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Notes of Tutor Seminars:
 Tutor Seminar - 27.06.00:
These are the Notes from the second WAACIS Freelance Tutor Meeting held on Tuesday 27th June at 16, Porchester Terrace, W2.
Those attending:
- Anthony
- Tracy
- Dinah
- Michelle
- Patricia
- Cliff
- Tamesha
- Mahamed
- Terence
- Shangara
1. Report on current situation:
AFW gave a general report regarding:
a) The staffing of the WAACIS office.
b) Number of lessons etc. given.
c) The fact that we have three new tutors since the last meeting, two of whom were attending the meeting, but that Andrew had since ceased to be a tutor due to other commitments.
d) Monies held in the bank.
2. Comments on Assessments and the Assessment procedure and collection of fees:
AFW asked all the tutors present to give their experiences regarding assessments. It was clear that some assessments were very straightforward when the computers were fully operational, but a number of tutors had experienced problems due to students not being set up correctly etc. and have found themselves having to do this for the students.
Mary stated that one of her students had had to return his computer to the supplier and she had had to help him set it up. Once it was set up she found that there were still problems with it and he was very disillusioned thinking he would have to pack it up again and return it to the manufacturer. Mary informed him that by law the supplier has to come out if the person is disabled and it is within the guarantee period, and this is what he did.
Terence mentioned that one of his students had had a computer from a major Charity, which did not have a CD. Also that their ISP looked after his PC and that their local supplier charged £90 for a call-out.
Patricia recommended a standardised testing procedure be put in place as part of the assessment. This can also help tutors who take over the lessons from a previous tutor who had taken only the assessment of the student.
It was suggested that the question "Is your computer operational?" be put on the students application form.
It was agreed that the tutor would be given details of their students computer, age, disability and their next of kin.
No-one had a problem regarding the collection of fees. 3. Tutorials:
Terence said that he had a problem with one of the "old" WAACIS students who was supposed to have 3 free lessons and wanted to learn web publishing as web design had been offered, and it wasn't possible to do this in 3 lessons. Mary stated that when her students wish to learn web design she suggested that they search for web tutorials. Mahamed mentioned that he had created 10 lessons for learning web site design, however it was noted that WAACIS basically taught e-mails, surfing the net and chatrooms.
Cliff mentioned that one of his students was not at all interested in chatrooms, she was an 83 year old very broad minded lady, but when he went into chatrooms with her he had to shift through voluminous amounts of pornography. Various other tutors stated that they had not had this problem. It was suggested that we identify 6 friendly, busy, safe chatrooms and tutors were asked to put forward ideas. Mary stated that you could create your own chat room using publicchat.com which gives you a list of sports, medical etc. Patricia said that e-chat is quite good for people with disabilities.
As discussion took place regarding the testing of students at the end of the course and Mary gave some examples.
4. Training for tutors:
Ability Net: Cliff said that he would have liked some hands on experience. Dinah explained that this had become impossible due to numbers. Patricia said that she would have liked it to have gone into more detail. AFW explained that this is normally a full day course, but had been cut down to 2 hours. Everyone agreed that they had found it most interesting. It was felt that it would have been helpful if it could have gone into more detail for such programmes as Via Voice/Dragon, Lunar and Easi-Keys. Patricia said that most of the programs can be down loaded for free for 90 days, but you have to reboot every fifteen minutes. However it was an excellent way of learning. It was suggested that the information that you can down load programs for 90 days be put on the web site, and also chatrooms.
Patricia stated that she was finding out about free first aid training with the St. Johns Ambulance, which she thought would be a good idea for tutors to take. AFW stated that he was slightly anxious about this, although he had had training at his own Phab Club but Patricia stated that it taught you when you should or should not call an ambulance. Mary thought this a good idea and gave an account of her experience with a student who had recently had an operation on his shoulder.
5. Recruitment of students & tutor skills update:
Dinah gave a report on her student recruitment and results. She stated that it had been agreed that she would target Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Camden. She asked tutors to let her know if there was any organisation that they would like her to contact. Dinah also informed the meeting that she had the proof of the Annual Report for anyone to look at and that we are having 1,000 copies printed and if anyone would like a copy to let her know.
A tutor skills and preference questionnaire was given to those present to complete and hand in.
It was agreed that we introduce "tutors as teachers" training sessions and it was recommended that these take place every 4-6 weeks:
- Patricia offered to teach via voice speech recognition.
- Mary offered to teach chatrooms and newsgroups.
- Mahamed said he would give a talk on web site development.
- Cliff to teach deaf awareness. He also said that if anyone was interested he can run an accredited course, which is 10 hours.
It was agreed that there could also be a trouble-shooting lesson, including instruction on modem connection.
It was agreed that all tutors would be e-mailed to see if they have anything they could teach the teachers.
6. Web Site:
AFW informed those present that the WAACIS web site at www.waacis.org.uk went online that morning. Unfortunately Chris who designed it has been unable to attend the meeting. AFW said that he was pleased with it and urged tutors to have a good look at it and let us have their comments.
7. Choice of ISP:
Patricia mentioned that for speech packages, Virgin is the best. Terence said that he used AOL which he was satisfied with and felt would be good for students due to the lack of necessary clicking, however there was a monthly charge with them. Cliff mentioned that despite previous bad press Screaming.net was continually on the top list of ISP's. It was considered that Pipex was good.
There was a considerable discussion regarding the various ISP's regarding their charges, reliability etc. and it was felt that there would be a lot of changes in the coming weeks. However AFW stated that he felt we ought to make a decision regarding ISP's and Michelle volunteered to prepare a report on ISP's for the web site.
8. Any other business:
Cliff thought that egroups would be good for WAACIS and could save time for the WAACIS office. It could be monitored easily by a moderator i.e. the office via the web and the moderator can set the list so that it is "closed". He currently runs one for people to learn Swedish. It was considered to be a good idea, but would have to have a code of practice. It was agreed that Cliff would look further into it.
9. Date of next meeting:
Tuesday 17th October @ 6.30 p.m.
The meeting then closed and refreshments were served.
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