La Computadora

We gave a computer class in the Solar Center yesterday, and I discovered something about learning and teaching. With twelve students, seven computers, and six teachers, we introduced people to touchpads, mice, double-clicking, shift buttons, click-and-dragging, word processing, powerpoint presentations, and excel spreadsheets.

Many of the ¨students¨ had already used computers, fortunately, and used the hour to practice typing and work in powerpoint. Others were learning to use touchpads by moving the cursor over a picture until it was visible and by clicking and double-clicking to destroy cartoon fish. A different game had letters (both uppercase and lowercase!) falling until they were typed. I´ve gotten quite good at that game. Curse the lack of an ¨ñ¨ on my American keyboard.

Well, after playing the mouse and keyboard games for a while, I opened up the Spanish version of Open Office and said ¨Check it out, you can write stuff!¨ Only to realize how boring and pointless that was. Look, the tab button can do indents. Woo-hoo.

But wait!
All of my time spent playing (pointless) computer games and creating (pointless) powerpoints about friends for my Communications class rushed to mind. All of my time in Spanish classes here and at UD talking through (pointless) situations came back to me! Oh, all of the (pointless) creating and destroying of folders and documents and pictures that I had done, at home and in computer classes! Why, the best way to teach might be to give a (perhaps pointless) assignment and be around to help!

Anyway, that was how the other volunteers were doing it, so I followed suit :-) I like the method, as long as the assignment is reasonably enjoyable.

On that note, I´m looking forward to helping Frederlinda create a powerpoint about her family. Anna suggested it to Frederlinda during the class, and Frederlinda´s excited to learn more about Powerpoint, Excel, Word, and everything else from Anna.

Wicked sweet!

Hasta luego,
Pete