The First 100 Days - Family Computing and K-Power Magazine ...

Hours of game playing,
which so many kids
are prone to. never ap
pealed much to Anne,
who spends much of
each week riding and
caring for horses. The
time now devoted to the
computer used to be
spent watching TV.
46 FAMILY COMPUTING
puters and I wasn't really into them at school
yet, so I couldn't really appreciate software.
Once I got it 1 realized how hard it was to do
something that seemed easy. You appreciate
the complexity of software because you begin to
write your own programs."
TAKING THE PLUNGE INTO
PROGRAMMING
Both Tony and Penny Morris are obviously
pleased that their kids program their own
games (fairly simple ones), or at least can if
they want to. That was part of their original
goal when they bought their computer, but it
was only part. "Buying a computer with a spe
cific goal is too limiting," Tony feels. "Parents
who buy a computer and say. 'You must learn
to program high-resolution graphics," are mak
ing a mistake. It's much better to say, 'Learn
how to use it in basic ways and go with what
interests you."
"Particular programming skills, such as a
particular language for a computer, might not
be around when the kids are in college. I main
ly want my children to feel comfortable with
computers. Every one of them, however,, has
learned to program some in BASIC. They began
by copying short programs from the "tutorial"
and modifying them. One morning when I was
home ill. I found a note from Anne: Dad. run
'Dad' on the Apple. When I did. I was greeted by
a colorful message spread across the screen:
"Dad—Hope you feel better. Love Anne." "
So Tony wasn't too surprised when Matt
said. "Hey. Dad, 1 wonder if 1 could program the
Morse code!" He was sitting on the floor study
ing the plastic case for a GI Joe signal flash
light on which he had found the Morse code.
At first Tony hesitated. " 'How should we
go about this." I wondered. Many of the books
I'd read told you to think everything through
carefully and to plan it on paper even before
you turn on the computer. To me this 'think
ahead' approach is excellent for complex pro
grams and for experienced programmers. But I
knew we were about to explore together how
the computer works and to learn what would
happen if we tried different things.
I decided to go with trial and error: Take the
problem one piece at a time, try different ways
of solving each problem as it comes up, and
watch the results. It would take us longer to
write a program this way, and the end result
would probably not be as elegant and compact
as it might be, but I felt we'd learn more about
the computer and gain more confidence using
it. We knew that if the computer started doing
strange things, we could always turn it off and
start over! So why not go off on our own adven
ture in programming? Fortunately it worked,
and Matt's first program soon led to many
others."
Now Matt enjoys both the games he buys
and the ones he makes. The same is true for
Anne and Jon. All three believe that they've
reaped benefits from the computer. "I learned
algebraic skills from the computer," Matt
states. "For example. I learned about exponents
there first. It helped a lot with my division and
multiplication stuff, too." Some of the gains
went beyond simply using the machine. "We
have more things in common," Anne explains.
"I talk about different games with Matt and
Jon. It made us smarter in the areas of com
puters, too. We're not as lost. And we don't
watch as much TV." Instead, the Morris kids
are playing some games but they're also mas
tering an ever-growing number of computer ap
plications. At the moment, word processing is
a major pastime.
COMMERCIAL PROGRAMS FALL
INTO PLACE
Not all the time spent at the computer in
volves learning. Tony Morris knows there's no
way to keep children from the thrill of exciting,
commercially produced games. "Parents who