Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bu.edu!orc!decwrl!purdue!iuvax!sadlerl
From: sadlerl@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (LoriLee M Sadler)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Logo for college-level computer literacy courses
Message-ID: <52882@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 1 Aug 90 14:29:39 GMT
References: <1990Jul31.195854.4630@cs.rochester.edu> <82599@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Organization: Comp.Sci Dept, Indiana University, Bloomington
Lines: 21

I have to agree with Gary Perlman about teaching computer literacy courses
with applications software rather than a programming language.  We have 
a large computer literacy program here, which I coordinate, that serves
about 600 students each semester.  We offer laboratory sections for
the Macintosh and the PC (students choose when they register for the course)
that have parallel assignments.  In the PC (DOS) section, we teach
WordPerfect 5.1, dBASE IV (student version), Lotus 1-2-3, rel. 2.2, and
Telnet (to connect to our VMS VAX cluster), and DOS 4.1.  In the Mac 
section, we teach WordPerfect Mac, Excel, Hypercard, MacDraw II, MacPaint 2.0,
and Telnet.  

Overall, it is very satisfying to teach these courses in this manner.
The students are enthusiastic and some of them actually go on to take
programming courses.  We teach macros in WordPerfect and Excel/Lotus,
and the students do "full-blown programming" assignments in Hypercard/dBASE
at the end of the semester.

Good luck.

-LoriLee