dreaming on route 66

On a Tuesday afternoon, about twelve years ago, I was chatting with a young IT student near Grand Canyon. With all our belongings stuffed in a U-Haul van, my husband and I were in the process of moving from San Francisco to the east coast. This young man was eager to hear about our work. The local community were sponsoring his education, for which he was very grateful. But he was also sad, as it meant having to leave the 'Big Rez' to find a job.

It was in the early days of the Internet boom. I was amazed by Navajo culture and craftsmanship, by the beauty of the painted dessert and its people, and a dream began to form; I should set up a web-design group to benefit the local community, while making use of the incredible talent and creativity surrounding me.

Unfortunately, I never managed to follow up on my plans. I still think it would be a wonderful opportunity, but due to the lack of a green-card, and the addition of two children, I probably never will.

In England, I had been part of a group of woman in technology who provide role models, presentations, and tutoring at girls' secondary schools. When our son started primary school in The Netherlands, I volunteered to teach computing, web design, and English lessons to young children. As most parents at our local school, we also took out paid subscriptions to publishers and sites that provide additional material for our children to practice at home.

At the same time I started helping my niece with her maths homework, as I used to do with the girls back home in grammar school; It seems many teachers have difficulties to explain or present logical questions and solutions very well.

And a new dream began to form; All children - regardless of their location, culture, gender, religion, or financial means - should have access to education resources that teach logic and maths in a fun and easy to understand way. I don't know yet how to achieve this dream, but I guess every journey has to start with the first small steps ...

p.s. If you have any ideas or suggestions, or want to help fulfill this dream, please get in touch!

next generation

While visiting my parents last weekend, I had the pleasure to meet my brother's new girlfriend, and her ten year old son. We got along very well, and I took an immediate liking to both of them.

As many boys of his age, Taced loves to play online games and is fascinated by computers. Not surprisingly, he dreams of starting his own company and developing computer games. Thus he was quite excited when he heard about my background. He listened intently to my stories about UX design and was interested to see some of the artefacts and areas I had been working on. In fact, Taced surprised me by giving several useful suggestions regarding the wireframes and task flows I shared with him. It was an amazing experience to exchange thoughts with such a bright young mind.

Unfortunately, many development environments such as Adobe suite are way too expensive for a single mom to afford for her kid. But Taced couldn’t wait to get his hands on my new laptop and the tools installed on it.

In turn, I was quite excited to talk to my brother’s girlfriend; a social scientist, who had written her thesis on sensitive children, and mother of a highly talented son herself.

Thus while the grownups were busy chatting away over a bottle of French wine, Taced taught himself some of the tools on my computer and threw together several quick Flash animations. Disregarding the slightly bloodthirsty humor typical for boys, I was very impressed by the results he achieved within a couple of hours!

I can hardly wait to see what exciting new ideas and innovations can be expected by those bright kids in the future!