There was a computer class today. There haven't been any computer classes for the learners in some time, not since the beginning of the strikes anyway but that is a different story. It was a really basic re-introduction, really only as much to get to the math game which took up the majority of the time. Man, those kids were excited though. They did addition, subtraction, multiplication and division for two hours after school. Although, It was disguised as a game and had lasers so I'm sure it didn't seem like work or learning. It was intense, I am pretty sure their basic arithmetic is going to skyrocket with more of this sort of thing.
Aside from physically wrecking the place, there is very little the learners can do to permanently disable the system. Even with no experience and a teacher who speaks strange English, why not just let the learners have at it? This is the one good thing about the way the system is setup, as long as no one touches the server everything should be stable. Unfortunately, this is exactly how most of the computer labs get wrecked. Memory sticks that are absolutely jam packed with viruses get put into the server which is either totally unequipped with an anti-virus or is outdated and cannot handle new viruses because no one has the internet capabilities to regularly download the (relatively) huge package definitions. On top of this, the volunteer who had previously gone to several sites to re-install or set-up the computer lab's was sent home. Hopefully things won't get to that point at my site but a lot happens when I am not around so I can't be sure.
The only major problem with the lab is the speed of the system. With every client running, things get sluggish. This causes some serious gridlock. The learners click on something and it doesn't respond immediately so they click on it again and again and again. Until there are about 10 of the same program grabbing for memory. This is normal though, and I remember doing this myself when I was first getting acquainted with computers. In fact, I am glad they are learning the basics on these seemingly older models. It is the proper way to learn computers. It will teach patience and although, as I said earlier, nothing really bad can happen easily irreversibly, slightly irritating things can happen which will encourage problem solving (should I say trouble-shooting). You can certainly pick up a lot by trial and error and just by being curious. As long as I'm am on the subject, this generation should watch Episodes IV-VI first and then Episodes I-III afterwards if they wish. SPOILER: If you know that Vader is Luke and Leia's father, then the power of Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi is significantly reduced. Who's with me on this one? I am not sure how this applies to the conversation, I just felt it was necessary to reference Star Wars while I was talking about computers.