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Computer Courses: Do We Really Need Them?
Computer Courses: Do We Really Need Them?
For Seniors This Does Compute
Probably the most prevalent, and perhaps least costly of any training anywhere are computer courses. In fact, computer courses are about the most important courses offered, as they provide skills needed for personal as well as business acumen.
Community colleges, senior centers, community centers, non-profit organizations, high schools, colleges, universities and private for-profit firms all offer computer courses. Many retails and office supply stores, as well as e-merchants, offer computer courses by e-book, POD (print on demand), Web-based training and CD or DVD.
For seniors especially the choice in computer courses is diverse, plentiful and generally low cost. One of the perks of growing old is the right to become part of what is fast becoming a commonplace college affiliated organization – Creative Retirement centers. These are typically cropping up on the campuses of community colleges and state universities and offer computer courses, discounts on standard college courses, senior computer centers, events, trips and get togethers such as meetings, dances and dinners.
The impetus behind these creative retirement facilities and organizations and their computer centers and computer courses was the University of North Carolina and its Asheville campus. The home of the Center for Creative Retirement, UNC Ashville each Memorial Weekend hosts a weekend get-together for seniors or about-to-be-retirees, with a look at the various facilities and housing available locally, the various courses including computer courses offered at the UNC campus club, and a tour of the local area.
The College for Seniors is a program of the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement, established in 1988. With full access to the resources of the University of North Carolina at Asheville, College for Seniors members keep mentally and physically fit through participation in classes and possibly even teaching a class or two.
College for Seniors draws from members’ experiences and professional expertise as well as from the UNCA faculty to offer four terms each year. Courses range from Chaucer to computers, foreign affairs to opera, yoga to history. Held on the UNCA campus and at community locations, courses are non-credit, with no tests or grades, open to all interested adults. Members collaborate with staff to teach, learn, design curricula and arrange special events. Educational travel opportunities are available. Term-renewable registration entitles members to as many courses as schedules permit.
All College for Seniors students are required to be members of the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement. This membership allows participation in all Center for Creative Retirement programs and provides a UNCA parking permit, a UNCA identification card, and UNCA library privileges. There are no age limits for College for Seniors courses or Center for Creative Retirement membership.
Examples of computer courses offered as part of College for Seniors include a basic Getting Started with Computers course, Advanced Home Computer, Basic e-mail and Internet access, MS Word training, Excel Spreadsheet basics, and Power Point basics. The only prerequisites for the more advanced of these computer courses are knowledge of the keyboard and mouse, and comfort with the use of both. A basic knowledge of either Windows or Macintosh jargon and menu bar items such as filing, editing, viewing and inserting functions. You should also know commands such as copying, cutting and pasting, and standard and formatting toolbars.
For the beginning computer courses, you don’t even need these rudimentary understandings, though. The computer starter course assumed you’ve never used a computer before, and teaches the senior student how to navigate around the Internet, and how to conduct searches. Windows applications are taught as well in these basic courses. Here the retirees learn how to use word processing to save files, and to create folders. They also learn the basics of sending and receiving e-mail.
Electronic Notebooks: Why Businessness Need Them
Electronic Notebooks: Why Businessness Need Them
Take Note
Notebook computers, commonly referred to as notebooks, are personal computers that are very light. To understand the notebooks concept you need to understand what personal computers are.
A personal computer is relatively small and inexpensive, compared with the computers of large businesses and organizations that act as servers or run computer operations on a grand scale. Personal computers are made for the use of individuals or small business entrepreneurs. Many personal computers are used in home offices nowadays. Many rely on notebooks as their only or their additional choice.
Personal computers can be purchased for a few hundred dollars or several thousand. Notebooks are somewhat higher in cost. All personal computers are based on the technology of microprocessing that enables the computer and notebook manufacturer to install a complete CPU on one computer chip. A business can use a personal computer, and sometimes a notebook, for accounting tasks, word processing, desktop publishing projects, database management, and spreadsheets. Notebooks or personal use PCs are often used for gaming, music and even movies.
Before notebooks the first personal computers showed up towards the end of the 1970’s. The Apple II, launched in 1977, was one of the first personal computers. It became one of the most popular as well. The introduction of new operating systems and new computer PC models seemed a nearly daily routing during the end of the 1970s and into the early 1980’s. The IBM PC was introduced in 1981, taking over first place status among personal computers. At this point, with the exception of Apple, many personal computer brands and manufacturers fell by the wayside thanks to IBM’s onslaught.
The result, still prior to notebooks, was the production of IBM clones by other manufacturers. These clones, with nearly the same internal components as the real IBMs, were much less expensive. They used the same microprocessors and could run identical software. While IBM, thanks to price and innovations that weren’t accepted such as the OS/2 operating system, is no longer the preferred PC brand, its notebooks are widely acclaimed.
Now personal computers are divided into two types – PCs and Apples. Personal computers, whether desktops, notebooks or laptops are designed as single user machines and run on microprocessors. They can be linked into a network, however, to use several of them together. The power of personal computers varies considerably from one to another.
Notebooks typically weigh considerably less than PCs – fewer than six pounds. They are typically so small that they can easily fit into their own carrying case or briefcase. Notebooks use a flat panel technology to have a display screen instead of the monitor that runs as a separate piece of hardware on a PC. Notebook display screens have considerable variation in display screen quality. The resolution can be either VGA (video graphics array) or SVGA (super VGA.) Designed by IBM, VGA systems provide a text mode resolution of 720×400 pixels, and a graphics mode of either 16 colors (640×480) or 256 colors (320×200.) The latter is the most common. SVGA is a standard for graphics, with greater resolution than the original VGA. SVGA supports resolution of 800×600, equal to 480,000 pixels.
The computer power of notebooks is actually just about equivalent to that of personal computers. Notebooks have the same capacity for memory, the same CPUs, and the same disk drives as PCs. The small package this power comes in is what makes them more costly than the PCs
One of the most popular aspects of notebooks – what makes them preferred to PCs for many road warriors, is their portability. Notebooks have battery packs installed so they can run without electricity for 2-4 hours before having to be recharged.