Born in the 90's and growing up in the UK, I took it for granted being regularly exposed to the technology that surrounds us here. Something that made me take a step back and realise how the world really varies from country to country was when I had the opportunity to teach ICT lessons with the children at the schools we were visiting. With a small amount of previous teaching experience and regularly having to help my technophobe relatives with technology, I thought how hard could it be and volunteered to help run ICT classes. I didn't think that many children would want to attend when there was a bunch of Muzungu (White man) volunteers playing fun games outside but we soon had children piling through the door and the staff had to select the older children who they felt would benefit more from the lessons. Between 3 and 5 children squeezed around on laptop (which we had brought along with us) or very old styled computed; each student very keen to at least be able to have one hand touching it. To my amazement this was the first time the majority of the children had seen a computer/laptop. At Mbame primary school I noticed on the blackboard that they had some work on the theory so felt this would be a good place to start.
The theory included the names of the different components of a computer, where to find the letters and numbers, punctuation, the arrow keys and how to use a mouse. Things I just assumed they would already know. To help with the slight language barrier, a member of staff would translate what I was saying which allowed me to go round to each computer set and point out what I was talking about to the children.
I started with a group task of typing out the alphabet; getting them used to finding the letters. It took them much longer than I had planned and I had to keep reminding myself this was the first time they had used a computer. I tried to think back to my first experiences on a computer but was so young I can't remember not being able to touch type. Children in the UK are encouraged at such a young age to use computers; I have cousins that have their homework set on a computer at much younger ages than the children I was teaching. Despite this, the majority were quick to learn and by the end of their 45 minute session were typing much faster.
To prepare them for secondary school (where they would be using a computer) I thought it would be beneficial to teach how to use Word. We started with basic sentences using capital letters and full stops. They found the concept of just pressing each key rather than holding it down difficult and would end up with 'mmyyy naameeeee' so spent time practising just tapping the keys and also how to use the backspace if they go wrong. They were all too keen to use the backspace and would delete the majority of their work so that they got a longer turn at typing or someone else would delete their work as they were typing if they noticed they had gone wrong. Other than this I was impressed how good they were at sharing. I laughed to myself imagining if we had this kind of structure in a UK class of having 3-5 students at one laptop or very outdated computer all having to share. At the same time however it really made me wish that we could have provided enough laptops for them to have one each so they could practise individually. It was a shame but we made the best with what resources we had.
On the blackboard there was a pre written passage about 'The Chief'' which encouraged the use of different punctuation. I showed them this and after demonstrating how to type the rest of the punctuation, how to underline and centralise text, set them off trying to type this individually. The physiotherapists in the group made a useful observation that the children would only type with one hand and that to benefit their fine motor skills we should encourage them to use both hands to type so I tried to implement this. All of the children were successful at typing out the passage and were keen to learn more. I loved that the children were so keen to learn and wanted to stay longer than their lesson to practise. It was a beautiful work ethic that I find lots of children lack in the UK. At the end of the lesson when they had spent extra time practising typing sentences they asked if they could do some fun things on the computers so I showed them how to load up photos, videos and music which they all enjoyed looking at and listening to despite the lack of variety. I hope that the children manage to remember some of what I taught them and that it will benefit them in secondary school. I definitely won't forget my wonderful experience teaching them.
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