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Notes of Tutor Seminars:
 Tutor Seminar - 05.06.01:
These are the Notes from the WAACIS Freelance Tutor Meeting held on Tuesday 5 June 2001 at 16, Porchester Terrace, W2.
Those attending:
- Anthony Wigram, Tracy Pernice, Avril Hanning, Martin Ball,
Chris Baker, Mohammed Khan, Amjad Rehman, Boyko Grigorov, Gabriella Gatward, David Somerset, Daniel Gilson, Stephen Engel, Sina Adekoya, Deborah Brixey, John Howlett, Xenia Coventry, Michelle Delgado, Patricia Webb, Cliff Docherty, Keith Penrose
1. Apologies for absence
Apologies were received from Adefemi Adedapo, Letwin Adekoya, Dinah Austin, Mary Bautista- Harman, Tracey Fawthrop, Syed Hassan, Selva Ramesh, Terry Soper, Max Warner
2. Introduction of new tutors
Deborah Brixey, Xenia Coventry, Amjad Rehman, Syed Hassan,
Keith Penrose.
The new tutors introduced themselves and, Xenia said that she wants to do more to help the community, Amjad said he was a student, Daniel Gilson said that he was moving to new employment and is enjoying working as a freelance tutor. Keith Penrose said that he was the newest tutor and was hoping to do well with WAACIS.
3. Student Recruitment
Martin spoke about all the different ideas he had and how the tutors could play a very positive role in obtaining more students. He asked all tutors to help him in his quest to find students and also suggested that all new ideas would be welcome.
Gabriella and John Howlett suggested that bright posters be put in the Doctors waiting rooms in all Boroughs.
Patricia said that it would be a good idea to get some WAACIS cards so that things could be handed out. Stephen suggested getting in contact with Family Practitioners and to have Bigger Print for the posters for the doctor's surgery.
4. E-Group
Cliff said that it was going very well and that he had added 10 new tutors to the e-group list. Stephen commented also asking what the e-group was all about, John Howlett said that it made the tutors feel more like a team as they could converse more freely than before and said that it is a great idea and that all tutors should use it at any time and exchange ideas.
5. Tutor Training
Patricia has now trained 8 tutors, she told all the tutors that it would be worthwhile and that it is hard work, but she suggests that all the tutors learn Jaws and HAL. All agreed.
6. Web Site
Chris Baker said that the website had increased in the last 3 months and that it was moving in a positive direction. He also spoke about the re-design of the website. He also said that the bulletin boards were being used more often than before. John Howlett said that WAACIS was expanding and that when he did a search under his name, it came up as John Howlett, WAACIS Tutor which he thought was amazing.
7. Student Assessments
AW said that it had become apparent that certain changes were needed in the way in which assessments were organised. In particular it was important for the potential students to understand thoroughly exactly what the terms and conditions were. For this reason from now on tutors will be asked to go through the students terms and conditions with the student and to explain each point. AW then went through the student terms and conditions as they are currently drafted and explained the various points which needed to be emphasized including the need to do homework as well as the importance of the joint e-mail during each tutorial. In addition it was stressed that when a student was under age the parent or carer should remain present in the house while the tutorial was taking place and should not take the opportunity to go shopping or to leave the premises.
8. Lesson Reporting
AW showed the tutors the new form and said that it is important that the student as well as the tutor comments on the lesson and all the tutors agreed.
AW stressed that we will have to show this to our funders and that is why this information is vitally important. The office would be extremely grateful if all tutors would now agree to send lesson reports as a part of each tutorial. This would greatly help work in the office which is already over burdened with paperwork. The co-operation of the tutors would be greatly appreciated.
9. WAACIS Course
So far the WAACIS course has not been clearly defined but had to cover sending and receiving emails, surfing the web and the use of chat rooms. However it would be a plus to WAACIS if we were in some way associated with a clearly defined standard. The important thing was to strike a balance between this and providing a test for individual students, which WAACIS did not wish to do. AW pointed out that Module 7 of the EDCL (European Computer Driving Licence) covered the WAACIS course with the exception of chatrooms. The question was asked whether this might form the basis of the WAACIS course in the future. A copy of the ECDL syllabus had been circulated before the meeting. This was discussed and tutors were asked to return this syllabus marking those parts of the course which they already included in their tutorials. (These have now been examined and most tutors included the entire course although some items were omitted by some tutors. The exclusions do not follow any logical pattern.)
It was agreed that the discretion of the tutors should be preserved, as this was an important part of encouraging many disabled people to use the internet.
Cliff Docherty said that he had a list of headings which he tried to cover. It was suggested that this subject should be discussed by the E-Group. A starting point would be the publication of Cliff Docherty's List. Everybody agreed that there should be no WAACIS compulsory exam but on the other hand if students wish to obtain a specific accreditation WAACIS should encourage them to do so.
Patricia said that she also leaves notes for her students and it was agreed that all tutors should do this were possible.
10. Additional Tutorials
The Tutors suggested that there should be a refreshment lesson after 3 months. The amounts of lessons the student needs would depend on the ability of the student and whether the student would benefit from more lessons or not. David Somerset also then asked how this would affect the billing and Anthony said that we have to look into that in the future.
11. AGM
Anthony announced that the AGM will be held on the 20th of September and that all tutors were welcome to attend.
12. Any other business
Tracy enquired when the tutors preferred to get extra training and they agreed that it would be best to be done on a Saturday morning.
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