Educators See Demonstration of School’s Computer Program

La Mirada High School on Wednesday held a demonstration of its computer program in business education for about 25 educators from Ventura and Los Angeles counties, said business department chairperson Elizabeth Midyett .

It was the second such demonstration at the school, which has been designated as a model site for computer-based business education by the state Department of Education.

About 550 of the business department’s 750 students use computers in accounting, office occupations, typing, word processing and business skills classes. State grants totaling about $48,000 for the 1984-85 school year have helped the school furnish a laboratory with 20 computers, six printers and software for the program.

Additional computers are used at the school in remedial math and writing, English as a second language and programming classes. A sophisticated computer in drafting classes can produce diagrams, maps, charts, and three-dimensional drawings, giving students a head start for college courses in drafting, engineering and architecture, said drafting teacher Don Gibson.

The computers have eroded the gender gap in many classes, teachers said, attracting a large number of boys into typing classes formerly filled with girls, and an influx of girls into drafting classes that in the past were dominated by boys.