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On 17/07/2010 18:55, John Williams wrote:
Thanks to everyone who came, especially to Rhia, Tom and Paul who came up from Torquay.
I was hoping to make it but got stuck at work ... maybe the next one
I support a number of schools and have tried many times to get them to move away from MS but they are reluctant to do so.. I have managed to get various opensource apps in tho' -the normal suspects - GIMP, OOo, Scribus .... Maybe I can discuss some reasons why schools won't/can't move away from MS when I get to a meeting.Lots of interesting discussion, subjects varied broadly, from how much the speccy sucked (Kidding Rhia.. honest ;))) to how we can perhaps encroach onto school installs with opensource applications and operating systems.
</snip> I was also asking about languages suitable to teach a 9year old, Tom suggested the system that is included in the EToys package which I had looked at previously. I would prefer something like old skool Basic though.
Have you tried Scratch - http://scratch.mit.edu/I saw this being demo'd at a presentation at this years BETT show in January. It is aimed at KS3 -KS4 but one of the teachers I met at BETT was using it with yr5/6 kids so maybe your 9 year old may be able to take to it. My 8 year old is going to have a go with it over the summer - he like the idea of being able to make his own games!
I have one school interested in using it instead of the dreaded LOGO/roamer.
I'll try to get to this one .. I have a load of old linux format magazines that I got sent by them to give away a meetings so I can bring them along.</snip> Next meeting is on August 21st which is the 3rd saturday of the month again.
I may be able to bring some kit with me if I have time to sort it out. Dave -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq