High Tech?

After navigating a bizarre, on-line registration process a couple of months ago, I wasn't sure I was actually enrolled in the web design course. There had been no reminder. But I went anyway, and found myself the only female in a class of five. (As it turned out, I was also the most experienced with .html coding.) Nobody took attendance or asked for our names.

The teacher spent the first half hour of the class attempting to get the big screen at the front of the room to work, and finally gave up. Awhile later, the lights in the ceiling of the room went out, and this happened intermittently for the rest of the class, leaving us with only the light from our computer screens to type by and to take notes by.

In one exercise, we were supposed to insert a sound file into our practice web pages. That's when I discovered the speakers on the computer I was using, didn't work. It took the teacher and another staff person to find the right connections.

In spite of all the technical glitches, the teacher did a good job, and we all learned how to create a basic web page. Much of it was a needed refresher for me, but I also learned some new things and gained the confidence to go ahead on my own.

And I also learned that even here in Silicon Valley, high tech is not always reliable, and people are still very important.