[Edu-sig] Articles of possible interest

[Arthur Siegel]

>I had wanted the examples to be more realistic, but I don't really
>know any girls (or boys!) in the ages described in the article, and I
>still don't have the faintest idea what kind of games or other
>activities *would* appeal to them so I could make the examples.
>(Surely not Pokemon!)

FWIW, the thread of Beyond 3D which was about doing simple text based
chat and internet stuff was originally inspired by a recent family
visit during which my 10 year-old niece (a big baseball fan) showed
me the radio she made and wanted to prove to me it really worked.

I can also report that the world of teen-age internet chat is extremely
co-ed.  My son in fact is more comfortable relating with the opposite
sex that way than face-to-face.  Its text based.  I love it, because it
has made him want to know how to communicate well in writing.

As Stephen has been emphasing, the skills kids learn are the skills
they see as useful to getting them where they want to go.  Knowing my
son, written communication is something that would have been of little
interest
to him had internet chat not become important to him socially.