the appropriate time to introduce these things? I don't think a five year old will be tremendously behind. UI literacy probably comes from mapping UIs to things you are familiar with in the real world. Command line literacy comes from knowing how to read, type, and organize information.

No idea about research, but my youngest first started playing with a smart phone at about 9 months. Yes, really. After about a month he could unlock it and launch games. Soon progressed to finding YouTube videos of preschool songs for the alphabet, colours, shapes, etc. He is now 5, and can happily search google for things like mine craft hacks, which he can easily apply, and his current hobby is installing old skool…

Thanks for the feedback. I imagine an ipad pro with the stylus could probably catch him up on that. What caused the advanced reading age in your opinion?

Re: Doudou Linux – For children from 2 to 12 years old

#86

Post by gkya »

I'd refrain from letting my infant kid (I don't have one) use a computer. I've first seen one when I was 11 (about 2000) and I'm just fine with computers now. Plus, I've been able to play outside, run around, climb trees etc. It is a question of predisposition, not how early you've started with computers.

Re: Doudou Linux – For children from 2 to 12 years old

#87

Post by [deleted] »

gkya wrote: post #86

I'd refrain from letting my infant kid (I don't have one) use a computer. I've first seen one when I was 11 (about 2000) and I'm just fine with computers now. Plus, I've been able to play outside, run around, climb trees etc. It is a question of predisposition, not how early you've started with computers.

[deleted]

Re: Doudou Linux – For children from 2 to 12 years old

#88

Post by chriswarbo »

adrianN wrote: post #69
chriswarbo wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Usually because of some misguided desire to shelter them and keep them safe. The first computers I used (Amigas) ran off floppy disks. Whenever we bought new software, we'd use copies of the disks and keep the originals stored away. This had the effect of making everything safe; even accidentally formatting an OS disk was no problem, since it was just a copy and most things didn't need it to boot anyway. When I was…

Easy solution: Let the children work in a VM and take regular snapshots.

I don't know if VMs are as good a solution as a RaspberryPi(-alike).

VMs are part of the 'important' machine, rather than being separate; using the same keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc. there's always the risk of e.g. typing into the wrong 'important' terminal by mistake.

Plus, a VM is like a "computer simulator" rather than a computer; introducing a guest OS certainly wouldn't prevent me wanting to play with the host OS, and I'd worry that keeping the host off-limits would allow "magical thinking" regarding how the machine operates.

It's also probably more empowering to be given a real, physical box too. Whilst the RaspberryPi is inexpensive it's still a real computer, running real software, which a child can own and make their own. VMs, like all virtual entities, can't be "owned" in the same way (e.g. see copyright).

Re: Doudou Linux – For children from 2 to 12 years old

#90

Post by zhenjl »

mwfunk wrote: post #6

From their "Translator's FAQ" (which I think is meant for volunteers to help with localization): "How should I tell to pronounce DoudouLinux? In French and Chinese it is pronounced “doodoolinux”. However as the word “doodoo” has a weird meaning in slang American English, we recommend English-speakers to say it as if it was an English word, the way they prefer to say it. We also ask to not write “doodoolinux” at all t…

From http://www.doudoulinux.org/web/english/about/more-about/arti...

"“Doudou” is a French word that means wubby, the teddy bear or the cloth that children carry everywhere and hug very strongly in their arms before falling asleep. In China the word 豆豆 means the same and is pronounced the same too."

Chinese it's pronounced doughdough (4th tone, if anyone cares) as someone else mentioned below.

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