On Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:57:25 +0000, Tim Streater wrote:

In article ,
Bernard Peek wrote:

On 04/03/12 23:43, Tim Streater wrote:

[1] They need a lesson to understand what an OS is, and that there
are others besides Windows. They need two more lessons to understand
what Word and Excel are, and a quick overview of what they do and
what they might be used for. And that there are other programs which
perform the same sort of function. That's it.

It depends on what age they start at. My beef is that the reason why
sixteen year olds need lessons in word-processing is that they didn't
get those lessons at age eight when they would have been more
appropriate.

Why do they need lessons on the detail of word processors at all? On how
to add a footer or change the font? You'll teach them how to do that
with Word 2007 or something, next thing you know is that MS has changed
the front end completely. So all that teaching suddenly was a waste of
time.

They need to know what a word processor is. They need to know that you
*can* add a footer (and to know what a footer is) or change the font for
a paragraph or that you can justify the text. The detail of how it's
done, they can learn for themselves at home. They need to know that
there are other word processors than Word, too. It's the *concepts* that
matter, and the stimulation of their natural curiosity.

And some schools don't even use Word in the first place. There is no
requirement to do so.



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor