Hi all,
Sue, why not buy cards for all your students, then each student could
have his/her own card.
As far as the directory structure, that is the same structure which
has been used on computers since the early 1980s. Teaching students
about files, folders and directories is a concept that will help them
life-long on whatever computer they use. Don't dumb down the subject
because you think a fourth grader can't comprehend it. I've known
fourth graders who played with fractals; making them out of string,
recited Shakespeare, learned set theory, (simplified true), understood
the blocking directions given by a director, and many more things.
Don't assume that just because the kid's nine or ten he can't
understand these concepts. Make them tactile, make them tangible, get
file drawers if you have to, put folders in them, and papers in the
folders. If you do that, by the time I get to see whomever this is to
train him on a new piece of software, I won't have to start at square
One.
My computer is a good tool, but it blurs the concept a bit by making
it easy for a user to just open things as they are presented. Typing
in the actual path to a file causes the user to think about where
l'deuce he put the file and how to retrieve it!
If a fourth grader can recite Puck's last speech from Midsummer, he
can sure has heck understand directories, folders and files! You'll
get exactly what you expect out of your students, Sue.
Ann P.
--
Ann K. Parsons
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
WEB SITE: http://home.eznet.net/~akp
"All that is gold does not glitter.
Not all those who wander are lost." JRRT
