A computer for my kid
I'd like to simplify things without dumbing down.
Published
I have no illusions that I can control my child or even hardly steer them. If they run into the street, I can throw my body at the problem. Otherwise I’m just along for the ride.
But I can hope, can’t I? As a technologist, my hope is that my kid comes to see computers as tools and something that they own and control.
Most computers today are smartphones or tablets rather than traditional PCs. And I don’t have to look too hard to see that Apple’s iPad is the default computer for kids (with variants of Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet a distant second). It’s easy to see why. It has almost no configuration and with a couple taps in the App Store, you can download whatever you might want for your kid.
Smartphones and tablets can be used as tools, but that’s not representative of their usage. The top apps tend to be social media, shopping, and entertainment. Those are all commercialized activities that harvest our attention or “engagement”. And while they may do something for us, they also enable companies to sell more stuff or more ads above and beyond their stated purpose.
My child doesn’t need my help getting introduced to all of that. The door to commercialized technology will always be wide open. If they need to use an iPad in the future, a happy sales representative or a shiny website will gladly guide them through to checkout.
I’d like to present an alternative vision for how to use computers. Now, we are talking about a young child. And as I’ve established, the amount of control I have is basically none. So all I can do is provide an option.
For this project, I’m going to use my wife’s old Microsoft Surface Pro 5 (2017). It has a 7th gen Intel i5 processor, which is as powerful as anything we might need. There are a couple things I like about this device. First, it’s a touch screen. I think it’s important that the device is a touch screen because touch input is intuitive to children and also because most computers, regardless of form factor, now have touch screens. The screen is also a 3:2 aspect ratio, which gives it more vertical space when in landscape compared to the typical 16:9 displays.
My customization will be focused on the software side. I’m going to install Debian Linux (or related e.g. Ubuntu) and the GNOME desktop since I’m comfortable with those.
My main goal is to simplify the computer without dumbing it down. For one thing that means no user login. The computer should be ready to pick up and go.
Simplifying also means limiting the number of choices for applications. I plan to only have three to five applications. I think if the computer is going to be used at all, it needs to be shown to have a specific set of uses. A very limited number of applications says this is what this computer does and it simplifies the decision whether to use it or not.
I want a text editor, a paint program, photo booth / selfie camera, video calling, and a site-specific browser for PBS Kids.
I want all applications and their icons pinned and visible on the dock at all times. In my day job as an app developer, my rule of thumb is that if a user can’t see something, it doesn’t exist. That’s especially true for a toddler that doesn’t have any familiarity with menus or hierarchical information. Arguably by stubbing out navigation and application menus I’m dumbing down the computer, but I think those skills will be practiced inside of the applications themselves. I don’t want us to get tripped up by menu navigation before we even get into an application.
Lastly, I want to avoid dealing with windows as much as possible. I don’t want any arranging of windows. No maximizing. No minimizing. No overlapping. Ideally each application would open as a maximized window in its own workspace. That would mean that the primary way to navigate between windows and workspaces would be through the application icons on the dock.
That’s about it. I’m keeping the requirements light in the interest of being able to hand off a completed product. I have other ideas, but I think it would be better to wait and see. The future of this computer will depend on whether and how my child uses it.
On the surface, this plan is about foisting my values around technology onto my kid, but it’s really an opportunity for me to learn how they think. There may be things that excite them, confuse them, frustrate them, or even things that make immediate intuitive sense. Also with a toddler, their interests, talents, and personality change so quickly. We’ll be in a different place in six months from now. Doing this with a traditional PC means that I’ll have the flexibility to customize to their needs over time. If nothing else, I’ll learn something as a parent before the iPad swoops in and cements itself as the default anyway.