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What Should 10-Year-Olds Know About IT?
stephendl writes "I have been asked to give a computer based talk to a local primary school. It is part of an after school science club and I have a pretty free rein to talk about whatever I want for 10 minutes. The children will be aged 9 and 10 and will come from a range of backgrounds, there will be a parent of each child present too. My initial thoughts for the subject included the history of computers, the components in a computer and what computers are used for. Does the slashdot community have any suggestions, experience in this area or tips?"
Perhaps some pointers on how everything you do on the internet can and will be recorded, and probably will come back to haunt you.
......
Wait, there's someone at the door...............
ARRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!
if they're interested in an IT career.
BC
9-10, you say? How about, NOTHING? C'mon, they should be learning the fundamentals (three r') at that age. Adding in "IT" will only muddle things for them. We try to stuff to many things into kids minds too early. Keep their lives simple so they can actually learn what fundamentals, not what YOU think matters.
Talk about what they are used for first. Add other stuff if you need to fill time. Make sure to mention things like atms and videogames having computers in them. And cars, cellphones, cd players, etc. The best thing you can do with your ten minutes is make the kids think that computers are everywhere, at least for a second or two, before they stop listening. Your next goal should be to reach the parents who haven't yet figured out that computers are an increasing part of reality and that computer skills are essential. Your likely audience and time limit prohibit much more than that.
Ten year olds are not going to care about cpus, memory and such. The ones that do care will already know more than you can tell them in ten minutes.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Maybe not a direct answer to your question, but related to this topic I wanted to add this thought:
Computers are entering our lives at every level and sooner and sooner. Children are born nowadays in an age where they rather learn to type on a keyboard than learn how to breath.
Being a little geek myself I am the last to say that I'm not having fun fiddling with these damn nice machines, but still remembering the days without computers I do belive that children first need to be able to be children. Childhood only lasts for such a short time it is a shame that even this period of their live is invaded by these machines. Children should play, outside, with each other, In Real Life.
There was a time I believed that every child should have a computer in class as soon as possible is something I've left behind me for a couple of years now.
Let children be children first, they'll have time enough afterwards to discover the wonderfull virtual world ... in there.
Remember, young audiences will be bored to tears if you regale them on things they already know, or the history of anything unless it's exciting.
Our 9 and 10 year olds already know that "computers are used for everything". They probably don't care (yet) about how they came into being. Instead, why not focus on what no one tells these kids: that the age of the Internet and the personal computer gives them a degree of unparalleled personal power.
Show them how computers only ever do what a human tells them to. Give them fun logic puzzles and explain simply how they are really just programs. Explain how the ability to use logic and creativity together make the computer a powerful tool. Illustrate how computing gives them choices -- they don't have to use the software (not even the OS) that came with the computer, they can do whatever they can figure out how to do.
Talk about the cool things computers will be able to do in the future. Have them work with a really simple encryption (secret messages! cool!) method, and explain how businesses and individuals use more complicated versions to keep their private messages private. Just about all kids love the idea of secret messages -- use it!
Don't lie. Don't tell them it's all easy. Do tell them that it's all possible, if they work hard enough to learn. Make computing interesting and accessible, don't bore them with history and "hey, computers control your car, your games, and even the clock on the wall!"
You have a very potent opportunity to motivate and educate. Don't waste it! Make sure every kid -- and especially the girls -- know that working with computers is rewarding and not just for "smart kids".
We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex—but Congress can. – Cullen Hightower
You might look around the room for examples of computing technology. Calculators, cell phones, watches, etc. might be som good, concrete examples of how technology is all around us.
You might also want to explore video game consoles as computers. You could look at the evolution of video games from the Pong days to now. That's a simple, easy way to show the development of computing technology for this audience. Most 10-year olds won't know or care about Linux distros, but they're probably familiar with video games.
There was recently a small study here in Norway about childrens attitude
to information on the internet. Most of the childes asked, believed that
what they found on the internet is true, 100% fact, and they had no training in spotting what's not facts or how to check the sources.
So, teach them to be critic of information, there's so much bogous information out there, anyone can be confused.
I used to do something similar with elementary students. The district had bunches of old toasted computers and I would let the students take apart everything they could (aside from the PSU which I removed ahead of time) and answer any questions they had about the components they found inside.
The kids really enjoyed it and it gave them a basic understanding of the innerworkings of computers.
-Tolerate my intolerance
Ask at the outset:
- Which have Nintendo, PS2s, gameboys, etc.
- which have computers already?
One Idea: Have a Show and Tell. If they're not tech savvy, keep it very high level (this is a CD Rom drive, you put CDs in it, like music CD's or ones with software on it).
Show and Tell Ideas:
- Bring an old computer, open it up, and point at the major components.
- Tell them what software and hardware are, bring some CD's, and some burned CDs.
- If you have an old hard drive, say a 200 Meg or something silly like that, OPEN IT UP. Yes, this will completely ruin it. Make sure to mention that if you do this (!). Show them the read-write head.
- Open up a CDRom Drive. Pass it around and show the major parts.
- Explain Google and Wikipedia if you've got a net connection, show some big sites, ask for interests and then show them sites. Warning: this could eat time quickly, and you've only got 10 minutes.
- Show them the connectors and how they're all different shapes to make sure you don't plug the wrong thing in the wrong place (reduce fear)
- Get a chip, and show how the chips are connected on the motherboard with traces (wires).
Of course, if your audience is savvy, you can't impress them with cool tech, you could always do the science discussion route and explain binary numbers. But, they're a little young for that.I have always thought the primary purpose of education was to provide perspective so people make better-informed and wiser decisions. Perspective includes reducing fear levels to allow for rational thought and contemplation.
Rational thought allows for inspired choices later based on whole sets of info you can't provide by rote learning.
So: Inspire, have fun, and show that no matter how complicated something looks, it's made up of simpler things that can be understood and manipulated by people who are interested in doing that.
Tell them that it never stops getting interesting, and if they're bored, to imagine what other people find interesting about it and see if that's interesting to them.
Just my 5 cents.
Unitarian Church: Freethinkers Congregate!
Sorry to be alarmist, but here are two examples:
My step-daughter, 12 years old at the time, had bveen given the talk about not giving out private information online. In spite of this she gave out her phone number to someone online. When the person called my wife answered and talked to the person. He was not the 13 year old boy that he had told my step-daughter he was; his real age was off by probably 20 years. We then iterated the safety issue of what she had done and as a consequence she couldn't use IMs or email for 2 weeks.
I got an Instant Message from my 11 year old niece; her newly chosen screen name was "SmoothnPink99." The screen name had some meaning to her that was innocent, but of course might mean something else to an unsavory character. I called my sister and let her know politely that her daughter had a new screen name that is not the best choice to a pre-teen girl.
So bad stuff can happen to kids while online.
I'm not saying this is the only thing you should talk about, just suggesting that you speak a few sentences on the subject. The point is parents, teachers, etc., have some say in what kids at that age should and should not do when using a computer, what information the kids should not disclose, etc. You don't have to spell it all out in gory details, just say enough to make the point that a responsible adult can and should help set guidelines.
I say you show what you can do with a computer. Here are a few ideas:
1.Schedule a Skype call with a friend you have as far away on the globe as possible. Explain how a computer takes audio information and transfers it over the internet.
2. View the solar system in 3D (I think there is some open source software that allows you to do that). Explain how a computer can take loads of data and draw it for you.
3. If the classroom has dictionaries tell everyone to look up a complicated word up and race them with the computer. Explain that the computer's strenght is it's speed not it's intelligence. Tell them that you cannot ask a computer to draw a bird but you can use it do store and manipulate a bird picture.
4. open up the computer and explain how each module has it's own specialty: graphics card, audio circuit, network circuits, etc... They'll feel like they've done something really cool.
5. turtle! :) Install Python with the turtle program and challenge them to draw a square with a turtle. Explain to them that a computer is a tool for automation and that is why it is used. Humans still are the ones that have to think to make them automate tasks we ask them to do.
The computer alone can captivate your audience but the great thing is to make them participate. Make them feel like they changed the world by doing something. Let them give you the obvious answers.
I have a 9 soon to be 10 year old son. He has been using the computer for almost 3 years now.
Initially we started him with "This is the computer, and here are the ONLY games you are allowed to play", (Reader Rabit and programs sold by his school.) He got to learn the comonents fo the computer like how to handle a CD and such. We had a Knoppix CD where he was able to load and play games on.
He then started learning about programs like paint and office applications for some of his school projects. So he was allowed to use those programs, since there was really no harm in doing so. (Notice that access to web content is still not permitted.)
We constantly made it known that he is not to open any programs that he was not allowed to. Even though he had access he was not *allowed* to use them.
Then his friends from school said that they were on MSN and Yahoo and Email and were able to visit sites advertised during his TV shows. So we sat him down and informed him that not everything on the Internet was for kids and that he is only allowed to access sites that we say are okay and that he is to make up a fake identity when he is told to give personal information, NEVER GIVE OUT REAL INFORMATION. The computer was always in an open room and we constantly checked up on his activities.
We follow the rule where anything new he does on the computer he has to okay-it with his mom and I. A few months ago he got his first hotmail account and got on MSN. Again another talk on how not everyone on the internet is a *good* person and a rule is that he is NOT ALLOWED TO GIVE OUT PERSONAL INFORMATION AND THAT HE IS ONLY ALLOWED TO MSN PEOPLE THAT HE GOT THEIR MSN IDs FACE TO FACE. We test him again and again and when he does do something wrong he is then corrected. His computer usage is a privledge and he remains under our watchful eyes while he is learning this relativly new frontier.
Remember that you will not always be ahead of your child and that you should teach him the proper methods and give them guidelines before you reach this point.
Wow, is that really how messed up I am? When I was 10 I ran a warez/hacking BBS that was so popular that I was answering calls as far away as Guam and so actvie that I was forced to perm-ban ANYONE who dared to upload because my poor 20 meg hard drive was too full to boot properly... The LAST thing I needed was somone telling me what a keyboard was.
If I were you, I would start by asking for a show of hands, how many kids know what an openSSH timing attack is and anyone who understands what you just said should be sent outside and forced to play in the sun.
Much like the science club in the original article- extra-curricular, not part of mainstream studies, and stuff the kids might enjoy. These kids are already science geeks- even if they're still at the "Bill Nye The Science Guy" stage.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
This is an after school science club. These kids have chosen to be there and to spend extra time learning about science. IT falls squarely under that umbrella.
Kids in a voluntary, after school science club are probably already reading above grade level, and performing math at junior high levels.
I was in such a club at that age, and it was a lot of fun.
Basic flowcharting is just a structured way of looking at the steps of any process. Trust me, in limited form, it is very appropriate for children under the age of 10, they will not be harmed by the knowledge of the mighty Flow Chart. I can understand some of your issue, you start a kid on Flow Charts, next thing you know they are thinking logically, then they *shudder* start thinking for themselves, next, total collapse of society.
No, actually, I have the opinion of some guy in Kansas, and he has mine, we traded for the day! So, I am not really reponsiable for this post, it content, or the next great flame war.The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.
Well, there is no need to tech them anything at all; just land them on Planet Slashdot and they will learn whatever they need to know to survive in the Net :)
Show them Morse Code.
Show them how information can be sent using a whole bunch of yes's and no's, on's and off's.
Show them that 1's don't really get caught going around the corners of cables,
that they don't need to sink $30 into a "digital audio" cable when any RCA will do,
that data can be sent using light, radio, or current without giving you cancer or cramps,
that extremely simple adds up to extraordinarily complex, just like the rest of the universe.
Show them that there's no magic involved.
Direct away from face when opening.
(Oh, sure, the BBC computer was brilliant, the Inmos Transputer was the product of sheer genius, the Archimedes was very respectable for the time - far more advanced than PCs! - and the ARM/StrongARM processors were a work of art. Care to find any of these products outside of a few specialist shops in the UK? In fact, care to find anything other than the StrongARM anywhere at all???)
Likewise, America isn't the tech centre it used to be. Most chip manufacture is done overseas, and sooner or later, it's going to occur to businesses in those countries that they can gain a massive competitive advantage by using these "local" resources. Why not? They're the ones with the experience, actually doing the work, these days. US labor is generally too expensive. Given the folks in Taiwan, etc, have the means, the motive and the opportunity to turn that work-experience into a profitable business of their own, it's just going to be a matter of time before it happens.
With software outsourcing to Asian nations and the subcontinent, it's not just the hardware you need be concerned about. Again, these guys aren't stupid. With the necessary training, and the considerable work experience they are receiving, all it'll take is some imaginitive and a little venture capital, and you may very well see major companies coming out of such countries.
Unlikely? Not really. Japan, after World War II, was a wreck, had very minimal up-to-date technology, and no history of being a major International power in commerce. With funding from the US, and an import of know-how (not all of it ethically obtained) they have cloned just about every piece of Western technology and have often made some impressive improvements.
I heard this wonderful quote for Formula 1 motor racing - "if you're not moving forwards, you're moving backwards". In technology, this is certainly true. Last week's "new thing" is next week's "old hat". Plenty of places in the US still use COBOL, AS400s, etc. PL/1 compilers are still being sold for $15,000 a seat. (Someone's buying it or they wouldn't charge it.) That's not a sign of rapid forward movement.
India, Taiwan, etc, don't have that legacy overhead. They're much freer to move forward to next-gen technologies, and that puts them ahead of the game, if they take the opportunity.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
DON'T lecture - talk a bit, ask some, get them to ask a lot and do a lot.
Active participation is the key to teaching. Nobody learns, when bored or asleep.
Keep sentances short. Break ideas down into parcels. Kids will lose track of things quickly. It takes a little longer to get complex ideas across, but it improves the kids' chances of learning what those complex ideas are.
Attention spans also tend to be short. Same-old same-old will bore them after a while. That's one reason adverts are 30 seconds or less and why the more successful adverts put the bulk of the important information in the first 5 seconds of that.
In other words, with each topic, you've 5 seconds to get their full attention AND give them a rough idea of what the topic is. You've about 25 more seconds to convince them that it's worth finding out more, AND to cover the main reasons why it would be interesting to them.
Vocally, be interesting. Vary your tone. Monotone "robots" are almost universally ridiculed by kids. You want to be taken seriously. Constant patterns in speech can put anyone to sleep. (That's why many lulabies follow that formula.) Avoid repeating yourself, overusing words, or using words that are barely in your average PhD's vocabulary, never mind your average 10-year-old's.
Above all, pick topics that interest YOU. Kids can spot a fake a mile off. If you don't believe a word you're saying, you're going to have a hard time convincing them.
Visuals help a lot. Kids of that age-range can understand visually far better than they can understand intellectually. (Not always, but it's a fairly good rule-of-thumb.) For example, if you decide to cover transistors/logic gates, then you might want to try the following:
Have one volunteer act as the first input. Have a second volunteer act as the second input. Give them a colored sheet of paper. Say, red for 1, and white for 0. Have a third volunteer act as your "high reference voltage". They carry a red piece of paper. A fourth, final, volunteer is your "low reference voltage" and carries a white piece of paper.
For an AND gate, the first two volunteers are positioned one after the other. The fourth volunteer is to one side. The third volunteer is told to walk past the first two people, but must stop if one of them is holding a white piece of paper. The fourth volunteer is told to wait, unless the third volunteer stops. Then they are to walk on.
For an OR gate, the first two volunteers are side-by-side. Again, the third volunteer cannot walk past someone holding a white piece of paper, but CAN walk past someone holding a red piece of paper. Again, the fourth volunteer can only go if the third one can't go.
Again, to keep people's interest up, you would only want to do two or three runs of this game. Any more, and they'll get bored and lose the idea. Only one run and they won't get the point at all. (The point being to show how something electrical can make "decisions", even though it doesn't "think".)
Time constraints mean that two demonstrations of this kind are about the upper limit. One demonstration should either show what logic is (eg: as above) or show how semiconductors work. (eg: Have the kids act as silicon atoms, and use different color balls to represent electrons and holes into which the electrons can fall. Have the kids swap balls, to represent the flow of electricity through a semiconductor.)
The second demonstration should be something the kids are more familiar with (eg: a games console, a mobile phone, etc). Have the kids play different components in the system. For example, to show how mobile phones work, have two kids playing phones and have two more kids playing phone towers. The kids playing phones wander around, until you call stop.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)