Hey Makers - last night I had a really awesome “how to teach a class” class. Great discussions and hopefully some new teachers!
One topic that came up is computer classes, we do not have enough teachers there and I have definitely seen people leave MakeICT because they felt like they were behind on the technology curve and unsure where to jump in. We also see kids and teens who’ve grown up with touchscreens and need to learn to use a mouse. I was asked to come up with a list of objectives if someone was to teach a novice computer class. Those of you who’ve taught classes - what are some things that people definitely need to know coming in?
Here’s my start list:
Mouse skills - click, right click, double click
Menu navigation - File open, save, save-as, change file types, what does “file type” even mean
Shortcut keys - cut, copy, paste
File navigation - You just downloaded something, now go find it. You just saved something in one program, now go find it using another program.
Learning on your own - how to find & follow youtube tutorials
Setting up views and toolbars
Setting up a computer for you - changing screen resolution without screwing up an aspect ratio
How and why you should safely eject your USB jump drive!
Ports of a computer - inspired by last week’s events, how to not shove a USB drive into an ethernet port
Please add on!
One of the biggest things we can do as makers and educators is learn how to get people the beginner knowledge they need without shaming them for not knowing it to start with. If we roll our eyes and say “well that’s just common knowledge” and make people feel bad, they’ll think it’s insurmountable to get into making and we will be divided into geeks vs. non-geeks and we’ll miss out on what that left-out segment of the population has to offer. There are great artists and craftmen (and craftswomen!) who are just missing some knowledge. Here’s a relavant XKCD, thanks Dom https://xkcd.com/1053/
Learning curves are S-shaped. Let’s get people over that slow initial hill so they can roll into awesomeness.
“No, that isn’t a cup holder” (older computers only)
The What and Why of Open Source
Linux - It’s Not Just For Geeks Any More
Build an Arcade with a Raspberry Pi - Technical Side (Complement to Woodworking Side)
Basic Graphics, Bitmaps, and Vectors - Or Inkscape 101
Getting Started with Android Programming
Getting Started with iPhone Programming
Getting Started with Game Engines
Make Your Own Printed Circuit Board (start to finish - with project)
Intro to Robotics (with project)
Servos, Steppers, and Motors
Kickstarter 101 - How to go from Idea to Campaign
Getting Started with The Internet of Things
Developing 3D Models
Build Your Own 3D Printer (from Anet A8 Kit)
Build Your Own 3D Printer (from scratch)
3D Control Basics
Build Your Own Drawbot
Many of these could be done as non-traditional classes, too. Sign up for class, meet instructor, maybe one intro class, then student picks a project and instructor becomes advisor/mentor on a project that can’t be done in one-class setting.
If there is interest i could teach a Photoshop class. Users would need to bring a laptop with Photoshop CC installed. There’s a 7 day free trial and i think i pay only $10 a month after that.
Basics would get you understanding what Photoshop can do and make you comfortable working in the program. I’ve been using Photoshop professionally for well over a decade.
All you really need is interest. Figure out a time, set a price, put it on the calendar. Be sure to inform your prospective students what they’ll need to bring (a laptop with Photoshop). I don’t know that we’d be able to install Photoshop on a bunch of our laptops, though, so your students might have to bring their own. You could talk to Christian, but I suspect that doing a bunch of installs of software that expires in 7 days on them would be problematic.
Sounds stupid on the surface, but if you want to piss off a developer, submit a change with a totally incorrect format. Many big open source projects have very specific rules on how your code should look. Drop a vector of chars called return as a global and see how many friends you make.
I agree with Kim, there are still some people that are computer averse, and we could easily teach them some of the basics that are useful for getting them over the fear of doing something wrong. Many people who are knowledgeable about technical things are no good at remembering what it was like to not know that thing. Also since we know how to fix anything, we should be able to let novices know that they need not worry about clicking the wrong thing breaking the computer, or causing them to get 86.400 spam emails each day.
I’ll do the computer basics class. Do the laptops have windows 10 installed?
The class would be an overview of windows and specifically windows explorer. Some super useful hot keys. Copy/paste. Right/left clicks. Explain dialog boxes. Desktop, taskbar and tray controls. Recycle bin. And maybe a basic control panel intro. I’m thinking the class would be 6 to 8 students and go for about 2 hours.
I still remember when my middle school got it’s fancy new computer lab and replaced the old tannish colored apple computers with the new full color ibm pc’s. 1996. They started my son on computers in 1st grade!
Erik that would be awesome! Truth be told I was going to shove this whole list at the public library, since they offer some computer classes and their new building presents new opportunities, so they were asking what we need, but if we had our own class on our own laptops, that would be even better!
I would add middle click and context menus, since those are really useful in programs like Fusion 360.
A really brief look at a computer covering the parts and what each is for and why:
Memory
Processor
Storage Drives
Graphics
“Peripherals” (What the heck are those?)
https://xkcd.com/1053/