Teaching Students Computers... (Semi-OT)

From: Hotze <photze_at_batelco.com.bh>
Date: Tue May 12 22:25:41 1998

Hi. This is semi-off topic, but I'm sure that if any replies are made,
it'll eventually spin off to someone's tales of their PDP-8 in high school,
or their first VIC-20...
    Anyway, as much as I can complain that I'm not getting a decent
computer-education in school, I owe a lot to them.
    My first year here in Bahrain, I had just got my computer (a blasing
fast 486 33!!!), running (what else) Windows 3.1 and DOS 6.22. I didn't
know how to type, just use basic functions. I could get on CompuServe (at
least in the US), etc. but not do anything "powerfull" I could launch
CD-ROMS, install programs since I was 8, in 3rd grade. Then, in school that
year, I learned to type. A significant 40WAM. (I thought this was
miserrable, but now in typing, many 7th graders got like 19's, 25's...)
    Anyway, that gave me my basic computer skills. Now, in 6th grade, when
I next did serious typing (4th grade was a mess, I skipped 5th grade), I
found that my typing increased to 80WAM. (WPM??) Now, I find it's at
100-140. I owe all that to the school. Without learning how to type, I
would never have gotten interested in e-mail, programming, computer science,
CAD, grapics, number crunching, UN*X, or hardware stuff.
    Then, earlier on this year, I was asked to help make a computer couse
for my grade at school. For the first couple weeks we wouldn't have a
computer lab. So I did what I thought would work: Talked about the workings
of a computer. Terms like OS, HDD, RAM, CPU, bus, HTML, web, modem, etc.
    Since then, I've been working to set up a browser-based Intranet. It's
been a heck of a lot of fun, if not educatonal.
    Just my $0.02...

Tim D. Hotze
Received on Tue May 12 1998 - 22:25:41 BST