What could be the best way to introduce the world of computers to a kid, let’s say of 6 years old, so that he learns to handle it like a toy and stops dreading it like some esoteric, arcane and recondite machine from some eldritch, enigmatic, cryptic and phantasmal world ?
Take away his other toys lol
Idk what got me into it, but I do remember that I would frequently play around with MS Paint at my mom’s workplace when I was very young. I don’t remember how frequent my trips to her job were, but obviously I didn’t have anything else to do while there. So when we finally got our own computer at home, I immediately knew what I wanted to do on it. From that point I would start learning more and more.
I don’t have kids, but lots of young children in my family. I’ve tried getting them into computers too, but they also seem scared of them. I think where I went wrong was trying to show off all the cool things it can do too quickly, as they might have gotten intimidated by the arcane rituals I did to make them happen.
Regarding games, idk. My first exposure to games was on consoles, and I didn’t play any PC games until we got internet at home and I stumbled across flash sites. I remember spending WAY more time looking for funny videos/animations than games.
So… I have no real suggestions, just a few personal anecdotes.
Make his experience broken and authoritarian to the point the he start to rebel against your tech.
For me it was games on a computer. Learned how to use the keyboard, mouse, and later troubleshoot shit that was not working because I really wanted to play a game.
It’s small things like “oh I can take a screenshot, hmm where does the screenshot go?” and that’s how you learn to navigate files and folders etc.
I’m afraid this required much more tinkering back in the day, and will be way less educational now. Maybe building and running a PC from 2005 or earlier will require the same level of getting to know things, but otherwise it will not teach to not treat computer as arcane and enigmatic, imo
For sure it took more back then, however looking at people using their phones/tablets for everything I think you can still learn a lot by simply trying out and using a computer to do similar tasks you would do on a phone too.
The screenshot might have been a bad analogy since e.g. steam actually lets you access your screenshots directly in the application, but if you want to set it as your background image you still have to access the file itself.
Great description
Thanks! This was actually a great question too, because I hadn’t really thought about how I gradually learned to use a computer.
Definitely videogames
Yeah, get him an old console with a donkey kong cartridge or something to boot.
Nah, it must be a PC, with broken audio socket on the motherboard, PCI soundcard with no drivers as a replacement, an IDE CD drive, only SATA sockets on the motherboard, and a stack of CDs with hundreds of DOS games on each. Plus $10 to buy an IDE-to-SATA adapter.
Yeah apparently!
6? Go play and live doing fun things.
Computers/video games/tablets/tv that all can wait.
Yeah, the last thing you need to do is push a kid to use computers. They’ll learn fast once they take an interest. And, they’ll develop other important skills in the mean time.
Is there such a thing as a kid that dreads playing games on a computer?
I started with a VIC-20 at twice that age. In the 80s computers were viewed as somewhat magical, a bit scary. Took a 2-week summer camp on programming BASIC and two things they told us made me feel way better.
You can’t physically destroy the computer typing at the keyboard. I took that to mean no matter how badly I screwed up, the problem could be unscrewed.
It’s a dumb machine, no brains, period. That means you are in control of it. Some people could use that lesson today. 🫤
@shalafi@lemmy.world the computer made appearance in my place in the 90s.
Games have hooked a lot of people.
Maybe try a progression over time, like:
- approachable games, to pique initial interest
- games with building/construction/puzzle mechanics, to get the kid using the computer like a tool
- text adventure games, to get them using the computer to work with things they can’t see
- games with programming mechanics, to teach them to take control of the computer, modifying its behavior to suit them
In the latter category, this one looks promising:
watching parent play videogames, touching screen to make effects, being asked to play using one part of the controls (like “you control movement, i look around. now lets switch”) asking how they’d make all caps letters after showing them how the shift key works
I’m ancient, but I learned both to use the computer and English when I started gaming on the family Amiga at around age 6. My fondest memories were of adventure games like King’s Quest and Space Quest, which incidentally required decent command of English.
There’s tons of more modern and kid-friendly adventure games out there nowadays, but the principle stands.
One of my friends in colombia learned english the same way. Playing video games with a dictionary by his side and lots of pausing was how he described it to me. IMHO the best way to learn a language is doing something you love.
I’m ancient,
Amiga at around age 6.
lol
You’re not ancient, friend.
oregon trail
