#4032 NORM Never A: Touchpad not that easy to use

Zarro Boogs per Child bugtracker at laptop.org
Thu Oct 4 14:56:38 EDT 2007


#4032: Touchpad not that easy to use
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 Reporter:  Carla     |       Owner:  mlj           
     Type:  defect    |      Status:  new           
 Priority:  normal    |   Milestone:  Never Assigned
Component:  hardware  |     Version:                
 Keywords:            |    Verified:  0             
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 For me it's rather easy to use the touchpad. Usually my XO, my hands, and
 my environment is clean. My finger tips are smooth.
 I haven't pinpointed why it's difficult for children to use their
 touchpads, but here are some notes. They struggle to move the cursor
 from one place to another, and when they finally have it where they
 want it and move their hand to click, the cursor is gone. So they have to
 start all over again. Some even make use of both hands.
 But in any case, they usually press their fingers very hard against
 the touchpads, which many times de-calibrates them. Or they place the
 cursor outside the edge of the screen and get the frame instead of what
 they wanted to click on (an icon within the application that it's
 physically at the same location as the frame) Then the struggle continues.
 And worse still if they have to be very precise and click
 on something small, such as picking a color, some buttons in eToys,
 and resizing an image in Write. If you press the touchpad hard and try to
 move the cursor with the same pressure, the cursor starts jumping.

 I have noticed that in Galadima, Arahuay, and Khairat schools there's a
 lot of dust inside the classrooms and the children are continually wiping
 their screens with their hands, and their touchpads are the color of dust
 or dirty. The skin on their fingers may be rough (Many of them help with
 the chores at home, carry water from the well, help work the land, ....)

 I usually explain to them how to touch it softly. They try but it doesn't
 work, so they go back to pressing hard. Then I hold a child's finger to
 show them how, and sideways (Usually, if I move their finger towards the
 screen, their finger slides smoothly with no problem. But if I slide their
 finger backwards in reverse, it gets really stuck and won't slide. But if
 I turn their finger around, it does slide easier, but the child ends up in
 awkward positions, with their hands all crooked.

 I'm attaching a photo or a dirty touchpad. B4 Khairat school

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Ticket URL: <https://dev.laptop.org/ticket/4032>
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