taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (07/26/86)
This article is from weemba@brahms.berkeley.edu (Matthew P. Wiener) and was received on Fri Jul 25 21:44:12 1986 I just read in my paper (in a daily column called "Trendnotes"), that Florida has passed a computer literacy requirement that goes into ef- fect in fall 1987. Florida already has reading, writing, and math pro- ficiency tests for grades 3, 5, 8, and 11; computer skills are to be added to the existing tests: Third-graders must be able to power up and power down a computer in the correct sequence, execute a program, demonstrate the proper technique in operating a keyboard, monitor, disk drive and other hardware, and show proper care and hand- ling of storage materials. The tests get more difficult in later years of schooling. I doubt though that they will teach them any netiquette. ucbvax!brahms!weemba Matthew P Wiener/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720
taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (08/01/86)
This article is from codas!bellcore!ki4pv!tanner (Tanner Andrews) and was received on Fri Aug 1 02:23:48 1986 ) weemba@brahms.berkeley.edu writes of the "computer literacy" ) requirement we will have here in GOD's own country effective fall '87. ) required: powerup/down, load & execute prog, handle storage materials. This is just wonderful. Now, (depending on who gets the contract) we may expect 3rd graders to know "everything" about "operating a computer". More precisely, but generally overlooked, is the fact that the procedures vary widely from system to system. Is it going to be useful (when they get out of school) that they know how to turn on a Fruit-Farms Microsystems computer and load a game; most likely under Grapefruit-Dos which no one will have used for 10 years? By the time the kid's out, there may be a voice-operated power switch, run by a $3.50 cmos microprocessor which can recognise one word: "ON". ;-) Generally, I'm glad that they're only in Tallahassee for only two (long) months. Seems like so much longer when they're in session. tanner andrews, systems compudata south, deland