Slashdot Mirror
Testing Technology on a Veritable Army of Children?
"The idea is to bring together children ages 10 to 15 years old from around the world at 8 or 9 centers scattered about all continents except Antarctica. The children will congregate at these centers for two days in 2005 to participate in creative technology workshops both virtually between centers and hands-on at their particular center. There will be a heavy emphasis on community building and shared information, in many ways similar to Slashdot. The entire event and all the projects it entails are designed to live on after the kids go home when the two days are up. How this will be done is as of yet uncertain, but will most definitely involve net connectivity to some extent (whether through the village kiosk's 28.8kbaud line in Cambodia or the living room broadband line in NYC). Naturally, issues such as language barriers will have to be addressed. In the particular case of the language barrier, there is talk of designing a custom written language (again, think mediaglyphs from 'Diamond Age') for children to use, build upon, and shape. What other projects are worth considering?"
Start testing today, impiment tommorow. 2x4s with post-it notes for all yoru glyphs hand drawn and the like so your human factors experts can test need to be done now, and you need these foreign children in early. Don't impliment much (you can design your communications infrastructure, but beware that technology will march while you do other things) now, but don't waste your time one software or custom hardware until you have a design worth working with.
OTOH, make sure that the human factors guys give you enough time to work with, and you give the testers enough time to work with. The time line needs to be well done.
In order to make the time line possibal, first the a good hardware design that you can work with. Then once that is finialized (but not nessicarly bug free), work on software, but have the human factors people prioritiese, don't start all projects at once or this won't work, better to have half your features working then all the features, but none work.
And if your project managers didn't respond "I already knew all that and am doing it", quit now so your name isn't on a baddly run project that will fail.
OK.
:) ...
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For those that haven't read diamond age.
One of the underlying themes was that of a "young lady's illustrated primer".
Think of a PDA with a terabyte of data, voice recognition, and advanced AI. It pays attention to a childs growth and continually challenges them.
Any question that the child asks will be immediately answered.
The PDA also used "mediaglyphs" which are sort of a Esperanto based on symbols. Instead of building a device which says "eject" you just have a mediaglyph which animates when you put your finger near it of a VCR ejecting a tape.
The first child that grew up with the "primer" was significantly advanced from other children.
I am in the process of building a "primer" for my niece (she is one). It won't be as advanced as the one in the Diamond Age but it will have a dictionary, encyclopedia, art, pictures, etc.
... it might be a good idea to build an "Illustrated Primer" open source project that could build Open Source content for children with geeky relatives
... buy the diamond age and read it now!
Kevin
You could do worse than look at what Alan Kay is involved with. Kay is a true computer pioneer and has from the beginning focussed on children as users of computers. His goal is to empower them by giving them new kinds of tools that let them create, not locking them into predefined worlds.
His current project is Squeak, which is designed to let kids create dynamic documents, games and worlds and interact with them.
Teaching kids to use technology as creators rather than as passive consumers would be one of the most important lessons you could present.
I have too many questions to respond intelligently. What type of organization is it? Is it a tech company? Software, or hardware? Is it an educational foundation? Is it a charitable organization? What is their purpose for trying to blow approx. $1000 per child in two days?
But this topic really interests me. I lived three years in Africa (Chad) and four years in Asia (India) during the nineties, I am a teacher, and I'm almost finished with a Ed Tech Master's degree.
Some comments:
1) It's going to be really difficult to get kids involved who aren't already connected in some way. In Chad few villages have any phones or even regular mail service. The elementary school in the village where I lived had exactly two books for use by the teachers for over 100 students. The situation is better in India, but outside of major cities, most students aren't going to know about this opportunity.
2) Children tend to be given much less respect in both Asia and Africa than they are in the west. A ten-year-old who has been given a crash course in whizbang technology, is unlikely to be able to rally a community to take advantage of the benefits of technology.
3) Cities in many less-developed countries have a glut of technologically proficient youth. In India over the last five years internet-cafes have sprung up on every street corner. The challenge is to integrate technology, information and the benefit it can provide into the daily life of the community.
Golem1024, please give us more information on which to base recommendations.
I realize that all the centers won't be in third-world, poor countries - that all of the children won't be poor.
But at any rate, giving away advanced technology won't help - no matter what it is. If the infrastructure isn't in place to keep the tech going (power, supplies, repair, etc) - it will only last so long, then become another piece of "junk".
I would say the thing to give people, of any age, is education. If it has to be based on technology, then give the people enough education to know basic tech (ie, teach fundamental machines - you know, the wheel, inclined plane, lever, etc - then teach how they go together to form more advanced machinery, machinery that can help them advance).
I remember seeing a site detailing how this group help some people in a third-world country develop solar cooking techniques - by teaching them how to build a parabolic reflector from basic materials easily found in the village. The group taught the people how to form a parabola using simple techniques (that don't require complex math, just some string and nails, and straight lines), then make a template, to make a mold in the ground, to form a parabolic "mirror" using weaved mats, mud, concrete, and tinfoil or other metal.
Teaching such things is what will help. All kids should learn the basics of such applied science at an early age - whether they are from the first or third world. Show them how to construct things from available materials, cast off "junk", etc - to be self-sufficient and rely less on the "man's" expensive "new" stuff, and instead scrounge among the cast-off detritus left behind.
Move on further by teaching how to build simple steam engines and turbines (maybe simple water pumps and such first, to teach flap valves, pistons, etc). Remember, the first practicle steam engines were built in the 16th and 17th century, and other "toy" technology was developed by the Greeks much, much earlier than that! Show how to build wind generators from cast-off 55 gallon drums and car alternators (or squirrel cage motors) - think large scale anemometers, or build a Savonious Rotor - give power before tech.
There are tons of other things that could be done - but it all boils down to education. Most importantly an education in self-sufficiency, and how to recognise those that want to enslave (either litterally or via economics, social programs, or otherwise) - and how to avoid it.
The problem is huge - I really don't know if there will ever be a real solution...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
CISV has 50+ years of experience bringing children from 100+ countries together. Perhaps they could help to find solutions to some of the common issues you will no doubt address? As a participant, I have been to Egypt and Nigeria when I was 13 and 11. I'm sure I could arrange for someone to speak with you about how they might assist with your project. Check out CISV -Erastus