23 July 2008

Computer literacy - what does it mean?

I think Abigail is well on her way to computer literacy. Why? Because she called the computer 'stupid.'

Some background:

I've been really happy to let my kids play with the computer recently. Both Collette and Abigail have improved their ability to, not just recognize letters, but also spell. They've been mostly using flash games on PBS Kids, especially, Super Why!

We're quite impressed with Collette's improved skills. Not only do they know how to navigate the games, but they can follow the blue "OK" menu options to get stuff printed. We have lots of printouts hanging up on the fridge.

Back to calling the game 'stupid.'

Abigail couldn't get to the next step in the game. I thought maybe she lost window focus or accidentally opened another program from the dock (OS X). Nope - that wasn't the problem. It was the beach ball of death. The application wasn't responding. Just like so many adults on computers, Abigail thought it was stupid the program was giving the 'Application Not Responding' message.

It's sad that we have to explain the colorful spin wheel means the computer is 'thinking' and she should wait or just start over.




2 comments:

  1. That is so funny. This is my favorite site to explore with Saylor http://www.starfall.com/. I call my computer stupid on a daily basis!

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  2. Kids have been using Starfall.com for the past week. They enjoy it too.

    ReplyDelete