so i think about fast education this is one of my favourite quotes about education
i had to go to graduate was from this
i've just had it around for a long time which is education is what is
what is that when you forgot not of so after you've been through all the
tests
and you don't really remember all the little bits and pieces that's what's that's what's
left and we think about education
so
i was home schooled
i was actually well i like so people in the third grade dropout that's the
fun way to say i went through third grade and i was actually home schooled
for the first half of kindergarten when i was are we little K and i
remember that being a lot more fun than school and i convince my mom to
put me out of school and go back to homeschooling
and from so from fourth grade and still
i took the A C which is a college example and us when i was
eighteen i never took any more tests
and it was it was great that's what i actually you graduate from high school
though because in us there's something called come our school which is an umbrella school
so for home schoolers that want a standard transcript and the standard
a high school diploma for just purposes it use of applying to colleges and what
not you can in the rolling can or school and actually have an international school
they also have a base in germany actually
as well and they actually all they also have a campus cool it's in ann
arbour michigan which is about a four and a half hour drive from my house
so i've been there a few times
over the years
and i graduated you doesn't do actually graduated here really
i didn't actually know this until about six months before i graduated because we had
the we had these things called credit report forms where you filled out what classes
you were taking and how many hours you're done for this or that
and i had failed to send in mind for the second year so the middle
of the third year so i didn't really realise how much i have done that
second year and up till then and i realise when i was going to say
that in that i had gotten something like four credit hours the last year and
i only needed like six or eight or something for that year and so i
remember my dad came home from working as like so i guess what i graduated
it was fun
i don't have is waiting this year actually so i guess i'm gonna have to
do something else "'cause" at that point i was looking into applying for a
us foreign exchange student program or
and all strip something fun for my senior but
in any case i graduated and because i graduate a year early i didn't have
time to apply to the school that actually wanted to go to which was in
alaska at that point my plan was to be a marine biologist
i'd forgotten how much i hated school
i quickly remembered when i went to a little can stay interest grows which is
like their satellite school near me and i went there for one semester and remembered
how much i hated school and sitting in mostly people talk and writing things down
so i then transferred down talking college which is also in ohio and a talking
i may be injured have to so she's from them there
not really super useful at this point there in that customers mention and natural resource
management
so about as far away from computer science as you can get
it was a fun school and of last time at my husband there
and
i since then i spent a year in spain in two thousand five because i
want to learn spanish F we would approve when i realised that i should really
learn spanish of from gonna travel that way
at least three more useful language and so it's been a year there in learn
spanish and came home and
what not
so
something that's adjusting
or for most people to realise that i live in the middle of nowhere and
i see that jokingly and most people don't really believe me but if you see
at the end here
at the at the very end of that white line there's a little white spot
and that's actually the roof of the cab that my dad lives in we live
in the other sort of creamy college but there this is all a wider of
this is about like a mile or fight so about a half mile probably almost
so a larger view that the carolyn up there is that's the county see
the other little mark what the name of here
that story that's where my son went to school for a year and a half
i guess you'd at your public preschool this is you like that you love that
and then he did about a month of kindergarten maybe to any sort of complaining
didn't wanna go and
i couldn't blame "'em" i hate school i guess that i remember that
whenever i go back so i pull them out and now we're homeschooling so in
the us
homeschooling accounts for about three percent of the population of gets as of two thousand
and seven in nineteen seventy two was when it started to become legal it i
don't know when it really became completely legal in the us where people were worried
anymore "'cause" when i was home schooling originally in the eighties and the early nineties
it was still sort of an iffy proposition which is why my family join come
are originally because they were way to be sort of safe and not worry about
the law that if you got in trouble
and more would represent you
so why we home school is because well i it just doesn't wanna go to
school
and then be is because like in school can if you think of the world
and what there is to learn about it as a as a pie chart which
is the blue in school kids they get they get this little section right they
get this section of the world of exposure to different things a different ideas at
school but they miss out on a whole bunch more because the world is not
just school as we all know who have gone away and moved on from school
and the before what a lot of people have a problem with home schooling and
us is because so many people want school for religious really which isn't me but
they really just want to lose
because they want expose their kids to this to this tiny sliver of the world
of a little bit of education and of there
they're very small view of the world which i don't agree with and hopefully most
people don't agree with but there's lots of them and us to do
but i don't school because i wanna suppose make is to this which is everything
which is everything that there is so mostly what we deal with home schoolers
is me read books and we play games
and we acknowledge that
that we're always learning your learning something right now i'm running something right now were
always learning something
learning never starts and it never stops and so you die from them when you're
born so and schooling is what we really doing i've been saying i'm home schooling
that's
technically sure that's what i tell the government but actually what i'm doing is called
on schooling and
when i grew up i was in school or i didn't actually know that like
that's about high school college and realised that we were actually on schooling
and this is a quote from john whole it was sort of the father of
a lot of homeschooling he's right here a whole bunch of books in the i
think the late seventies well when you started writing through the eighties
about education and kids and how kids learn and it you know to trust children
is the hardest thing that we can possibly do because most of us grew up
not being told that we weren't we couldn't be trusted
that we couldn't be trusted only in order to learn you had to go to
school and sit down and read a book and you worksheets intake test
so these are just a couple of other quotes from john whole
and it it's true that's what
you know if you think about it were always learning and everything we do and
my biggest example might you six example for most people is legos because probably all
this have played with legos right at anyone in here not that with like that
this do that
you've never like this like this
now
i okay so you play with the spanish version of like this
okay so
i
i so means that my voice the little one facing us is key in he's
well will be for on wednesday and yellow that it was used would use as
well homeschooling now and this is mostly my collection of like those there's some that
they have gotten for birthdays and christmas and the last couple years
this is a very common picture our room when you walk in our house this
happens at least once a day that it that's for the legos people down and
usually there are all they're not always sometimes
sometimes they get put away because you know i need to vacuum the floor or
something or i just wanna do something else besides the one that goes first up
around i guess because as we all know stepping on the was a slightly painful
i actually had a cut in my for a few months ago from a lego
that somehow i stepped on just perfectly wrong and it was actually leading it was
really painful but so legos
when you think about it
when you learn when you're building with legos when you're playing with
what do you and your learning how to count how to add how to subtract
how to build things how to you are really about map all about science and
engineering right you're learning about all kinds of things about our how to design how
to make things look good how to you know versus building something with the jumble
of colours verses all the same colour my son still in the stage where he's
just i need this piece i don't care what colour this i'm sure that will
change eventually but right now he doesn't care we just want to build things
so
that that's just my example to get you thinking of the of how to think
about on schooling so and computers and actually this is my voice computer just to
the right of it is their bunk beds there's at least are sitting there charging
which is a also constant battle
but what we use is we use this all that stuff this was my high
school graduation present it was a great pc
back and it works so works fine but actually runs X F C E or
actually the going to be exact because it just won't quite run you know actually
haven't tried but i'm pretty confident five hundred megs of ram and it'll P for
is probably not sufficient
they also use a lot of lifters they play with those most in the car
and there's all kinds of great games that each in different things
and they also plan like that what i have a pain kind which was the
kick starter i think over christmas so it's a tablet that's of three tablet it
runs it had to a version of and run it but i can also stick
in a little S P card and it'll boot into linux
and i think it's relative see that on it they also play with obviously are
small are enjoyed smartphones the computer and my laptop occasionally when i let them play
with it which is unusual because there for in six and i don't know if
you have little kids but they're slightly on the destructive side
so as far as applications that we use in that they have access to every
day there's a lot more than this
mostly that they love to play games obvious is all it's do they play talk
smack effects typing all the time those are games of them they also play a
or i don't know if you've heard of this it's another application it's these are
all they're fairly basic they start out adding and subtracting you believe they going to
multiplication and division my guys haven't gotten anywhere near there yet but i'm sure they
will eventually there's also you can pre which is a gonna project and you can
pre has a ton of stuff and it's a suite of programs so there's all
sorts of games there's all sorts of writing programs there's you know there's reading when
you A B C's how to count it all sorts of things some of our
summer go students last year real programs that added in stuff about space and physics
and stuff which was really cool and really fun to have
they also play a few games on our tablets and things this is swords and
soldiers does anyone your plate swords and soldiers
it was in a whole bundle which is how i have it "'cause" i've been
buying most of the humble one of things are bottles for a long time this
is one of the my voice favourite games
this is a great example of how kids are just sponges and learn things
we were at a museum dedicated lately this a few times and we write a
museum in ohio and it had big a displays about different cultures and one of
them was the chinese and it was like okay see and the chinese invented gunpowder
and my son and just went away that i want
right you learn where did where did we possibly go over trying to think anyway
sergeant sort of someone in and insertions orders there's the vikings what you see right
now and there's also chinese and aspects that you can play as and the chinese
have gotten harder they have guns because they invented gunpowder and that's how my son
learned chinese the did gunpowder which just kind of made me laugh and it still
makes you have to think about it that just random things that they pick up
everywhere constantly
as far as other ways that we have for kids to learn about computers is
there's this thing called scratch and their motto is imagine program share it's done by
mit my voice haven't messed with that it's mostly online
and they haven't quite got to that point they're not quite reading but i i'm
hoping to introduce this fall and when i get back and getting some more different
things and stop there's also alice i don't know much about alice i was trying
to look it up the last couple days hopefully i i'd like to introduce all
the but the problem that we have with kids in computers is that in school
or even at home most people have what they have windows or they have mac
and so that's what kids are being taught right now is there learning about windows
there learning about mac and how to run their not learning anything about free software
they're not wearing anything about how to run it
or it's ideals and what's behind it and as a result
we don't have much for them right and still they get to
to call it really there's some other things here and there but in until we
get to college most people most kids aren't really exposed in any way shape or
form a believe it's a college you're not generally exposed to for software and by
that time you've lost them because they've already become set in their ways and what
they use what they know
and if we wanna add more people to pass generally to get known
we need to figure out some way to reach out long before they get to
college
some way to reach out and grab them
and something to get them thinking there's also there's also sugar of course which is
an out should of the one a proper trial that's who was originally developed for
and sugars great but their problem is sugars a fairly basic
and it's
kind of hard to get you have to know how do at least install linux
or at least be willing to trying bring something to we use P key which
is not something most people know how to do for first
for first way in to fox i love sure i haven't got a my voice
computer yet at some point i'll probably give that a try
you know that's with the other problem with the one leftover trout program is they
have these all something like that the excellent have a that's coming out shortly and
i would love to have a couple of these for my voice but i have
no way to get them because they only are sold by the hundred i think
i do we have a i look up that the minimum order is a hundred
and because they're really only find them to schools
and they're not really trying to get to them so them the schools even in
the us that's what i've
played around the idea of trying to get a hundred home schoolers or hundred friends
that would want to buy one of these for their kids they're trying to put
together a group by but i haven't managed to figure out exactly how to do
that i don't know quite that many people what can kids at least that have
the money to spend a hundred order dollars on a toy is actually for their
kids i would love to do it "'cause" i would love to have one of
these able to have two of them actually because i would need one for each
just what we have we have to be pictures because
one is yes
well and i would not want to but at least to at least to one
for each of them edit their minimum but there needs to be something some way
for people to get fast easily and if even these were available for sale it
would be a lot easier to say you can go buy one but you can
this is just more about what it and saying you know that's the sugar in
your we can see they do great things they have you know several minute several
million computers now in mostly verbal countries where kids are using these and learning how
to develop and learning how to use computers and you learning how to read for
that matter you know some of these i know they've done experiments S
that might be
but
in that you know that it's just it's a great project since a great idea
but there needs to be an easier way to get a hold of it
when we when kids get the high school there is google coding which i really
wish existed you know ten fifteen years ago when i was in his local i
totally would've done that but google colin according to straight but it has the same
limiting factor a summer of code which is that it's only code and it's only
for high school students
and it's not super well advertise so lots and lots and lots of people don't
know what it this
and it needs to be more well what advertised and it need and we need
something very similar but that is not purely code
and that is so different way to get in to free software for kids and
for people generally for that matter different ways for them to become involved
possibly
that's an idea
that that's a great idea i'm i think about it right
so what do we need is we need some way to bring kids and something
that's fun that they want to play anyways this is one of my voice favourite
games on the computer the super talks i assume probably some of you have put
that's once or twice i have the sensually mario
so why
it is still one it's a platform are the basic
these english true is applied
but i want super talks my boards also projects but the question is and this
much follows the mass talk and this mobile as wise and or why isn't super
talks easy to change why is in it why don't we make it a way
for people for kids to make new level to make their own levels
that maybe you have to be the game first
but once you beat it now you can go in and you can usually design
your own levels
why can't you make different tim to make the physics of the game a little
bit different even if it's just to change it so that instead of running on
the bottom maybe run on the top of the street
maybe you flow maybe you can fly now and different design different things why in
free software can't we make it easy to use and easy to play and
and go from there
and that in programs that focus on freedom that focus on promoting and explaining freedom
as in as and it's yours as and we've given you supertopics
and now it's yours and now you can play with it and you can design
new levels and you can give a
is there a little there's
that's also
right
right so but so we should be able to change the dynamics of it why
can't why can't we i mean it's free right can't we can't we figure out
some way to do this and i'm not a good enough programmer that i can
see that i can do this
and aside from that you know in schools around the world there are some countries
that are trying to move which free software some highlights are brazil where there's five
million people in this five hundred thousand schools using free software which is amazing and
also and i'm so jealous
in spain that make eczema data is moving so open source and they've install dbn
on forty thousand desktops which is pretty awesome and highlight just a few days ago
order one point two million enjoy tablets to give out to their students which is
i know it's not it's not really frame but it's better than that more during
our sex come on
it's better than them ordering windows tablets i would much prefer to see people use
enjoyed rather than windows or oversexed because at least it something different and it is
it's a third option that is becoming silly available
and
aside from that there for schools there are some cost management application
which i honestly i and when i looked this up and follows information i can't
understand why schools don't use these more other than that they're somewhat limited
but there's all sorts of different ways that we can be promoting ourselves to schools
because it's they have some way to use it as their management software and realise
that this works then maybe they're gonna be more likely to use it for their
desktops
"'cause" right now in the us and i'm sure on the world there are millions
of people with X P on their systems that is going to be completely obsolete
in twenty fourteen
and at that point what happens what happens all those people what happens all those
tools in those libraries
some of which exist in my town that have these old systems that the now
they're gonna be forced upgrade or something else
and can we can we promote ourselves to them to try and get them to
move to say you don't have to buy new hardware
because so many places of right now of course or so it's got okay they
have no money for new computers
or for new licenses or anything else
and that's pretty much all i have there's any questions
yes
yes this day and one is the but you know i was just wondering
and
how you
you just
expansion it's two kids
i like travelling that's what we go on a lots of field trips more or
less constantly so that day after i get back i get back to do and
ohio something like ten thirty eleven o'clock at night and the next morning i'm getting
up at probably edition packing a want and around nine will be leaving and going
teenager readers which is a program and that's that happens every other week for the
summer but then throughout the school year we go one lots of field trips to
museums to science and it's amazing how much that's going on for kids that you
don't know about and so you start looking i mean in my area when i
i've make it was in school i didn't even lot "'cause" i didn't care right
but once you said you didn't wanna school i spent the next
two or three months "'cause" that was in
october ish east are to complain he didn't wanna go and i pull them out
after christmas so for the next two or three months i spent online looking up
all different things and can see i can hear i can show you my calendar
of stuff
well that's weird where's
open of evolution of stuff that we do which and everything that on this counter
we don't go to we couldn't if we wanted to
so all of the
see
yes all of
here let me take off mine
and kevin's
so all of that is all the stuff that there is to do within an
hour so strive of where i live which is the middle of nowhere as you
also earlier so we don't do all this because frankly you can a lot of
the conflicts
but this is constantly this is what this is august and i have this and
this is just what's plan right now as of a few weeks ago i'm constantly
adding new stuff to this
this is you know september and it just goes on a not we're joining a
colour as of
i think the first meeting three days in august twenty eight and then every
or less every other we will be up in akron which is like an hour
and a half away for a includes the core with i think there's ninety kids
michael
that so close to each by using the there's tons of stuff to do
i think i think in order to get kids involved at the university level we
need to start them when they're young little when they're young and i mean that's
what summer of code is a great way to push it that way but how
in the question of course is how do we get like the people who are
in the design and other things to join us and help us design better going
on three you know and i think that's what maybe the at we program for
men to some of that and maybe we need a larger outreach program for just
general people to bring them all in
that to say that you can come and work on free software in ways outside
of code outside of summer of go there are other ways to get involved and
to have
cut to give contributions and give back
and start using
our end users do to have your software applications change it and change its behaviour
and abstract thing that program in layer that it's not gonna bar years that you
might be interested in a yes absolutely different way to do that
anything else
okay do you have a credit know follow know education this to of a question
is for education because you actually time what we have a we have a list
of spatial reno so we can easy call minutes we cover it look at and
the can all location of all need for most cases use and we also use
the P H D T know of for the switch well we also in you
know this
a single this very important you must have at least to have a school in
the for the children for there is to know well all if well this is
a location we could use so would you did you know full it a student
of "'cause" you these also resource know could you can there's and there's if you're
acting there's a resource around more i've of the answer is no at least not
that i'm aware of if there was i would i would love to hear about
it haven't so far it very well may exist that at some university that i
just haven't looked into there
top that's available deep enough yet but i certainly haven't heard about it and i
know lots of people who have kids you want someone how to program and they
don't know how to help them start and what's out there is just it's not
very good i mean that they can say there's traction there's alice and there's code
academy and different things but none of those and all those all they might each
programming but they don't focus on the freedom part which is the problem and i
think that we need to have something and educational program for kids that focuses on
teaching now and of way that's fine but that also is teaching them about the
principles of free software and why that's important why is it important that it's free
not just how to do it but why that important that you're releasing your source
code and that you're contributing in you know when you're putting it on get how
and it's open and it's free
i
so i propose how do you think that we it's a community can reach large
numbers of young people outside of just the ones that we interact with them our
communities and families
what it is about that we thought about that's what that's kind of what i'm
trying to get is that i think we need a we need invent super talks
and invent a way to change it and release it and marketing and use what
we have in free software to market it and show what's the kids and make
it become somehow the cool new now that kids then to download because they want
to download and it needs to run on linux obviously but it also need to
run on android i'm probably on O S X so that kids there can download
it and look at it and play with it because let's be honest it most
kids are not running you know as much as we might want them to
i
anything else
friend again
i guess i would love to go to schools but i don't i don't know
quite how to approach them they're hard to approach at least one that i try
to put some for other various things and how do you how do you go
and tell them i wanna expose your kids to this and a lot of them
are just at least write a are very resistant anyone outside of themselves because they're
all about their funding and what they have already
right
so that there were you had it he had in their of some waiting to
get in already but if you don't have that in if you're me and i
don't really know any teachers in the schools how to way how do i find
that person that will give me access and let me come in and help their
kids learn
thing and mobile welcome you slowly connections with my high school elementary schools most people
probably assume new people who wants to really score elementary schools are teaching better
i have my name my brother i know lots of people around but i don't
know anyone who actually works for the schools in that capacity
i didn't go to school so i don't have a teacher's i well i have
well i have a huge network of friends but mostly all of them have scattered
they're all over there's in california one just went got sweden
they're just everywhere
more comment and a question really but in my high school learning computers was lenny
microsoft office and proprietary programs the right and really interested in finding with the stuff
that right now that's what i when i was in college i had to take
microsoft office my hasn't acted to take it twice because they wouldn't accept any to
next office two thousand and three when he went back to school for years later
and with that thousand seven to the different class take it again which just drove
me crazy
and him crazy
also more of a comment than a question the what you mentioned with changing the
physics of the game reminded me of the of the talk about project or maybe
you some of you know it's like where you can added the code like you
can you can directly edit the code and see how it how it influences the
games i would influence the trajectory of the jump for example right i think that
would be great like not only for kids like for everyone but especially for kids
you can usually see you want you slide the value for a little gravity and
see how the john trajectory that was that would be perfect that we did something
very simple that they can slide this and you're changing it from dying ten to
twenty and what does that change
so you might mention is already "'cause" the came in late but
and that tell you know in the ski know mentioned having again the people can
actually at the right word from was this like connected to the yes
yes that was all that's what the one other thing that matt said that i
think it's absolutely yes and it comes back to where i live just in the
middle of nowhere i don't have high speed internet so his idea of having a
way to update your system with their remote key is just genius i do that
all the time and that i take my like my laptop to the library but
it's true my kids laptop gets updated infrequently at best because it means running a
cable to it and then telling them they're not allowed to play with it for
like a day well the downloads because i downloaded ten or twenty kilobits a second
on a bad it drops to five
but yes
i record that
it's
yes
yes but it's been years and years and years
but yes
that sort is that sort of stuff to change things
yes
that