Re: Simplified UI

["Ian Bicking" <bickiia@earlham.edu>]

> There has been some talk about creating a kind of simplified UI fir
> children.  There's also been talk about a menu-program wich gives
> more and more access to a child depending on how well the educational
> programs are used..

Students learn from each other quite a bit with computers -- more 
so than most other subjects.  If the environment is different for 
different students it could hinder that, e.g., a student who figures 
out a way to use some tool might not be able to share it with their 
neighbor, because their neighbor doesn't have access to that tool.

I think it would make more sense to advance a group of students 
all together at the teachers discression (i.e., without any 
automated testing).  Also, I don't think permissions would need to 
be used -- the different environments should be meant to direct the 
students, not limit them.  So a menu for younger children might not 
include difficult tools, but if they find a way to run them anyway 
then no harm is done.  Exploration should be encouraged -- all the 
more so in Linux because they can safely explore (which, to my 
frustration, is not the case on a Mac where they can mess the 
computer up by exploring).


--
Ian Bicking <bickiia@earlham.edu>