The new computers have arrived! Everybody is beside themselves with excitement. A few teachers and some admin from the orphanage have, upon hearing that i'll be the teacher, slyly pulled me aside and asked for lessons. Sure!
There are two computers and they are kept in the orphanage because there is no power in the school. I went to in set them up today. Oh man, they are so slow they're running xp, which I think is the problem; they were built for windows 95. When I set them up I had Janet with me, the secretary who accompanied me to the market last week. She had never used a computer before. I was telling her things about drop down menus and copy-paste shortcuts when I realised she was just enjoying the interaction between her hand on the mouse and the the cursor movement on the screen. I've never really thought about how one would go about teaching computers from scratch. I can't remember a time when there wasn't a computer in my classroom and at home. Sure, they were the ones with green text on a black screen that ran off dos, or the kind with a ball built into the keyboard in the pre-mouse days. I'm trying to think of what a good first lesson would be to somebody who has never even seen a computer.
I guess we can talk about the functions of the monitor, keyboard, cpu, mouse, etc. I think a day of playing with ms paint would be good for getting the hang of the mouse. The next day we can talk about different types of files, saving and opening documents, and how folders work. Word could be a few weeks worth of lessons. Today is the first lesson and its with the older girls. I guess we'll see how it goes!
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When we taught my grandma to use a computer it was the same thing. Start small and work your way up like you said learning the mouse is key.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the lessons!
PS What don't you teach over there?
It's got to be overwhelming starting from the very beginning with something we all take for granted. Best of luck.
ReplyDeleteHi from Anita, I find that it is hard for my kids to teach me something new on the computer....they have a hard time dumbing down to my level. So go for it Lisa, dumb down to the utmost basics, and you will be a great teacher!
ReplyDeleteI had to teach old people to use computers at one of my jobs...it was pretty funny. We had to practice the 'double-click' maneuver for like, 10 minutes.
ReplyDeleteSounds fun for the girls though!
SO EXCITING!!!
ReplyDeleteLisa,
ReplyDeletePlease go easy on them. Try to find patients for them that you never have for your poor mother.
If the mouse itself is a novelty, maybe they should just play kids games for a while.
What application do you ultimately want them to use? Search? Emails? Run programs?
Love,
mom
seriously... what lessons AREN'T you teaching over there? :-)
ReplyDeletetrying to teach computers from scratch like that is HARD. i grew up on a blue-screen mac that only had the ability to word process :-) but STILL, i grew up on one. good luck, let us know how it goes!