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story category Broadband Technology Gives Kids Jump Start on Education
Educational games automatically update your child's progress
(old news - 11:57AM Sunday Jun 10 2007)
tags: fun · software
Let’s date ourselves for a moment; what did computer education look like when you were in elementary school? Perhaps you’re of the “learn to type” generation. Or maybe you’re from the “Oregon Trail” days. It’s not quite the same for today’s kids, of course. Just one example is “JumpStart World Kindergarten”, a preschooler’s software program which makes use of broadband Internet access to send information to the Internet during the child’s game, tracking their progress and automatically receiving new content based on that progress. And it even has built-in recess.

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Forums » Broadband Technology Gives Kids Jump Start on Education
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pnh102
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5 Minutes

Before Disney shoots BBR off the web with endless cease-and-desist orders for using the graven image of Mickey Mouse
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TurtleFan

join:2003-05-03
Wyckoff, NJ

Re: 5 Minutes

Computer Education looked like Number Munchers. Best Learning Game EVER!

OH, Disney has been alerted. Expect the lawyers by your door within 5 minutes. They have a local branch in every town now .

S_engineer

join:2007-05-16
Chicago, IL

Re: 5 Minutes

Built in recess......
Great, now the kids can become more obese at an earlier age due to the lack of physical activity.
Why does dodge ball hurt a childs self-esteem when it's played for real but played on a computer it is acceptable?
desreversti

join:2002-09-03
San Antonio, TX
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Re: 5 Minutes

Haha, oh dodge ball. I substitute teach at my old high school and when I was coaching PE about a month ago, I tried to get a game of dodge ball, but was not allowed to due to some supposed injury that occurred. Instead, I had them play hand ball which to me seems quite a bit more violent!

Transmaster
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join:2001-06-20
Cheyenne, WY

Re: 5 Minutes

This is one of the reasons I got out of teaching. even back 20 years ago there where even then teachers who where to lazy to teach and they would sit their kids down in front of Apple II's and let the computer baby sit. I told them this was total crap which did not make them very happy
--
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Corehhi

join:2002-01-28
Bluffton, SC

Re: 5 Minutes

Those apples did nothing. We had them around the school oh what a big deal. Almost no teachers had an idea what to do with them and all I ever saw was a couple of very lame basic programs. Multiple guess questions and answers.

At the time I was learning programing in basic, pascal, etc. We used the schools data general with dumb terminals. Oh living on the edge in the early 80's.
desreversti

join:2002-09-03
San Antonio, TX
Hehe, speaking of Apples, I remember using "turtle" on them. Oh, the pointlessness of it all!

GO 50
RIGHT 30
GO 30

(Or something like that)

inteller
Sociopaths always win.

join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK
wasnt number munchers a trash 80 game? I know Oregon trail was.

Lets Golf
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Davenport, FL
haha - i thought of the same thing as soon as I saw it. I think they are the most protective of their trademark.

NetFixer
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When I was in elementary school?

Let’s date ourselves for a moment; what did computer education look like when you were in elementary school?
Didn't have a computer when I was in elementary school, but when I was in high school my computer looked like this:




At least it wasn't an abacus (I'm not that old).
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Owlbet
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Re: When I was in elementary school?

said by NetFixer See Profile :

Didn't have a computer when I was in elementary school...
No computer here either. Learning aids were a number line or flash cards. Neither were really needed, math of any sort came naturally to me. When homework proved problematic, I turned to my teacher or mother or friends for help with a solution. There was no such thing as an instant answer.

In high school business classes a ten-key adding machine was the closest I came to using a computer. And when I finally went to college years after graduating high school, pencils, ledger paper, and an adding machine were the tools I used. I might add that I got the experience in the accounting field before I ever got the education.

A computer can be a wonderful adjunct to a childs' education, but the parents need to take a more active role as well. Some of my most cherished memories from my childhood are of my mother helping me with my homework.
pachocco1

join:2002-01-27
Dallas, TX
·ViaTalk

Lets give Disney its due credit

Here is the link to the Disney "Edutainment" site.
»playhouse.go.com/v1/marketing/

It is a very nice flash based presentation. My daughter loves it. It offers everything Jump*Start has and more for a yearly fee.

If your cheap, you can use »www.starfall.com . It also is very good and very free (discrete ad support).

hobgoblin
Sortof Agoblin
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Orchard Park, NY
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Has it made Kids smarter?

There was no computer equipment in schools when I was a kid.

Are kids smarter with all this computer stuff available?
Or does it make them lazy?
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BK3

join:2001-04-10
Geneva, IL
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When I was in grade school ...

When I was in grade school, a computer was something you heard about on Star Trek (TOS). No one actually owned one ...

Weren't their recent studies that showed that computers used for learning weren't truly effective?
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fuzz
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Word processor


mimeograph machine
This was MS Word when I was in grade school.

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Desdinova

join:2003-01-26
Gaithersburg, MD


edit:
June 10th, @06:00PM

Re: Word processor

Plus, kids today will never know the sweet rush to the head that followed the turning over of a test paper and taking the first deep inhalation of that wonderful blue nirvana known as mimeograph ink...

Then again, we never had the unexpected pleasure caused by a test being inturuppted by a flood of porn pop-ups...

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Re: Word processor

said by Desdinova See Profile :

Plus, kids today will never know the sweet rush to the head that followed the turning over of a test paper and taking the first deep inhalation of that wonderful blue nirvana known as mimeograph ink...
Don't forget model glue. There was a reason building those models took sooooooooo long.
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Desdinova

join:2003-01-26
Gaithersburg, MD

Re: Word processor

And were so chaotic, disjointed and poorly assembled...akmost as if we weren't focused or something...

wilbilt
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said by Desdinova See Profile :

Plus, kids today will never know the sweet rush to the head that followed the turning over of a test paper and taking the first deep inhalation of that wonderful blue nirvana known as mimeograph ink...
Oh, Hell yes!
Perhaps those ink-induced rushes were to blame for my being an underachiever...;)
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Corehhi

join:2002-01-28
Bluffton, SC
oh that sweet smell. They don't use ditto's anymore? Weren't they cheap to pump out a lot of copies?
TheNerdGirl

join:2006-12-09
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When I was in elementary school in the 90s

They had computers at the time but they cost an arm and leg. At school, they had Apple II's - the ones that had built in monitors and floppy drives, no CD-ROM drives wasn't available, my classes had to use the PCs for Oregon Trail, typing games, educational games, learning how to type letters, etc. The Internet wasn't wildly available until I got in the 6th grade, that's when I took keyboarding, learning how to use the Internet, and emailing a friend overseas. Other than that, for homework, my mom or the library would help me. When I got into high school, this was in 1997, I finally got a PC at home in summer '98 to help with homework a bit. But, my mom and the library still helped with homework. Now in college, I have to use the PC for my Computer Network Specialist courses and diploma, but I still have to read textbooks.

TransitMan
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What are Computers?

When I was in grade school through high school, if you had 10 fingers and 10 toes, then you had your adding machine.
In high school, it was the slide rule. And the typewriter, and adding machine. (If you were lucky!)

What needs to be done today is to go back to good old days of mimeograph ink and model glue, paper and pencil, rulers and slide rules, and maybe even an adding machine to see how todays kids would fare with what we used back then.

However, I will concede that the computer does help in looking up those items we used to have look up in 10 year old Encyclopedia Brittanicas. And when we did, it was all out-dated information, not up to date as was wanted by the teachers.

To have kids sit in front of a computer to get an education is just wrong. They learn nothing except how to get fatter and more lazy with each passing day.
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majortom1029

join:2006-10-19
Lindenhurst, NY

Re: What are Computers?

Thats not true. I am a network tech in a library and there is a lot of educational computer games that make learning alot more fun.

Blues Clues learning games, Dora the explorer learning games (hate them lol) , and a clifford learning game seem to be the ones the kids like the best.

So before spouting wrong info out please do some research.

TransitMan
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Re: What are Computers?

Maybe if you thought about what I said instead of telling me I am wrong, you'd understand.

There's nothing wrong with so-called educational software, but in the real world kids need more than to know how to sit in front of a computer all day and do nothing physical.
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2kmaro
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edit:
June 10th, @11:53PM

I don't think TransitMan See Profile was saying computer AIDED instruction is a bad thing, it just appears to be turning into an abused primary method of teaching.

Oregon Trail? I'm not sure Oregon had been discovered when I went through grade and high school . We certainly didn't have anything electronic in the classrooms unless you count the lights, class bell, and intercom for the announcements from the principal. Once in a while in one of the sciences classes they might bring in an 8 or 16 mm projector and show us some pretty cool stuff put out by Bell Labs.

High school and the slide-rule was king but still nothing so exotic as even a portable 4-function electronic calculator. Need a cube root? Either calculate it or look it up in a table of such things. Working with logs? Go direct to a table!

And outside for some fresh air and actually move around vigorously (think President Kennedy's fitness plans). None of which seems to have hurt me one bit: I still get around pretty well and I can calculate the change I should receive at the window at Mickey-Ds before the high-school student operating the cash register can read the LED telling him how much to give to me, after which he seems to struggle to actually have to add up as he sweats over which bin to get the next bill or coin from to come up with something that matches what shows in the display

The AMA (American Medical Association) is already predicting an epidemic of youthful (we're talking people in their 20's and 30's not 50's and 50's) Type II diabetes caused in large part by an overweight, lethargic generation.

Rob A
Same Old Jets
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Oregon Trail

That was the game from my time back in elementary school, damn was that a fun game.

CConverse

join:2006-01-31
Syracuse, NY

Re: Oregon Trail

Yeah, I remember crowding around the one computer in the classroom to play it, lol...

rawgerz
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the hunting parts angered me very much!!

wilbilt
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Working as a tech for a school district, I've seen Oregon Trail. That stupid azz Jake always gets snakebit LOL.

When I was in school, it was all paper and pencil. I think my high school may have had a Commodore 64, but it was locked away where only the uber geeks could get near it.

There are a lot of educational software apps these days that are undoubtedly beneficial, but I agree that too much emphasis is placed on sitting in front of a monitor.
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Corehhi

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Re: Oregon Trail

What do you mean geek? I owned a Commodore 64 when I went to college.

Lil Jon
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said by Rob A See Profile :

That was the game from my time back in elementary school, damn was that a fun game.
co-sign

wilbilt
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What About Kids Stuck on Dialup?

Do their slower responses classify them as having a learning disability?
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edit:
June 11th, @01:22AM

LOL Times change

When I was in elementary school in late 80s, early 90s, we had those wonderful APPLE II monochrome computers. I remember the really cheesy games that came on it. Very basic to say the least. As I got older, stuff improved obviously. I remember playing Oregon trail in the 5th or 6th grade. From there computers definitely improved. Still, computers were out of reach cost wise for most. In 1996, a friend of mine got a computer (his parents bought him it) and it cost 3200 dollars if I recall. It was a 2 or 4 GB 166 mhz gateway with a cdrom. Top of the line back then. He was lucky. I didn't get a computer until dec '98. A nice 366 mhz box with a 4MB video card and 64 MB ram (HP). Heheh I used that computer until 2003 until I built this one. Now of days, technology is cheap and changes rapidly. Back then, it was slow going and cost a fortunte. Kids today definitely got an advantage over the 25-35 crowd. Anyone over 35 simply would not have had computers in any part of their school years.

Somnambul33t
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Oregon Trail...

i owned it on PC and we played it in elementary school on apple II's. yes, they were old when i used them. very old. i think we got yukon trail before i moved to middle school and my family bought amazon trail shortly after. nothing like spearing a fish to get you interested in the rain forest.

my youngest sister is still in elementary school (some 13 years separate us) and the PC has taken over a large portion of what my mother spent with my other siblings and i. she seems to be learning at the same pace we did only without my mother's help. maybe it's not the same without your mother, but with 6 kids, 3 in HS and 1 in elem school, and herself going back for a degree in history, she doesn't have the time to devote to her the way she devoted to us. in the end, my sister learns outside of school and at her own pace, and my mother has a little more time to devote elsewhere.
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jc100

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Re: Oregon Trail...

Computers are definitely to everyone's advantage. They have opened up the world of communication and torn down the boundaries. Where as I use to go to the library to look up information, I can simply hop on the computer and look on the web. There is usually no need to sort through piles of books and catalog cards to find the material I need. Most likely, google or yahoo contain the answers.

However, there are downsides to the internet as well. Kids are often left in front of the computer. Now, it replaces the T.V. as the household babysitter. However, unlike the worries of parents in the 80's and 90s (you might see violence), the computer holds a lot more dangers. Children can gain access to information that isn't age appropriate. There are individuals who frequent places that don't have a kids best intent at heart. The list goes on.

Personally, I think that computer instruction should always be carefully monitored by the parent. After all, no parent would give their child a loaded gun and say have at it. Computers are no different. Hence, I can't say I agree with your 13 year old sister learning on her own. However, I do think computers have given children of this age access to a lot more information than I had in school (whether good or bad). In the end, if used appropriately, technology has great potential to revolutionize how kids today learn.

Somnambul33t
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Re: Oregon Trail...

she learns extra-curricular on her own, not use a PC :P
she's 9 and is rarely allowed online without my mom or sibling in the room, even if theyre not paying much attn. she knows what sites to go to, what learning programs to play, and the dangers of sites like myspace. she does have AIM but my mom keeps a close eye on her buddylist and chat logs. shes got 2 sisters 16 and 15 which are the 2 closest to her, so she tries to mimic them the most.

as long as parents know the what's safe and what's potentially not, and keep an eye on their kids' activities, most children will be fine. it shouldnt be used as a baby-sitter replacement, but more like another sibling that doesnt talk or hit back.
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