Computers are present in every industry and just about every workplace in the United States and homeschool students have the ability to learn computer programming languages and web design at their whim, rather than at the pace of a teacher. The ability to quickly adapt to different computer languages and learn to use them is an increasingly important skill for young adults entering the workforce. Today's students, homeschooled and those in school, are increasingly comfortable in digital environments, making computer science a relevant and useful elective course.
Homeschool Basic Computer Skills for High School Students
Because technology changes so quickly, today's teens are expected to work with programs, concepts and environments that weren't even invented when they were born. Luckily this digital generation is comfortable enough in online environments to “just start clicking” and learn their way around. Because many developers use an open source code, tutorials and applications are freely distributed.
The basic skills necessary for employment in a digital workplace are the ability to operate a mouse and a keyboard, the ability to maintain a safe computing environment by backing up data regularly, working with firewalls, recognizing potentially dangerous websites and even managing their time online
Helping Teens Learn Advanced Computer Skills
Additionally, they'll be expected to work with peripheral equipment like all-in-one printers, digital photography equipment and cell phones that sync up with their computers and function as planners and mp3 players. Finally, at the very least, high schoolers should graduate comfortable manipulating data in spreadsheets, word processing programs and photo editing software. It sounds like a heavy load for parents who can barely check their email.
Free Computer Programs for Learning Computer Skills
Not every family can afford the Microsoft Office Suite of products, but everyone can download Sun Microsystems' Open Office for absolutely free. Open Office operates almost identically to the Microsoft products, in fact it can even open Microsoft's files.
To help teens learn to use Microsoft Excel, for example, expose them to Open Office Calc. Open Office Writer is comparable to Microsoft Word and Sun's Open Office Impress is equivalent to Power Point. As a bonus, when sharing files, each of these programs will “save as” their Microsoft counterpart as well as in .pdf format, enabling them to create ebooks and infoproduct. When students get “stuck” simply point them toward the help documentation that's built into the program.
Free Online Web Design Classes for Teens
Many high schoolers spend more of their free time using social networks like FaceBook rather than drafting spreadsheets, slideshows or milti-page .pdf documents. Embracing the technology that allows students to create their own applications, quizzes and even design snarky T-shirts involves a basic knowledge of important computer skills that kids will need in the workforce.
To begin learning about web design, it's important to start with an HTML course. Libraries have books about HTML but teens may feel more comfortable learning it online. Depending upon their learning style, teens may want an introduction, followed by a list of helpful “tags,” a step-by-step video course or a downloadable eBook. Some savvy students can actually “figure it out” by using their browser's “view page source” function to see any web page written in HTML code. There's no need to spend money to learn HTML. Ever.
Free tutorials are available in audio, video and written formats that teach teens how to manipulate several blogging platforms, like Blogger, TypePad, LiveJournal and Wordpress.com. Hosted web design programs, like Drupal and Joomla require knowledge of PHP and CSS programming and free tutorials are available for those skills as well.
Learning Computer Programming Languages Fast
The yellow and black ____ For Dummies series of books, by Wiley Publishing, provides an introductory level of knowledge for a wide variety of computer programs and languages. These books eliminate the trial-and-error of early learning and give kids tools they can use to begin working with immediately. In addition, they often recommend online resources to study further.
To find free online tutorials, start at a search engine, like Google, Yahoo or Bing. Using quotation marks around your search words will bring up more precise results. Try searching for things like “Free JavaScript Tutorial” or “Learn CSS for Free” or “PHP Tutorial Video.”
The digital generation embraces technology and is comfortable navigating web-based environments. The workplace of the future will undoubtedly harness that enthusiasm for technology and today's teens will need to be able to operate in a virtual environment that previous generations can't even comprehend. Open Source Codes allow homeschooled teens to learn the language of the future for free.
Lisa Russell - Lisa Russell is a freelance writer and mom of six daughters. She blogs about their life at lisarussell.org
