Say Anything Blog

I am taking the exact same course at Minnesota State Technical college. You would be surprised how many people don’t know much besides email on the computer. The problem is that this is the last semester, I believe, that they teach office 2003. I hear 2007 office is quite a bit different. I am not real good at powerpoint or excel so it could be useful. I graduated high school in ‘99 and stuff has changed quite a bit since then. It does sound ridiculously easy though.

Yeah I took the same basic class a few years back though called Intro to Microcomputer Packages.

Absolutely boring and I ended up just bringing my Game Boy with me to class and playing that. Or just plain not going.

Though I did learn a little about MS Access (since I actually never used that before). But otherwise nothing.

I didn’t even use e-mail when I graduated high school. I was still using typewriters and outdated encyclopedias for my reports. Top of the line computers had 300 MHz processors and 46 megs of RAM.

That all being said, this college course does not look unreasonable.

There’s no way that should be required, but per Graeme, you’d be amazed at what people don’t know.  I’m at a pretty decent firm now, and even there it’s amazing what people don’t know.  Basic stuff, like file architecture (’this file?  It’s in that file’ is something I tell people way too often).  If someone’s older and going back to school and doesn’t understand computers, it sounds great, but I’d tear my eyes out if I had to take something like that.

How incredibly dumb can you be? I admit it is pretty dumb to have a computer literacy class online but the assumption that everyone who goes to college had just now graduated from high-school is naive as hell. Ever hear of people switching careers or people who wish to better themselves in later years? This just seems like a pathetic excuse to make fun of academia.

I took a class just like this...in high school.

Copperhead, you do bring up a good point.  Some people who graduated from high school decades ago may need a class like this.  But should it be required of all students, most of whom will have this stuff down already, in order to have a degree?

I don’t think so.  It just makes their degrees more expensive.

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But should it be required of all students, most of whom will have this stuff down already, in order to have a degree?

They should have means testing for things like this. Pass the test, pass the course.

Maybe classes like these are for those that come from urban schools that don’t have the funding to pay for computers let alone pay teachers that know how to use the hardware and software.

Lik, good idea.  There should be a way to get around this.  Just prove you have the skills, and move on.

But then the college couldn’t charge you for the course, and they just couldn’t have that.

Bongo, there are no urban schools in North Dakota.  Or Montana.

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Oh, of course, that explains why you don’t public funding for anything. Things like that just don’t exist in your experience. Maybe ND and Montana should declare themselves as independent kingdoms to exempt themselves from federal taxes. Didn’t the KKK want to make a Arian nation thereabouts in nowhere-land USA? That might be a great plan.

I actually support public funding for some things.  The highway/road system is a legitimate expenditure of tax dollars as is the military.

What I disagree with is the expenditure of my tax dollars on things people could reasonably provide for themselves.

Not that you’re actually interested in a rational discussion of this.

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"Bongo” distorts, Oh, of course, that explains why you don’t public funding for anything.

Try the military, for starters.

Didn’t the KKK want to make a Arian nation thereabouts in nowhere-land USA? That might be a great plan.

Is that what you’re rooting for?

Nice “logical fallacy” “Bongo” AKA “Major Minor” AKA “anonymous”.

What kind of things do you consider “reasonably providable”? I’m sure that you and the your “non-existent” urban schools would have much to debate about.

Bongo, I wasn’t saying that public schools don’t exist here in ND.  We have a fine public school system.  We just don’t have any cities you’d consider urban.

As for the sort of things I think that citizens can provide for themselves, I’m thinking of things like food, jobs, housing, etc.

I’m not against helping people who legitimately cannot help themselves (the mentally disabled, etc.), but as for people who could provide for themselves but are too drunk or stoned or lazy to do so...they can rot in the street for all I care.

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The military should try doing bake sales for their aircraft carriers. Your values are inconsistent especially if you consider yourself a Christian.

"Bongo” asks, What kind of things do you consider “reasonably providable”?

A road to the school sounds about right. Everything else can be taken care of by the market.

There is a market for school, isn’t there?

I’m sure that you and the your “non-existent” urban schools would have much to debate about.

Why the quotes? Rob mentioned ND and MT. The entire states have less population than many urban areas. As such, “urban” areas simply don’t exist as they are commonly known.

Oh I’m sorry. I mistook you guys for dispassionate Nazis. Then again…

"Bongo” notes, The military should try doing bake sales for their aircraft carriers.

What a world that would be. Let’s all hold hands and sing, “Imagine a world, with no countries”.

Your values are inconsistent especially if you consider yourself a Christian.

You hear that, atheist Rob?

How are the values “inconsistent” with Christianity Bongo? Is self defense a no-no? That makes no sense to one who has even an iota of knowledge about the Christian faith, so what’s your point?

"Bongo” insults, Oh I’m sorry. I mistook you guys for dispassionate Nazis. Then again…

More “logical fallacies” Bongo?

Have anything besides these sorts of empty insults?

It may be time for you to change usernames yet again. Crack open a dictionary while you’re at it. Look up “Nazi” and “assumption”. Take special note.

Your values are inconsistent especially if you consider yourself a Christian.

I’m no Christian, but my values are certainly consistent.  And I could care less what you think of them.  Like I said, you aren’t interested in rational discussion but rather insults.

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I should explain myself better to a dummy like you. What I should have said was:

How many computers could you buy for schools for the price of an aircraft carrier. The military should try doing bake sales for their aircraft carriers.

Was that good enough for ya or should I speak slower?

I should explain myself better to a dummy like you.

Nice insult. Weren’t you remarking about the insults a moment ago and calling them logical fallacies?

How many computers could you buy for schools for the price of an aircraft carrier. The military should try doing bake sales for their aircraft carriers.

With no military, there will be no schools. We don’t live in a world without enemies. I would think that point is obvious, but I guess it needs explained better to someone like you.

Was that good enough for ya or should I speak slower?

You busy yourself by calling others “dummy”, but yet fail to answer the easy question. Once again, how are the values “inconsistent” with Christianity?

Do you need me to speak slower so that you can understand?

One course, required for the degree she’s aiming at, absolutely blew my mind.  It’s called “Introduction to Computers” (here’s the link to the actual course website) and it’s being taught...online.

Yeah, wrap your head around that one.  I mean, the people who are computer illiterate enough to actually need this course are going to have to enlist a relative (likely their annoying eight-year-old nephew) to show them how to use their ‘puter to take the course in the first place.

And why is a course like this even being offered at the college level?  It’s an entire semester teaching the basics of friggin’ Microsoft Office. Word processing and spreadsheets.  If you’ve graduated high school and made it to the college level not having a handle on that sort of thing your high school teachers failed you.  Miserably.

Plus, get this, the prerequisite for this class (according to the course’s website itself) is “experience” with a “keyboard.” Yeah, if you want to take this class you must know what a keyboard is.  And maybe typed a few things on it or something.  Which, to me, seems about equivalent to saying that breathing and limb movement are a prerequisite for a physical education class.

There is no reason that I can fathom that such a class should be mandatory for a college degree.  If anything those sort of skills should be mandatory, in this day and age, before graduating high school.

People complain about how expensive their college educations are.  I wonder if part of the problem might not be (at least in a small way) B.S. classes about word processing programs that seem to exist for no other reason than to give some professor a job.  Because as far as I can see, this class adds nothing to the skill set my wife needs to be a nurse.  At least nothing she didn’t already learn years ago.

There are people who have been working as CNAs and at other jobs to I suppose for over 20 years. They are now going back to college and there really going to need those courses. Before the keyboard, they taught typewriting in school. Williston state offers that course, but any computer science will do.

Sometimes, when she signs up for new classes, she asks me to help her to make sure she has the programs and equipment necessary to take the class.

Learning Outcomes (Course Objectives):
The objectives of this course are:

to learn the fundamentals of Windows XP and Office 2003;
to acquaint yourself with the proper procedures to create documents, worksheets, and presentations suitable for coursework, professional purposes, and personal use;
to discover the underlying functionality of Office 2003 to become more productive;
to develop an exercise-oriented approach that allows learning by doing;
to encourage independent study and help those who are working alone or in a distance education environment.

Afer this course, she wont need your help.

As for the class, it started with 16 one dropped out, and the other didnt pass her microbiology
course. Right now their doing ECG,EKG interpretations. As for the EKG interpretations, it should be and is tought in a course of its own. Rush Rush Rush!!

Anyway, the comp. course sounds perfect for a newbie.

and is tought in a course of its own, But not by the WSC Nursing Program. Some hospitals end up having to put their nurses through it.

Intro to Computers is not required for anything, you just have to take a higher level class to get around it.

People complain about how expensive their college educations are.  I wonder if part of the problem might not be (at least in a small way) B.S. classes about word processing programs that seem to exist for no other reason than to give some professor a job.

The first 2 years of college for me at Bismarck State were easier than high school, and I got better grades.

It’s all a scam run by the state, do you see why people get so upset about rising tuition?

The price keeps going up but the value of the product never does...doesn’t that sound like the argument against raising the min.wage?

It’s all a scam run by the state, do you see why people get so upset about rising tuition?

The price keeps going up but the value of the product never does...doesn’t that sound like the argument against raising the min.wage?

Oh it’s something to get upset about.  It’s just not something that more government money is going to fix.  That’s why we have a problem (free money) now.

What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.

free--they have been ‘dumbed down’ “don’t want to exclude anyone you know.
I saw this coming in the mid 70s.  A remedial High School course offered in college!  At one “university” in Columbia, SC (HBC) the president actually came out and said basically that no student should be flunked during the first two years!  So they “party” all day and night.  I visited that place once.  They were hanging out of the windows and one asked me for 25 cents on the sidewalk--on campus.  Pitiful.  What a complete waste of minds and taxpayer’s money.
OH, two professors at the HBC disagreed gracefully.  They were fired.  One lives in my community.  He is a man of integrity.  He and I have spoken several times over the past 30 years.

Communism is evil

Don’t get me started on the fact that these schools offer more remedial 071 level English courses that mid-level comp courses.

The problem with the higher education system is the whole pre-requisite concept.  I am the type of person that would rather get a B and learn something than sleep thru a class with an A - but the prerequisite system says that if I actually want to learn something, I have to take 2 years of classes before I can be challenged.

I can count the number of courses that I actually got something out of - most of them being 499 level courses that would be post-grad level at any other school.