A University that I use to work with used a combination of Real Audio server for streaming video, slides, online web material, and a chat server. The Chat server they used was by Lotus Notes, but I won't suggest using any product by Lotus Notes.
Students could watch the live video at the time it was recorded using a real audio player, and could also surf over to the website associated with the class and follow online matter at the same time. Students could later view the archived classes via real audio by pulling it out of a media archive available online using restricted access. Also for questions and comments there was a moderated chat room for all the students to join while the class was being initially taught. The moderator would then forward questions onto the teach to answer.
The biggest down fall thus far to all of this is with the archived data. You could give the student back the streaming, a log of the chat session, and the material online, but none of it was synced with the streaming video at that point and at times could be cumbersome to follow.
Uhm.. yeah... why sleep with 5 computers in your bedroom. I mean hey if you're gonna have em, DEAL with them. Oh and the fans, they don't cost that much, try replacing them, or even trying cleaning them?
Well the answer to a lot of posts about, is this legal, well the answer is yes. I faguely recall that when the stove or oven was invented that the original designer never patented the design but a "gentlmen" later did and required the inventor to pay royalties for something he invented. That just goes to show the facts of life.
I personally think that this patent stuff is getting out of hand. People are just trying to make money quick. It could be seen as a way to get back at open source. I mean we're all sharing without any issues and some person decides he wants to get in on the act and circumvents the system and gets paid for something that everyone has worked so hard to work together on. Well at least that's one way to look at it.
Pretty soon we won't beable to do anything without paying an endless number of royalties to various individuals to make something as simple as a "Hello World" program.
Oh well.. I have to live in this world, doesn't mean I have to like it.
Here's the first question. What does the child want? I mean what is sparking his/her interest in wanting to learn to program. That's where I'd start.
I learned on basic and yes, it's a great language, but as others have said, don't under estimate your child. They learn a lot quicker than we do. If basic won't fit what sparks their interest then go with what does.
If the child would like to have a state of the art website with tons of programmed things, then teaching them html and javascript, perl, and php would be a great choice. If they want to write a game perhaps c/c++ would be the best language. Unfortunatly for a kid to write something that keeps up with the times isn't as easy to do starting out as it was say 10-15 years ago.
Taking that into account you might want to help guide them into choosing an achievable project while still doing something that interests them. This would keep them from being upset if it doesn't turn out looking like the coolest game currently off the shelf and ultimately keeping them from programming in the future.
Slashdot Mirror
Students could watch the live video at the time it was recorded using a real audio player, and could also surf over to the website associated with the class and follow online matter at the same time. Students could later view the archived classes via real audio by pulling it out of a media archive available online using restricted access. Also for questions and comments there was a moderated chat room for all the students to join while the class was being initially taught. The moderator would then forward questions onto the teach to answer.
The biggest down fall thus far to all of this is with the archived data. You could give the student back the streaming, a log of the chat session, and the material online, but none of it was synced with the streaming video at that point and at times could be cumbersome to follow.
Hope this helps a little.
Uhm.. yeah... why sleep with 5 computers in your bedroom. I mean hey if you're gonna have em, DEAL with them. Oh and the fans, they don't cost that much, try replacing them, or even trying cleaning them?
I personally think that this patent stuff is getting out of hand. People are just trying to make money quick. It could be seen as a way to get back at open source. I mean we're all sharing without any issues and some person decides he wants to get in on the act and circumvents the system and gets paid for something that everyone has worked so hard to work together on. Well at least that's one way to look at it.
Pretty soon we won't beable to do anything without paying an endless number of royalties to various individuals to make something as simple as a "Hello World" program.
Oh well.. I have to live in this world, doesn't mean I have to like it.
My two cents
I learned on basic and yes, it's a great language, but as others have said, don't under estimate your child. They learn a lot quicker than we do. If basic won't fit what sparks their interest then go with what does.
If the child would like to have a state of the art website with tons of programmed things, then teaching them html and javascript, perl, and php would be a great choice. If they want to write a game perhaps c/c++ would be the best language. Unfortunatly for a kid to write something that keeps up with the times isn't as easy to do starting out as it was say 10-15 years ago.
Taking that into account you might want to help guide them into choosing an achievable project while still doing something that interests them. This would keep them from being upset if it doesn't turn out looking like the coolest game currently off the shelf and ultimately keeping them from programming in the future.
Just my two cents.