Anguilla Library Computer Club

Lessons for Achieving Computer Literacy

These are the lessons developed by the members of the club. Please visit the club's home page for more information.

Page updated: Sep 20, 1999

An Education Revolution

Ideas for radical improvements in Computer Science education: Click the link above to read articles by Steve Litt in Troubleshooting Magazine about setting up your own Computer Science Lab and University, for as little as $40 per student. Then click here to read a proposal to introduce programming as a subject in elementary schools.

Lessons Using Basic Dos Systems!

Level 1 Software Training.
- Windows Lesson #1. This lesson will work on either Win 3.1 or Win95. Demonstrate that you can play Solitaire using the mouse.
- Typing Lesson #1. Install Typing Made Easy before presenting this lesson (see below).
- Spreadsheet Lesson #1. Install shareware spreadsheet before this giving these lessons (see below).
- Using a Floppy Disk.
- DOS Lesson #1
- Building English Skills. Install the Word Rescue game, Wonder Word crossword puzzle game, WordTrix (Windows) and Textris (DOS).
- Make a greeting card with "print shop" type software.
Level 2 Software Training.
- Windows Lesson 2. Moving, minimizing, maximizing, resizing. For Win95, you must ensure that clock.exe exists in the Windows or Windows\Command folder; if not, copy it from a Win3.1 system.
- Typing Lesson 2. Complete Up-Reach Lesson (2) in Typing Made Easy.
- Spreadsheet Lesson #2.
- Building Math Skills. Install Googol Math Games and Math Rescue for this lesson.
- DOS Lesson #2: Installing ZIP Files. Copy the file bagman10.zip to the c:\lcc\ directory and make it read only with the attrib +r c:\lcc\bagman10.zip command. See below for more Program Installation Tips.
- Basic Programming Lesson #1. Install QuickBasic (QBASIC.EXE and QBASIC.HLP) for this lesson, at least version ??
- Home Design on the Computer. Install 3D Home Architect on a Windows computer for this lesson (see below for demo site).
Level 3 Software Training.
- Typing Lesson 3. Complete SideReaches lesson (#3) in Typing Made Easy.
- Spreadsheet Lesson #3: Graphics.
- Basic Lesson #2, Get Data, Print Information. Before presenting this lesson, install basic02.bas in the \lcc directory of each computer and make it read-only, attrib +r \lcc\basic02.bas.
- Sorting Tutorial. Install sorting.zip in c:\clubmenu\sorting, where it will unzip into a number of files, including sorting.exe, which you run from the menu. Before attempting this tutorial, the Spreadsheet Sort tutorial should be completed.
- Menu Lesson #1: Create a menu. Instructor Notes: Before using the lesson, copy menu210.zip into the \lcc directory on each computer and make it read only with attrib +r.
- Write a Web Page in HTML. Test it in Netscape or Internet Explorer.
Level 4 Software Training
- Typing Lesson 4. Master DownReaches (lesson #4 in Typing Made Easy).
- Spreadsheet Lesson #4: Sorting.
- Adventure: Role-Playing. This lesson requires that you install adv430.zip in the \clubmenu\adv\". Adventure will run on any of our PCs even the oldest. Does not use graphics--this was the first role-playing computer game and it is text-based: you talk to it!
- Create a Personal Boot Disk Plus Programs. This lesson assumes that you have done all the preceding lessons, especially Floppy, Dos, Menu, Typing, Spreadsheet, Adventure and Math Skills. For this to lesson to work, the instructor must have one empty formatted diskettes per student (that matches the drives in the lab), some ziploc bags to store them in, and computers with the club software installed in standard directories (Typing Made Easy in c:\clubmenu\tme, Spreadsheet in c:\clubmenu\aseasy, Googol Math Games in c:\clubmenu\googol and Adventure in c:\clubmenu\adv).
- Basic Lesson #3, Guess the Animal. Before presenting this lesson, install basic03.bas in the \lcc directory of each computer and make it read-only, attrib +r \lcc\basic03.bas.
Level 5 Software Training
- Typing Lesson 5. Master Capitals (lesson #5 in Typing Made Easy).
- Spreadsheet Lesson #5: Macros.
- Put a Menu in Your Bat File. This is a followup to the Boot Disk lesson. Upon successful completion the student will have a free-standing boot disk with programs and menu that can be used to boot any compatible PC.
- Basic Lesson #4, Demo and Tutorial. Instructor Notes: This lesson experiments with programs written in GWBASIC, an older version of the BASIC language than QBASIC. We do have a GWBASIC manual, which is important since GWBASIC does not have help. Most of our systems also run QuickBASIC (QBASIC) a much more up-to-date language. It has a context-sensitive HELP, it doesn't require a line number in front of each statement, and it has a windowing system. Students should use it or Visual Basic for the rest of their studies. This tutorial can be run on ANY of the clubs computers. The basic04.zip file should be unzipped into C:\CLUBMENU\GWBASIC directory and a menu item added for "Basic Demo and Tutorial" that does call \clubmenu\gwbasic\learn.bat. All the programs are stored as files with a BAS extension. Together they form the DOC SWAN Learning Series. It was written in 1984 by Mark Swanson and we only changed one line and added the learn.bat file to start the tutorial even though it wants 2 floppy drives and to bring you back to the club menu when done.
Level 1 Hardware Training. Under development...
- Turning the computer on and off.
- Opening the case and closing it again.
- Identify all the parts of the computer.
- Clean the inside of a mouse.
- Proper handling of floppy disks.
- Clean a keyboard.
- Install a new Sound card.
- Replace a 5-1/4 floppy drive with a 3.5" floppy drive.
- Install a SVGA video card.
- Install a CD-ROM drive and get the IRQs correct (master class).
- Install a new motherboard and configure the BIOS.
Misc and planned lessons
- Cut and Paste Lesson.Redo this lesson for use with WordPad, then add to Level 3. Install the thankyou.txt file in c:\lcc\, convert to .wri and WordPad .doc format, then make readonly using the DOS command attrib +r c:\lcc\*.*
- Basic Lesson X: Color graphics programming. Wac-a-mole program.
- Installing Windows Software
- Database Lesson #1. MS Access? Video training tape?
- Computer Manners. Under development. Power On, Off, food and drinks, Windows95 shutdown, etc.
- Protect Your PC with a Menu. Under development. How do we protect Win95 from kids? We watch them closely. Send sugestions!

Lessons from Other Sources

Computer Lessons for Kids and Small Adults.
Six Basic Programs Explained at Many Levels, a tutorial which you can download from the Ainsworth Computer Seminar web site.
How To Trouble Shoot a PC, an MSWord tutorial.
Build Your Own PC, a fun web site for learning about how PCs are put together.
The Hand-Me-Down PC Site.
The SIMM Installation page, with animation showing how!
Articles on Memory and PC Upgrades.
Picking the right SIMM
The Memory-Upgrade FAQ
Courses on Computers. A links page of The Education Station.
Tom's Hardware Page, great site for info on latest CPUs, motherboards, RAM, not much on older hardware, but follow the links.
Lesson Plans on Computer Science. Links page of The Education Station.
Windows 95 "Courseware". Untested so far.
MS Access tutorials from Microsoft (untested).
MS Excel tutorials from Microsoft (untested).

Return the the Club's Lesson/Software site.