How to do a "family home computer" these days? (11 Viewers)

[SystemShock]

I understand that but for this conversation they've kinda been separated. I mean for that matter my toaster is a computer.

They shouldn't be separated. What OS does your toaster run?

 

[Grumpy Old Manatee]

They shouldn't be separated. What OS does your toaster run?

iosXtraCrispy

 

[WhoDatPhan78]

This thread feels like something a dad would ask in the 90s about trying to get his son to learn how to drive a stick shift.

I don't even know how much longer we will be using keyboards on a regular basis, everything will just be done with voice prompts.

 

[buzd]

This thread feels like something a dad would ask in the 90s about trying to get his son to learn how to drive a stick shift.

I don't even know how much longer we will be using keyboards on a regular basis, everything will just be done with voice prompts.

Not if I have anything to say about it it won’t.

 

[Snakehead]

I have for probably over 10 yrs now had a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard attached to all my iPads and it’s perfect.. it makes the iPad into just like a smallish, very light and portable computer and the keyboard functionality is great .

Yeah, at work we have laptops with docking stations and 29" curved monitors. I could use an external keyboard, but that doesn't fix the small screen issue and large screen laptops are heavy/inconvenient. Now, I might go with a large, not too big laptop and then having a docking station/large monitor at the house for when I am in homework mode, but have the laptop so when we travel I can still do my stuff.

 

[SWJJ]

I haven't had a job that I didn't use a computer for since the 1990s. I have worked in Education and IT the past decade or so, but I also worked as a bartender/waiter in college, and I worked in Sales and Finance for a while.

Odds are, unless they do some manual labor or specialized trade, they will very likely use computers.

Computers are not going away just because phones and tablets are becoming more pervasive. There may be a few things that a tablet becomes more useful than a computer, like restaurants and bars for placing orders, but when data entry is a routine part of the interaction a mouse and a keyboard, a full-sized monitor, and a desktop area are still superior and more efficient.

Now the question about teaching the kids, I say you need to be a simple, inexpensive windows-based computer. There are both hardware and software out of the box turnkey options to minimize exposure to adult or other unwanted content.

I think it would be good for them to learn how to effectively search the internet for information (google but find information that isn't SEO or paid content) It opens a door to be a learning tool for any interest that your kids have.

One of my kids plays piano and learns new songs on YouTube. Another kid likes to edit videos of him playing fortnight and add to his "YouTube channel."


Now, can my kids do the same things on their tablets? Yes, but the interactions for video editing are different on a PC than they are on a tablet, and you can do more. My son could watch the videos teaching him new piano songs on the tablet, but he prefers the larger screen on his desktop computer.


I can tell you firsthand, when they hit middle school and high school, being able to have access to a computer to use for school assignments and writing papers will be helpful.

While the best developers are developing websites and programs that are responsive and work well on tablets and phones, it's my personal experience that in Education some schools and school systems are slow to spend money on technology and still using online resources that were developed specifically for computer browsing and navigating and using them on a phone/tablet is clunky and ineffective.

 

[zeetes]

the hard drive in my pc died in may. i still haven't replaced it.

 

[baarbogast]

This may be off the mark, but the college I worked at would sell their obsolete computers. They may be 4 or 5 years old, but I think it would do what you want it to do.

 

[buzd]

This may be off the mark, but the college I worked at would sell their obsolete computers. They may be 4 or 5 years old, but I think it would do what you want it to do.

Heck you can get super tiny Windows computers for under $150. All peripherals separate, of course.

Example (and not an endorsement):

https://www.amazon.com/GMKtec-Mini-PC-Computer-N100/dp/B0CH81C4K3/?tag=associatessrp-20

 

[SWJJ]

This may be off the mark, but the college I worked at would sell their obsolete computers. They may be 4 or 5 years old, but I think it would do what you want it to do.

My kids computers were old ones we replaced at work. We removed the hard drives and destroyed them to protect sensitive client data, and the company said if you want one take it home, any left here will be taken to a recycling center, so I took one for each kid. I bought a cheap hard drive and had the kids learn how to install the hard drive.

 

[Arathrael]

My kids are in 5th and 3rd grade. They've been working devices (phones, tablets) most of their lives - and though they don't have their own phone and we don't plan on them having one any time soon, they do have controlled access to tablets. They have their own icloud accounts for messaging and they understand how apps work.

But that's not really the same as understanding how to operate a computer. I think it's important to begin to experience using a proper computer - file systems, internet skill and resources (that aren't apps), managing software, security practices, typing, etc. My wife and I both have Mac books, so we have computers but they're not really set-up to be a generic family computer. At the same time, that means we don't really "need" a family home computer, so my primary objective is to teach the kids that there's more to it than simply opening an app on a tablet.

Does anyone have recommendations on this? I can google it but y'all are usually better anyway.

I've been starting to think about this myself, although the oldest of our two is seven. So I'm not planning anything imminently, but I am thinking about what we'll do at some point.

Both ours have access to tablets, seven year old also has my old phone for very limited use (i.e. pokemon go, minecraft). He also plays minecraft on the xbox with a few friends; one thing there is that one of them plays on PC and does his own modding, which you can't really do on a phone or an xbox.

So there's one specific thing there that he's already showing an interest in, that leans into computer skills (I'm also using 'computer' to refer to a typical desktop or laptop, as distinct from a typical phone or tablet), and I agree that it's important to have those skills. I might be biased, considering my job, but while the nature of the skills will inevitably continue to shift, I don't think they're going to vanish entirely any time soon.

In our case, we do already have a PC, but that's mine. I work from home on it typically four days out of five, so it's not really available for his use except in a pretty limited way. I'm leaning towards, when we can make the space available (our house isn't that big), setting up another desk, either with a PC, or a docking type set-up we can put a laptop (or other device) on. That'd make it a bit more flexible for any of us to use, and I'd prefer it to not be in his bedroom for unsupervised use, especially when he's still young. I suspect he might end up with my current PC if I use it as an excuse to upgrade, but otherwise I think we'll just get something fairly basic initially.

 

[superchuck500]

This thread feels like something a dad would ask in the 90s about trying to get his son to learn how to drive a stick shift.

I don't even know how much longer we will be using keyboards on a regular basis, everything will just be done with voice prompts.

Anything in engineering or construction will be done on "real" computers for a very long time. And yes our new hires sometimes struggle with using them, especially "legacy" software like Autocad and Revit which seem to have a permanent foothold in the profession despite being extremely flawed- but they are the "industry standard" and every contract ever will require them for the foreseeable future. I can only assume that most professions have their own version of this. It's pretty much a whole different world than the intuitive touch pad voice controlled world that gen Z grew up in. Dealing with those sheetty computers in the 90's built character I tell ya.

I got a Geekom mini-desktop at home. Its basically just a hub with all the specs you would expect out of an actual desktop. I currently have 2 monitors, keyboard/mouse and a camera/speaker/mic combo plugged into it. Depending on what kind of monitors you get it could be relatively portable.

I agree, and think there are many professional environments that still require a computer to perform proficiently - and that means being computer literate is an important skill.

In my work, I do a substantial amount of document composing that includes drafting that I suppose could go back to being oral (dictation was how it was done before - though I'm certain it was less efficient and effective) but the work of organizing the product, all of the internal citation and reference, etc. is more proficiently performed with a computer. I have to deal with all of the evidence and material that goes with each matter that I work on - which almost always includes PDFs, spreadsheets of different kinds, various formats of media, and then there are the tools used to work with this material. The volume of information and the files involved are better managed in an environment where the user has more direct control.

But I certainly see how when you have an external keyboard and monitor, there's not that much difference between running off of a tablet or running off of a cloud-based "mini-desktop" . . . the difference is in the operating system and how the user navigates within it, as opposed to some completely different genus of "computing". I think there are still important literacy skills I'd like my kids to learn. Understanding what file extensions mean and how to work with different files and media. Understanding the issues and problem solving with peripherals which are likely to continue to be in use for some time. Understanding that apps are pieces of software that fit in the larger system, etc. etc.

I think what I'm going to do is get a laptop with a docking station, keyboard and monitor. And for the most part it will just be there on the desk for managed use as a "computer". My fifth grader is actually taking a computer literacy class this quarter (they have this 'life skills' class in fifth grade where each quarter is a different subject - this quarter is "computer"). But if we need the portability, it's still a laptop.

 

[Hedon James]

Different tools for different purposes. For me, a LINUX OS is the way to go. But most of the world's software was written for Windows. If you're a creative type, then OSX is probably the way to go.

But the world has changed a little bit since those early days. In the beginning, we had dumb terminals (keyboard and screen) connected to mainframes (the actual computer) in a very large and air conditioned room. With the advent of PCs (personal computers), the computer shrank considerably and was packaged with the keyboard and screen for home users (think in terms of Radio Shacks Tandy Computers, Commodore64 and Vic-20, etc...) These machines typically ran a version of BASIC on DOS. As they evolved, we started to see Apple and IBM enter the market, and OS with GUI became a thing, and has been since the late 80s/early 90s. This is when OSX and Windows became popular (along with a host of now-defunct OSes).

In today's world, we seem to have returned to the Server/Client model, where you have a computer running a "barebones" OS that accesses the cloud for software services. Google has leveraged this paradigm nicely, and seems to have become the preferred model for MOST people. No additional software to buy....the price of the computer is the total cost. With that said, I'm going to mention ChromeOS, as that seems to be the model that most educational institutions are moving towards. It allows the users a certain degree of user-customization, while allowing the school district to homogenize content for ALL, on ONE server rather than several hundred laptops. Added bonus....these machines tend to be lower in price, as they don't require the same hardware specs to run their lighter OS. Don't know if this is the RIGHT tool for you and your children, but I can almost guarantee your children will come across this ecosystem at some point in their student careers. Familiarity certainly won't hurt them.

If you think this is a viable option to consider, I'll even throw this out for you.....you probably don't even have to buy a new ChromeOS machine to hook them up. If you have any old Win7 or Win8 laptops laying around, that hardware will probably be sufficient. Just download ChromeOS FLEX and re-purpose that machine, overwriting the old Windows OS with ChromeOS. Once written to a usb, you can "live boot" ChromeOS and "try before you buy" (just a phrase, it costs nothing)....make sure trackpads, pointers, touchscreens, disk drives, etc...are functional. I installed ChromeOS on a circa early 2000s Toshiba Satellite laptop and that machine ran better with ChromeOS than it EVER ran with Win7...even when it was new.

This is probably the lowest cost, easiest entry, no-risk option available to you. And if it turns out to be the right tool, you can always "turn on the LinuxVM" and expand your software with Linux programs for office suites (word, spreadsheet, presentation software), graphics (GIMP), etc... as needed. Those are free softwares also. Truly is NO RISK. FWIW...

 

[Sailorsaint]

Newegg sells barebones systems and refurbished Dells if you are just looking for a “starter kit” type of system that still performs well.

 

[CoolBrees]

My kids are in 5th and 3rd grade. They've been working devices (phones, tablets) most of their lives - and though they don't have their own phone and we don't plan on them having one any time soon, they do have controlled access to tablets. They have their own icloud accounts for messaging and they understand how apps work.

But that's not really the same as understanding how to operate a computer. I think it's important to begin to experience using a proper computer - file systems, internet skill and resources (that aren't apps), managing software, security practices, typing, etc. My wife and I both have Mac books, so we have computers but they're not really set-up to be a generic family computer. At the same time, that means we don't really "need" a family home computer, so my primary objective is to teach the kids that there's more to it than simply opening an app on a tablet.

Does anyone have recommendations on this? I can google it but y'all are usually better anyway.

Get them each a Chromebook or equivalent- they are iPads with keyboards and a mousepad. It gets them used to all of the computer functions and they can be under $200 in sale.