ahr@bigburd.PRC.Unisys.COM (Allan Rabenau) (04/13/89)
I will be teaching an elementary PC class to some really computer-illiterate persons (firefighters) and I require an easy-to-read introduction text to use. I plan the course to start 'way down there with bits & bytes, through MS-DOS, right up to elementary spreadsheets and data base work. The object being to educate the student enough to properly use the computer; hopefully not destroy anyone else's work, or at least be smart enought to know when they've done so. I would appreciate any recommendations that anyone has for such a text. Email please.
BVAUGHAN@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Barbara Vaughan) (04/14/89)
In article <9855@burdvax.PRC.Unisys.COM>, ahr@bigburd.PRC.Unisys.COM (Allan Rabenau) writes: >I will be teaching an elementary PC class to some really >computer-illiterate persons (firefighters) and I require an easy-to-read >introduction text to use. I plan the course to start 'way down there with bits >& bytes, through MS-DOS, right up to elementary spreadsheets ... I don't know a good text offhand (wish I did), but I have done the same kind of course many times and I can give you a little hard-won pearls of wisdom. 1) stop thinking of them as computer illiterate. Would you like to be called a pyromoron? 2) DON'T start with bits and bytes or with RAM and ROM or Boolean algebra or anything similar. Start off with one simple operating system (MSDOS will do) and show them how to list the files on a diskette, how to rename a file, copy a file, erase a file. Then work up to a hard disk and the applications they will find useful. Maybe you'll recognize a nascent hacker in the class, and you can offer to go into the theory after the class is pretty comfortable with the easy stuff. If you start with bits and at least half the class will find it incomprehensibly esoteric and will assume it's only going to get harder and give up. Do you need to be able to balance oxidation-reduction equations to understand and fight fires? I have successfully taught many people to use computers (micro, mini and mainframe) including little children, exchange students from developing countries, the guy who worked in the mailroom where I used to work (the latter went on to become a real hacker.) I've learned to show them how before you start explaining why. Probably your first interest in computers developed out of some use of an application (a game, maybe, when you were a little kid) rather than out of a class or a learned discourse.
bumby@math.rutgers.edu (Richard Bumby) (04/15/89)
In article <7924@pucc.Princeton.EDU> BVAUGHAN@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Barbara Vaughan) writes: > In article <9855@burdvax.PRC.Unisys.COM>, ahr@bigburd.PRC.Unisys.COM > (Allan Rabenau) writes: > > >I will be teaching an elementary PC class to some really > >computer-illiterate persons (firefighters) and I require an > >easy-to-read introduction text to use. I plan the course to start > >'way down there with bits & bytes, through MS-DOS, right up to > >elementary spreadsheets ... > . . .<stuff omitted>. . . 2) DON'T start with bits > and bytes or with RAM and ROM or Boolean algebra or anything > similar. Start off with one simple operating system (MSDOS will do) > and show them how to [do many things]. . . HEAR, HEAR!!! As a mathematician and user of a variety of computers who just recently entered the world of DOS, I was shocked to find how many books that claimed to tell people about their computer, its DOS, or some application program feel an obligation to begin with a lot of easy mathematics cloaked in jargon -- and then never get around to giving simple examples. The syntax of the commands is confusing to everyone when first encountered, but once you see how it works, its easy. If you can afford the luxury of a teacher, you might not need many examples in the book -- but I find that I have to make up a few things that don't work before I catch on to the underlying logic of a complicated program (application or operating system). -- --R. T. Bumby ** Math ** Rutgers ** New Brunswick ** (in one form or another for all kinds of mail) [bumby@math.rutgers.edu]