What do I know about computers?

I know that I could never be a computer repairman (woman!). I can't even figure out how to take the cover off the CPU. I can barely get the cables hooked up in the right places. Software, programming, that's more up my alley. But, anything remotely related to computer hardware scares me. I'm really hoping this class helps me conquer those fears!

I touched my first computer in high school during my junior year in math class. There was only one available for student's to look at...we weren't really even allowed to touch it without the teacher present. None of the teachers or office staff had computers, everything was typed on a typewriter. All I really remember about the computer is that it was a beast...huge, heavy, not very attractive. I remember thinking that it would be a fad. That was over 30 years ago.

Later, I kind of taught myself how to program code at a huge insurance company. Later, I was involved in data security. I ended my career at that company as an investigator where I had created a huge database on the specs of all my cases. The first wordprocessing program I used was DisplayWrite, the first spreadsheet I used was Lotus. Are these two programs even around anymore? I learned all these skills on the job, so I guess the programming part came kind of easy to me.

Now, as a teacher, I have 3 computers at home and work at a district where there are well over 100 computers and not one typewriter in sight. I am still pretty fluent in learning software technologies, but I'm still stupid about hardware. I hope this class changes all that!