Slashdot Mirror
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?"
if they're interested in an IT career.
BC
Look, if he was dying, he wouldn't bother to carve 'aaaaaggh'. He'd just say it!
Or, perhaps he was dictating.
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
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.
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!
MAYNARD:
It reads, 'Here may be found the last words of Joseph of Arimathea. He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the Holy Grail in the Castle of aaaaaagggh'.
ARTHUR:
What?
MAYNARD:
'...The Castle of aaaaaagggh'.
BEDEVERE:
What is that?
MAYNARD:
He must have died while carving it.
LAUNCELOT:
Oh, come on!
MAYNARD:
Well, that's what it says.
ARTHUR:
Look, if he was dying, he wouldn't bother to carve 'aaaaaggh'. He'd just say it!
MAYNARD:
Well, that's what's carved in the rock!
GALAHAD:
Perhaps he was dictating.
ARTHUR:
Oh, shut up. Well, does it say anything else?
MAYNARD:
No. Just 'aaaaaagggh'.
LAUNCELOT:
Aaaauugggh.
ARTHUR:
Aaaaaggh.
BEDEVERE:
Do you suppose he meant the Camaaaaaargue?
GALAHAD:
Where's that?
BEDEVERE:
France, I think.
LAUNCELOT:
Isn't there a 'Saint Aaauuves' in Cornwall?
ARTHUR:
No, that's 'Saint Ives'.
LAUNCELOT:
Oh, yes. Saint Iiiiives.
KNIGHTS:
Iiiiives.
BEDEVERE:
Oooohoohohooo!
LAUNCELOT:
No, no. 'Aaaauugggh', at the back of the throat. Aaauugh.
BEDEVERE:
N-- no. No, no, no, no. 'Oooooooh', in surprise and alarm.
LAUNCELOT:
Oh, you mean sort of a 'aaaah'!
BEDEVERE:
Yes, but I-- aaaaaah!
ARTHUR:
Oooh!
GALAHAD:
My God!
[dramatic chord]
[roar]
MAYNARD:
It's the legendary Black Beast of Aaauugh!
[Black Beast of Aaauugh eats BROTHER MAYNARD]
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.
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.
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)