5 ms·

I initially gave my two girls an old desktop computer with a linux on it. They started to use it before I showed them how and they started figuring stuff out w

I initially gave my two girls an old desktop computer with a linux on it. They started to use it before I showed them how and they started figuring stuff out without me and soon I was sitting riveted in the background watching them discover things and trying to learn about computer UIs and work out how they thought. Here's an old blog post about it: http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/post/19500788060/my-tech-savvy-generation http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/post/19500788060/my-te... - I think its a fun read. Fast forward to now; that blog post is hopelessly out of date! I gave them old-but-decent laptops and, eventually, internet access. As soon as they had internet access they stopped tinkering and exploring and started only using the laptop to watch repeat episodes of childrens TV. And now they often want to use their mum's iPad - to play music and watch TV - but they are completely utterly uninterested in tinkering with any PCs. Its sad but its true and I wish I knew what to do about it.

scarygliders 12y ago
See my post. You had the same experience as I had with my son. The old machines had less distractions - this is the problem with modern systems.
yodsanklai 12y ago
Unfortunately, this is true for adults too. I used to code for hours and now I have such a hard time to stay focused...
- kalleboo 12y ago
  Just spent the past 3 weeks with my parents in their cabin 2 hours from civilization. Only internet connection is slow $60/4 GB 3G that's only stable in the early AM and late PM. Haven't been this productive in AGES.
  - jwilliams 12y ago
    Many (many) years ago I was using an IBM XT. It had come from Singapore and the HD wouldn't seek when it was cold – my theory was that it'd been formatted on a very hot and humid day and it couldn't track when it changed shape in the cold. Anyway. Big segue, but reminded me of that. If I had a task, I'd have to map it out on paper for an hour or two (while, I presume, the drive warmed up)... Don't think I've ever been as productive since!
  - BrianEatWorld 12y ago
    I had a similar experience when I moved recently. I refrained from getting internet in my apartment for the first few months and found I was often more productive at home than I was at work. As an extra bonus, my complex had a gym with free wifi. That meant, if I wanted to watch something from my streaming subscription, I had to work out too. All this talk of it makes me thing maybe I should give it a try again...
fit2rule 12y ago
Give them a working 8-bit system with hundreds of games and apps from the days before the Internet. There is still just as much working 8-bit and non-Internet software out there as there ever was: you just have to find the hardware. Then, most important of all: don't leave them alone with it. Stay there and play with them. Maybe you'll enjoy a return to the 8-bit software development days too, just for the heck of it. Disclaimer: this worked for my two boys.
- willvarfar 12y ago
  Attempts to reason with them or ban internet have just met with stroppiness. Its like they have moved from being creators to being consumers.
  - nekopa 12y ago
    Maybe attempt to work with their consumption. I they like watching kids TV shows online, show them how to download the videos and edit them. Maybe they can cut out parts they find boring at first, then move onto making a best of version from a season to eventually remixing the shows into something completely new. There's some fairly decent and easy video editing software nowadays - all drag and drop - that could be fun for them to explore, while still being able to consume. The good thing is that this could be a gentle intro to critical thinking - ie analysing a show to say what they like and don't like and why - then move on to them creating a better version for themselves... The tech skills could come later when they bump into barriers to doing what they want - eg not enough RAM or harddrive space, so they then have to tinker to get the system to do what they want. Just an idea..
    - JoshTriplett 12y ago
      > Maybe attempt to work with their consumption. I they like watching kids TV shows online, show them how to download the videos and edit them. For instance, show them some of the better abridged series, and suggest that they make their own.
  - jdpage 12y ago
Sanddancer 12y ago
Try getting them interested in things like the Arduino. Make it father-daughter time or something to teach them the basics there, to get them tinkering, get them poking at code and seeing results. Maybe get a codec chip to work with them on making a music player. Alternatively, maybe try poking them at scratch ( http://scratch.mit.edu/ http://scratch.mit.edu/ ) to have them make their own things. One of the things that I think may be going on here is that exploration now feels daunting. It's hard to get excited about getting things to print "hello world" when in another windows are bright colored animated characters engaging in absurd hijinks. However, being able to create one's own absurd hijinks may just help rekindle that spark.
- solistice 12y ago
  I second the suggestion to get them to get started with simple hardware stuff. There's nothing nicer than getting your first little robot running. I'd reccomend showing benefit first and then getting them to tinker with implementation, so you maybe want to preassemble the first one and demo it to them and let them play with it and program it once they're allready excited about the prospect of doing that. Afterwards, I think the most sensible option would be to modify some lego 9V motors [shop.lego.com/en-DE/LEGO-Power-Functions-M-Motor-8883] to interface to an arduino motor driver shield. That way, they can tinker around with the structure of the robot as well, and legos lend themselves to creative tinkering. Much later, you might want to get them into programming robotic arms or small quadrotors using C, but even if you get them intrested in it, it might take a while to get them to a skill level where they can do so.
Dewie 12y ago
> Its sad but its true and I wish I knew what to do about it. For us that have already been spoiled by modern computing, we need to be shown what useful stuff that we can do by learning about computers (obviously we would need to be on a relatively open modern computer). If most people are satisfied with whatever gets them through the more-or-less intuitive GUIs that lets them watch some videos, do they really need to know more? Well yes, when their computer eventually starts behaving strangely and simply restarting it doesn't help... but that kind of frustrating troubleshooting doesn't leave a good taste in many people's mouth when it comes to having to deal with computers. If they are already used to modern, powerful computing, chances are that they won't be impressed by the usual computer wizardry that programmers are impressed by. Simply because they don't need, or don't see the utility in, shuffling a bunch of text around efficiently. Instead of becoming a wiz at retro computing - which might be in part because you need to be a wiz, simply because it is more primitive - what can we impress people with on modern computers that they can't do themselves easily (and would like to do)? They've already been spoiled by modern computing - for many, there is no turning back. If the only real allure of being a computer whiz - to most people, anyway - is to be able to operate arcane technology, then the value proposition simply isn't there for people that do not appreciate computing in itself (and even that might be an acquired taste, so sort of a catch 22). It's like a classical guitar virtuoso who can be motivated to learn songs and pieces solely for the technical challenge they pose, while his students just want to gain the skills necessary to learn their favourite band's songs, or the songs that they've written themselves.
- solistice 12y ago
  Personally, I think if you want to kindle interest in people that aren't traditionally considered tech people, the usual course of action goes from user to power user to novice programmer. It goes from using the most appearent options to using less appearent options that do it better to creating your own options and tools. Say someone watched a lot of different streams. Show them how they can do it in VLC from one place. Show them enough that the utility of using VLC outweights using whatever method they used previously. Then, give them some time till usage of that tool becomes a habit. Then show them how to use the VLC command line options to record and convert streams so they can download them onto say their phone. Gently suggest "There's a rabit hole here, and it's filled with fun". Then give them some time to tinker around, see what they can do. Once they outgrow these shoes, when they're running out of cool addons they can install or when there's something that's just not in there yet, you can start to teach them how to write their own additions. Now this is just a single example, but i think it illustrates the point. You want to help them slowly build momentum and a need for better tools. Most people are cocconed in a comfortable level of software usage, and they belive that their tools are sufficient, and learning more isn't going to be worth the returns in regards to effort. If you manage to sucessfully change those beliefs, their entire modus operandi regarding computers will change. Now what tool and which lesson will get that started differs from person to person. For some it's learning VBA scripting for work, for other people it might be using Autohotkey to create macros or even learning some keyboard shortcuts ("Wait, alt-tab switches windows? That is so neat!"). Luckily, about everything that is commonly used has some kind of handy add on that extends functionality, say Reddit and RES, or getting that Junior Junior Dev to move from notepad to notepad++ and then after a good while to vim or emacs.
fizgig 12y ago
Years ago my kids went through a similar progression. I set them up with a really old, crappy PC running Linux. Taught them how to tinker around on the CLI and run Zork in an emulator. They had many hours of fun. Then set them up on the Alice programming environment on the communal/family PC (running XP), and they had fun with that for a long while, too. Once they had free internet access, my daughter discovered Hanna Montana videos on YouTube, and the self-learning pretty much ended. Ditto w/ my son and watching video game playthroughs, though he got a little more incidental learning about computers trying to tweak whatever rig he had access in order make games perform better. However, the internet has really empowered my kids to learn all kinds of stuff. From my son setting up Minecraft servers and fighting with port forwarding on the home router, to my daughter learning sewing techniques and guitar chords online. Today's PC environment has come a long way from my days of exploring arcane PEEK and POKE commands from the back of a magazine on my TI-99/4A (in between rounds of Munch Man, of course). There is so much more info accessible now (both utilitarian and trivial), that I just can't grouse about where most kids run with that info. In the end, I think my kids are way better off now than I was back then, even though they're not nearly as inclined to tinker under the hood as I was.
crististm 12y ago
I suspect internet access is what kills the joy of real work since you can be so easily distracted. Before you know it, one hour has passed and you didn't do anything. I'm beginning to see a solution in a separate computer just for Internet access, as PG suggested several years ago. The one for work should just redirect everything to localhost or not have network access at all.
- k-mcgrady 12y ago
  >> "I suspect internet access is what kills the joy of real work since you can be so easily distracted. Before you know it, one hour has passed and you didn't do anything." I wonder if another part of the problem is that you can see other people's work online and give up when you see your achievements pale in comparison. I remember writing my first app - a web browser in VB - and when I did it I spent weeks working out how to copy and paste and create a menu bar etc. I even got joy from figuring out how to create a splash screen and create themes for my app. It was using a built in webview so there nothing very complicated about it but I had to read documentation and figure stuff out and it took quite a long time. I was very proud when it was finished. I can't imagine my feeling would be the same now. I could Google it, find the answer - ready to copy in to Visual Studio and run - and I would feel stupid for spending weeks on it. Then I would see someone who built a framework used by thousands of people on a weekend and I'd want to give up for good.
- tjr 12y ago
  I found it much easier to get into the groove of real work when internet access was either not possible or prohibitively slow/expensive to use much. On the other hand, once I do get into the groove of real work, having instant access to the internet can be immensely helpful too.
bunderbunder 12y ago
I've seriously considered setting up an old-fashioned automatic timer to control the power going to our DSL modem so that our Internet service is only available for an hour or so out of every day. My worry, though, is that I'd be unplugging the modem from the timer and hooking it directly into the wall whenever I work from home, and that'd be a slippery slope to just having it hooked up all the time again.
- indiv0 12y ago
  If your router supports Tomato[1], dd-wrt[2], open-wrt[3], or similarly featured firmware, you might have a feature to restrict access at certain times of the day based on MAC address. This would allow you to work from home, while restricting access for your children. The only issue I might see with this setup is if your work-from-home PC is the same as the one the rest of your family uses to access the internet. [1]: http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato [2]: https://secure.dd-wrt.com/site/ https://secure.dd-wrt.com/site/ [3]: https://openwrt.org/ https://openwrt.org/
- Someone 12y ago
  Apple's Airport Express has that built-in. http://9to5mac.com/2013/10/06/how-to-set-time-limits-on-your-wi-fi-network-using-airport-utility/ http://9to5mac.com/2013/10/06/how-to-set-time-limits-on-your... states you even can set it up per device, so you can give your kids 7x24 access while making yourself more productive by limiting Internet your own access. Let someone else set the device password, glue the network cable into your DSL modem and the Airport Express and you are all set.
juliendorra 12y ago
One solution: get out of the house! :-) We were a group of tech/dev parents struggling to get our daughters and sons interested in creating things with code. At home it was never the right time… So, we started a special family-oriented time, a kind of picnic/party for coding with our kids.[1] We set aside 3h, 3h and half, on Saturday or Sunday afternoon, invite other families, gather in a friendly place (science center, cultural center, company office…) and have fun programming together and eating cakes :-) We started 3 years ago[2] and never stopped! (We have one recurring challenge: find good tools and (French) documentation to help kids that excel at Scratch or other 'kids languages' make the jump to Python or javascript. CodeCombat is not up to it, for example. That's why I personally started a generative art workshop for young kids based on Processing Python Mode, not Scratch.) [1] http://codinggouter.org http://codinggouter.org [2] http://ils.sont.la/post/kids-code-and-cakes-coding-gouter-paris http://ils.sont.la/post/kids-code-and-cakes-coding-gouter-pa...
- willvarfar 12y ago
  This is brilliant advice :). Thx
politician 12y ago
Well, you could "downgrade" them back to dial up speeds and trade cool hacks for Mbps.
Bulkington 12y ago
Take heart, and permit my anecdotal counterexample -- with a happy ending. In the mid-90s, we picked up an used Mac Plus for our 5-year-old. He loved it, had no problem playing the heck out of the games, negotiating menus, etc. (Although I did get irrationally mad when, as he was playing Spit on Saddam -- a local Apple guy had written it, so I'd loaded it for kicks -- he actually spit on the screen.) So great, maybe I can start working in some HyperCard, give him some control. No interest whatsoever. I even hacked some of his games, to show him the possibilities of coding. He was amused, but still had no interest. He got older and got the thrill of modem WoW with friends, but he still had no interest coding -- althoug I did catch him learning the warez culture. About this time, I became addicted to browsing the state surplus equipment lot, and found that they had, literally, a pile of computers they sold at auction for essentially the cost of hauling it all away. In each pile, there were always some Macs. So I got to know the computer scrap guys and would buy discarded Macs for $10 a pallet -- and they thought I was a sucker. To the point, the kid loved taking computers apart -- especially after discovered a PowerMac uprgrade card in a half laptop that I'd told him to toss. Nothing like an elementary kid earning $200 on eBay to keep him interested. He also helped me refurb/clone a bunch of Macs for his brother's preschool. Bottom line: He learned how to handle the guts of computers, and to build networks from surplus routers so all his friends could come over for game nights, etc. But he never wrote a line of code through high school, despite my best efforts. Then he got to college, decided he wanted to do CompSci. He was way behind in coding, but -- since it was a small liberal arts school -- the department was glad to have him and was patient. Plus he had some hands-on hardware skills that few others had (because the family computers were too expensive to tinker with, or no one knew anything about the innards). He's now a gainfully employed SysAdmin, with a wife and mortgage and personal projects on the side -- and all his old pals still get together for game nights. Maybe I wasn't a skilled or patient instructor, or maybe kids are just going to be what they are.
- 616c 12y ago
  I have a 1.5 year old and you gave me some hope. Thanks. Out of curiosity, are you describing NJ and Rutgers? One of my close friends talks about computers auctions at the NJ state school with great fanfare when I met him in college and alas after his HS experiences in the early 2000s with his professor dad he discovered they had stopped.

scarygliders 12y ago

See my post. You had the same experience as I had with my son. The old machines had less distractions - this is the problem with modern systems.

yodsanklai 12y ago

Unfortunately, this is true for adults too. I used to code for hours and now I have such a hard time to stay focused...

kalleboo 12y ago
Just spent the past 3 weeks with my parents in their cabin 2 hours from civilization. Only internet connection is slow $60/4 GB 3G that's only stable in the early AM and late PM. Haven't been this productive in AGES.
- jwilliams 12y ago
  Many (many) years ago I was using an IBM XT. It had come from Singapore and the HD wouldn't seek when it was cold – my theory was that it'd been formatted on a very hot and humid day and it couldn't track when it changed shape in the cold. Anyway. Big segue, but reminded me of that. If I had a task, I'd have to map it out on paper for an hour or two (while, I presume, the drive warmed up)... Don't think I've ever been as productive since!
- BrianEatWorld 12y ago
  I had a similar experience when I moved recently. I refrained from getting internet in my apartment for the first few months and found I was often more productive at home than I was at work. As an extra bonus, my complex had a gym with free wifi. That meant, if I wanted to watch something from my streaming subscription, I had to work out too. All this talk of it makes me thing maybe I should give it a try again...

fit2rule 12y ago

Give them a working 8-bit system with hundreds of games and apps from the days before the Internet. There is still just as much working 8-bit and non-Internet software out there as there ever was: you just have to find the hardware. Then, most important of all: don't leave them alone with it. Stay there and play with them. Maybe you'll enjoy a return to the 8-bit software development days too, just for the heck of it. Disclaimer: this worked for my two boys.

willvarfar 12y ago
Attempts to reason with them or ban internet have just met with stroppiness. Its like they have moved from being creators to being consumers.
- nekopa 12y ago
  Maybe attempt to work with their consumption. I they like watching kids TV shows online, show them how to download the videos and edit them. Maybe they can cut out parts they find boring at first, then move onto making a best of version from a season to eventually remixing the shows into something completely new. There's some fairly decent and easy video editing software nowadays - all drag and drop - that could be fun for them to explore, while still being able to consume. The good thing is that this could be a gentle intro to critical thinking - ie analysing a show to say what they like and don't like and why - then move on to them creating a better version for themselves... The tech skills could come later when they bump into barriers to doing what they want - eg not enough RAM or harddrive space, so they then have to tinker to get the system to do what they want. Just an idea..
  - JoshTriplett 12y ago
    > Maybe attempt to work with their consumption. I they like watching kids TV shows online, show them how to download the videos and edit them. For instance, show them some of the better abridged series, and suggest that they make their own.
- jdpage 12y ago

Sanddancer 12y ago

Try getting them interested in things like the Arduino. Make it father-daughter time or something to teach them the basics there, to get them tinkering, get them poking at code and seeing results. Maybe get a codec chip to work with them on making a music player. Alternatively, maybe try poking them at scratch ( http://scratch.mit.edu/ http://scratch.mit.edu/ ) to have them make their own things. One of the things that I think may be going on here is that exploration now feels daunting. It's hard to get excited about getting things to print "hello world" when in another windows are bright colored animated characters engaging in absurd hijinks. However, being able to create one's own absurd hijinks may just help rekindle that spark.

solistice 12y ago
I second the suggestion to get them to get started with simple hardware stuff. There's nothing nicer than getting your first little robot running. I'd reccomend showing benefit first and then getting them to tinker with implementation, so you maybe want to preassemble the first one and demo it to them and let them play with it and program it once they're allready excited about the prospect of doing that. Afterwards, I think the most sensible option would be to modify some lego 9V motors [shop.lego.com/en-DE/LEGO-Power-Functions-M-Motor-8883] to interface to an arduino motor driver shield. That way, they can tinker around with the structure of the robot as well, and legos lend themselves to creative tinkering. Much later, you might want to get them into programming robotic arms or small quadrotors using C, but even if you get them intrested in it, it might take a while to get them to a skill level where they can do so.

Dewie 12y ago

> Its sad but its true and I wish I knew what to do about it. For us that have already been spoiled by modern computing, we need to be shown what useful stuff that we can do by learning about computers (obviously we would need to be on a relatively open modern computer). If most people are satisfied with whatever gets them through the more-or-less intuitive GUIs that lets them watch some videos, do they really need to know more? Well yes, when their computer eventually starts behaving strangely and simply restarting it doesn't help... but that kind of frustrating troubleshooting doesn't leave a good taste in many people's mouth when it comes to having to deal with computers. If they are already used to modern, powerful computing, chances are that they won't be impressed by the usual computer wizardry that programmers are impressed by. Simply because they don't need, or don't see the utility in, shuffling a bunch of text around efficiently. Instead of becoming a wiz at retro computing - which might be in part because you need to be a wiz, simply because it is more primitive - what can we impress people with on modern computers that they can't do themselves easily (and would like to do)? They've already been spoiled by modern computing - for many, there is no turning back. If the only real allure of being a computer whiz - to most people, anyway - is to be able to operate arcane technology, then the value proposition simply isn't there for people that do not appreciate computing in itself (and even that might be an acquired taste, so sort of a catch 22). It's like a classical guitar virtuoso who can be motivated to learn songs and pieces solely for the technical challenge they pose, while his students just want to gain the skills necessary to learn their favourite band's songs, or the songs that they've written themselves.

solistice 12y ago
Personally, I think if you want to kindle interest in people that aren't traditionally considered tech people, the usual course of action goes from user to power user to novice programmer. It goes from using the most appearent options to using less appearent options that do it better to creating your own options and tools. Say someone watched a lot of different streams. Show them how they can do it in VLC from one place. Show them enough that the utility of using VLC outweights using whatever method they used previously. Then, give them some time till usage of that tool becomes a habit. Then show them how to use the VLC command line options to record and convert streams so they can download them onto say their phone. Gently suggest "There's a rabit hole here, and it's filled with fun". Then give them some time to tinker around, see what they can do. Once they outgrow these shoes, when they're running out of cool addons they can install or when there's something that's just not in there yet, you can start to teach them how to write their own additions. Now this is just a single example, but i think it illustrates the point. You want to help them slowly build momentum and a need for better tools. Most people are cocconed in a comfortable level of software usage, and they belive that their tools are sufficient, and learning more isn't going to be worth the returns in regards to effort. If you manage to sucessfully change those beliefs, their entire modus operandi regarding computers will change. Now what tool and which lesson will get that started differs from person to person. For some it's learning VBA scripting for work, for other people it might be using Autohotkey to create macros or even learning some keyboard shortcuts ("Wait, alt-tab switches windows? That is so neat!"). Luckily, about everything that is commonly used has some kind of handy add on that extends functionality, say Reddit and RES, or getting that Junior Junior Dev to move from notepad to notepad++ and then after a good while to vim or emacs.

fizgig 12y ago

Years ago my kids went through a similar progression. I set them up with a really old, crappy PC running Linux. Taught them how to tinker around on the CLI and run Zork in an emulator. They had many hours of fun. Then set them up on the Alice programming environment on the communal/family PC (running XP), and they had fun with that for a long while, too. Once they had free internet access, my daughter discovered Hanna Montana videos on YouTube, and the self-learning pretty much ended. Ditto w/ my son and watching video game playthroughs, though he got a little more incidental learning about computers trying to tweak whatever rig he had access in order make games perform better. However, the internet has really empowered my kids to learn all kinds of stuff. From my son setting up Minecraft servers and fighting with port forwarding on the home router, to my daughter learning sewing techniques and guitar chords online. Today's PC environment has come a long way from my days of exploring arcane PEEK and POKE commands from the back of a magazine on my TI-99/4A (in between rounds of Munch Man, of course). There is so much more info accessible now (both utilitarian and trivial), that I just can't grouse about where most kids run with that info. In the end, I think my kids are way better off now than I was back then, even though they're not nearly as inclined to tinker under the hood as I was.

crististm 12y ago

I suspect internet access is what kills the joy of real work since you can be so easily distracted. Before you know it, one hour has passed and you didn't do anything. I'm beginning to see a solution in a separate computer just for Internet access, as PG suggested several years ago. The one for work should just redirect everything to localhost or not have network access at all.

k-mcgrady 12y ago
>> "I suspect internet access is what kills the joy of real work since you can be so easily distracted. Before you know it, one hour has passed and you didn't do anything." I wonder if another part of the problem is that you can see other people's work online and give up when you see your achievements pale in comparison. I remember writing my first app - a web browser in VB - and when I did it I spent weeks working out how to copy and paste and create a menu bar etc. I even got joy from figuring out how to create a splash screen and create themes for my app. It was using a built in webview so there nothing very complicated about it but I had to read documentation and figure stuff out and it took quite a long time. I was very proud when it was finished. I can't imagine my feeling would be the same now. I could Google it, find the answer - ready to copy in to Visual Studio and run - and I would feel stupid for spending weeks on it. Then I would see someone who built a framework used by thousands of people on a weekend and I'd want to give up for good.
tjr 12y ago
I found it much easier to get into the groove of real work when internet access was either not possible or prohibitively slow/expensive to use much. On the other hand, once I do get into the groove of real work, having instant access to the internet can be immensely helpful too.

bunderbunder 12y ago

I've seriously considered setting up an old-fashioned automatic timer to control the power going to our DSL modem so that our Internet service is only available for an hour or so out of every day. My worry, though, is that I'd be unplugging the modem from the timer and hooking it directly into the wall whenever I work from home, and that'd be a slippery slope to just having it hooked up all the time again.

indiv0 12y ago
If your router supports Tomato[1], dd-wrt[2], open-wrt[3], or similarly featured firmware, you might have a feature to restrict access at certain times of the day based on MAC address. This would allow you to work from home, while restricting access for your children. The only issue I might see with this setup is if your work-from-home PC is the same as the one the rest of your family uses to access the internet. [1]: http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato [2]: https://secure.dd-wrt.com/site/ https://secure.dd-wrt.com/site/ [3]: https://openwrt.org/ https://openwrt.org/
Someone 12y ago
Apple's Airport Express has that built-in. http://9to5mac.com/2013/10/06/how-to-set-time-limits-on-your-wi-fi-network-using-airport-utility/ http://9to5mac.com/2013/10/06/how-to-set-time-limits-on-your... states you even can set it up per device, so you can give your kids 7x24 access while making yourself more productive by limiting Internet your own access. Let someone else set the device password, glue the network cable into your DSL modem and the Airport Express and you are all set.

juliendorra 12y ago

One solution: get out of the house! :-) We were a group of tech/dev parents struggling to get our daughters and sons interested in creating things with code. At home it was never the right time… So, we started a special family-oriented time, a kind of picnic/party for coding with our kids.[1] We set aside 3h, 3h and half, on Saturday or Sunday afternoon, invite other families, gather in a friendly place (science center, cultural center, company office…) and have fun programming together and eating cakes :-) We started 3 years ago[2] and never stopped! (We have one recurring challenge: find good tools and (French) documentation to help kids that excel at Scratch or other 'kids languages' make the jump to Python or javascript. CodeCombat is not up to it, for example. That's why I personally started a generative art workshop for young kids based on Processing Python Mode, not Scratch.) [1] http://codinggouter.org http://codinggouter.org [2] http://ils.sont.la/post/kids-code-and-cakes-coding-gouter-paris http://ils.sont.la/post/kids-code-and-cakes-coding-gouter-pa...

willvarfar 12y ago
This is brilliant advice :). Thx

politician 12y ago

Well, you could "downgrade" them back to dial up speeds and trade cool hacks for Mbps.

Bulkington 12y ago

Take heart, and permit my anecdotal counterexample -- with a happy ending. In the mid-90s, we picked up an used Mac Plus for our 5-year-old. He loved it, had no problem playing the heck out of the games, negotiating menus, etc. (Although I did get irrationally mad when, as he was playing Spit on Saddam -- a local Apple guy had written it, so I'd loaded it for kicks -- he actually spit on the screen.) So great, maybe I can start working in some HyperCard, give him some control. No interest whatsoever. I even hacked some of his games, to show him the possibilities of coding. He was amused, but still had no interest. He got older and got the thrill of modem WoW with friends, but he still had no interest coding -- althoug I did catch him learning the warez culture. About this time, I became addicted to browsing the state surplus equipment lot, and found that they had, literally, a pile of computers they sold at auction for essentially the cost of hauling it all away. In each pile, there were always some Macs. So I got to know the computer scrap guys and would buy discarded Macs for $10 a pallet -- and they thought I was a sucker. To the point, the kid loved taking computers apart -- especially after discovered a PowerMac uprgrade card in a half laptop that I'd told him to toss. Nothing like an elementary kid earning $200 on eBay to keep him interested. He also helped me refurb/clone a bunch of Macs for his brother's preschool. Bottom line: He learned how to handle the guts of computers, and to build networks from surplus routers so all his friends could come over for game nights, etc. But he never wrote a line of code through high school, despite my best efforts. Then he got to college, decided he wanted to do CompSci. He was way behind in coding, but -- since it was a small liberal arts school -- the department was glad to have him and was patient. Plus he had some hands-on hardware skills that few others had (because the family computers were too expensive to tinker with, or no one knew anything about the innards). He's now a gainfully employed SysAdmin, with a wife and mortgage and personal projects on the side -- and all his old pals still get together for game nights. Maybe I wasn't a skilled or patient instructor, or maybe kids are just going to be what they are.

616c 12y ago
I have a 1.5 year old and you gave me some hope. Thanks. Out of curiosity, are you describing NJ and Rutgers? One of my close friends talks about computers auctions at the NJ state school with great fanfare when I met him in college and alas after his HS experiences in the early 2000s with his professor dad he discovered they had stopped.