by Zoumana Coulibaly

Created on: January 13, 2009

By computer novice, we mean one who has not used a computer before and/or who is not really proficient in the computing field. Learning how to effectively use a computer can be a frustrating experience for a computer novice as well as a novice in any field. Thus, every professional will agree that a new learner must start with what is easy and widely available.

Also, the novice must know the basics and fundamentals of a computer; thus, he or she must start working on a platform that has less technical requirements that is a PC.

By starting to learn the aspects of a computer with a PC, the novices gives himself lots of opportunities to probably move on to learn how a mac work and hopefully have a career in the computing field. The following are the critical reasons why a PC is appropriate for a novice.

1- PC is the most widely used brand in the market. This means it is affordable for anyone, the novices included.

2- As a corollary to the previous reason, it would be easy to find lots more novices with whom to share learning experiences. Indeed, learning is best done in peers. So, by choosing a PC, the novice will have the possibility to find other people in the same learning situation as him or her and help each other to overcome their difficulties.

3- The majority of public libraries, Internet cafes, and computer labs among others use PCs.This means that a novice will have a greater chance to find a PC user in the street to help him or her in how to save a file or write a word document with Microsoft word for example.

4- A PC is a less technical machine to use thus removing the frustrations faced even by intermediate computer users.

5- The majority of third party devices old and new are easily recognized by a PC than a mac.

In brief, despite the many complaints raised about PC and its securities deficiencies among others, it causes less headaches and is easy to use.

For a kid learning mathematics, no matter how smart he or she is, they should first learn how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Then they learn their multiplication table. If they show some proficiency in the basics, then they can attempt to learn more advanced materials. The same hold true for computer novices. Learning how to use a PC is comparable to learning how to use a computer in general. A PC is simple and less technical and mostly everybody uses it.

Thus, the amount of human and virtual help is greater compared when a novice uses a PC. This is not an absolute truth but it would be wiser for a novice to start using a PC then move on to a Mac.

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