On Wed, Jan 03, 2001 at 12:08:49PM +0100, Andreas Tille wrote:
> > I am having a hard time conceiving of what would go in an 8-10 or 10-14
> > age range meta package. I'm thinking once kids get into this age range
> > their tastes will be closer to that of an adult, and most things an adult
> > would use are suitable for these children too.
> For sure. But a game could exist in both task-packages or we could (if
> someone thinks that the task-<age> idea is good - I don't know for myself)
> make a task_8-14 package ...
Well, we can put that idea on the shelf for now and see if there is a need
for it later. I'm not opposed to it if we can find a real application for
it.
> > However, if you're talking about education, it may be a different matter
> > altogether ... I haven't really thought about age-specific educational
> > software yet, because, to be frank, I haven't seen a whole lot (except for
> > the stuff aimed at very small children). I am not an educator, so maybe
> > the educators on the list can comment.
> In my opinion children and education stuff should not be split. In my eyes
> a computer is not only a toy and I want to teach my son with it. So I
> would strongly vote to integrate education issues into Debian-Jr.
It will be unavoidable that we do deal with education issues in Debian Jr.
In fact, I welcome discussion making Debian a better tool for learning in
the home. I think we have miscommunicated on this point. To the extent
that we all teach our children at home, we are all "educators" and we are
all looking for programs that stimulate learning to use with our children.
However, the issues that I am studiously avoiding and which I do not wish
to address within Debian Jr. are those relating to institutional
education. There are plenty of things that must happen to set computers
up in school that have nothing at all to do with teaching children in your
own home.
My comment above was not meant to brush off the issue of finding
educational software aimed at older children, but rather to redirect it to
those on the list who may know better than I. In fact, SEUL/edu or OFSET
may be able to offer a fair amount of help in this corner if you are
particularly interested in finding new things to package. Anything that
is found that meets these needs, we will fit into the evolving Debian Jr.
hierarchy.
I hope this clarifies my position better on how I think educational issues
should be handled by Debian Jr. If it's just a matter of finding
"educational software" that can be used in the home, then great. If it's
a matter of architecting an entire school network, with all of the
administrative issues: grading, restricting student access, providing easy
interfaces for non-technical teachers to manage their systems, and so
forth, then no, this is outside the scope of Debian Jr. and should be
handled by a different group, either with Debian (as I have suggested) or
subsumed under an existing educational group (e.g. OFSET, SEUL/edu).
Ben
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