Help for newbie material?
I need a simple document to help a newbie learn the basics of computing.
My cousins have been using computers for years. They put the disk in, it autoruns, they install, games work (mostly). The problem is they don’t have the foggiest clue how to use a computer unless there’s an icon on the desktop or in the start menu. I can walk them through something once, twice, three times, but they don’t retain anything.
I need some simple teaching documents for file management, maybe a few other things. The CD Burner in their main machine for some reason has stopped autorunning, but it works fine otherwise. They still have trouble with the concept of running an installer without the autorun enabled. I like to download maps for UT2K4 for my 13 year old cousin, I burn a disk, send it with him, and it collects dust until I am actually physicaly at their house to install it however many days or months down the road that may be. Teaching in person doesn’t do much. I grabbed some photos off of the old Pentium 166 they had on standby and burned them to a disk, and there they remain. It’s frustrating because they nag me to go out there, and it’s out of the way. Not that I avoid going but I usually have other things to do.
I could of course write these documents myself, but I have other things to do. It’s pretty much going to have to be a PDF file or something I can print. I really don’t want to tech support them into loading up the tech support documents.
There is something else I find extremely frustrating. The 13 year old cousin I mentioned is incredibly inteligent, I can tell. I don’t know what causes it but he seems to have some sort of psychological issue that causes him to block out things that may make him seem inteligent. He loves tractors, and construction equipment and wants to do construction when he gets older, I guess he sees that as macho and anything that doesn’t obviously and directly reinforce his future plans gets recjected. I fully support his goals, he’s smart enough to be the guy holding the clipboard, though thats not what he currently wants. When I show him how to do something on a computer I can see his brain processes in action “I have to know this to play my game, retain, he’s saying something I don’t have to absolutely know and probably get him to do it for me, reject”. He seeks out movies with car chases, guns, and mindless action, and purposely avoids anything that requires thought. More than once he’s started watching Star Gate SG1 with me and enjoyed it until he saw aliens and space ships, then he turned on my computer and played UT2K4.
I took him to see Revenge of the Sith and I could tell he liked it, he went along simply because he wanted to hang out with me and made a consession. He liked it but it confused him, thats when I found out he had never seen ANY Star Wars movie, and that was problably the worst one to watch first. He purposely avoided them because science fiction usually requires some extra thought processes above shoot, explode, chase. Star Wars provides pleanty of both. Within no time he watched all the other Star Wars movies and now a fully commited fan.
I don’t want to convert him to computer geek. He likes Nascar, trucks with big tires, and general redneck things. Thats what he wants to do and I think he could be very good at it. Reguardless of what he does in the future, some basics in the computer field will help him, if there’s something out there that will make teaching basic file management painless and possibly even help him to learn it without him realizing he learning it, it will make both of our lives easier. Any help?
My cousins have been using computers for years. They put the disk in, it autoruns, they install, games work (mostly). The problem is they don’t have the foggiest clue how to use a computer unless there’s an icon on the desktop or in the start menu. I can walk them through something once, twice, three times, but they don’t retain anything.
I need some simple teaching documents for file management, maybe a few other things. The CD Burner in their main machine for some reason has stopped autorunning, but it works fine otherwise. They still have trouble with the concept of running an installer without the autorun enabled. I like to download maps for UT2K4 for my 13 year old cousin, I burn a disk, send it with him, and it collects dust until I am actually physicaly at their house to install it however many days or months down the road that may be. Teaching in person doesn’t do much. I grabbed some photos off of the old Pentium 166 they had on standby and burned them to a disk, and there they remain. It’s frustrating because they nag me to go out there, and it’s out of the way. Not that I avoid going but I usually have other things to do.
I could of course write these documents myself, but I have other things to do. It’s pretty much going to have to be a PDF file or something I can print. I really don’t want to tech support them into loading up the tech support documents.
There is something else I find extremely frustrating. The 13 year old cousin I mentioned is incredibly inteligent, I can tell. I don’t know what causes it but he seems to have some sort of psychological issue that causes him to block out things that may make him seem inteligent. He loves tractors, and construction equipment and wants to do construction when he gets older, I guess he sees that as macho and anything that doesn’t obviously and directly reinforce his future plans gets recjected. I fully support his goals, he’s smart enough to be the guy holding the clipboard, though thats not what he currently wants. When I show him how to do something on a computer I can see his brain processes in action “I have to know this to play my game, retain, he’s saying something I don’t have to absolutely know and probably get him to do it for me, reject”. He seeks out movies with car chases, guns, and mindless action, and purposely avoids anything that requires thought. More than once he’s started watching Star Gate SG1 with me and enjoyed it until he saw aliens and space ships, then he turned on my computer and played UT2K4.
I took him to see Revenge of the Sith and I could tell he liked it, he went along simply because he wanted to hang out with me and made a consession. He liked it but it confused him, thats when I found out he had never seen ANY Star Wars movie, and that was problably the worst one to watch first. He purposely avoided them because science fiction usually requires some extra thought processes above shoot, explode, chase. Star Wars provides pleanty of both. Within no time he watched all the other Star Wars movies and now a fully commited fan.
I don’t want to convert him to computer geek. He likes Nascar, trucks with big tires, and general redneck things. Thats what he wants to do and I think he could be very good at it. Reguardless of what he does in the future, some basics in the computer field will help him, if there’s something out there that will make teaching basic file management painless and possibly even help him to learn it without him realizing he learning it, it will make both of our lives easier. Any help?