Update 1999

February
Starting a new term, I decided to be flexible and low key in how we used computers in the classroom. I want to let the computers be an adjunct to, rather than the focus of, class work. The first week presented problems with the network so that we had an unsuccessful time trying to check Hotmail and register a new student. The students were not too fussed by the time wasted but I was conscious of not wanting to have "more of the same" from last year's early encounters.

I did observe in the students a sense of confidence in approaching the computers and a willingness to engage again with email. Two students had accessed their email over the holidays and had responses to check.

We are working on a Local History project that I hope will encourage use of the Internet as a resource and also to produce work on the computer for our Newsletter.

Yarranet has a couple of sites that I have looked at but the students have not as yet.

10/3/99
We have been to the Carlton Library and there is the possibility of using their computers for a session in the future. I have found that having one computer in the room has been useful and I have adapted my class plans to allow for individual or group use.

17/3/99
St. Patrick's Day. I had not really planned to celebrate but we got talking and so I decided to ask one of the students to do a search on the Internet. This was a good way of testing his skills as well as finding out information for the class to use. The immediacy of the information was great and the class "tuned in" to his searching. He was quite confident in carrying out the search and was successful. He wanted to find out about his surname but was not able to access the genealogical file, as it was no longer a free service. This is sometimes a problem when a search has to be halted because of refused access.

We generated an invitation for our end of term Bocce tournament using Publisher. I did the typing and asked the group to decide on details of text, font, border, images etc. I hope to use Publisher more with the group when we get on to our Newsletter.

After class two students checked their email independently and one sent me an email thanking me for the "fun we had today".

24/3/99
We composed an email message to send to Glenys' class. For the sake of expediency I typed as they dictated.
Later in the session, I set up two students with an "uncapitalised" version of a group written report. We have been working on proper nouns and this was a way of checking their use. The more experienced student was patient instructing the other student who got valuable practice with his keyboarding skills as well as reinforcing the grammar.

Margaret's Journal Extracts

12th July
Activity
Students visited my home for some time on looking at the internet. We had only one computer and so they looked on while I did it. We looked at Italian newspapers and compared 'The Age' on line with the actual newspaper. They stayed for lunch.

Results
They were more interested than I expected and enjoyed looking at the newspapers. We did it for a lot longer than I had planned and so had lunch late. They were interested in the 2 different 'Ages'.

Thoughts
As expected it turned out to be a good way to introduce them to the internet as it could go for as long or as short as desired because we had an alternative. Also it was in a homely environment. Usually computer labs are rather foreign type places especially for older women who are used to a home environment. It also showed them clearly that the net could offer them something enjoyable that they had no access to in any other form. It was not frustrating as they were protected from that by me doing everything.

I talked to them about the project. I said we would give it a go and if they didn't like it we would not have to do it.

Results
There was not always a lot of success at finding the search they were looking for, especially the Syrian woman.

Thoughts
Searching is a difficult process, especially when you get offered a lot of sites and the first one is not very good. Their literacy was not really good enough to assess what use any site would be from its summary. They certainly learnt a lot about how frustrating it can all be and that was what I wanted to protect them from.

I think that it is better to give them specific sites and get them to visit them and to find new ones by making links. Searching is a skill that can come later when they have seen it being done in context by the teacher.

• Mount Etna
• Italian newspapers
• And I had found a site on the Siamese twins who gave the title to the twins - something we had discussed recently in class and where there were questions that the article did not answer but which this site did.

I had chosen these sites because they had good pictures, and one had short videos which took a while to 'download' and so would have given me an opportunity to talk about visual images and how they take much more time than words.

We did find some new sites which gave the students the opportunity to move from one site to another and to choose ones from a list of sites. It also gave them a good chance to use the back button. The other students returned to sites that we had visited before the Italian news. They also visited the sites about the Siamese twins.

On the dot of the hour the people who had booked the next sessions took over while we were in the middle of reading something.

Thoughts
I was surprised to see that the students were not yet comfortable with the mouse and still found it difficult. If I had had more access with computers we could have practiced it more with something like Solitare, which others students I have taught previously found was enjoyable and which had little to learn besides clicking and dragging.

Perhaps I should have some more time on the computer in the office at work or to take in a portable from home. Also perhaps it is better to have a concentrated session so that we do the same thing each week running so that they can master a small amount of things.

I left the library not sure where I should go with them. Up to now I have dragged them along and they have been very happy to do it. At times they have been very excited about the amazingness of it all. They have not overly felt the frustrations that I have felt at the time it takes to get somewhere, as I have protected them from it.

I think they need lots of time to just play around with the internet in their own time. Perhaps we should go back to Co-As-It, but make it really clear to the teacher what it is that they need.

Maybe I should have a session where they tell me what they now know about the internet without me making leading questions. I suspect it may be more than I think, though of course it will not include things like the difficulty some of them still have with using the mouse. Maybe we could also discuss what they want to learn more, and how they think it could be something that they use. I think I would need to have some more ideas before I had these discussions, as I suspect there is much more that I need to find out first so I can entice them to be more interested.

They loved the way the printer printed what was on the screen. They were obviously excited by it even though I had already given them things printed from the internet, but because it was not next to the screen it had not had the same effect.

Thoughts
Students still need more practice in using the mouse. I really need to have them do more Solitaire. It is like what Sue and I decided when we were looking at the maths games the other day. For it to work really well the maths had to be used to play the game rather than the game being to teach a specific maths skill. It may seem like the same thing but it is very different. So I think my students have to play a game that using mouse skills only.

I was surprised that they were so excited about seeing their own work printed as they have seen work from the internet being printed before, but that was printed a long way away from the computer they were at and they didn't have any ownership of it.

They are still happy to go back to the internet place and have a go by themselves. Are they just passive or are they really happy about it?

I am not sure what to do with them next. Perhaps we need to do a session on what they have learnt and what they want to do next. It is a little hard for them to say, as I am the one leading. They have not said that they want to do it but I have said that I want them to do it. I wrote about this idea last week but did not do it this week as I wanted to something different and I had a good story that they would like. On the other hand by not doing it this week perhaps I have put them back. However I did do the work on the computer so to some extent I have done it. Perhaps I will see if I can put solitaire on a couple of computers and perhaps on a portable as well so they can learn just the mouse skills. Do I need to aim higher with them? Do I need to learn more so we can aim higher? I think I need to learn a lot more and to see what is out there. Who can I sent emails to?

I do want to do home pages which would be good for getting them to do some writing and would show them a lot about what a home page is. Perhaps I need to talk to other people about what they are doing or even read about it. Maybe I will ring the students and get from them what they want to find out about and then we can get into it more quickly.

Results
The student who sent the email was happy with the activity despite her typing being very slow.

Some of the specific sites did not work for various reasons. One did not work as it had a video as part of it and these computers did not allow for such. Others did not work as there were problems with the computers today. All students were able to eventually visit a site that they found interesting either by going around the site problems or by trying again by searching etc or by getting help from the assistants.

The student who wanted to go at the end was the one who did not have very specific requests and had a frustrating time not finding things. One student decided to do typing practice, one thing we have not done at all except for me typing what they disctated.

The new Mt Etna sites did not work. I eventually discovered that the computers did not have the necessary software. I was totally unaware that this was needed.

The excitement was not the same as on previous sessions. The students who sent the Email were

Thoughts
I found it very easy to do the things for the students especially when their mouse skills were not good. It is obvious that they need to practice their mouse skills as it is making it seem more difficult than it is for them and using the internet does not give enough concentrated practice. (See comment above about playing games.)

I had not really prepared the students enough. I should have spoken to them about emailing as it is one way of practicing their writing in a meaningful way. It is also something that they could use since they have access to computers and relatives overseas. It is also an easy way of them using the internet and very understandable and immediate. It would have been a way of feeling that I have made progress rather than just continuing the same thing. On the other hand they have not had enough practice at what we have done to feel at all confident to do something by themselves.

The problem with the computers not accepting the videos could have been overcome if I had known more about the internet, and then would have phoned to check. I did not know enough to even check.

When I am working in someone else's lab and with them in charge I have been inclined to let him have a free range. Next time I will send the lesson plan ahead so he is prepared and so am I and the students so we can make the best use of the time there.
How do I teach between lessons at the computer lab?

Results
Initially the exercise did not work but eventually I tried another way and it worked. The students were excited to see it and to see that it was linked to my home page. They could see that the two addresses were different and that they were used for different uses.

Thoughts
Once again my teaching was restricted by the way I had to use the equipment. I planned using the computer around what suited the other worker. This was far from the best time for the class. It would have been far better to settle them down after the break, revise what we had already done and then start with making our home page.

I doubt if they were able to conceptually connect our web pages at first to the ones they had seen on the internet. Also they were probably overwhelmed by the tiny writing on the notepad that was hard to read. I should have given an example of the difference between the notepad and the finished product. I just wanted them to see the finished product and to decide what should go onto it. I was a bit affected by my excitement that I could write in HTML and having seen lots of it with my husband being a computer programmer I found it exciting. To them it should have been passed over quickly and doing the one off the internet would have been much better for them. However I did want to start the term off with something new and I didn't have time to learn the one off the internet.

I would have to say that the lesson was not as successful as I had hoped. I am hoping that they will like it when we put in the photo and hopefully some graphics.

Result
Students were amazed by the speed of sending email to a person who is in Italy. The student in question was very keen to send it.

Thoughts
Perhaps this should have been the first way to go. It is easy to imagine the process and it involves some writing. Also it was something that the house had access to very early. Also I could send one to myself and then print it out at the class and send a reply back as Glenys has done.

Activity
Looked at home-pages of students at the TAFE as well as the homepage we did last week. We changed the colour of the one we had made.

Results
Some of the students had to leave early and so it desipated the energy. However a new student was happy to watch it and to make the connections and to read about the students.

Thoughts
I left the class feeling that it had not worked because a few of them had wanted to leave early. Possible I am too sensitive to their emotional state about the learning when I am so aware how much pride and enjoyment I get from learning about the internet and yet I can be very frustrated at times and can be very put off.

Results
Some of the students were very excited by their homepage and the link. One student was not interested but I had not done a page for her and had no photo. They understood readily how easy it is to lie on a webpage and that many sites can be factually unreliable.

Thoughts
Same problems as before about some being at the back and not very interested. Making home pages was the best way of quickly teaching the need for critical literacy on the internet. One would need to do a lot of work to teach the skills of how to astudentsestudents the worth of information on the internet. As yet we have really only looked at very reparable sources that I have found for them. Perhaps this does not need to be pointed out until we do a lot more searches and come up with non-reparable sites. Still one has to point this out now and then refer back to it when one needs to. Perhaps at that time I could actually put something onto my homepage like a different photo to point this out again.

Activity
Students wrote their homepages after looking at some different printed ones done by other students. They did not feel they could write by themselves so I scribed one of the students' work on the

Results
Once they had a format to follow they were happy to do it.

Thoughts
I suspect it would be better to do it straight onto the screen but that would have taken up too much time and I felt it looked so inaccessible on the notepad screen I wanted to protect them from it. However I will do it again especially things like changing the colour and maybe looking at some videos to put onto their homepage. They were a bit interested in having some of their previous writing put onto the net linked in from their homepage.

We certainly need to have a talk about it again and tell them what I can offer them and find from them what they want to do. Some of them still need mouse skills. I also need to astudentsestudents what they have learnt and what is there has been any attitude shifts. Certainly they are happy to visit another class and to go back to Co-As-It. They like it there because the teacher speaks in Italian. Perhaps learning English and the internet together is too open to frustration for them.

One of the most competent and interested students gave some good feedback. She had seen someone on tv who was elderly talking about using the internet. She was impressed with herself because she could understand what he was talking about. He was also older than she was.

The last point I should remember is that they are looking forward to having the new computers in the room. On the whole they are interested in it.