norman@cogsci.ucsd.EDU (Donald A Norman-UCSD Cog Sci Dept) (08/01/89)
In article <2274@wasatch.utah.edu> cetron@wasatch.utah.edu (Edward J Cetron) writes: :I love my Mac, and I realize how great the user interface is, etc, : ... :BUT, I want to use it about 50% of the time for my 7-year old to learn with. : ... :SO: my request for the net is: Is it worth keeping the Mac? I respond: keep the Mac. The same features that make you love the interface are equally important for kids. I bought a Mac SE/30 for my family. With 5 Mbytes of RAM and 40 Mbytes of hard disk. It's more powerful than the Mac II I use for myself (except for screen size). Why? Because I want their computer experience to be without hassle. They can load up multiple applications at the same time. They can store things freely. Professionals understand computer discipline and cleaning up files: they don't and shouldn't need to. (I did teach them how to back up.) Software? There isn't much "educational" software out there, but in my opinion, the two greatest educational software packages around are MacWrite and MacPaint. My son is now 9, but he started writing school essays using MacWrite when he was 7. He writes letters to friends and he has started writing stories. Now that MacWrite has a spelling checker, that is also an educational tool: he learns a lot about spelling by using the spelling checker. And MacPaint is used to put in the illustrations, of course. One of my colleagues has developed a wonderful set of excercises for kids in Hypercard. Example: there is an invisible button -- the goal is to find it with a mouse click. The neat thing is that the kids can learn to move the button themselves, or to make it visible, or invisible, or covered with different graphics. And they can change what happens when the mouse click misses the button. Play music, say things, or what have you. The amount of Hypercard programming you need to know is very little -- the kids have no trouble with it. I haven't done it yet, but I am thinking of getting some talking faces using the Bright Stars software: Kids do like to write stories and then have the Mac say them aloud. They end up writing plays, with multiple plots and characters. As for educational software? My son does like "Where in the world is Carmen San Diego." It comes with an Atlas which is helpful. Probably a 7 year old isn't ready yet. And get a good typing program. We use Mavis Beacon Typing, which is OK but too smart for its own good (no, I have no better recommendation). And for games - By a Nintendo set. It is easier to use, with better games and cheaper. Making an Apple look like a Nintendo is silly: We had the same games on both an Apple IIGS and Nintendo, and the GS never got used. In fact, I (we -- the whole family) hated the GS so much we got rid of it and bought the SE instead. Comparing the Apple II to the Nintendo for games showed how deficient the Apple II was for those things, and comparing the Apple II to the Mac for word processing and picture drawing showed how deficient it was for real applications. My family ended up using my Mac II for homework, and letters to friends, and stories, and party invitations: I had to buy them the Mac SE/30 so they would let me use my own machine. The only thing I got out of that experience was material for a paper on why specialized devices like Nintendo will outdo general purpose devices like the Apple II. It's in an Apple-sponsored book too: Norman, D. A. (in press, 1990). Why the interface doesn't work. In B. Laurel (Ed.), The art of human-computer interface design. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Conclusion: In other words, be creative. The best educational software is innovative and educational use of tools. Which you can do yourself, with more fun. And these tools then translate readily into useful skills for school and home. don norman Disclaimer: I make up my own mind, but Apple does give my research group money and it employs me as a consultant in their Advanced Technology Group. Don Norman INTERNET: dnorman@ucsd.edu Department of Cognitive Science D-015 BITNET: dnorman@ucsd University of California, San Diego AppleLink: D.NORMAN La Jolla, California 92093 USA [e-mail paths often fail: please give postal address and full e-mail path.]