High School Computer Education
Most public high schools out there probably don’t have the most modern of computers. Often most schools have machines from the late 1990s that are packed with such features as Microsoft Office 97 and Internet Explorer 2. Pretty much anything modern isn’t anywhere near these machines and won’t be seen in any public high school for a very long time. But these computers still accomplish nearly every goal of high school computer education.
Many high schools will get their computers from grants from big organizations, such as Bill Gates’ group that’s sponsoring technology, while others just purchase them in the one year they have enough room in the budget. But with states losing a lot of money these days and in this bad economy, it’s likely that most of them just won’t be able to afford new machines any time soon. But that’s really not a major problem.
See what high schools want to do with regards to computer education is two things: teach you to type and teach you simple web page design. And that last one’s even a little ambitious for many schools. For example, to teach kids to type, you don’t need to buy any kind of expensive typing program, all you need is for the teacher to hand out easy to remember, repeatable instructions that will eventually be drilled into the students’ heads. While expensive programs may make things easier, consistent education and repetition are ultimately all that is needed to accomplish this goal.
And as for simple web page management, all you really need is the internet. There’s even a way to do this through Microsoft Word. All the tools they could possibly need to teach you the most basic of web design are available in whatever machines they are given. Nothing is really out of reach when the goals are this low for a school.
They aren’t trying to educate computer science majors while they’re in high school. All the schools are trying to do is teach their students simple everyday skills that will eventually help them in life. And really, that doesn’t have to be very expensive at all.
