Back to the Lab!

{Posted by Troy Rysedorph}  Tuesday afternoon the team was back in the computer lab, this time with 11 teachers from the Holy Family School.  The idea of the session was “train the trainer”.  While it is somewhat unclear when the teachers will be in the role of trainer, we set out to educate them in the use of computer hardware and software.  During the needs assessment that we conducted following introductions, we learned some significant things.  Practically, we learned that 5 of the 11 had some experience with computers and 6 others had none at all and wanted to start with the very basics.  More importantly, we heard from some of the students that they would need more time, more training, more practice than the two hour session that had not yet even started.  This point was unarguable.  We were struck by the fact that this additional was not provided for in any master plan that we’ve conceived or are aware of.  That said, rather than throwing in the towel on the basis that they would forget everything they learned before their next time in the lab, we decided to proceed nonetheless.

I assigned myself to lead the exercises for the completely inexperienced.  I quizzed the group to identify the names of the key pieces of hardware—monitor, keyboard, mouse, CPU.  I showed them the necessary connections on the back and how the monitor and CPU needed to be plugged in to a power source for the computer to turn on.  Then I demonstrated how to turn the computer on.  Then it was their turn to do it—there were enough desktops for each student to have one.  As expected, each successfully turned on the computer.  I decided to throw one student a curveball by unplugging his monitor and CPU.  It took him a while, but with some assistance from my trusty translator, Joseph, he was able to get it running.  Soon everybody was wanting me to mess up their computer so that they could try to fix it and get it up and running.  Launching a piece of software was the next challenge.  But first, I had to teach the importance of the “left click”.  Did you know that not everybody knows how to point and click with a mouse?  It took about ten minutes to demonstrate launching Microsoft Word (there was no icon on the desktop for it) and another twenty minutes for the students to demonstrate competency in performing this.  I was struck by how much of my own skill I take for granted, and also how many steps are truly strung together to accomplish things that are reasonably simple.  There’s a temptation to go fast and cover the most ground.  But there’s a need to go at a confidence building speed to prevent discouragement, which we were flirting with all afternoon.

For the last 10 minutes we demonstrated some educational games that were loaded onto the laptops.  A series of volunteers got a kick out of clicking and dragging puzzle pieces to form simple pictures (2x2).  They got a taste of what they could, someday, share with their students from the Primary School.  But then the time expired.  It was clear the teachers wanted more.  They said this before the lesson started, and nothing changed that viewpoint.  I don’t know how it is all going to come together.  But I have faith that it will.