Today 11:33am, I was reading from Collins D. Mugume's blog and I remembered something that I need to share. Like earlier mentioned by Albert Mucunguzi in one of his blogs, the year 1999 was a year most of us got to know that some of the things actually existed and were of some interest.
That year in Ntare School I think Computers had just been brought to the school and some of us really wanted to have a feel of the TV and deck(VCR) like devices which displayed somethings we did not understand. I hope the use of the word we will be accepted by all who get the matter in this story. Am talking to you Albert!
Albert Mucunguzi, Josh Twin, Timothy Matsiko, Matthew Rubatsimbira, Samson(residing in Africa House), Davis Arinaitwe, Sam Kacungira, Osbert Twikirize, Micheal Babigumira and Patrick Amwiine were some of the few common figures in that tiny room. I remember we would crowd at the entrance of that room but Albert and Josh had the best skills of being inside first even if they were at the back of the group crowded at the 1 meter wide entrance. Their struggles are evident today, one of the young ICT Entrepreneurs that we have in Uganda today. Well done Ms Mwebaza Winfred you did a job.
So, One day(It must have been a Saturday) I sat down to use one of the computers. I clicked, clicked and clicked in an effort to explore and see any interesting thing I could find. I right-clicked on a folder and saw an option "Zip Folder".
Please take note of the word "ZIP". On seeing zip, I was trying to relate that zip with the zipper on our jackets. Ha ha ha ha!!! I went ahead and selected the option, off it went zipping the folder. It must have been a big folder coz it showed a slow progress of zipping and in the due course, Ms Mwebaza appeared. She took time to see what was going on the screen."Who has done that?" she asked. All eyes went my in my direction.
"Do you know what you are doing?"
"What is Zipping?"
"Do you understand what you are doing?"
No answer was given to any of those questions. The worse was yet to come. She asked me get up and ordered me out of the Computer Room. I was red carded. "I should never see you here anymore" she emphasized as I marched out.
From that time I learnt that it was not good to just click anything without learning what it could do. The expulsion from the Computer Room created a lapse in my interaction with computer.
One year down the road, during my form four vacation I attended a computer class and the first question I asked was the meaning of zipping. I got the explanation. The tutor also advised me to always read and use the help section of any application that I would ever use. The following week I did not go back for computer class. I have learnt almost all the computer I know through reading tutorials and help sections of applications.
Surprisingly, I was in University for 3years but there is no single tutor or lecturer who ever stood to advise us to use the help sections. Maureen Agena is witness to this. The tutors for some programming courses may be advised to use tutorials.
My question is! Are the help sections of applications relevant to usage of an application or not necessary to most us who love clicking to see what will happen. "Kuteera Omukishaka kureeba ekiraarugemu"
See you all after the Cranes Win!!!!
We Gooo We Go!!!
On the contrary, I learnt a huge percentage of what I know from making such mistakes. Several dead computers later, I could take apart a pc and had an html based website by the end of form 4. Not much nowadays, but back then.... well.... how many of you had websites?
ReplyDeleteTimothy ... that is why I always refer to you as my PC Education mentor. HTML website in F.4 with the Ugandan ICT of that time... great works Brother
ReplyDelete