Re: Database for Software List

[bickiia@earlham.edu]

>It appears that our
>best approach is to use years of schooling which is basically the same
as
>grade. 

I prefer age.  It isn't completely accurate -- students can be behind
grade level, but not usually age level.  Maybe if the kid is really
short...

Anyway, software for a 2-year-old (which might be a storybook program,
or something where the kid just clicks and types getting some sort of
feedback) would be significantly different than a program for a
4-year-old, who is much more coordinated, will be learning letters and
numbers...

These should be seperate, and calling them all "0" isn't a great
solution.  Also, grade level and years of schooling are (at least in the
US) almost but not quite the same number (since first grade is the
second year).  This requires some sort of explanation, and age requires
no explanation.


Another problem is that this number -- age or grade -- doesn't apply to
all programs.  I think there should be a field for intended audience --
students, teachers, administration, parents.  There might be more
audiences -- general? (where else would apache go?)

Anyway, the age only matters for students (perhaps for teachers you'd
have an age range for what level of teachers?  Like elementary teachers
vs. highschool teachers?  I don't like using age in this way, though,
because it combines two seperate ideas)  Wasted fields probably don't
matter -- it's not as though we're worrying about limited disk space or
something -- but it's something to keep in mind.  Using multiple tables
(the Right Way) probably is more effort than its worth, but if there's
also other significant differences between descriptions of programs for
different audiences, that might be the way to go.

  -- Ian