開源日報 每天推薦一個 GitHub 優質開源項目和一篇精選英文科技或編程文章原文,堅持閱讀《開源日報》,保持每日學習的好習慣。
今日推薦開源項目:《甚至沒有類 water.css》
今日推薦英文原文:《5 open source tools for teaching young children to read》

今日推薦開源項目:《甚至沒有類 water.css》傳送門:GitHub鏈接
推薦理由:這是一個裡面沒有一個自定義類的 CSS 文件——只不過它改裝了那些默認的標籤,從而讓你在需要簡單的寫點什麼的時候不需要自己再去整一些新的樣式把原來的樣式覆蓋掉。雖然在網頁很簡單的時候它的加入已經足夠,但是在網頁開始變得複雜的時候它並不能幫你省下太多的功夫,該自己動手的地方還是要自己動手的。
我只是想寫點簡單的演示內容,所以我不想給它們加上樣式,但是默認樣式真的太丑了。——作者
今日推薦英文原文:《5 open source tools for teaching young children to read》作者: Laura B. Janusek
原文鏈接:https://opensource.com/article/19/4/early-literacy-tools
推薦理由:幼兒閱讀教學工具

5 open source tools for teaching young children to read

Anyone who sees a child using a tablet or smartphone observes their seemingly innate ability to scroll through apps and swipe through screens, flexing those "digital native" muscles. According to Common Sense Media, the percentage of US households in which 0- to 8-year-olds have access to a smartphone has grown from 52% in 2011 to 98% in 2017. While the debates around age guidelines and screen time surge, it's hard to deny that children are developing familiarity and skills with technology at an unprecedented rate.

This rise in early technical literacy may be astonishing, but what about traditional literacy, the good old-fashioned ability to read? What does the intersection of early literacy development and early tech use look like? Let's explore some open source tools for early learners that may help develop both of these critical skill sets.

Balancing risks and rewards

But first, a disclaimer: Guidelines for technology use, especially for young children, are constantly changing. Organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics, Common Sense Media, Zero to Three, and PBS Kids are continually conducting research and publishing recommendations. One position that all of these and other organizations can agree on is that plopping a child in front of a screen with unmonitored content for an unlimited set of time is highly inadvisable.

Even setting kids up with educational content or tools for extended periods of time may have risks. And on the flip side, research on the benefits of education technologies is often limited or unavailable. In short, there are many cases in which we don't know for certain if educational technology use at a young age is beneficial, detrimental, or simply neutral.

But if screen time is available to your child or student, it's logical to infer that educational resources would be preferable over simpler pop-the-bubble or slice-the-fruit games or platforms that could house inappropriate content or online predators. While we may not be able to prove that education apps will make a child's test scores soar, we can at least take comfort in their generally being safer and more age-appropriate than the internet at large.

That said, if you're open to exploring early-education technologies, there are many reasons to look to open source options. Open source technologies are not only free but open to collaborative improvement. In many cases, they are created by developers who are educators or parents themselves, and they're a great way to avoid in-app purchases, advertisements, and paid upgrades. Open source programs can often be downloaded and installed on your device and accessed without an internet connection. Plus, the idea of open source in education is a growing trend, and there are countless resources to learn more about the concept.

But for now, let's check out some open source tools for early literacy in action!

Childsplay


Let's start simple. Childsplay, licensed under the GPLv2, is the most basic of the resources on this list. It's a compilation of just over a dozen educational games for young learners, four of which are specific to letter recognition, including memory games and an activity where the learner identifies a spoken letter.

eduActiv8


eduActiv8 started in 2011 as a personal project for the developer's son, "whose thirst for learning and knowledge inspired the creation of this educational program." It includes activities for building basic math and early literacy skills, including a variety of spelling, matching, and listening activities. Games include filling in missing letters in the alphabet, unscrambling letters to form a word, matching words to images, and completing mazes by connecting letters in the correct order. eduActiv8 was written in Python and is available under the GPLv3.

GCompris


GCompris is an open source behemoth (licensed under the GPLv3) of early educational activities. A French software engineer started it in 2000, and it now includes over 130 educational games in nearly 20 languages. Tailored for learners under age 10, it includes activities for letter recognition and drawing, alphabet sequencing, vocabulary building, and games like hangman to identify missing letters in words, plus activities for learning braille. It also includes games in math and music, plus classics from tic-tac-toe to chess.

Feed the Monster


The quality of the playful "monster" graphics in Feed the Monster definitely sets it apart from the others on this list, plus it supports nearly 40 languages! The app includes activities for sorting letters to form words, memory games to match words to images, and letter-tracing writing activities. The app is developed by Curious Learning, which states: "We create, localize, distribute, and optimize open source mobile software so every child can learn to read." While Feed the Monster's offerings are geared toward early readers, Curious Mind's roadmap suggests it's headed towards a more robust personalized literacy platform growing on a foundation of research with MIT, Tufts, and Georgia State University.

Syntax Untangler


Syntax Untangler is the outlier of this group. Developed by a technologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison under the GPLv2, the application is "particularly designed for training language learners to recognize and parse linguistic features." Examples show the software being used for foreign language learning, but anyone can use it to create language identification games, including games for early literacy activities like letter recognition. It could also be applied to later literacy skills, like identifying parts of speech in complex sentences or literary techniques in poetry or fiction.

Wrapping up

Access to literary environments has been shown to impact literacy and attitudes towards reading. Why not strive to create a digital literary environment for our kids by filling our devices with educational technologies, just like our shelves are filled with books?
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