Re: [school-discuss] email client for children?

[email.listen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Am Fri, 7. April 2006 06:15 schrieb Jeremy C. Reed:
> Any suggestions for an email client for young children (like ages 5 to
> 10)?
>
> My wish list:
> - huge icons
> - very little features
> - very few menus
> - very few choices
> - looks interesting and fun (to a five-year-old)
> - can render HTML
> - POP3 and local mailboxes and maybe IMAP
> - not too many dependencies
>
> I have tested and tried many email clients and kmail is probably the
> closest to ease-of-use for kids, but maybe too many dependencies for me.
> gtkmail or sylpheed or lighter.
>
> sylpheed has a very active development. Maybe a front-end it for it that
> is friendly for children would be a possibility.
May be balsa will be interesting. 
It has less 'features' than kmail, 'featurres' in the meaning of confusing 
features.

But there are projects which might be interested in adding a email module.

- tuxpaint
  Most younger children I saw are very impressed of tuxpaint. 
It is interesting in my eyes because most kids who can't read or write yet 
like to share drawings and pictures in real life.
Tuxpaint comes along with a configuration module (tuxpaint-config) which 
allows to add additional stuff. 
May be that will be a point to hook an 'add-module' tab which will offer addon 
plugins as email and others.

It also might be discussed if it is of interest to have some kind of voice 
module (using high compression audio algorithms to reduce bandwith) as email 
attachments. (What might be seen as a step towards using other 
applications/techniques like ekiga, aka gnomemeeting, or xchat.)


- gcompris
  Designed as a trainig tool for young kids it might be of interest to the 
gcompris developer to add an email module.

In the moment I would vote for a web based email application as Miles Berry 
did. They are, in most cases, highly configurable to fit users needs in 
functionality and look and feel.
Plus it has the benefit that using a web browser is one of the first 
applications younger children tend to use.

regards,
Thomas