Homeschool-Mom Ramblings: Computer Usage...Be Not Afraid

Standards and Fears

I can remember way-back-when...in middle-school...when my step-father brought home our first computer. What was it? Hmmm...let's see, it was something we don't use today but was famous (the most-sold computer system in the world to this day)...oh, so many years ago...I have to dig through my gray matter to find the name...

Does this look familiar to any of you? While the age of my students ranges from 11-111 (Nah, not really. The oldest student I have had was 62.), there may be some of you who know what this is.

"The Commodore 64"

This was my first exposure to a computer at home...the Commodore 64. I can still remember my parents trying to instill the fear of the 'money-god' in me to not break it. While it is not impressive by today's standards--and size--this was a very exciting (and scary) item to have in our house.

At school, there was a computer lab (in the library) for teacher and student use. It was home to two of the most prized items on campus...Computer Terminal A and Computer Terminal B (just obscure names for the two computers the whole school--students, faculty, and staff--had to share).

"The Commodore PET"

These 'school computers' looked like this one, and we had to learn C: Prompt codes to get into the internal system that everyone refers to today as the 'desktop'. So, for those of you old school folks out there who have never been too keen on operating a computer yet find yourselves in a classroom that requires the use of Microsoft Office WORD to complete all of your assignments, I'm sure that you have a lot of questions. For young students who might not have had much exposure to formal use of Microsoft Office WORD since the modern student uses Facebook, Twitter, and SKYPE more than word processing programs, then have I got great news for you!!! Below you will find a list of links to take you to a wonderful site that will teach you the basics--and more--about using Microsoft Office WORD.

If you do not know how to formally double space, create headers, headings, indent, hang-indent, insert images, and wrap text, then you must learn the concepts below as soon as possible. For an academic class, you will need to learn the basic concepts below to make sure that your work is double-spaced, in Times or Arial font, size 12, contains proper headers with content and page number inserts, and so on.

While these things might initially send you into a state of shock--similar to how I felt the first time that I sat down in front of that Commodore 64--you will soon get the hang of it.

So, before we sail off into the future, let's take one last look at the side of my first keyboard...

Do you see those plug slots? Those would be comparable to today's USB 2.0 and 3.0 slots. The two on the left were where you plugged in your perrifferial items. The slot on the far right is the power cord slot, and the switch next to it actually turned the power on and off to prevent power surges. Do you own anything today that would work in these holes? Believe it or not...I still do. One of these days, I will get the courage to crack off the case of my college computer (an old MAC), and I will attempt to learn it and rebuild it...if it is even still possible by then. In the meantime...I'll keep focused on the 'new' around me and guide you to the lessons below.

Happy Learning!!!! The computer is your friend (despite Dan Rather's quote below)!

Learn Formatting of MO Word Documents

The information in this section (below) comes from the Goodwill Community Foundation LearnFree.org as assistance to writers using various programs and are in need of training. The content below is not my own creation. Please see the site for more details.