Class 8

Class today was quite, lets just say dynamic. We did a simple excercise in excel to type up a table of information. After the class finished, we walked to the library where the students logged in and tried using the internet.

Although a little haphazard, it was the best thing that could be arranged given the absence of an internet connection at the MRC.

I also gave the class feedback forms today. Today was, for all practical purposes, our final class. I will be working with a few of the students at the library next thursday. Overall, this clutch of classes has been an interesting experience.

From an objective point of view, I would rate the effectiveness of the classes as being average. I do hope that future classes are:

a) More streamlined in terms of venue and availability of laptops
b) Have more regular attendance
c) Are better taught and more collaborative in their nature (collaboration or rather, encouraging it is definitely a major challenge)

Class Hours: 2.0
Instructors: 1
Participants: 6 (Irma, Genifer, Bing, Mary, Madelina, Angela)
F:M : 5:2
Course Handouts: 4 pp
Computers Used: 6

Class 7

In Today's Class, the group typed up a recipe in word. They seemed to enjoy it and I got them using bullets & numbering and even showed them how to insert a picture. Most of them finished the activity in under 1 hour, which was impressive. Towards the end I introduced the concept of websites and webpages and we talked about how we would access the internet. In talking to them I realised that most traditional mediums of information are delivered in a linear fashion. All the information is in a sequential order. In a webpage, your start and end point and your path through the information can and often will be completely random. From a learning perspective, this may be hard to acclimatize to, especially because a lot of the time you will have to sift through useless information.

Class Hours: 2.0
Instructors: 1
Participants: 8 (Irma, Genifer, David, Bing, Mary, Madelina, Malar)
F:M : 5:2
Course Handouts: 3 pp
Computers Used: 7

It was good to see Malar back again. I plan to have 2 more classes and wind things up for this group. In future I will be offering 8 classes from the word go rather than gradually expanding.

Genifer and I talked to a group of Sudanese women on Thursday and some of them were very interested in doing some classes. I'm planning to set something up for them at the library if all goes well. I'm mulling over a few things and will probably launch into something very soon.

Next Week: I'm thinking of getting wireless connections so that they can try to open a webpage and look at a few things.

Class 6

Todays class focussed on going further in MS Word, and using some format functions and changing font style etc. According to our original plan, we should have wound up our classes today. However, we are still working on files and programs. The students typed the Australian national anthem up today. It was interesting for many of them since they may not otherwise ever see this in writing.

Many of them are now comfortable opening a file and typing and this is good to see.

Class Hours: 2.0
Instructors: 1
Participants: 8 (Angela, Irma, Genifer, David, Bing, Mary, Madelina, Esther)
F:M : 7:1
Course Handouts: 2 pp (pages/person)
Computers Used: 8

Next Week: Presenting to a Sudanese womens group about the classes. Also, looking into formulating more in terms of operational processes and procedures including data collection/reporting etc. Laptops... as always.