children's IT courses

angeldaisy

Anyone know of anywhere in Limerick that children could do a course in PC skills - literally from the start, how to turn it on etc....
Any computer camps that might be relevant - its for a 9yr old

wnolan1992

Probably a little more advanced than you're looking for, but maybe the Coder Dojo might be something to look into in a year or two? Some of the lads I go to college with tutor there and say it's great craic.

The ECDL course starts off with the most basic of things, but I think you have to do that through a secondary school...

The Snipe

wnolan1992 wrote: »

The ECDL course starts off with the most basic of things, but I think you have to do that through a secondary school...

ECDL takes into consideration that you have the basics of a computer down (how to turn it on etc. and figure your way about the desktop)

Also, it doesn't have to be done through a secondary school, it just often is - it can be done by anyone, and there are loads of private instructers for it that would do it in groups too.

Cresent Comp evening courses are an example, aswell as a quick google search will bring up loads of results.

fl4pj4ck

have you tried Community Centres? I think St.Mary's did something like this last year

The Snipe

I'd imadgine UL would do something.

Enright

http://www.whizzkids.ie/ Garry Lowe at whizz kids

angeldaisy

thanks for info, but there seems to be very little for young children with no pc skills.

martyc5674

angeldaisy wrote: »

thanks for info, but there seems to be very little for young children with no pc skills.

Just my opinion but I think you should be commended for managing to keep your 9 year old computer free so far!!

I've a fairly strong IT background including teaching and my advice to you would be to keep them away from computers...they are not healthy pastimes, and never will be!!

Anyhow that's not your question...if you'd like them to learn how to use the net and other interesting stuff may I suggest purchasing an IPad???
They will master this themselves and they are much more fun/ relevant for a nine year old.

Marty.

xsiborg

angeldaisy wrote: »

Anyone know of anywhere in Limerick that children could do a course in PC skills - literally from the start, how to turn it on etc....
Any computer camps that might be relevant - its for a 9yr old

OP have a look at this thread for some ideas, your child will have been introduced to computers in school, and should pick things up fairly quickly-

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72958561

i made this post myself:

xsiborg wrote: »

well, to be honest, i bought my six year old son a netbook to keep him off my computers, and in my opinion those v-tech toy laptops are nonsense, a complete rip off for what they do. i considered a netbook would provide much better value for money over its lifetime.

i set up an admin acocunt for myself and a standard account for my son, and he has unrestricted access to the internet. i understand that others might consider this irresponsible, but where im coming from is that if you put restrictions in place, he'll get curious about WHY something is restricted, and then there are the further consequences of that.

i didnt bother with any of the educational software either as my son really just youtubes mister maker, spends time on cbeebies website (literally tons and tons of activities!), and tinkers around with the settings and themes, i've recently set it up with a dual boot windows/linux mint install, just to introduce him to something besides windows, and soon i plan on introducing him to office apps like word and libreoffice on linux.

i should just say aswel, i cant recommend highly enough getting your kids a graphics tablet, my son uses mine, a rather expensive one, but they can be got cheaper for about €50, to encourage your children's handwriting skills and hand/eye co-ordination. microsoft paint is included with windows, gimp is included with linux, but it's a bit overkill for kids (think the equivalent of photoshop!).

you can also set it up in Windows Media Center or XBMC on linux so that if your kids want to watch a DVD, you can have it connect to the DVD drive in your laptop, and play the DVD from there. (you'll already have noticed the absence of a DVD drive on the netbook!)

also one more thing you should be aware of- REMOTE DESKTOP, set it up correctly and you can bring up your child's netbook screen on your own laptop and control it right from your own laptop (my son still hasnt discovered how i do that yet, which can be amusing at times!).

above all of course, the one thing i should say to you is that you should be in the same room at least with your child, but dont make it feel like you're supervising them, show them you're taking an interest in what they're doing, even if it is having to watch them play the same mister maker youtube clip for the twentieth time (thank christ he grew outta THAT phase!).

hope this helps.

that was last year some time. since then he has moved on to dual-booting windows 7 with linux mint 12 and spends more time in linux nowadays. my own personal opinion is that you take the time out to spend time with your child on the computer, show them how to do a few things on it, and then let them experiment with it themselves for a bit, you'll be surprised how much your child will learn by themselves through experimentation.

martyc5674 wrote: »

Just my opinion but I think you should be commended for managing to keep your 9 year old computer free so far!!

I've a fairly strong IT background including teaching and my advice to you would be to keep them away from computers...they are not healthy pastimes, and never will be!!

Anyhow that's not your question...if you'd like them to learn how to use the net and other interesting stuff may I suggest purchasing an IPad???
They will master this themselves and they are much more fun/ relevant for a nine year old.

Marty.

marty no offence, but this is TERRIBLE advice! seriously? keep them away from computers but buy them a €600 ipad?

a child won't master anything by themselves without some guidance, otherwise they'll just spend their time doodling in paint or whatever, and will not learn how to use the computer as a tool, for being productive, as opposed to an ipad, which is far less productive.

also an ipad or any touch device will not give the kind of tactile feedback necessary for a child's sensory and hand/eye co-ordinate develpment. this is much better achieved by using a keyboard/mouse/stylus combo.

every child should be encouraged to learn even the most basic IT skills because more and more, computers and IT are becoming an integral part of the school curriculum, and for far too long in ireland we have lagged behind our european counterparts in this regard.

OP my honest opinion is that you dont need to pay money sending your child to classes, but take a little time each evening after they've their homework done to it them down and give them an introduction to the basics yourself.

it doesnt have to be a spanky new computer either, my son is quite happy to work away on a ten year old desktop, a ten year old laptop, and a three year old netbook. you can pick up a second hand laptop fairly cheap anyway for about €200 that'll be more than suficcient enough to teach your child the basics.

martyc5674

xsiborg wrote: »

angeldaisy wrote: »

Anyone know of anywhere in Limerick that children could do a course in PC skills - literally from the start, how to turn it on etc....
Any computer camps that might be relevant - its for a 9yr old

OP have a look at this thread for some ideas, your child will have been introduced to computers in school, and should pick things up fairly quickly-

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72958561

i made this post myself:

xsiborg wrote: »

well, to be honest, i bought my six year old son a netbook to keep him off my computers, and in my opinion those v-tech toy laptops are nonsense, a complete rip off for what they do. i considered a netbook would provide much better value for money over its lifetime.

i set up an admin acocunt for myself and a standard account for my son, and he has unrestricted access to the internet. i understand that others might consider this irresponsible, but where im coming from is that if you put restrictions in place, he'll get curious about WHY something is restricted, and then there are the further consequences of that.

i didnt bother with any of the educational software either as my son really just youtubes mister maker, spends time on cbeebies website (literally tons and tons of activities!), and tinkers around with the settings and themes, i've recently set it up with a dual boot windows/linux mint install, just to introduce him to something besides windows, and soon i plan on introducing him to office apps like word and libreoffice on linux.

i should just say aswel, i cant recommend highly enough getting your kids a graphics tablet, my son uses mine, a rather expensive one, but they can be got cheaper for about €50, to encourage your children's handwriting skills and hand/eye co-ordination. microsoft paint is included with windows, gimp is included with linux, but it's a bit overkill for kids (think the equivalent of photoshop!).

you can also set it up in Windows Media Center or XBMC on linux so that if your kids want to watch a DVD, you can have it connect to the DVD drive in your laptop, and play the DVD from there. (you'll already have noticed the absence of a DVD drive on the netbook!)

also one more thing you should be aware of- REMOTE DESKTOP, set it up correctly and you can bring up your child's netbook screen on your own laptop and control it right from your own laptop (my son still hasnt discovered how i do that yet, which can be amusing at times!).

above all of course, the one thing i should say to you is that you should be in the same room at least with your child, but dont make it feel like you're supervising them, show them you're taking an interest in what they're doing, even if it is having to watch them play the same mister maker youtube clip for the twentieth time (thank christ he grew outta THAT phase!).

hope this helps.

that was last year some time. since then he has moved on to dual-booting windows 7 with linux mint 12 and spends more time in linux nowadays. my own personal opinion is that you take the time out to spend time with your child on the computer, show them how to do a few things on it, and then let them experiment with it themselves for a bit, you'll be surprised how much your child will learn by themselves through experimentation.

martyc5674 wrote: »

Just my opinion but I think you should be commended for managing to keep your 9 year old computer free so far!!

I've a fairly strong IT background including teaching and my advice to you would be to keep them away from computers...they are not healthy pastimes, and never will be!!

Anyhow that's not your question...if you'd like them to learn how to use the net and other interesting stuff may I suggest purchasing an IPad???
They will master this themselves and they are much more fun/ relevant for a nine year old.

Marty.

marty no offence, but this is TERRIBLE advice! seriously? keep them away from computers but buy them a €600 ipad?

a child won't master anything by themselves without some guidance, otherwise they'll just spend their time doodling in paint or whatever, and will not learn how to use the computer as a tool, for being productive, as opposed to an ipad, which is far less productive.

also an ipad or any touch device will not give the kind of tactile feedback necessary for a child's sensory and hand/eye co-ordinate develpment. this is much better achieved by using a keyboard/mouse/stylus combo.

every child should be encouraged to learn even the most basic IT skills because more and more, computers and IT are becoming an integral part of the school curriculum, and for far too long in ireland we have lagged behind our european counterparts in this regard.

OP my honest opinion is that you dont need to pay money sending your child to classes, but take a little time each evening after they've their homework done to it them down and give them an introduction to the basics yourself.

it doesnt have to be a spanky new computer either, my son is quite happy to work away on a ten year old desktop, a ten year old laptop, and a three year old netbook. you can pick up a second hand laptop fairly cheap anyway for about €200 that'll be more than suficcient enough to teach your child the basics.

I wasn't suggesting buying a new iPad 3... iPad 2 will cost a lot less than that and v cheap second hand and there's all the android stuff. 200 euro will buy a decent tablet nowadays.
Desktops and laptops are soon to be a thing of the past... Tablets are the way forward.
My 3 year old uses the iPad supervised to amazing effect and what he has learned is unreal.
There's no boot time with tablets... I've three laptops sitting in the corner that dont get switched on anymore.

How you can say an iPad is not tactile!!!
Have you used one properly?

They are so intuitive... If left with a pc I can see why a child would just play solitaire or doodle in paint.
An IPad is just so intuitive and there are thousands of kids apps that are absolutely amazing.

The PC only belongs in the office now.
I guarantee you your own child would prefer AND benefit more from a tablet.
They don't need to know about Linux/DOS/traditional OS patching nonsense that we all had to learn/ put up with.. That's all history now!
Think about it... why are you running 2 OS's??... Cos neither of em do the job.. You won't have that issue with a tablet.
Marty.

xsiborg

martyc5674 wrote: »

I wasn't suggesting buying a new iPad 3... iPad 2 will cost a lot less than that and v cheap second hand and there's all the android stuff. 200 euro will buy a decent tablet nowadays.
Desktops and laptops are soon to be a thing of the past... Tablets are the way forward.
My 3 year old uses the iPad supervised to amazing effect and what he has learned is unreal.
There's no boot time with tablets... I've three laptops sitting in the corner that dont get switched on anymore.

How you can say an iPad is not tactile!!!
Have you used one properly?

They are so intuitive... If left with a pc I can see why a child would just play solitaire or doodle in paint.
An IPad is just so intuitive and there are thousands of kids apps that are absolutely amazing.

The PC only belongs in the office now.
I guarantee you your own child would prefer AND benefit more from a tablet.
They don't need to know about Linux/DOS/traditional OS patching nonsense that we all had to learn/ put up with.. That's all history now!
Think about it... why are you running 2 OS's??... Cos neither of em do the job.. You won't have that issue with a tablet.
Marty.

ah marty, you're contradicting yourself within the two posts you've made in this very thread alone.

on the one hand you congratulate the OP for keeping their child away from computers, and then you mention how proficient your three year old is on an ipad?

i think we both understand that when the OP said they wanted to teach their child the basics, they would've been talking about a computer or laptop running some version of windows, as most educational instutions in ireland use windows as their primary OS, not mac, or linux.

i wont drag the thread off topic debating the merits of one device or one OS over another, but suffice to say that if the OP wants their child to have a basic grasp of computers and a knowledge that they can use and build upon in school, then a cheap laptop with windows xp installed is more than enough to get started on, and wont cost fierce money either.

as a former teacher yourself and being as big into IT as you are, you would know that many institutions at present, and many of these courses that the OP would send their child on, they would be using windows xp on their computers to learn the basics of file management, basic editing of documents, pre-ECDL level stuff, before then moving on to more advanced topics once they understand how to do the basics.

i cant think of anywhere in limerick that would offer these kinds of courses to a child, there are many that would offer them to adults, but the only way i would think for a child to learn these basic skills would be for a parent to sit down with them and show them themselves.

martyc5674

ah marty, you're contradicting yourself within the two posts you've made in this very thread alone.

on the one hand you congratulate the OP for keeping their child away from computers, and then you mention how proficient your three year old is on an ipad?

... No contradiction there, I was merely congratulating the OP for their efforts, something I've not done or chosen to do with my kids... However there's 3 laptops and a desktop here that they show no interest in... I wonder why?

Anyway as I said PC's and laptops are losing sales to tablets and I think that's the avenue the OP should be looking at. This is the growing sector that's actually exciting.

The argument of learning the basics doesn't stand anymore as windows 3.1 onwards were basically applications running on a dos OS ... people don't need to get bogged down about OS's anymore.
Switch it on...it works!
Or boring old file management for that matter...this is stuff they will pick up when and IF they need to.

Marty.

xsiborg

martyc5674 wrote: »

ah marty, you're contradicting yourself within the two posts you've made in this very thread alone.

on the one hand you congratulate the OP for keeping their child away from computers, and then you mention how proficient your three year old is on an ipad?

... No contradiction there, I was merely congratulating the OP for their efforts, something I've not done or chosen to do with my kids... However there's 3 laptops and a desktop here that they show no interest in... I wonder why?

Anyway as I said PC's and laptops are losing sales to tablets and I think that's the avenue the OP should be looking at. This is the growing sector that's actually exciting.

The argument of learning the basics doesn't stand anymore as windows 3.1 onwards were basically applications running on a dos OS ... people don't need to get bogged down about OS's anymore.
Switch it on...it works!
Or boring old file management for that matter...this is stuff they will pick up when and IF they need to.

Marty.

marty answer me one question- what OS do you think they are using in primary schools right now? how many secondary schools do you see using macs, let alone ipads? ONE school in mayo! how many colleges in ireland are still using windows primarily?

tablets will never be a productive device, they look cool, thats about it! have you seen anyone try to do photo and video editing on a tablet? or type out their thesis? laptops and desktops are going to be around for a long time yet, so try and overlook your own personal bias and try and help the OP, not this silly nonsense about what you hope will be the future of computing.

martyc5674

xsiborg wrote: »

marty answer me one question- what OS do you think they are using in primary schools right now? how many secondary schools do you see using macs, let alone ipads? ONE school in mayo! how many colleges in ireland are still using windows primarily?

tablets will never be a productive device, they look cool, thats about it! have you seen anyone try to do photo and video editing on a tablet? or type out their thesis? laptops and desktops are going to be around for a long time yet, so try and overlook your own personal bias and try and help the OP, not this silly nonsense about what you hope will be the future of computing.

At a guess the OS used in primary schools is prob XP as its pretty stable..thats not to say that its the best for the job, just like a lot of the curriculum...naturally its dated.
That school you mention in Mayo is just the first...they had 96% support from the parents on the move to Ipads...that tell you something??

But again your hung up talking about OS's!!....not what a child needs to know about...computers for kids should be fun, they are built to run applications on not to be flaffing about patching/updating OS's and adobe on every boot.

Computers for kids should be fun and should appeal to the senses which is what tablets do in abundance.
Accelerometer/GPS/Touch screen/compass/digital camera all combined give a very powerful and useful device...oh and its portable and robust and doesnt have a hard drive spinning which will self destroy if it gets a bump.

Im only giving the OP an alternative avenue to have a look down and your taking offence.

Tablets can be docked too you know if you need to hammer keys for a day but who wants to teach a kid that.

And if you think tablets are not capable of art have a look at whats currently on show in the royal academy of arts.
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/hockney/

PC's will have their place in business for housing databases and other mundane stuff but the tablets as an interface will surpass the PC for home use as sales already suggest.

Marty

xsiborg

im not taking offence at all marty, and i appreciate where you're coming from, but what you're talking about isn't relevant to what the OP asked, which is to find a course where their child would learn the basics of computing, and the most relevant way to do this RIGHT NOW, not ten years down the line, is to teach their child how to use a computer running windows xp.

this will give the child the basic skills they need to cope with the curriculum as it stands, not ten years from now. also the parents in that school had to fork out €1,000 for the ipads, even going so far as to have an arrangement made with the local credit union to take out a loan to get them. in my opinion buying these tablets was just overkill, and put a tremendous pressure on parents financially who didnt want their child to feel left out. also they were as far as im aware only provided for sixth class, so when they go into secondary school, it'll be back to traditional pen and paper for them.

OP actually if you want, if you don't find a course, you can send me a PM and we can make arrangements for me to come over some day and spend some time introducing your child to a few computing basics.

martyc5674

I'm just giving the OP a different avenue to try if unsuccessful finding a course. An option that would cost no more than a few classes and is so intuitive anyone can get as much as they want from it depending how much interest they have.
I don't believe in teaching stuff that's likely to be extinct in a few years.

For the record I'm no apple lover... Never had a mac..

Marty

xsiborg

martyc5674 wrote: »

I'm just giving the OP a different avenue to try if unsuccessful finding a course. An option that would cost no more than a few classes and is so intuitive anyone can get as much as they want from it depending how much interest they have.
I don't believe in teaching stuff that's likely to be extinct in a few years.

For the record I'm no apple lover... Never had a mac..

Marty

marty the original ipad is already as old as the dinosaurs in terms of technology if we were to talk about not teaching stuff thats likely to be extinct in a few years, we're already on the third generation ipad, and by the time your child is old enough to enter school, she might be a whizz on the ipad, but it'll be kicker to have to deal with windows in schools for the next ooh, ten years or so at least!

as a former teacher though, you would never have introduced students to bleeding edge technology. you would also know that the home consumer market is completely different to the corporate environment.

each time a new technology comes along it's hailed as "the way of the future", for me personally it's the way of the future FOR NOW! look at how laptops were said to overtake and do away with desktops when they first came out, then it was netbooks that were said to do away with laptops, and for a while they soared in market share too, now we have tablets... and yet sales of desktops and laptops, while they may have slumped, that has more to do with the economic downturn and companies holding on to their existing IT infrastructure for longer than it has anything to do with the evolution or sales of tablets.

in short marty, technology is ever evolving, but if your child has a grasp of the basics, then it becomes easier for them to adapt to new technologies. even any courses in college will start with an introduction to technology that is at least ten years out of date, to build a foundation for starters, but also because unlike consumers who are buying on an individual basis, educational institutions do not have the resources to be able to afford to keep up with the latest in technology.

martyc5674

You know what YOU'RE RIGHT.
Let's educate the kids so when they finally have their 8*4 cubicle 40 hours a week they'll have a headstart on word and PowerPoint.

Down with thinking outside the box ... Whatever was I thinking.

Insect Overlord

Marty, there's no need for the attitude. The OP is looking for someone/somewhere to help a child learn the basic functions of a laptop/desktop.
Your point about a similar, yet different, device is appreciated, but there's no need for an argument about it.
A child of nine has plenty of time to learn how to use a wide variety of technologies. Let this one walk before you ask him/her to run.

The Snipe

Honestly, I'd say get him started as early as possible!


The ammount of "computer retarded" people I know who are in their late teens - mid 20's which are supposed to be known as the 'children of the computer generation' barely know the basics, and can't even find out how to print or save things in MS Word. And instead type lyk deis on Facebook.

martyc5674

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Marty, there's no need for the attitude. The OP is looking for someone/somewhere to help a child learn the basic functions of a laptop/desktop.
Your point about a similar, yet different, device is appreciated, but there's no need for an argument about it.
A child of nine has plenty of time to learn how to use a wide variety of technologies. Let this one walk before you ask him/her to run.

No attitude...just thinking a different route and being knocked at each post which I deem unfair.

My first post was giving advice someone elses first post did the same and knocked my advice....

Anyway let the OP decide what they think best... A mix of both technologies would be the ideal situation.
Marty.

martyc5674

The Snipe wrote: »

Honestly, I'd say get him started as early as possible!


The ammount of "computer retarded" people I know who are in their late teens - mid 20's which are supposed to be known as the 'children of the computer generation' barely know the basics, and can't even find out how to print or save things in MS Word. And instead type lyk deis on Facebook.

While I deplore the spelling skills you mention I think that's pretty much spawned from "textin".

Again I'm not surprised they can't use word. It has to be the most unappealing application ever built so their hardly drawn to it.
That's part of my point...find something that appeals to their senses and build on it.
Kids are the future...they shouldn't have to endure what we did in the computer revolution age.
Marty.

The Snipe

martyc5674 wrote: »

The Snipe wrote: »

Honestly, I'd say get him started as early as possible!


The ammount of "computer retarded" people I know who are in their late teens - mid 20's which are supposed to be known as the 'children of the computer generation' barely know the basics, and can't even find out how to print or save things in MS Word. And instead type lyk deis on Facebook.

While I deplore the spelling skills you mention I think that's pretty much spawned from "textin".

Again I'm not surprised they can't use word. It has to be the most unappealing application ever built so their hardly drawn to it.
That's part of my point...find something that appeals to their senses and build on it.
Kids are the future...they shouldn't have to endure what we did in the computer revolution age.
Marty.

Well its not just that they don't know basic troubleshooting, like a virus scan, how to set up WiFi, how to repair a WiFi connection from in windows. All these kinds of things, which are required to be safe and use the internet which is what most people use em for.

xsiborg

martyc5674 wrote: »

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Marty, there's no need for the attitude. The OP is looking for someone/somewhere to help a child learn the basic functions of a laptop/desktop.
Your point about a similar, yet different, device is appreciated, but there's no need for an argument about it.
A child of nine has plenty of time to learn how to use a wide variety of technologies. Let this one walk before you ask him/her to run.

No attitude...just thinking a different route and being knocked at each post which I deem unfair.

My first post was giving advice someone elses first post did the same and knocked my advice....

Anyway let the OP decide what they think best... A mix of both technologies would be the ideal situation.
Marty.

ah marty i dont want you thinking im knocking your posts either, we may not agree on some things, sure, thats the nature of a discussion forum, but the OP did ask for advice about courses which would teach their child the BASICS of computers.
while i appreciate where you're coming from, (i can see you're as passionate about technology as i am!), it really isnt relevant to what a nine year old will be taught to use in school right now. as IO said let the child at least crawl before pushing them to walk.
i see where you're coming from too about teaching children the fun aspect of computers, and i can tell you now that isnt going to happen in a school environment.
snipe has some great suggestions there too though about what we should be teaching our children outside school hours...

angeldaisy

wow - that was some debate:D

Anyway.. its not for my child as stated previously, he's well advanced on computers (well for a 7 yr old anyway!)

I think what I might try again is teach her myself - we tried before and it was tough going - but she might be more up for it now.
If I come across probs, help would be appreciated -thanks xsiborg - I'll pm you if i get stuck.
Thanks for the advice - and for the debate - it was enjoyable - although have to say that whilst I would love my child to get into using all the different technology out there, money constraints mean he's stuck with the pc and damned lucky he is to have that too!

The Snipe

Exactly, people take all these tablets and stuff for free!

Over hyped, oversized usless smartphones tbh!