My experience with Computers : Learning
and Teaching
.........................................
"You bought a machine? At the
grocery-store? How big is it?"
"It's sort of a grocery. It's an
Apple."
"Richard, your thought is very
sweet but are you sure I need-an apple-at this time?"
"By the time you pop out of the
shower, wook, you are going to see a miracle, right here in our
trailer.' I promise."
"We have so much to do, already,
and there isn't enough space. ... Is it big?" But I said not
another word, and at last she laughed and went for her shower.
.......................................................................
She came out of the bathroom fresh and
clean, her hair gathered under a towel-turban to dry.
"OK, Richie, I can't stand the
suspense! Where is it?"
I unveiled the computer from under the
dish-towel. "Ta-da!"
"Richard?" she said. "What
is it?"
"Your very own . . . COMPUTER!"
She looked at me, wordless.
"Sit you down right here," I
urged, "and then press the key marked 'Control' and at the same
time press the 'B.' That's called 'Control-B.'"
"Like this?" she said.
The light-square vanished, and in its
place the screen filled with words:
GOOD AFTERNOON, LESLIE! I AM YOUR NEW
COMPUTER. I AM DELIGHTED TO HAVE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO MEET YOU AND TO
SERVE YOU. YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE ME I THINK. YOUR NEW,
APPLE.
WON'T YOU TRY WRITING SOMETHING IN THE
SPACE THAT FOLLOWS?
"Isn't that sweet," she said.
She typed.a tentative line: NOW IS THE
TIME FOR ALL GOOD PERSONS TO CAME TO THE
"I made a mistake."
"Move the cursor to the right of
the mistake, then type Left-Arrow." She did, and the mistake
disappeared.
"Does it have instructions?"
"It teaches you itself. Press the
Escape key twice, then the M key a few times, and follow what the
screen tells you. ..."
That was the last I spoke with Leslie
for the next ten hours. She sat tranced in front of the machine,
learning the
313
system. Then she typed
things-to-remember flies into it, building schedules, idea-lists;
attacked correspondence.
.............................................................
"Wookie," she said, after
midnight, "I apologize to you. I am sorry."
"That's all right," I said.
"What are you sorry for?"
"I thought you were being a silly
gosling, I thought here's just what we need, a big electric toy in
the trailer to put us right out in the rain, but I didn't say
anything because it was your sweet gift. I was wrong! It's so ..."
She looked up at me, searched the word and came down on it
center-square: ". . . organized! It's going to change our
lives!"
So enchanted was she with the powers of
the computer that more than once in the days that followed I had to
ask very courteously if it might be possible for me to have a few
minutes at the keyboard. I wanted to learn, too.
"Poor dear," she said
absently, as she typed. "Of course you want to learn. Just a few
minutes more. . . ."
Minutes turned to hours, to days;
interrupt her I refused to do.
Soon I was back once again from the
Apple store, a second computer in tow.
.................................
That was an extract from “A bridge
Across for ever “ by Richard Bach
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The book was written
around 1984, but it was in 1993, when I came across this
passage... and it just hit me...(India, then was about 5-10 years
behind US and we were still using AT- 286, and 386 machines and Personal
Computers were rare yet, at least at homes.)
It teaches itself; the idea really hit me. I am yet to see anything else that teaches itself as a computer does. Now of course it teaches not just about itself, it teaches everything. To know anything you just google.. . A computer , in any form + internet + a search engine = learn anything about anything.
My battalion, then, was
deployed in high altitude area, locked out from the rest of the
world by snow for over six months. Why not spend the winter usefully
? It was Aug and just about 3 months left for the snowfall, to cut
off our link to Uttarkashi. I bought a AT 286,with all the money I
had plus some borrowed . Still I was falling far short , so I had to
defer buying a hard disc. Armed with a floppy of dos-5 and a few
floppies of word star, story board, lotus and dbase, I just made it
to our base a month before the snow fall started.
We had electricity, but
that was from a rudimentary hydel power system ; can't call it a
plant; it was more like the one in 'Swadesh' movie, enough to light a
few bulbs.
The problem was that the
output voltage fluctuated between 50 v to 350 v. When the snow
became hard, the turbines stopped and it was zero. We had to send out
a patrol to break the ice with pick axe and the power was restored !
When it hit 350v, only the very ruggard appliances survived. So the
power to computer had to pass through three voltage stabilizers. The
boot floppy was the most precious commodity since there were just two
PCs in a radius of about 50 kms of mountainous terrain covered with
snow. Every time you switched on the PC, it was through the boot
floppy. !
F1 key is the greatest
teacher. By the time snow thawed around march, I had learnt, Word
star, lotus and dbase besides advanced commands in DOS. Then we had
whole lot of applications like card maker, picture maker, banner
maker and so on. There were also codes written in 'BASIC' to draw
pictures or play music. Those were 'no mouse' days. I had actually
learnt to draw portraits using the key board, pixel by pixel.
Honestly, the thrill I got from using those apps, I don't get with
modern day apps like photo-shop or movie maker.
There was so much
novelty in the idea of rearranging '0's and '1' s to produce pictures or music.
Every time you switch on the comp , it was pure magic. So much about
nostalgia !
And there were games, prince of Persia paratroopers, mario, pc-man, carman sandiago and alley cat , just to name a few.
Nowadays, learning anything has become even easier....It's a magic moment when a child realizes that
seemingly unrelated scribbling on paper actually conveys so much. Its a revelation that you can learn anything by reading a book. So is it a magic moment when you realize that you can learn anything by typing on the google bar “how to xxxxxxxx”.It may be a short term task like how to make 'mor koozh' ? (a near extinct South Indian dish) or it may be a long term project like 'how to learn Sanskrit ?' . 'how to play guitar ?' What's more , you get various options , learning on line, downloading ebooks, or viewing visuals on you tube or a combination of all.
If learning was fun, then teaching was more fun, about that later.....
