Jason's Article/Tux Paint
The monolingual privilege of English amongst the Internet is tremendously difficult to understand. We are living within such a multicultural society only in Canada, let alone all the rich varieties of cultures, race and ethnicities in the entire world. It just doesn’t seem clear to me as to why English would be the predominant language used in every program no matter which country is using it. Even when things are written in another language, such as Japanese, the coding is still in English. It is clear that English is the worldwide language and all countries are exposed to it and expected to be familiar with it. Yet, I do not understand why different countries cannot create programming in their own language. This is only diminishing the idea of embracing multiculturalism and celebrating diversification. It is as if to say, individuals who wish to participate in the creation of programs, must be fluent in the English language. That poses such a barrier to those who are not fluent in English. Having an understanding of English will not allow for the creation of programs. Fluency is key, when creating a program that has a Western bias. I think that it is important to promote the idea of open source programs, because as stated by Nolan, this type of programming allows for others to use their own language of fluency to create programs since open source is not governed by one dominant language.
Just on a small note: the article mentions the notion of software programs on the Internet that do not allow you to save your work, such as Livejournal or Blogger. I think that this would be quite beneficial in terms of blogging. I find myself writing my blogs on my Microsoft Word program first and saving it, just in case my computer decides to crash, or something goes wrong in the middle of writing my blog. Then, I copy and paste my post onto my Livejournal account. Having a ‘save’ option would be much easier for people to be able to start a blog, and continue it later on if they wish to, or to just have that reassurance that it will be there in case of a malfunction with ones computer.
As for Tux Paint, I think that it is great to have free programs that are made available for children to use. These would be quite beneficial to be used in a classroom environment, through the guidance of a knowledgeable teacher. The fact that the program is designed for children is quite important because it is age appropriate and caters to their developmental needs. I truly believe in an arts enriched curriculum and I believe that multi-curricular activities should have an artistic foundation. A program like this will fuel creativity and experimentation. Allowing children to be creative in a risk free atmosphere, such as with Tux Paint, will only increase and promote artistic and creative confidence.