Part of Lesson Plan: Analyze Your PC

Activity Overview / Details

Before class, set up and area in front of the class to look a bit like an electronics store.  You can do this by having a sign in front of the room that says "Best Buy" or something like that.  You could also have a big sign on the front board using your LCD projector.  Have a counter area (table) with some electronics set up with price tags on them.  Also have a "customer service" sign.  Have a name tag or lanyard made up in advance that says something like "geek squad."

Tell the class that many of them, the "technical" experts, will be asked by friends, family, and customers for their advice when it comes to making purchases or upgrading their systems.  Today they are going to try out being the customer service experts.

Ask for a volunteer to come up and "work" in the customer service department.  You the teacher are the customer.  Have the student come up, put the name tag on them, and tell them you are going to be the customer and ask them some questions.  This is your chance to really act up, play it silly, and act like a completely clueless customer and asking for help.  Bring a box of software up to the counter, and ask questions like:

 -- "the box says I need XX amount of RAM, how do I know if my computer has that?"

-- "its says XX Mhz, what does that mean?  How do I find that on my computer?"

-- "how do I know how much space if available on my hard drive?"

Also say things that are obviously wrong, like you have Windows 2003 on your computer.  You can have different students coming up to play the customer service role and ask them different questions.  Tell students that these are all common questions a computer technician will be asked.  This lesson will help them get familiar with where to find this information, so when customers ask, they can, in turn, help them.