Re: MeToo Children's Program

["Bill Buckels" <bbuckels@mts.net>]

"David Schmenk" <dschmenk@YUCH.gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:X2Vfk.30470$co7.9464@nlpi066.nbdc.sbc.com...

> I gotta tell you, the Apple II educational market isn't dead, just not 
> very lucrative :-)

A small but lively bunch... like linux users:) The market was never 
particlularly lucrative, but it was always more fun.

> I actually got back into the Apple II when the local  elementary school 
> cleaned out a crawl-space and had a bunch of IIs and a III sitting outside 
> in the rain (I rescued them). In doing so, I met the  computer lab teacher 
> who still had a gs sitting in the corner.  Although the school district 
> insisted on PCs, she still keeps the gs along with a slew of MECC titles 
> and a couple of others for the ELS (English as Second Language) students.


Tell me more David. Where are you? I am not asking for your co-ordinates. I 
am more asking what the primary language might be. If we are talking about 
Spanish, I should note again that the fontset that I use for these little 
programs supports non-english characters and MeToo! and programs like it 
would only require minimal effort on my part and probably not much effort on 
a translator's part for spanish, german, etc. versions to be available. I 
don't have the interest or the resources to do so without a willing and able 
translator person.

> In payment for her letting me take the old
> hardware, I cut her a cd with AppleWin and DSK files of most the MECC
> titles (I still have a pile to work through) to use on the PCs.

When you are done the CD you should offer it as a collection on-line.

> Next month, my son starts kindergarten, and I promise I will round up
> more titles to add to the cd - all of yours included.  I'll take them to
> the lab and see how they go over.  I'm sure they will be a hit.

If you find any bugs let me know and they will be fixed. My lab is not 
set-up yet. Like you I am rounding-up a GS and want to get the Apple //e 
that I scrounged last year into a place of honour, get flash cards, and just 
generally have the vintage stuff available for testing and also for 
grand-kiddies and me to play-on. I have the C64 to resurrect too. In the 
meantime I use an emulator to test-in. Therefore tests are cursory and 
subjective. For example, AppleWIN has disk acceleration. This is a wonderful 
feature but creates the illusion that disk IO is more responsive than it 
would be on floppy media.

> Keep 'em coming!

No problem there. Thanks for the feedback.

The goal as always should be that the user experience defines the success of 
the software and not the other way around. Compiler developers and other 
complex folks who focus on "pure" and idealistic computer-science are often 
and usually blind-sided when it comes to ergonomics and other human-factors 
issues.

When I studied Industrial Design our mantra was "FORM=FUNCTION". However in 
computer engineering type courses that churn-out programmers and even in 
business computing courses, the design component is largely absenst and the 
focus is on the lowest common denominators of language syntax, and 
algorithms, and other left-side logical training and is deficient in 
balancing the calculus with development of the right-side's creative 
potential.

Without getting too far into why this is, the end result is usually crappy 
software that conforms to some comp-sci standard like CUA (common user 
access).

So what about basic design concepts like color selection, pattern, 
repetition, alternation? Yes this is Interior Design. But the last time I 
looked, most kids aren't using educational software when they are out on the 
play-structure during recess.

"Percentile Satisfaction"  and Software:

If we go back to the 1970's an Engineer by the name of "Sid Love" published 
a series of articles in a magazine called "Mastery of Engineering". One of 
them ("Design by Timely Interation") was much later rebranded by Micro$oft 
as RAD (Rapid Application Development). Another (the name of the article 
escapes me) that I use whenever I have the opportunity in both hard product 
design and software is a "Percentile Satisfaction" design evaluation 
methodology which rates design options by quantifying each "quality" with a 
ratio metric based on what programmers call "requirements" then compares 
each design and picks the highest rated option as the best.

Bear with me. This gets simple:)

You take every requirement of a design and give it a value on a scale of 
your choosing. This rating can be arbitrary but it must be fairly balanced. 
First decide what overall percentage of the design each requirement is:

Clear Simple Graphics=20%
Ages 4-8(audience)=20%
Boys and Girls(inclusion)=20%
Keyboard Navigation=5%
Mouse Navigation=5%
Good Documentation=30%
Total =100%

It should already be apparent despite the simple example that the computer 
sciencey stuff rates pretty low in the overall rating. Usually it will since 
software is mostly about content. And the design doesn't even consider if it 
is running on Windows Xp or on an Apple II.

Now that the requirements have been prioritized and ratios have been 
established up to 3 potential options are devised for each. Each are 
compared against the overall satisfaction value and given their own value 
based on ratio.  For example, no mouse navigation is rated as 0 and using a 
mouse in place of the keyboard for all commands is 5. A compromise is 
subjective and probably gets a value of 3.

Now comes the fun part. Since all design is a compromise, the designer, or 
programmer now has a tool to prioritize which compromises can be made and at 
what cost to the overall design.

I realize that I am on a tangent here. But when it comes to programming 
children's software, and selecting the best presentation venue, since the 
design accomplishes the overall goal, the Apple II or even an old Nintendo 
gaming system and a TV does just as well as anything else.

Now here's where venues like the Apple II are better I think.

The teacher can leave a box of disks out and the kid can pick one and walk 
over to an Apple II and put the disk in the drive themselves, then turn-on 
the computer and they are right-into the program. At least that's the way I 
remember it. No learning of Windows or other desktops, and no need for 
dealing with these horking and expensive fearsome monstrosities that we call 
computers these days.

IMNSHO It is a fine thing that you and the teacher have done. If I was 5 I 
would be having fun:)

As far as this reply goes, I certainly have provided a mine-field of 
arguments that can be raised for a lively discussion:)

Cheers,

Bill