I agree that they don't just know stuff. They think they know a lot, and they do, but it's just enough to get them in trouble.
We have nothing here except keyboarding at the Jr. High level and one class that teaches the kids how to use MS Office and address envelope at the high school level. We need more, but we're between a rock and a hard place. There is nobody in the building except me that would even be remotely qualified to teach anything else and I don't have time to do my job correctly on most days. The business teacher teaches keyboarding, but knows nothing about computers other than how to turn them on, point and click. Rumor has it she is going to retire this year and I don't know what we'll do after that. My guess is I will be teaching one or two classes a semester. You can bet whatever I teach, it won't be keyboarding, because I type by the PMC method (pick, miss, & cuss). I would like to do something with networking and A+ type stuff. Let the kids try their hands at learning how stuff really works and maybe use a class to help keep the school running. The other would almost certainly have to be some web design class using Joomla or something. Let the kids design, build and maintain the school web site for a grade. There's so much we could do, but so little time for me to do it. On top of that, I really didn't want to go back into the classroom. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Nancy Sullivan Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 4:49 PM To: 'Tech-Geeks Mailing List' Subject: Re: [tech-geeks] Quick Poll - curriculum I would agree with Jim that kids don't "just know this" and that it IS important for them to receive instruction at the middle school level. At Richland, our testing center administers a mandatory "Computer Literacy" assessment as most of our classes have some sort of online or computer assisted component, such as using online databases for research. We have free workshops and one credit classes on information literacy for those folks who do not pass or who struggle with certain concepts to bring them up to speed, and it's not just our older students who struggle with it. (I would guess that if our faculty and staff all had to take the assessment, we'd have to remediate many of them as well.) Nancy -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of JimHays Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 3:22 PM To: Tech-Geeks Mailing List Subject: Re: [tech-geeks] Quick Poll - curriculum If you don't have formal computer classes in 7th and 8th grade how are you sure that student get taught the correct way to do things? When if my child is assigned to a class that is taught by some older teacher who never takes her students to the lab? The perception that "The kids all know how to do this stuff anyway." is wrong. They DON'T. Some may, but not all. So we assume that the kids somehow "just know" how to do this stuff so we eliminate computer classes in 7th and 8th grade. In my opinion, 7th and 8th grade is the RIGHT TIME to teach this stuff. Any younger than that and they have difficulty understanding some of the concepts. Any older than that and it may be too late. 7th and 8th graders can understand formulas in Excel. (5th graders can't.) 7th and 8th graders are still excited about Power Point. (High schoolers aren't.) Assuming that the kids somehow "just know this" or that the classroom teachers will "learn em" - how many classroom teachers understand multi layered spreadsheets? - is an assumption that will not serve our students. We don't assume that they somehow know how to speak proper English because they watch television all day - don't even get me started on that one. If we value "digital skills" as a requirement for our students to be prepared for their future then we should provide comprehensive and complete instruction and not some "hit or miss" inclusion in the rest of the curriculum. I'm not in a very good mood today and I needed to vent about something. And then this topic came up........ Aaron Hackney wrote: > I wonder what this does to the digital divide? Or are the other > classes so computer saturated that it's not a worry? > > > On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 9:56 AM, Tammy Little <[email protected]> wrote: > >> The decision was made to eliminate formal computer instruction for >> our 7th and 8th grade students. We have been questioned about this >> decision and now I need to survey some schools and see what everyone else is doing! yay! >> >> So: >> >> Do your 7th and 8th grade students receive formal computer instruction? >> >> If no, did you ever and if you did why did you eliminate it? >> >> If yes, what curriculum do you have? >> >> Thanks!!! You all are always such a fantastic resource! >> >> >> >> Blessings to you, >> >> Tammy >> >> >> | Subscription info at http://www.tech-geeks.org | >> >> > > > > | Subscription info at http://www.tech-geeks.org | Subscription info at | http://www.tech-geeks.org | | Subscription info at http://www.tech-geeks.org |
