Computer training for blind deaf and disabled people in their own home

Tutor Seminar - 08/03/2001

Tutor Seminar held on 08/03/2001 16:00:29 at 16 Porchester Terrace

Present:
Anthony Wigram, Tracy Pernice, Chris Baker, Tracey Fawthrop, Gabriella Gatward, Boyko Grigorov, Mohammed Khan, Malcolm May, Natasha Murray, Ademola Olayinka, Shangara Singh, Terence Soper, Tricia Webb

Apologies:
None

Minutes:
1. Apologies for absence

Apologies were received and noted. AW said that it was a pity that more tutors had not been able to attend since the feedback between the office and the tutors was extremely important. However we did have a very representative sample, large enough for the discussions to be effective and helpful. In fact four tutors were ill (one with a broken leg). Four were either on holiday or on extended leave and the remainder were involved with family or work commitments. However the date of the meeting had been set well in advance and we would do the same the next time. The meeting would be in early June. This would be particularly important because we would want to take a group photograph for inclusion in the Annual Report.

2. Introduction of new tutors

The new tutors introduced themselves saying something about their previous experience and how they got to know about WAACIS and why they wanted to be a WAACIS tutor. Most new tutors have already been allocated with students and we were delighted to learn that they were thoroughly enjoying the work and making satisfactory progress.

3. E-group

The e-group is a method for tutors to communicate with each other in a general way by use of e-mail. This was set up by Cliff Docherty. Unfortunately Cliff was taken ill with flu at the last moment and was unable to attend. However the tutors reported that they found the e-group extremely helpful. They were able to exchange ideas and problems. Tracy Fawthrop also pointed out that they were able to create a databank and know who to refer to if in future certain difficulties arose. She thought that there ought to be a facility for the tutors to record their own particular interests and specialities and it was agreed that this idea would be passed on to Cliff by the office.

4. Tutor training

a) The subject of tutor training was extensively discussed. Patricia Webb said that the training for the tutors who wished to learn the programmes enabling them to teach visually impaired people were progressing satisfactorily. The idea was that the tutors would download demo programmes from the web and send Patricia whatever queries they wished to raise. They would then have two individual tutorials with Patricia and once she felt that they were ready would accompany her on one of her tutorial visits.

AW emphasised that we had a large number of applications from visually impaired students and it was very important for WAACIS to build up a group of at least six tutors who could undertake these responsibilities.

b) Seminar weekend for aurally impaired tuition by Cliff Docherty. With Cliff being absent AW explained that the seminar would be held on April 28th & 29th and that eight tutors had so far signed up for the course. There was still space for four more tutors and it was agreed that it would be important for these places to be taken up because the cost of the seminar was quite considerable. AW said that we had just taken on a profoundly deaf tutor, Simon Archer, who unfortunately had been unable to come for today’s seminar.

Once again it was emphasised how important it was for WAACIS to build up a group of tutors who were expert in this field.

c) European Computer Driving Licence. AW said that he had had a very good meeting with Caroline Lambie of Hairnet who had advised that the European Computer Driving Licence was an excellent qualification for tutors and she thoroughly recommended it. AW had visited the site and suggested that Module Seven which concerned the Internet might be suitable as a basis for the course tutors delivered to students. He also said from a funding point of view a basic standard tutor qualification such as the ECDL would be a valuable aid in establishing the credentials of WAACIS. The web site is www.ecdl.co.uk and it was agreed that the tutors would look at the web site and see how useful they thought it was.

d) AW said that the tutors who worked for Hairnet were largely responsible for getting their own students and that this was done mainly through local publicity. Emma Solomon who is a director of Hairnet had agreed to come and give a talk to WAACIS tutors explaining how they should go about generating publicity in their own areas. AW thought that this was an extremely useful exercise and hoped very much that tutors would attend the seminar when it was arranged.

5. Student assessments

The office had decided to ask tutors to go through the terms and conditions attributable to WAACIS students explaining in detail all the various points. It had become quite clear that several parts of the terms and conditions were being ignored. In particular this referred to students who did not inform tutors when they were either ill or unable to take the pre-arranged tutorial, or situations where the students had reconfigured their machine and rendered them inoperable. There were also various other points including visiting various sites which might cause embarrassment to either tutor or student. This was to be avoided.

A further point was that WAACIS is going to apply to register as a provider of Individual Learning Account. This was a government scheme, which gives £150 to the provider for any student who signs on for the course. It was agreed that once this had been set up registration would become part of the assessment process.

6. Lesson reporting

The most important thing here was to make sure that the students did do their homework. This was a commitment under the terms and conditions and must be pointed out to the students before they are accepted. A discussion then followed about the advisability of sending the lesson reports as part of each tutorial. This is part of the terms and conditions for new tutors, but was not an original commitment for those tutors who were taken on at the beginning of the scheme. After some discussion it was agreed that the two methods should be run in tandem for an experimental period. Some tutors felt that they were inhibited by sending the lesson report in front of the student, on the other hand it was agreed that continual assessment and honesty with the student had a lot to be said for it. In most cases the student would work hard and it was felt that good reports would give them considerable encouragement and persuade them to take the course seriously and to work hard. A number of tutors felt that they would like to spend more time considering their reports.

7. Web site

Chris Baker reported that the use of the web site by members of the public was gradually increasing. We now averaged fifty completely new people visiting the site every day. This was very encouraging. He said that he wanted to keep the site simple and informative. He also said that he would welcome any proposals or ideas, which students or tutors would like to put forward.

It was generally agreed that it would be a good thing for the students to visit the WAACIS web site as part of the programme. The facility for e-mailing the office from the site would be made more apparent.

Patricia Webb suggested that the site should be given a bobby approved icon (which means it will conform to certain standards of acceptability by disabled people). The great advantage of this was that it would then be linked to other sites of similar nature and would be on a group list of various people who were looking for these sites.

Chris thanked Shangara Singh for the work he had done in putting informative material about the use of mouse and sticky keys helpful to disabled people. Similar ideas on other aspects concerning the Net would be considered.

Shangara asked if it would be possible to have some standard test, which was accessible on the site. This was considered, but since no one would know who had actually taken the test it was felt to be relatively unmanageable. However this would be carefully considered.

Terence Soper asked if suitable chat rooms and newsgroups could be added to the web site so that tutors would know that they could avoid groups containing offensive material. This would be looked into.


8. Student Recruitment

AW said that we were looking for a Development Organiser and an advertisement had already been placed. The details of the job would be available to any tutor who wanted them after the meeting and in addition details would be posted on the web.

9. Any other business

Patricia Webb suggested that we ought to check up on students after the course had finished. This was though to be a good idea. AW said that this was something we had in mind, but of course depended on funding and availability. It would be very good to try and keep an eye on graduated students and to help them where and when this was necessary. In particular it would be good if they were to use the bulletin board on our web site. Unfortunately this was not being used very much at the moment, but it was pointed out that this was often the case.

A photograph of tutors present was then taken by AW. AW thanked the tutors for coming and said that they would shortly be notified of the date of the next meeting.

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