[Gllug] App development for children

[Richard W.M. Jones]

On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 08:42:19AM +0100, Tethys wrote:
> JLMS writes:
> 
> >So should they be taught non marketable skills? Or should we contact a
> >medium to forsee the technologies that will be useful in the future?
> 
> No, they should be taught general skills that can be adapted to both
> current and future technologies. School isn't a place to teach marketable
> skills. It's a place to produce well rounded, adaptable humans. Focusing
> on specific current technology really does seem like the wrong approach
> to me.

My school focussed on the current technology.  It happened to be
PETs, ZX Spectrums and BBC Micros at that time, but it was every
bit as proprietary and closed source as the iPhone.

What I think is missing and could also be taught would be a bit
more electronics.  It's not actually that hard to solder together
a simple digital computer from parts, and I'm sure it would
be both enjoyable and educational (although you have to take
anything I say on the subject of what kids might find enjoyable
with a large pinch of salt ...)

There was a BBC news article about some kit computer recently.  It
even runs FORTH :-)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13206756
https://sites.google.com/site/libby8dev/fignition

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones
Red Hat
--
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug