Off the VA Path
Well I have taken a slight detour off the VA path to teach high school freshman a basic computer concepts class. It’s just one hour a day, (not including the prep time!)
The first day of course went completely different than I had planned. We see kids touching all this technology and we make an assumption that they are pretty competent when it comes to using a computer. WRONG!
Half the class scored under 15 WPM when i administered a typing test. (Should have given a WPM texting test). Many could not respond correctly to terms such as:
- Open a browser
- Go to My Documents
- Shut the computer down.
But we forged on, made adjustments for the very different levels of computer skills in the class. But here are some interesting thoughts I have formed over the last 6 weeks.
- Kids are great but they came is so many different types of packages. You have to pay alot of attention to the package’s needs to impact learning.
- Real world examples are still difficult for them to relate too, so you have to find examples from their world.
- There is no FEAR
I have taught many adult computer classes and I had to stop because I couldn’t deal with the FEAR factor anymore. “OOOOOOOOHHH I just know I’m going to break it!”. The kids have no fear. They click away till somthing works the way it should. When we are in Word and I tell them to insert a Times New Roman 24 pt Title… within seconds they are off exploring all the differnt fonts and colors and sizes and shapes. So I let them. Times New Roman 24 pt is boring.
Next week they are creating a newsletter about themselves. I think this will be fun!
