Uses of the Computers

The importance of computers in our daily life is unimaginable. Today I can certainly say that I am 100 percent dependent on computer use both at home and at work. My guess is that there are still millions of Nigerian youth and children who do not have access to a computer.

My questions are:
[list][li]Do you think that many youth are still unaware of the potentials of becoming computer literate?[/li]
[li]How did you learn how to use the computer?[/li]
[li]What can be done to improve the computer literacy in Nigeria?[/li]
[li]Do you feel confident using the computer?[/li]
[li]What do you use your computer for primarily?[/li]
[li]If your computer happens to break down how would you go about fixing the problem?[/li][/list]

Regards
Godey.

Hello Goodman, what a wonderful topic!

Nigerian youths these days are well aware that computers are important. The problem is that beyond desktop computing - MS Office, Coreldraw, Pagemaker, scanning and printing - the computers we have are not being fully utilized.

Businessmen and businesswomen have not really started to use PCs and computer networks to speed up their work, and the reason is simple: 'NEPA strikes' (unstable power supply). Our public power supply is so unreliable that small businessmen are reluctant to make their businesses depend on computers, because computers need electricity to run. If you have to use a generator, your costs go up which might drive up your prices. And besides, who says generators don't break down at inconvenient times?

There's little that can be done to improve computer literacy in Nigeria today - we just need reliable and affordable electricity and Internet access and an unrestricted private sector. When those things are available, then young people will be able to attend part-time computer coaching classes for the basics and go to the Internet to learn more advanced topics (like programming).

I learnt how to use computers in 1991 when the secondary school I was to enter organized a holiday coaching class, and escept for a period of 2.5 years at OAU-Ife, I've not looked back since then. I'm very confident using my computer, which I use primarily for maintaining and promoting this website and finding articles on the Internet.

Whenever my computer breaks down, I first of all identify the part that has gone down and then go to the [b]Ikeja computer village [/b]to buy a new one, which I would fix myself. If something like a monitor or UPS gets spoilt, I just take it to computer village because I know that I'll find a competent electronics technician who can help me.

Hi Seun,

Thanks for your contribution to this topic. You raised a good point when you mentioned the stability of electricity in Nigeria in General.

About 2 years ago I shipped one of my old computers to my family in Nigeria; I remembered I bought a UPS to be used in conjunction with the PC to protect the computer from frequent incorrect shutdown of the computer which could in turn damage the system quickly.

I felt sad about the NEPA inability to provide stable power to consumers. For more than 2 decades the problem is yet to be resolved.

I understood the point you also raised about the Business owners in Nigeria for not using computers to promote their businesses. However it is vital that business men and women should be able to operate computers. If not at the business premises but at home. Hence they will be able to keep track of business records at the end of each business day.

The secret to becoming computer literate is to have access to one, play with the preinstalled application as often as possible. My first computer was 386 PC with Windows 3.11. I had a friend whom was a heavy user when things go wrong I called on him to help me.
I learnt to how to catch the fish by my self when my friend was away and no body to help, spend days to figure out what went wrong. I bought a dummy book I was able to fix the computer.

I became more interested in computers, take some beginner courses and eventually ended up in spending 3 years studying Computer Networking and System administration. Has worked as a Tech Support Engineer 
Presently I m a computer consultant and One-On-One computer trainer for those generations who did not grow up with computers.


I hope to get more responses from other members, by the way I like to thank you Seun as the forum moderator. I found this forum yesterday and believe me I am impressed with the forum.

Regards

Godey

WELL i dont have much to say but
now there are computers everywhere
and the literacy in computers these days is
very very necessary

Absolutely you only need to look at how important it has become to other countries, wether people like it or not it's big buisness.

the world is not becoming,
but it is a GLOBAL WORLD 2 THE FULLEST