Course Offered : Basic Computer training i.e MS Office and Internet Explorer using JAWS screen reader Course duration : 6 months (3 hours Tuesday to Friday). Course Fee : Free. There is a refundable deposit which will be returned in full on completion of the course with 90% timely attendance. Goals of the course : The emphasis of the course is for students to gain computer knowledge and use it effectively for employment, daily living and recreation. Details on the instructors : Split between visually impaired and sighted instructors. Instructors are practical users of JAWS and of the computer and have some teaching experience. Brief Curriculum Details : Windows, Basic Windows Applications, Windows Explorer, Help, Word, Internet Explorer, Excel, Outlook Express, JAWS features and utilities such as Kurzweill, Acrobat reader, MEssenger, Winzip.
Tools used
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I. Tactile diagrams and 3-D objects to allow the visually impaired to ?see? what is on the computer screen. This helps to understand and remember the concept better. (show photos of some tactile diagrams here )
II . Actual components such as opened up floppy, PCB, different types of disks eg: flash disk etc.
III. Music files for entertainment, Talking typing tutor for better typing, spelling and sentence construction.
VI. All practicals are through exercise files on the computer which allows students to work independently and at their own pace.
Method of teaching
Emphasis is on practical exercises with one PC per person and small class sizes. The exercises ensure adequate practice of practical problems and exception handling. Students are encouraged to explore, make mistakes and become independent and confident on the computer.
1.The emphasis is on learning while having fun.
2. The atmosphere is informal and every student is given as much time and opportunity to learn.
3.The emphasis throughout the course is for the student to develop their learnability skills. i.e the student needs to learn "How to learn on their own". This will happen when the student has an inquiring mind and does not mind trying different things on the computer.
4.We will take feedback from each student to ensure that the course keeps improving and caters to the needs of the students.
