Peter Macfarlane's Approach

Peter Macfarlane (Pic) gives a detailed account of how buddies takes students through a session, the content of the Webwise programme and how it is used interactively as a teaching tool.

Location: A sectioned-off area of computer lab: two PCs allow two buddies to work with a student each at the specified times. Buddies work for two consecutive sessions, taking a 15 minute break. Sessions are pre-booked. Buddies wear identity badges (saves embarrassment of forgetting names!) and always introduce themselves, shake hands and use the students' names to establish a friendly atmosphere.

Orientation: The student is shown to the PC with an appropriate ice-breaking remark, like "This is the hot seat!" It is important to ensure the student is comfortable, adjusting the seat if necessary so that lower arms are approx. horizontal when the hands are on the keyboard, upper legs supported and feet on the floor.

Previous experience: Find out what previous experience the student has had of computers, whether they have a PC at home, what their main uses will be: email, web, or word processing. (This may be indicated on the Day Sheet as W1(Taster), W2 (Follow-on)or WP (Word processing).

First Steps: Unless it is clear that it will be too basic, start with the BBC Webwise programme, accessed by a Desktop icon on the PC. This ensures that buddies immediately see the student in action, and can evaluate whether the whole business is completely new to them, and whether or not they are interested, for example, in the history of the Internet or want to get straight into the action.

The exercise of progressing through the Webwise programme gives a structure and shows the basic aspects of using the mouse, keyboard, and scrolling although most sections can be skipped if they are familiar. The procedures show people how to correct errors by Backspace or Delete; drag; position screen cursor. The program has an optional section for absolute beginners, explaining parts of a PC, and games to improve mouse control and double clicking. How one navigates through the programme will depend on the experience of the student. For example, a Quiz shows allows students to toggle on/off boxes with dots, and to click on Submit Answer - a common Internet procedure.

(Recently, a one lady student was reluctant to pursue the Teletubbies demonstration, but I explained it was just a way of showing links from page to page. She found of much more interesting, the BMI Health Check Calculator. This demonstrates how individuals have highly personal responses to the exercises.)

Options: The Webwise programme, after an introduction, gives choices of learning routes: E-mail, Internet, Searching, and Next Steps. It may be that the student does not know what choice to make. The Webwise program shows some of the topics, and beginners often are pleased to go down any route, whatever their progress.

Rate of completion: There is a wide range of time. The Webwise program suggests that a taster session will take about one hour. With a recent husband and wife team, with two Buddies, the husband took at least three sessions in contrast to his wife's one session to complete Webwise. He had never typed in his life as he was a retired Civil Engineer. He would have benefited from a quick typing course just to familiarise himself with the keys. I also am a Mechanical Engineer, and I took also 3 sessions to do Webwise initially. I think engineers like to go back to see what happens if you do it another way, and think about reasons why and what if, rather than "just doing it and hoping for the best".After Webwise: After completing Webwise, or sooner, the student will know on what she/he wants to do. This may mean going directly to the Internet, usually via the 3L Computer Club website: http://groups.msn.com/3LComputerClub I may take the student through the process of booking a flight, hotel or holiday online, or how to buy goods from a store, or how to search genealogy sites. Where students need to email relatives, we offer to help them sign up for an email address with Yahoo: www.yahoo.co.uk or perhaps this is done at a later session, or when attending the Computer Club.