eric.bachard írta: > Hi all, > > Proposal : > > The OpenOffice.org Education Project proposes to drive the following > experimentation : > > - create a dedicated branch in the OOo source code repository (means > hosted by OOo Project) for a 7-12 years software, derivated from > OpenOffice.org, and made and maintained by OpenOffice.org project. ... > Facts that brought us to work on this plan: > > - OpenOffice.org is not well adapted to Educational world, nor to > children (7-12 there) > - OpenOffice.org has too much of features for children, and is too > complicated for them > - Performance issues : ...
I think that there is a big need for a lightweight word processor for children in that range of age, but I am quite unsure about the need for spreadsheets and presentations and even vector graphics and all the millions of features OOo provides. A ten years old usually just learned how to express herself with written words and hopefully images. Probably she has written a poem, and wants to print it, or send it to grandma. The feature richness of OOo will stop her in this, as children are curious, so she will get lost among experimenting with the features pretty soon instead of using the tool as a tool. However, Openoffice.org is designed to be a multi-purpose high-end office suite on great focus for business needs. If you try to cut it into something that is usable for children, you will likely to end up if you were to transform your off-road truck into a plastic child-toy wagon with pedals: chances are high that you will fail. There is a very good example of how to create a well-designed and quite usable application for children. If you want to see what your audience really likes check out Tux paint at http://www.tuxpaint.org/ . I experienced that children adore and use it from 3 to 17. That puts the standards high. In my opinion, creating something like that from the ground up is much easier than adapting OOo to do the job. I would be very glad to see a word processor with such a good user interface and inner logics as Tux Paint shines with. So were the children. What I would emphasize, is file format compatibility. That means ODF. Instead of forcing children to follow the grown up's logic let them to be productive with tools built upon their logic. That could lower the generation barriers, resulting more open and more understood relationships between adults and children. So I think that what OOo needs to do is just to receive files from an application developed from the ground up with a focus on childrens' needs. Regards, Gergely Máté http://sportember.eu --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
