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A computer repair class replaced the computer networking course last fall.
Computer Repair and Service was offered in the Fall 2010 semester, after computer programming teacher Arthur Simon requested a course that was less specialized and advanced than the networking class he taught. The repair class, which is taught by Simon, is funded by the San Francisco Unified School District’s vocational program rather than the school and follows the Cisco IT Essentials: PC Hardware and Software online curriculum, an online textbook from the computer corporation Cisco Systems, Inc.
Computer Repair and Service is a single-semester course that teaches the basic hardware and software skills necessary for an entrylevel computer maintenance job, according to Simon.
To allow students to practice building and troubleshooting computers and networks, the Technology Committee provided a grant to purchase parts for 40 computers. Computer Repair and Service students have already built 37 computers from the parts. Depending on funding from the Technology Committee, future repair and service classes will either continue to build new computers or reassemble old ones. The new computers are now used by the math department’s computer classes in Room 334.
Junior Mark Ifurung, who is currently taking Computer Service and Repair, says that he enjoys the class. “It’s totally worth taking because you’ll learn how to diagnose your own computer’s problems, and how to fix them yourself,” he said.
Simon requested the repair and service class from the Cisco Networking Academy, the international education initiative that provides the school with computer-based courses, and was subsequently trained to teach the course last spring.
Simon says that student response to the class has been low only 14 students enrolled this semester. He attributed the low enrollment of the course to its lack of advertisement, as most of the students who are taking the course only heard about it from an announcement in his computer programming classes. “There should have been more than 14 students who enjoyed building computers,” he said.
Ifurung says that he would recommend the class to anyone, and that he thinks more students would take the class if they were aware of it. “I would assume that people just don’t know what the class is about,” he said.
The service and repair course is not on the UC -approved list and does not qualify as a college preparatory elective in the A-G requirements because it is a vocational class.
A version of this article first appeared in the Mar. 24, 2011 print edition of The Lowell.
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