[geeks] New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore

[Brian Dunbar]

Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:
> On Thu, 12 Apr 2007, Joshua Boyd wrote:
> 
>> I question the teaching of word processing at all.  Just tell kids
>> they have to type their papers, and they will be able to figure it
>> out.
> 
> I respectfully disagree.
> 
> I've met very few people who use word processors daily who can use them
> well.  Take a good look at the next few Word documents you receive that
> weren't produced by some big company's PR department.  You'll see things
> like ______ used instead of underline-tab for blanks in fill-in forms
> (or, worse yet, lines drawn in "page layout" view that fall out of place
> if you haven't precisely the right typefaces installed).  You'll see
> things indented with spaces instead of tabs and indents set properly.
> You'll see bulleted lists set off with asterisks rather than the word
> processor's list features.  You'll see headers and footers done by
> hand(!!).  You'll see no use of styles or sections whatsoever, with
> formatting applied inconsistently everyplace.
> 
> If people learn (or are taught) to use their tools -well-, they can
> produce easily-managed useful output with even tools as mediocre as
> Microsoft Word. 

I'll buy that.  How long is a course needed to teach that level of
proficiency in a word processor?


-- 
Brian Dunbar
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