[UbuntuWomen] Introduction

[॥ स्वक्ष ॥]

Hello and welcome to UW !

On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 12:16, Bill Day <williamson.day at gmail.com> wrote:
> I joined this list after reading Jared Spurbecks' article about efforts to
> promote the involvement of women in Free Software.  http://yhoo.it/fgOc5H
> Since the list encourages introductions,  I am offering one.  My particular
> interest stems from the fact that I am not only an Ubuntu user (although not
> a programmer) but also the father of two little girls, 5 and 7, who are very
> interested in their computers.  Unfortunately, their early interest in
> Ubuntu has cooled a bit since they have discovered a) proprietary software
> offers more games, and b) many web-based sites for kids are heavily
> dependent on ActiveX, which is not available on Ubuntu.

The linux world has games too ... just that those games are more
logical (hence educational?) and might not appeal to them at first
glance. I had done a post listing some games for 5-12 y.o,
http://svaksha.com/post/2009/linux-and-science4kids

The trick lies in drawing a parallel with our daily life and
explaining the mathematical concepts in a simpler way to get their
attention without it seeming like a "math" chore. Easier said that
done but I've used the "five or more" game to teach a simple 5-times
multiplication rule -- anything multiplied with '5' will always have a
resultant answer with '5' in the units place. Simple stuff to bigger
building blocks. Its not going to get them obsessed with 'Linux' per
se but when you are talking to kids, selling 'Linux' the traditional
way (as we do to adults) hardly works. On the home front, the fastest
method to increase the Linux adoption rate was "I wont maintain a
non-Debian/Ubuntu Linux system". It worked like a charm :)

-- 
Regards,
vid ॥ http://svaksha.com