Why people are computer illiterate

25-02-2008


So such odd news was just told to me today that I feel it has to be blogged about or I will go insane. As may have been mentioned before, H is a teacher. A secondary school teacher to be precise. Now while H is the most inept computer person I know she isn't the worst. She does however appear to be the MOST skilled teacher in the school when it comes to computers. As a result she has to teach the sixth years how to use a computer, but follows the "most up to date book" for the course work.

Now I work in computers and have used computers since around the age of ten, so fifteen years of basic computer using is under my belt. The odd time when a person says they have no idea about something I would class as very basic I find it strange. But this book she has to follow is clearly the source of all the stupid computer users out there in the world, thus being the source of all the stupid computer questions that tech guys like me get asked on a daily basis.

Some of the things in the book are utter bollix, like calling a "Word Processor" the W.P. Those two letters I have never heard anybody use EVER in relation to computers, yet the book was written by a teacher that is supposedly the dogs bollix with computers. I could be the dogs bollix at computers as well if I made shit up and wrote a book about it that is then used by schools around the country. The only thing I have ever heard a person call a Word Processor is Word (if using the Microshite version) or Office (which covers Word, Open and Star Office). But this nob end is trying to create a buzz word, could you imagine the funny looks you would get asking a person to load the W.P. to type something up.

But my favourite was when H described how she taught the class how to copy and paste. Go up to edit, select copy. Go up to edit select paste. When I asked her why she didn't just tell them, or tell them that the faster way, of using Control C and Control P she stared at me with that blank stare she has. The book, the course book that is approved by the Department of Education, the one they HAVE to follow, makes no reference to those two well known commands. What if the student ever had to use a program that didn't have an edit menu? Would they know that the clipboard is actually built into the OS and not directly tied to the program? Would they even think they could copy something without using a menu?

The book didn't even cover how to undo things, with Control Z or the edit menu it loves so much. This is clearly the reason so many people, in this day and age, still have no idea about many basic computer functions. It is also probably why so many people fail to grasp the simple concept of the internet. If jester gets five minutes the Dept. of Stupidfication is going to get a new computer book written, one that might actually enlighten the masses rather than teach them outdated methods that were being phased out with Windows 3.11 (yes, I actually used that in the beginning).

New chronicle up as well.

Blue_jester


Tags: rant


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