Video Cathunk

I'm regularly bummed that the command line environment that both *NIX and Windows based computers ship with is such a poor onramp to general computer literacy - plenty of kids have learned it (including those of us who came up on DOS, i guess) but only after clearing several other somewhat difficult tech literacy hurdles. I think it's actually a step back from the C64, as primitive as it was, which booted directly into a fully functional programming environment.

For about a decade now I've had this idea for an interactive computing primer, an environment with very modest requirements that starts off feeling very much like a videogame (you start off controlling a Zelda 1 like top down 2D character, because that's easy to grasp) and gradually eases the user into the file system, the command line, basic programming and CS concepts, etc. And eventually the "endgame" is just full access to the system. I'd still like to make it someday. Done well, it would have enormous social value.

Not quite what you were asking for, but a friend who also runs into ignorance of the filesystem in his students suggests https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zLQwOiIac8 as a primer for them.

maybe give your kids/niblings/etc. things like raspberry pis and other DIY project computers as gifts? If you give them a cool special little project that means they get to build and set up their own computer, I bet a lot of kids would be even more motivated to learn how it works, learn what linux is, etc.

You can even make it a whole thing with a little tiny raspberry pi gaming-tower styled mini case, and a little tiny monitor, and a tiny keyboard.... people making absurdly small gaming computers has even gotten popular on DIY/gamer youtube.

the number one thing i would say you need to give them is a reason to care. thats why we learned, right?

I missed the “mommy what is a C drive” tag when I first saw this and: lol, well done

Tell them to mod games. Most of my messing around in files, directories and learning file types as a teen was around installing mods for games (and a few tries at making my own).

You take away all their computing and force them to use a 486 MS-DOS PC. They're not allowed to have any mobile computing until they beat Blake Stone or Rise of the Triad.

this convo is raising a corollary question for me which is "what does filesystem literacy look like in a future where the filesystem is materially irrelevant to non-hobbyist laypeople?"

like, what are actually the fundamentals? in what order do people usually need to acquire those concepts? how can they be made developmentally appropriate?

people who had the innate interest and skill set to self teach a thing often have a hard time figuring this out, which I think is really interesting! if you look at how e.g. computer science curricula have spread and evolved over the past few decades, you can see this in action

i really wish i knew. like, when i worked in science education, we did more about programming fundamentals (ranging from "the robotic mouse will follow a path in the order you press the buttons" to scratch programming) than about practical everyday PC use.

hobbyist approaches for kids aren't a great solution. like, when they work, they work. there's a few places near where i grew up that would teach kids programming by helping them mod minecraft, for example. but imo, these target kids who are already like, a foot in the door by even having a passing interest in something tech-related. i dont really have an answer for something that could effectively teach a kid who has zero interest in learning, and those are the ones that need it the most imo. the types of kids who already want to mod games or program, they'll find the resources if they're curious enough. i dont know how to reach other kids where they are.

So, I’m young enough and femme enough I was inactively discouraged from learning anything stem —

When I was young, like 10 or 11, I got really into writing code… but of course, no one told me code didn’t need to run in the browser on khan academy’s website… so I gave up on it after the lack of decent compiler errors, and inability to spell (shout out that learning disability) left me frustrated. I think probably if someone had wanted me to use a computer not as a mystery box, they would have just had to have helped me learn the basics and research the rest.

I didn’t really understand what a file system was doing until three things happened. I started writing websites (and then other code) while running MacOS and then Debian… and I realized this was A) exactly like google drive, and B) I realized every person ever saying this stuff was complicated, was frankly wrong, and had a vested interest in me not making stuff.

Honestly, I don’t think there’s a silver bullet to making kids get this stuff. At the end of the day they have to be interested and feel like they’re competent. I think probably helping them build a project they care about would be a good start…