Our first computer was a Mac Plus. As a kid, I read the various system manuals from front to back, several times over. Ditto for the manuals that came with different software programs, our printer, etc.
As I grew up, we got replacement computers, and I read the manuals for those too, building on the knowledge from the first computer. At some point, computers stopped coming with manuals. This seems a shame, but it's understandable since there are so many features.
Any tips on how to teach kids the basics of how to use a computer? Obviously they pick up a lot of stuff by watching, but how do you give them a good foundation in what an OS is, the basics of RAM, paging, etc.?
Video games can be great to introduce kids to computers and hardware. They might get interesting in building a computer to get good performance, which requires picking parts, looking at reviews and so on.
You can introduce them to more advanced OS concepts like memory through hacking. It's better if you have something to show and impress. Try following a tutorial beforehand to cheat in a solo game by changing some memory values. Try something old, most modern games have protections in place.
There is also the more creative aspect with modding. A kid making a map mod might begin to understand the concept of vertices, polygons, shading and so on. Shaders are an awesome too, although more advanced. ShaderToy has a nice interactive library.
It's very hard to get kids into something that's not immediately gratifying. It's better to go steps by steps, let them pick interests by themselves, and support them when they want to learn more. Torrent some CAD software if they need it!
Partial reason why I got into programming was because games I liked had map editors and mod support. At first the basics were fine, just making levels but the more and more I did them, the more power I wanted over the mods.. And thats when I got interested in programming. :)
I must have read the manual to our Star dot-matrix printer about twenty times. It had BASIC source code, all kinds of examples and illustrations and even info on how the parallel port worked.
As I grew up, we got replacement computers, and I read the manuals for those too, building on the knowledge from the first computer. At some point, computers stopped coming with manuals. This seems a shame, but it's understandable since there are so many features.
Any tips on how to teach kids the basics of how to use a computer? Obviously they pick up a lot of stuff by watching, but how do you give them a good foundation in what an OS is, the basics of RAM, paging, etc.?