How do you teach a child to use a computer?

Question

How do you teach a child (ages 2 to 15) to use a computer?

Answer 1

Check this Question: How should I teach my children how to program?

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Alice from Carnegie Mellon is one that, in addition to Scratch, I plan to introduce to my niece.

From the web site:

Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience.

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Lego Mindstorms looks very cool.

Off course, we don't know what you already thought him and this isn't going to learn him much of what goes on in the back. But Labview is very easy to program simple stuff with.

But as Joel would say: let them learn C!

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Look no further, there's actually an entire learning platform/ OS designed for this very purpose: Sugar.

The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) operating system called Sugar is now available to the general public and you can run it as a VM within all major operating systems such as Mac, Windows and Linux.

Download a copy at Sugar Labs.

One interesting activity included is called TurtleArt, a souped up 21st century version of Logo. Also has a kid friendly version of a Python IDE called Pippy. It actually teaches kids Python!

See TurtleArt and Pippy and the other activities found in Sugar.

Alan Kay was behind some of the novel concepts in Sugar OS which is actually a modern incarnation of his visionary DynaBook. Even as an adult (who's an engineer), I find it fun to play with.

And if you love Sugar as a VM, you can even buy the hardware and at the same time help a poor kid somewhere else in the world.

Engadget explains : OLPC XO Buy-One, Give-One program underway

As a bonus to us adults, Sugar is derived from Fedora. So it's a real and complete Linux based OS. Should be fun to hack. ;-)

Answer 2

Oh, it's amazing to see how fast and naturally children learn. They watch you, imitate you, aren't afraid of failing, make experiments and memorize things easily.

Just let them try out some simple programs like "Paintbrush" or a simple word processor. Explain the basic features and you'll see how clever they are learning most of the things by themselves.

I wrote a simple game for my little kids where they had to press keys according to the displayed and an audio recording of an alphabet letter.

Answer 3

The best way to do this is to start them young with learning programs that teach them math, spelling, play simple learning games etc... You can lock them out of the Operating System at an earlier age by replacing the shell in the registry with the program you want them using. This avoids the problems associated with them tinkering. At least until they are comfortable with the stuff it is safe to mess with.

Get a keyboard cover so they can't spill anything on the keyboard.

As they get older continue to open up the OS to them and give them a challenge and keep checking back with them.

When I was learning computers as a kid, we had simple programming problems we were asked to solve. This was helpful as it encouraged us to think about how to solve the problem with the tools the computer had available.

Answer 4

Games, lots of games

If the goal is to use a computer, a very young child needs to be told to hold the mouse, the space and escape key, etc. They will learn that by gaming.

Disadvantage is, they will get addicted, and refuse to do something usefull with the computer.

Answer 5

Step to give it a start.

1. For being familiar with computer you can install BabySmash and let them play.

2. Next stage may be a good typing tutor.

3. For programming LOGO is one of the best way to start, and let them think about how the computer can respond to instructions.

Answer 6

I put my 3yr old on my lap and let her type her name (she makes a 'plop' sound every time she hits a key). She can do the whole thing ( "Coehoorn" isn't easy ). And we have another reading/letters game she plays that also teaches basic mouse skills. When she gets the hang of that I'll put some icons on the desktop so she can start the programs herself and start teaching her the shell.

One other thing I did to make it easier for her was slow down the repeat rate on the keyboard a little. When we started out she would hold a key down a bit too long and end up leaving several letters on the screen where she only meant there to be one.

Answer 7

My kid picked up PC usage QUICKLY (by age 2) through playing kids oriented flash games. Two of note are: Starfall and Uptoten Seriously, this stuff keeps them busy for hours as well as an added benefit (beats watching TV).

Answer 8

My son learned his entire alphabet when he was two by playing games on the Fisher-Price site. It's great because it has infinite patience for being repetitive (unlike parents) :).

For toddlers, I'd recommend getting them their own keyboard.

Also for toddlers, I also highly recommend the Fisher-Price Easy Link Internet Launchpad.

Answer 9

I have a Mac Mini setup in the kitchen for my 5 year old. He's been using it for about 2 years. It's only other use is web browsing so I don't care if he messes anything up. His password is his name so he gets some practice typing and spelling his name.

I have Safari setup to launch to a page with image links to all his favorite sites (PBS, Disney, etc) and he mostly plays Flash games on those sites.

He also plays some kids games, particularly "I Spy" titles from Scholastic.

Answer 10

Quick basic lol, now there is small basic, it gives him the logical thinking and the smooth of easy syntax and simple design

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/cc950524.aspx`

Answer 11

My kid isn't quite old enough to start comprehending using the computer, but I have friends that have used Edubuntu, which is the educational version of Ubuntu. It has lots of games and such to learn math, colors, alphabet all while learning how to operate the computer.

Answer 12

I don't think you're going to have to teach a very young child how to use a computer. They'll just watch you and begin imitating you shortly.

Using a computer well, that's another matter entirely.

The age range you have (2-15) is so wide and covers a huge spectrum of cognitive abilities and mental maturity. The very youngest (2) can't do much better than watch, imitate, and perhaps play some very simple games. By 9 or 10 they can be writing reports in a word processor, start learning to program using Alice or Scratch, and chat with friends in IM. When they are 15, they are capable of writing some sophisticated programs, hacking into websites, and getting themselves into a heap of trouble.

Without guidance, all of them will simply do what their closest friends/family do. They'll learn by watching others.

I think a good way to teach them is to simply have them watch what you do and supervise them when they're at the keyboard.

Answer 13

iPod-touch/iPhone seems to engage kids at about 2.5 years.

And I think it makes sense to expose them to an easy-to-use device first.

They can learn to type strange regular expressions in a terminal interface when they get older.

Answer 14

My 2 year old can readily use a mouse and press keyboard letters as directed. I didn't have to do much "teaching" to get him there. Kids take to computers like they take to playing.

NOTE: Don't use your own account as kids have an amazing ability to change settings in ways that are hard to recover. I recall one time my 3 year old niece changed the desktop font to windings or something in about 15 seconds of unsupervised access. Create a limited access account on your machine for them to knock around in. If your OS supports parental controls, enable them to minimize the cleanup you need to perform after a session.

First, get them used to typing (hunt and peck is fine) and mousing. Open a text editor and make the font HUGE (~150pt). Then have them bang on the keyboard and observe the letters appearing on the screen. Show them how to move the mouse and click on things.

Our local library has several computers in the children's section that are touch screen and have interactive "games". Beginner's games like popping balloons by clicking them or typing letters teach mouse and keyboard skills and are fun.

Next try a memory game. This lets the kids start interacting with the machine in a structured manner instead of random clicking.

This is as far as I have gotten at home... I'll let you know how things progress. ;-)