[Foundation-l] Re: Personal info

[Ray Saintonge]

Anthere wrote:

> Ray Saintonge a écrit:
>
>> In a different direction, after your Algerian trip you mentioned that 
>> you were showing your son how to use Wikipedia to help him with his 
>> school work.  Has he been sufficiently infected ;-)  to want to 
>> attend Wikimania?
>
> I have showed him how to use it. Here is the page of the article he 
> wrote : 
> http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilisateur:William/Le_Sahara_alg%C3%A9rien 

Well done!

> Kids were set up in team (which I did not know at first). His team 
> mate was a brazilian girl (which allowed me to make new brazilian 
> friends) with who he prepared a big poster where they pasted several 
> pictures. Though initially planned in february, they presented their 
> work in june :-)
> It was extremely well appreciated and he got a 20/20:-) 

Learning to work in teams is an important part of education.

> I also noticed the interface was too complicated for him and he had 
> pain to remember where to access what. So, even after a while, he was 
> very far from independant. If we ever do a wiki for kids, we'll have 
> to improve the interface I fear. 

There's much to be learned from this experience in the Wikis for 
adults.  If I, as an experienced person here, can find navigating 
throuugh templates difficult, it must be extremely discouraging for kids 
and newbies.

> Currently, he is giving most of his computer time playing Alpha 
> Centauri :-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Alpha_Centauri 

My son played this a couple years ago, after having gone through "Sid 
Meier's Civilization".  These are very challenging role-playing games 
that require a very big attention span.  It's great to see someone so 
young take an interest in that kind of game.

> As for Wikimania, I have considered bringing the family along, but 
> considered at least 3 would be very bored, not knowing anyone, with 
> only conferences to have fun. So, no, they will not come..... 

I'm sure my son would find it boring too. :-)

Ec