Teach Computer Concepts to Anyone!

1. Teach Computer Concepts to Anyone! Analogy, simulation, and constructivism as tools for concept attainment. R. Scotty Auble

2. Barriers to learning about computers • Abstract and unfamiliar • Confusing terminology • Can’t “touch” or “see” the inner parts • Horrible manuals • Others?

3. Removing the barriers • Use familiar concepts to teach the abstract • Street Maps: file systems • Take out food: Client-server • Cooking dinner: Multitasking • Wallet vs. Bank account: Memory VS Disk storage • Confusing terminology • Master the concept first, THEN teach the “computerese”

4. Removing the barriers (cont.) • Kinesthetic/visual interactive simulations • Adds these learning modes along with auditory/cognitive to reach diverse learners. • Taps multiple intelligences to enhance learning • Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence • Logical-Mathematical Intelligence • Linguistic Intelligence • Spatial Intelligence • Interpersonal Intelligence • Intrapersonal Intelligence • More fun! • Eliminate the manual and instructions! • Poor readers can be successful at learning computer concepts

5. Computer File System Concepts By: Scotty Auble, Mark Peaty, Dave DeLongchamps, Marc Condos, Jeff Palmrose., and Laverne Denyer

6. Learning about file systems • We will do some fun activities to help you learn some important things about computer file systems: • How to save your data files in the right place. • How to find and open your files when you need them. • And….

7. Important Concepts and Terms • What is a file system, and what is it good for? • What are drives? Why are there usually more than one drive in a computer? • Data and files - what are they and what is the difference? • And so - off we go to….

8. Data Town • Build your own town and populate it with data! • Form into groups of four and pick a town poster. Name the streets. • Each person prepare two house cards. • Write the town, street and address on the house card. • Go to the data bank and select a data item to put in the house (stick it on).

9. Data Town 2 • Put one of the house cards on a street in the town, beside an address (stick it on). • When your group is finished, post your town on the wall. • Take the rest of your group’s house cards and put them in the drawing box.

10. Be a contractor! • Everyone draw a house card from the box. • Take turns being the contractor. • Build the house you drew in the right town, street and address. Stick it on the town map. • Those watching write down the town, and each street on the town map that leads to the house, and the address. • Compare your results – did you all find the same house?

11. Using dialog boxes • Take a dialog box card • The dialog box tells you where to find the data (Open), or where to put it (Save). • Find or save some data in the house that your card describes. • What kind of data did you find or save?

12. Data Town and Computers • The word pairs below show how Data Town is organized like the data on your computer. Data Town Computer Town Drive Street Folder Address File name House File Item inside House Data

13. How is Data Town like a computer? • Can two houses on the same street have the same address? • Can different streets in a town have the same name? • Can any kind of data be inside a house? • To get to a house do you always follow the same path? • Why is there more than one town?

14. Tying it together • Data Town is very similar to a computer file system. • The towns are like the computer’s drives. • The streets are like the computer’s folders. • The addresses are like the computer’s file names, but on a computer you can use words as well as numbers. • The houses are like the computer’s files.

15. The good news... • File systems are similar to things you already know about. • Finding your data in a file system is like following a map. • All of your data is out there somewhere...