computer textbooks

Post Reply New Topic

I am going back to school for information tech this fall and I am wondering if anyone else has ever found them unreadable. I don't know about programming ones, I hope they will get better the more advanced the classes but the classes I have taken are a nightmare, with all the million fonts and colors and boxes stuck all over the page...I would much rather read black text on a white page. I think they think it makes it easier so learn but when I have had a class with one of these books it was all I could do to make myself look at the page, it is too much for my brain to process almost. I am having to retake the basic computer class because I took it too long ago and that book literally made me want to puke, there is so much graphic they are almost more confusing than helpful.

I've noticed that too. I've found that if you go online and look up a text version of the book, sometimes you can find what they call a printer friendly version. Those usually have less graphics than the book form.

Blame it on a society that now has a generation of kids who don't know how to read something unless it comes with lots of pretty pictures to look at.

thank you so much for that suggestion! because I get a weird kind of vertigo trying to make sense of these books. that is a great idea.

that has to be it. I always feel insulted when I have to read the 'romper room' books, like, are people really this stupid? I wonder also if it's because they feel no one really is going to listen to the prof so the book has to be an exact duplicate of the what they need step by step because they feel no one is going to retain anything from lecture or just reading a text.

This comes from too much television and video games. These are OK once in a while
but not for 5-10 hours a day.

Yes, people really are that stupid.

In phase two, who writes this stuff? Photoshop documentation seems writen by someone who never used the program.

Well, the booksellers want them to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, which includes both ends of the Bell curve..

Would you prefer the font used by tractor-feed dot matrix printers?
That is OK for me, but the font in an old textbook for "human computers"
is unreadable to me. In the 1940's, "computer" was a JOB for a human being.
What amazes me most is that those computers got married and had families too!

THe books I have are used for online school, where you are basically teaching yourself. In lieu of a teacher instructing, you have step by step tutorials and screenshots. While this may be insulting to some, it is necessary to most people who want to learn from an online computer class. Those of you who don't like pictures would love my Intro to Linux book.

I personally like tutorials for books teaching graphics programs- tells me exactly what I need to know and the picture gives me an idea if I am not doing it right or not. I agree- most steps could be taken out, though. I can teach myself programs very easily by messing around or pulling up the "help" files. I created a logo yesterday using a CorelDraw X5 trial I downloaded. It was the first time I ever opened the program, and the logo was a job I got paid for!


Now what I found insulting was the fact that I had to take a class that was entirely about Internet Explorer 7, This was 6 months ago! It was required with my web design program. i paid good money and spent 3 weeks learning absolutely nothing new about a browser I never use.

the power points are really helpful, it's been a while since I took CIS 111, that is the one I have to retake cause it's been so long, but it was really helpful for step by step. they contain alot more information though but those books, they do something physical to my head when i look at the page, it is just overwhelming sensory wise because of all the font sizes and graphic boxes.

I've noticed a general trend of books being published that look like they have more graphic design put into them than content.

Try this: http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html
Page after page of soothing parentheses...

way, way more graphic design than content, it's so bizarre, I am afraid this is going to be the hardest part of the curriculum, dealing with that.

thanks for the link.