Basic Keyboarding at the MultiMedia Center Classes have been held for the last three months here in our temporary
classroom, as we await the completion of the new Library! We are
grateful to the students and teachers who remain committed to these
classes while we develop.
Please click here to read essays written by the students of these classes as they practiced their typing skills!
Or read the essay below by a Byoona Amagara volunteer about the beginnings of these classes.
Following
is an essay about the humble beginnings of our computer literacy
initiative, written by Tom Mahon (UK), a resident volunteer at Byoona
Amagara.
Our typing classes started in early October, 2004, led
by teachers Asiimwe Sam and Sira Kabahena graciously volunteering from
the Bwama Island schools. Working with handouts and displaying examples
on a laptop, the teachers – who had computer training but had never
taught keyboarding before – started with an introduction to computers,
then began to competently teach typing. They were very focussed on the
task, working through progressively more difficult typing exercises.
Towards the end of the term, we had the students write small essays and
had them copy short lengths of text. In two months of one or two 1 ½
hour lessons per week, the adults and secondary school students (senior
3 & 5) have gone from laboriously typing the “home keys” – asdf
jkl; - to being able to type several paragraphs in a few minutes.
We
have had a lot of interest, from these students and others from the
community at large, about the possibility of computer training (beyond
just the keyboarding) here at Byoona Amagara, and I believe that it
would be a great success. We have been told there is the possibility of
a donation of a small bank of PCs (like 5 or 6), and I know we would be
very effective at putting them to immediate and valuable use in
training local teachers, students and members of the community. It is
exciting to think about this! We have one teacher here who is already
competent with Word and Excel and another who is currently learning how
to use this software. Also, one of our own staff members has shown
great aptitude in computing and has learnt many of the functions of
Windows and the Office software. I will be here through March, 2005, to
teach computing, and assist with the start-up of our new library and
media centre. The role of assistant computer trainer would also be very
suitable for volunteers from abroad who may have much experience and
many skills in this area. Indeed, many of the guests who stay with us
have some knowledge of computers and are able to join in with my
training and show the students and staff some new skills. I can also
say that while I have been teaching the teachers about the computer, I
have had to help very little with the typing classes – our teachers
have taught these very well with their own training and research - they
are extraordinarily independent, resourceful and totally committed!
The
difficulties we have experienced have been mainly logistical. We
received a donation of ten of the keyboards which allowed us to get
started, however, two of them did not work and another has since
failed. With only seven remaining, we are a bit stretched to meet the
demand - we began putting two learners to each keyboard, and then one
of our typing teachers, Sira, even began offering a second and then a
third class, both which filled immediately!) As well, though the
students and teachers have remained serious throughout, some lessons
have been missed. This has been for several reasons mostly having to do
with the basic challenges of life on a lake! We are working through all
the problems though and everyone is cooperating and making the best of
it... as is the African way.
From what I have seen, there is
virtually no computer access at the moment for the majority who have
little money. There is great interest from adults and students alike,
who see computing as another step towards further or higher education
and a practical tool in themselves for learning, writing letters,
sending e-mails etc... So to summarise, it would make me very happy to
see the typing classes progressing to computing classes, Internet use,
networking, etc. The desire is here to have computer training and the
teachers are becoming ever more competent as we work with the keyboard
training and the one laptop computer we have here. The permanent staff
here at the project have also shown a lot of interest in typing and
computing, and they want to learn as much as the students do, in fact
with more time to access the equipment, they have been able to progress
further during their free time, typing, saving and opening documents,
editing and changing font size, spell checking and using some of the
features of Excel. The people here have little material wealth and
something like this would improve the educational prospects SO MUCH.
Tom Mahon, Volunteer
Itambira Island
Nov. 29, 2004
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