Tech contributor Mario Armstrong talks about how to be a smart consumer when buying software for your kids.
FARAI CHIDEYA, host: I'm Farai Chideya, and this is NEWS & NOTES.</s>FARAI CHIDEYA, host: 'Tis the season for back to school shopping, but these days you might have more to buy than number two pencils. What about computer software?</s>FARAI CHIDEYA, host: NPR's Tony Cox talked to tech contributor Mario Armstrong about how to be software savvy for back to school.</s>TONY COX: You know, Mario, when I go to a store that has all of these different kinds of software available and you see the young people in there walking up and down the aisles - and you see the parents scratching their heads about what to do and what not to do - one of the big questions I think parents have is, what's worth spending the money to help my kid through school? And how do you determine, you know, what's a good value for the amount of money that you have to spend?</s>MARIO ARMSTRONG: Great question. And the first place that we overlook is where we're getting our kids education from in the first place: the school, themselves; the teachers, themselves. They know - they have filtered, they have tested, they have seen all the hype of some of these marketing engines that these companies put out for products that your kid has to have going back to school.</s>MARIO ARMSTRONG: And they know what really works well for what lessons they're teaching, what stage your child may be in. So first and foremost check with the schools themselves and the faculty there. Find out what some of their recommendations are.</s>MARIO ARMSTRONG: Secondly, go to the Web. There are many comparison shopping sites. More are being developed. I think of places like MySimon.com and others, where you can kind of do not only just price comparison, but also get feedback and reviews from people who have either bought those products or have used them and tested those products. So use the Web to your favor, as well.</s>MARIO ARMSTRONG: And then lastly, you know, go with your gut. Read up on some of this stuff. You need to get engaged a little bit yourself. Go to the store, ask to play with a device, find out what its return policy is, make sure there's no restocking fees that may be tacked on to the back end of something that may not work out as well as you expect.</s>MARIO ARMSTRONG: And I think if you're armed with those three steps you should be on your way to making good, sound decisions.</s>TONY COX: How young do kids get involved with computers now? And as a parent, how long should you let them stay on it, or make them stay on it, as the case may be, on a daily basis doing educational stuff?</s>MARIO ARMSTRONG: This is a good question, because as the gadget guru I have a 4-year-old, and gadgets constantly come to the house and we review things. And I was perplexed by that same question: what age is too young? And so from folks that I've talked to that have many more years experience in parenting and have actually done studies or books about this issue, say, you know, as soon as three years old is not too young to start them learning a little bit about the computer, learning about the Internet, and having them point and click on kid-safe Web sites that folks can go out and chose to do interactive games and puzzles and online things that get them acclimated to the technology.</s>MARIO ARMSTRONG: Tony, you remember flash cards back in the day, doing match flash cards?</s>TONY COX: I think I remember that, yeah.</s>MARIO ARMSTRONG: You think you remember that? Were you any good at it?</s>TONY COX: No I wasn't.</s>MARIO ARMSTRONG: You weren't? Well, the 21st century style of that is this videogame called Brain Age, which is developed by Nintendo. And that is something that may be a little bit more applicable to, say, middle school-age or high school-age students and higher.</s>MARIO ARMSTRONG: Once again, you have to go with your gut as to what you feel is too early, but certainly you have to start introducing your kids to technology. It's not going away, and the more they know about it and can interface with it earlier, the better off they'll be down the road.</s>TONY COX: How long do you let your 4-year-old stay on the computer?</s>MARIO ARMSTRONG: I only do about maybe 10, 15 minutes at a time. And he'll play on things that he's used to watching. Say on PBS, maybe one of his favorite characters. We'll go to that character's Web site, and he'll maybe just point and click and paint on that character.</s>MARIO ARMSTRONG: Or we'll do memory-based games where some of his characters are in these upside-down cards and he has to use his memory as he points and clicks and turns over the card to remember where the matches are. Those games usually last about four minutes or so and they're perfect. So a few repetitions of those type of games - to the point where you're seeing your kid maybe start to lose interest - is probably enough time to get them started.</s>TONY COX: So for people on a tight budget, especially, where can they find some alternatives to get the right tools for their children's education?</s>MARIO ARMSTRONG: This is critical, because we don't want any kid to not feel that they can compete with their peer and have the same technology opportunities afforded to them. The same types of pen and paper that other kids have.</s>MARIO ARMSTRONG: So some alternatives to the higher-priced software, especially for schoolwork, you need a word processor. So I would check out a Web site called Writely.com, and that's spelled W-R-I-T-E-L-Y.com. If you're looking for the whole office suite allowing you to do mathematics as well as presentations, as well as database software, as well as word processing - take a look at a Web site called OpenOffice.org. These are compatible software, it will work in the mainstream marketplace, so you don't have to worry about that. And they are open source code software made available for people that are on a tight budget or just can't afford, make that, you know, purchase to afford the higher expensive software. But that still keeps your kids in the game, OpenOffice.org and Writely.com.</s>TONY COX: Well, listen, Mario, thank you very much for the information. It's very helpful, and I'm sure parents who are going through this can use the information that you've given them.</s>MARIO ARMSTRONG: Yeah, Tony. It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.</s>FARAI CHIDEYA, host: That was NPR's Tony Cox talking with News & Notes' tech contributor Mario Armstrong. Armstrong also covers technology for Baltimore-area member stations WYPR and WEAA.