Jerry Houston wrote:
James Knott wrote:
Why is it that people have to learn Windows or Microsoft Office,
instead of how to use a computer or an office suite? Do you teach
your kids how to drive a Ford? Or how to drive a car? We should be
teaching skills, not products.
I love my kids too much to teach them to drive a Ford. <g>
Seriously, I don't think it's a valid comparison. Cars are designed to
be nearly universal, and those differences that exist (headlight,
cruise, heater controls, etc.) can be figured out in minutes. Operating
systems and the applications that run on them have much steeper learning
curves.
Bull****.
My cousin is a mechanical designer. He says the most frustrating
thing are these ads requiring experience with Catia version X.Y
or SDRC IDEAS version Z or UniGraphics whatever...
It's all the same freaking thing
Draw lines
Mark angles and distances
extrude sections
Pick drawing sub-components and manipulate them
Switching from one to the other is the same as going from
a Plymouth to a Lincoln....itty bitty details differ, but
the same basic principles apply.
The only re-learning needed is to find out WHERE the
headlight switch is, and how it operates, not an entire
re-learning of the concept of headlights.
The same goes for software which solves a similar task.
The only problem with using Windows as the primary learning
platform is that the whole MS training point of view is
that of "how to use release X of MS software product Y"
or "how to MS XP works"... instead of teaching general
computing principles.
No university-level CAD teacher worth listening to is
going to speak about how to do things on one specific
vendor's product without also discussing how the same
principle applies on different products (community
college "get your XXX accreditation" courses excluded).
A long time ago, someone wrote the following:
Learn Windows, and you know how to do things until
Microsoft releases the next version; learn Unix, and
you learn how to use all computers, forever.
I'm not suggesting that kids should't be exposed to Linux. Or that it
shouldn't be their OS of choice (if it really is their choice). But
preventing them from learning anything about Windows and Microsoft
applications isn't doing them a favor.
You think they're not going to be exposed to Windows and all
of the associated crap just from attending school, and
visiting other peoples's houses?
Where are you that there's this incredible dearth of Windows
machines... I want to move there!
You and I might prefer an open source world, but that's not the world
most of us live in, and have to earn a living in.
So basically, you're saying that, if you don't serve your
kids Coca-Cola in your own home, how will the poor dearies
ever experience what it tastes like?
Jerry, you worry too much.
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