Nyumbani Computer Learning Center Update
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Nyumbani Computer Learning Center has grown tremendously in the last few months. The Dell Optiplex workstations have been replaced by faster and reliable Dell Inspiron laptops, which were a donation from Salve Regina University in the United States. Currently the computer lab is fitted with 23 laptops (10 Dell Inspiron 2500 and 13 Compaq Evo N600c). They are all Installed with and runnning Linux(Edubuntu.org). The children's interest in computing is great, there is always a number of them in the computer lab all the time.
They are scheduled to come in different age groups at different times. We usually have a one hour class on a daily basis with the small children. To make it interesting for them, the teaching part of the class lasts for 40 minutes and I let them play games for the remaining 20 minutes. Otherwise they'd be very bored. The other children come in on satudays because they are usually in school the whole day. The following is what we have covered so far...
Baby Class
They play games on the computers. Edubuntu has a variety of inbuilt games and these games are really helpful when dealing with these small children. Through playing these games they get to learn basic keyboard and mice skills. They also know how to use the touch screen on the laptops. The games also compliments their school work because, we have spelling games and easy math games that they play. They can also identify the basic parts of a computer - the keyboard, mouse and the screen.
7 Years to 11 Years
This is a very interesting group. Their concentration span is very limited especially on things that are complex to their understanding. The class has to be made interesting for them to maintain their concentration. They can identify different parts of a computer. They have learnt how to keyboard using K-Touch application on Edubuntu. They do it so well with their fingers properly placed on the keyboard, although at times when am not watching they tend to just do touch typing. Most of them averagely do between 8 and 12 words per minutes, but, I have three students in this group (Diana, Daniel and Margret), who can do upto 20 words per minutes which is ubelievable considering the age. They know the basic features of the keyboard. They know how to use the mouse and the touch screen. They can comfortably change mouse buttons (left and right mouse buttons). They can play around and change settings of the screen saver and the desktop background They can google for information (most of the time they google National Geographic) - Diana the other day googled a photo of Father D'Ag and set it as the Desktop background and then she taught everyone how to do it. It was amazing.
13 Years to 16 Years
We have done Introduction to computers with them, they understand and know the basic computer technical concepts and terminolgies. They know how to keyboard. Averagely 15 -20 words per minute. They know and understand the special characters of a standard keyboard. How to use a mouse, they can play around with the right and left mouse buttons and interchange them comfortably. They can create files and folders, they also know how to perform word processing, formating text, moving the cursor around text, saving and opening documents. protecting their documents using passwords, working with several files/windows. They can use the Internet to browse for information, They know and understand terminlogies like the web browser, URL, search engines when using the Internet. We also have Educational suite gcompris application that compliments their school work through interesting games. It has Math, English and Geography games. It has very interesting typing games and they end up typing and playing a game at the same time. When we get visitors in the computer lab these kids can not hesitate to show off their skills on a computer. Some of them help out the house mums how to use a computer.
High School Kids
We have not covered much with them, because all of them are in boarding schools. They are only available during the school holiday - which is three months in a year. We've tried to do what we can in the limited time we get. Their keyboarding skills are still very limited and they struggle to type. We have completed Introduction to computers and they can Identify all the parts of a computer :- hard drive, processor, memory, motherboard, power supply, IDE connectors, Keyboard, Mice, Display unit e.t.c. We've worked with word processor though not very much. They can find files and folders. They can create files and folders, open and save documents. They can use the Internet comfortably without any major help. Some of them have email addresses and receive/send out emails. They know how to search the Internet using Search engines. They know different kinds of Web Browsers and search engines. There is a need to improve with this age group, hopeful we will be able to find the time.
The best thing about these children is the competition they have amongst themselves to know something before the other does and that is very healthy.
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