3V1185.01 Computer at home: TI-99 (4/21/81)

I finally brought home a TI-99 from the Logo lab. The machine’s storage extension is very flakey and the tape recorder would not work well for the first week or so. Consequently it was hard to program little systems for Peggy. We began using the computer in experiments with P169. The video quality of the firs two sessions was poor because lighting was inadequate. P171 is much better.

Peggy’s first use of the computer was simple letter -keying… it was an electronic typer, a keyboard with an output she could see. She liked very much to turn off the computer then restart. She was thrilled to be able to control the appearance of the start up design… Which she described thus, “Daddy, I made the science.” She continues (5/11/81) fascinated with controlling the hardware, inserting audio tapes (at random) into the recorder and pressing its buttons. I have tried hard to let her help, interpreting for her the I-O directions printed on the display and instructing her when to press enter. (We should capture this on P172 later today.)

The enculturation aspect showed up very clearly in the first appearance of technical jargon (4/21). When a problem occurred, Peggy turned toward me and said, “Daddy, it’s the same problem. There’s a bug in you bacedure.” [sic]

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