Learning The Basics

First, my respect to those who write for a living, particularly against a schedule.

Now, on to today's topic.

I had an interesting discussion at a July 4th party, in which I echoed a discussion I'd had with my mother several decades ago.  My mother, a third grade school teacher at the time, was telling me about the new plan at her school district to focus on job skills rather than basic math.  This meant that they'd teach the kids all about calculators, cash registers, and the like.  Stunned, I looked at my mother and asked "What are they going to do when the power fails?"  She didn't have a ready answer.

Jump forward to this past July.  I was having a discussion with someone I'd just met, who teaches a technology course at the high school level.  He asked me what I thought about teaching the basics.  So, I told him about the conversation with my mother.  I went on to say that you don't have to know how an engine works to drive a car, but a basic understanding of how the major parts of a car work together will help (maybe) when the car fails to work the way you expect.  For those of us who tinker, a basic understanding of a system gives you a starting point for troubleshooting.

In the case of computers, understanding the basics means a lot more than knowing a programming language and how to compile and run a program.  I can't think of any useful programs that don't interact with other parts of the computer, such as the keyboard, display, and files on a hard disk, floppy, or thumb drive.  Really useful programs often interact with other systems by communicating across the Internet, which then involves network interface cards, routers, modems, and Internet service providers.  When things don't work as expected and all you know is programming, you run out of troubleshooting tools pretty quickly.

So, what do you need to know to cover the basics of computers.  My stock answer is "It depends."  What you need to know depends on how you intend to use computers.  Clearly, if you want to program them, you need to know a programming language or two (or fifteen).  But you'll also need to understand how computers are organized, since your programs will be exercising the various parts of the computer and you need to understand how doing something to widget A affects widget B.  If your programming will be to control external devices, you may also need some basic electronics to understand how changing the voltage on a digital output affects the transistor, relay, or other components connected to it.  You don't need to know enough to design the electronics, any more than you need to know how to rebuild a carburetor to be able to drive a car.  But, the more basics you know, the better prepared you'll be to figure out what's wrong when things inevitably fail.

If your computer needs are such that the computer is just another tool, for Email, bookkeeping, web browsing, and such, there are continuing education programs at high schools and colleges specifically for teaching computer novices the basics.  My wife and I attended one many years ago so she could get more comfortable working with Windows.  I was the smart ass who could answer every question the teacher asked, but I could see the value of the class for people who need or want to learn about computers, but have no idea of where to start.

The flip side of the question about learning computer basics is how much do you need to know about computers if you're going into some non-computer profession?  Well, it turns out that there aren't a lot of professions where you don't use computers any more.  Sure, ditch digging.  But the engineer who planned the ditch probably used a Computer Aided Design (CAD) program to plan the route, determine the materials and manpower required, and whatever else goes into a well-engineered ditch.  Time sheet information is entered into a computer and eventually the computer spits out pay checks.  My grandson uses a laptop to do some class work at his elementary school.  Computers are pervasive enough that everyone should be comfortable enough to use them as the tools they are meant to be.

So I'm back to the beginning of this discussion.  Learn the basics.  You may never need that knowledge (like the calculus I've used twice in the past 40 years), but you never know.