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

Tutor Seminar - 17/09/2004

Tutor Seminar held on 15/09/2004 17:32:29 at ABBEY COMMUNITY CENTRE

Present:
Anthony Wigram, Tracy Pernice, Chris Garbett, Lisa Oram, Katherine Brennan, Doreen Nicholas, Tracey Fawthrop, Keith Penrose, Patricia Webb, Carl Gascoigne, Shabab Reza, Boyko Grigorov, Chris Frederick, Nilesh Shah, Richard Burton, Debbie Brixey, Gabriell

Apologies:
Helen Dashwood, Phil Griller, Simon Smith, Margaret Power, Gian Montagna, Judith Bartholomew, David Brown, Lorraine Manning, Amjad Taha, Barry Freedman, Kevin Frost, Selva Ramesh, Avril Hanning, Taher Ali, Tarik Duru, Sally Fonseca, Daniel Gilson

Minutes:
AW began with welcoming everybody to the Tutor Seminar

1. Minutes of Last Meeting

AW asked if everyone had read the minutes of the last meeting and called for any questions.

AW mentioned that there is a small amount of money left in the Gilchrist Educational Fund, which is to help students purchase computer equipment. Students must contact the office before purchasing anything, to ensure there is still money in the pot.

No other comments were made.


3. Presentation

Lisa announced that a bottle of champagne was to be presented to Chris Frederick to congratulate him for his overall performance over the past 3 months.

4. Administration – Lisa Oram

Lisa said that U Can Do I.T. is not taking on any new admin staff after Avril’s departure as admin manager. This means that she is taking over Avril’s role and will be allocating students and dealing with queries, Katie will continue to receive lesson reports and process invoices.

i. Lesson Reports

She also asked that tutors please use the most up to date versions of both lesson reports and assessment forms and to also include the number of hours spent on homework and the students email address. We do monitor homework and like to send students encouraging emails.

ii. Tutorial Targets

Anthony commented that we are currently behind target in regard to tutorials. He asked tutors to aim to give students one lesson per week. Of course, each student is different and their needs will vary. Some may want more than one a week some will require less. Holidays, sickness and computer problems are also factors.

5. Funding Update - Anthony Wigram

Anthony started by announcing that Andrew Coutts had resigned due to personal reasons. We have not appointed a new fundraiser, instead his work is being spread between office staff and Chris Frederick, with Chris Garbett playing a significant part.

We have put in a major bid to the European Social Fund. The have £millions for social purposes eg finding employment, which is divided up into many different areas. The Learning & Skills Council (Pan London) have received £26 million of these funds and have earmarked £500,000 over two years towards disability. This sum will be awarded to only one charitable body.

In order to be eligible to receive this grant from the LSC, the winning bid will need to provide NVQ’s. Our argument is that no NVQ exists for people wishing to work from home. Therefore we are proposing to create a new NVQ to teach people the skills required to use their home as the workplace, eg telephone communications, filing, faxing, various software packages such as Word & Excel, emailing, internet use etc. This would mean re-training for tutors. Please note: Not all students will have to take an NVQ, the usual UCDIT course will still be available.

Nilesh asked if this was to be provided in the usual 10 lessons. Anthony said that we would provide 20 lessons, each lesson being half a day, which would mean a higher rate of pay for tutors.

We have various partners supporting us in our bid including Edexcel who are an Awarding Body. They were very enthusiastic in helping us create an NVQ.

Nilesh asked who would assess the NVQs. Anthony said that our other partners would be able to do that for us.

Anthony asked how many students the tutors thought would be interested in obtaining an NVQ. Keith said that most of his students are past retiring age, so this would probably only interest the younger ones. Patricia said that a lot of her students would be interested.

The discussion moved towards existing employment opportunities for home working. Anthony mentioned a suggestion that Carl had made about a scheme for students to vet other organisations websites. Debbie and Patricia both knew of organisations who did this and they pay £30-£50 per session.




6 & 7. Outreach & Marketing / Health & Safety – Chris Garbett

H&S

Chris is in the process of preparing smaller ESF bids, again in partnership with other organisations, eg Job Centre Plus.

Each bid is split into sections and marked by a percentage. Eg Health & Safety 12%. A huge emphasis is placed on Health and Safety. As the tutors do not work in a set workplace the H&S Regulations do not apply to them. However he has put together some simple notes for the tutors to follow to ensure their safety. Gabriella asked if tutors needed to be trained in H&S, but Chris said the notes were pretty self explanatory. He stressed that if a student has an accident or is taken ill while a tutorial is taking place, to inform him immediately.

Another area which needs to be considered is Sustainable Development. This is split into three areas, Social Progression which recognises the needs of everyone, Effective protection of the environment, Prudent use of natural resources and Maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth and employment. U Can Do I.T. needs to show that we actively promote these ideals and asked tutors to pass on ideas to students, eg turning off electrical equipment when not in use etc. If everyone makes a small contribution, this will create a trickle down effect.

Outreach and Marketing

Chris outlined two schemes we are involved in regarding computers for students.

Recycle IT – can provide recycled computers for £199. If tutors know of a potential student who would be interested, please contact the office for an order form.

Connecting U Project – Realise IT are being funded by four boroughs (Westminster, Lambeth, Southwark and City of London) to provide re-conditioned computers for disabled people living in those boroughs. The computers are reconditioned by Community Technology, we then provide the training. Technical support is provided by JADE Technology Group. (please note JADE are only available to students receiving computers on this scheme).


8. Student Support Groups – Chris Frederick

Chris gave a brief talk about how he gets his students to help each other practice their emailing skills.

One of the first people he asks his students to email is their local councillor to let them know they are taking the course and what they have gained from it so far. He asked other tutors to do the same.

He said that many of his students live isolated lives and have no one to communicate with. He enlists the help of a few students to standby on certain days to receive emails from students he is teaching, thereby they will receive an instant response.

Patricia said this was a good idea and linked in with something she has been working on with Boyko which is discussed in the Volunteer section.

9. Work of Volunteers – Patricia Webb/Doreen Nicholas/Boyko Grigorov

i. Buddy System

Patricia and Boyko have been working on a Buddy System. At the moment Boyko uses a Yahoo newsgroup to meet up with his students. He thought it would be a good idea to create a U Can Do I.T. student newsgroup. Nilesh asked if it was just for Yahoo users, Boyko said yes, it is easy to set up an account. Nilesh then said that some students may be too scared to sign up for another internet account. After a short discussion, everybody thought that a U Can Do I.T. newsgroup or chatroom would be a good idea and needed to be developed.

ii Patricia Webb

Patricia mentioned that many of the volunteer graduates do not know how to use the Graduate CD. She asked tutors to show their students how to do this and enquired if everyone had a copy of the CD. Doreen confirmed that this had been sent to all tutors previously.

She also said that a monthly newsletter is being created for graduates and she is hoping for lots of feedback from them for future issues. It was generally felt that this was a good idea, as there are many untold student stories, for example, Chris has a student who had won two Olympic gold medals and one other student who is running for England in the Paralymplics. Patricia also knew of students who had been involved in the Olympics and thought it would be a good idea to get all of these students together for a photo shoot.

iii Doreen Nicholas

Doreen said that a task book has been compiled to keep a record of all the work done by the volunteers. Thousands of leaflets and posters have now been sent out.

It was explained that Volunteers are split into different categories, Distributing leaflets/posters, Writing to councillors, Writing letters of recommendation and becoming an Email Buddy.

Doreen also said that she has a resource system on her computer which will allow her to give the volunteers contact details of libraries, names of MP’s etc in their area.

She also telephones the Volunteers on a regular basis, not to push for help, but to let them know she is there to help. This is hard work, but is worth it and is something she enjoys doing.


10. Tutor Training on MAC – Debbie Brixey

Debbie had noticed that many tutors do not teach students using MAC’s, as she is almost always called upon by the office to teach these students! She offered to give any interested tutors a tutorial plus notes, for which they will be paid £30 plus travel. If any tutor is interested please contact either Debbie or the office.

11. Website Update – Carl Gascoigne

Carl said that he hadn’t received any specific comments or feedback from tutors regarding the web site, but he is going to set up a U Can Do I.T. email for tutors to contact him. No changes have been made to the live site, but lots of work has been going on in the background:

· A facility to submit lesson reports through the web site is 70% complete and should be ready in a couple of weeks. He will ask Katie and a few tutors to help test the system by sending lesson reports the conventional way and also via the web site.
· An easier way for the office to update pages of the web site, instead of going through him. This will make things happen more quickly and keep the web site up to date.
· A Homework Generator, which will store homework topics on a database. There will be different levels of difficulty, and tutors will be able to select 2 or 3 topics and at the click of a button generate a homework sheet which can be printed out.

Tutors will be able to add topics and ideas by logging in using their ID number. Any ideas will need to be ok’d by the office.

Patricia asked if the tasks required for the AQA could be put in the database. Carl said yes.

· He was also looking into the possibility of creating a chatroom or newsgroup on the website.

If anyone has any ideas, please let him know.

12. Student Notes

Patricia said that changes need to be made for visually impaired users and she is liaising with Margaret.

13. Employment Opportunities

Nothing was said.


14. AQA

Some tutors expressed a little confusion over the forms used for the AQA. Patricia explained that Westminster Youth Service, who are an accredited AQA centre, process the forms on our behalf. She also went over Effective Use of Email (Unit 1) and said that each outcome is self explanatory. All outcomes are within the U Can Do I.T. syllabus. Once each section is complete, send it to the office as each section is certified separately. If any tutor would like a full set of AQA documents, please let Patricia know. Anthony asked if an incentive was offered to tutors, Lisa said no, but she would check.

15. Any Other Business

Anthony asked if the tutors preferred a later time for the seminar. Most tutors said that 6.00pm was too early and an agreed time of 6.45pm was set for the next seminar.

AW thanked all tutors for attending.


End of Minutes

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