If only we could teach people to fiddle in an intellegent way. I agree that it is the best way to learn. But the fact of the matter is that people who either are not good with computers, or don't conisder themselves good with computers have a fear barrier to fiddling. You can help some of them overcome it,but as soon as one little thing goes wrong, they panic and it's back to square 1. Sounds silly to us, but I can't tell you how many students have come to me in tears because "they hit the wrong button and errased everything" every time I end up saying "How did we deal with this last time" and only about half of them remember the last 5 times this happened undo fixed it.
Sometimes I really think that 1 semester of P.C. Literacy will soon turn into 2. Every semester I have a majority of my students who I feel are just getting to the point where they are starting to be comfortable trying things, and know how to fix things they mess up. But since most of them are just in the class because everyone in the whole school must take it, I doubt the majority of them continue learning on their own.
A 2 semester format would also allow more time to teach about hardware. It falls to the wayside in 1 semester, because there are very few (non-retail or manual labor) jobs that don't require at least knowing word processing. But at many of these jobs, you aren't allowed to touch the computers.
I know it's not as much so at Universitys, but at Community College, the goal is to get you in a job as fast as possible, with as little fluff being taught as possible. I'm not saying I consider hardware fluff, but most of my students do. Many of them ask for help with home computers, and are not interested in me walking them through it, or sending them to a helpful article online with pictures, they want me to do it, or tell them someone who will. Sometimes I'll be able to talk them into beliving in themselves and trying on their own, but it usually requires me going into cheerleader mode. I kid you not, walk into my school and you will see a petite 23 year old jumping up and down and all but doing cartwheels.
Not saying any of this is right, just saying it's how things have been in my first year of teaching.
I have been teaching P.C. Literacy for a year now, and I'd be the first to admit that there are a lot of things that need to be changed (#1 being that P.C.!=Microsoft, therefore P.C. Literacy!=Microsoft Literacy)
The thing about P.C. Literacy classes is that they should be useful. While you might find your ability to put together a system to be useful, the average student (and maybe this is colored in my mind by the fact I teach at a community college) would not take the time and energy to build one even if they new how. If they are going to get a job that needs that skill, they will take an entire class on it.
I don't on the other hand think that 1 class dedicated to software installation would be a bad idea. It's not supposed to be an official part of the semester where I teach (to maintain transferability to the university, we have to follow a schedule set out for us without much freedom) but I usually end up having to go through how to install the testing software we use.
Basically, there are tons of things that we would love to teach everyone, but we have 4 1/2 months, meeting 2 days a we. When we start out with students who don't know how to double click, it is sometimes all we can do to get through cut and paste and how to save a file where you will actually be able to find it next time you need it. Sad but true.
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If only we could teach people to fiddle in an intellegent way. I agree that it is the best way to learn. But the fact of the matter is that people who either are not good with computers, or don't conisder themselves good with computers have a fear barrier to fiddling. You can help some of them overcome it,but as soon as one little thing goes wrong, they panic and it's back to square 1. Sounds silly to us, but I can't tell you how many students have come to me in tears because "they hit the wrong button and errased everything" every time I end up saying "How did we deal with this last time" and only about half of them remember the last 5 times this happened undo fixed it.
Sometimes I really think that 1 semester of P.C. Literacy will soon turn into 2. Every semester I have a majority of my students who I feel are just getting to the point where they are starting to be comfortable trying things, and know how to fix things they mess up. But since most of them are just in the class because everyone in the whole school must take it, I doubt the majority of them continue learning on their own.
A 2 semester format would also allow more time to teach about hardware. It falls to the wayside in 1 semester, because there are very few (non-retail or manual labor) jobs that don't require at least knowing word processing. But at many of these jobs, you aren't allowed to touch the computers.
I know it's not as much so at Universitys, but at Community College, the goal is to get you in a job as fast as possible, with as little fluff being taught as possible. I'm not saying I consider hardware fluff, but most of my students do. Many of them ask for help with home computers, and are not interested in me walking them through it, or sending them to a helpful article online with pictures, they want me to do it, or tell them someone who will. Sometimes I'll be able to talk them into beliving in themselves and trying on their own, but it usually requires me going into cheerleader mode. I kid you not, walk into my school and you will see a petite 23 year old jumping up and down and all but doing cartwheels.
Not saying any of this is right, just saying it's how things have been in my first year of teaching.
I have been teaching P.C. Literacy for a year now, and I'd be the first to admit that there are a lot of things that need to be changed (#1 being that P.C.!=Microsoft, therefore P.C. Literacy!=Microsoft Literacy)
The thing about P.C. Literacy classes is that they should be useful. While you might find your ability to put together a system to be useful, the average student (and maybe this is colored in my mind by the fact I teach at a community college) would not take the time and energy to build one even if they new how. If they are going to get a job that needs that skill, they will take an entire class on it.
I don't on the other hand think that 1 class dedicated to software installation would be a bad idea. It's not supposed to be an official part of the semester where I teach (to maintain transferability to the university, we have to follow a schedule set out for us without much freedom) but I usually end up having to go through how to install the testing software we use.
Basically, there are tons of things that we would love to teach everyone, but we have 4 1/2 months, meeting 2 days a we. When we start out with students who don't know how to double click, it is sometimes all we can do to get through cut and paste and how to save a file where you will actually be able to find it next time you need it. Sad but true.