Today was special because the class got a chance to work individually on learning better keyboarding skills through Mavis Beacon Program.  It was Good Friday and several class members opted to attend class rather than enjoy some of the holiday weekend activities.  It was beneficial to all that attended.

An area of weakness in the class is keyboarding skills and manual dexterity; so to practice basic skills has been important to help them become more proficient in computing. Each student started with level one and depending on their skill set was able to move up according to their current skill levels.  They were very excited and really enjoyed all the little sound cues and badges that they could earn as they increase their skills.  This also gave the instructor a chance to emphasize specific keyboarding techniques and the little things, like the little bar line, on the keys "f" and "j" to help them locate the keys without looking at their hands.

It looks like we are off and running.  Working hard to familiarize students with the Home Row keys and practicing correct fingering techniques. The instructor feels that these little things will definitely help with their basic computing skills and develop good keyboarding techniques.  Far too many students "hunt and peck" without knowing they could do more and type faster if they knew basic typing skills and how the keyboard is laid out.

At the end of the session everyone was smiling and feeling accomplished with all they had learned.  We look forward to our next session in two weeks and we hope that all will be in attendance. 

This new year of lessons has brought on many challenges, but the ladies are excited about learning basic keyboarding skills to help them become more proficient in using their technology. This week’s lesson began with everyone creating a profile in the Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing lesson.  We will start each week’s session doing several drills to help students become familiar with best typing practices and at using the computer along with basic typing skills. The instructor, Ms. Turner, identified early that many of the students had poor manual dexterity while attempting to stroke the computer keyboard and several had developed poor typing technics which slowed down their ability to keep up with the lessons and to progress further.

Tonight’s lesson focused on becoming familiar with the Home Row keys of A, S, D, F, J, K, L, ;.  They were thrilled at how easy it was to type these keys when their fingers where positioned in the right place.  No need to “hunt and peck.”  They were pleased at the movements from one key to another when the proper fingering techniques are used. We practiced the whole session until they became comfortable using the Home Row keys.

Our challenge this week were the batteries that we just replaced.  We will have to check out the electrical cords because some of the machines where not getting enough electricity to the machines.  This caused delays that we cannot afford, based upon the time we have for class. Our plan is to replace any defective batteries and cords and the make sure that all devices are in top running order.  We wasted a lot of time at this session checking out our equipment and making sure that each student could call up the Mavis Beacon Program that we had installed at an earlier date.

Our weekly challenge is each session we have to transport the laptops to the site; set them up; run electrical power strip; put up dry erase board; and start up the "hot spot." Sometimes we use the projector attached to a laptop and that has to be set up as well. The ladies who get to class earlier set up the tables and place the chairs in the proper classroom order.

The group is forever discussing fund raiser activities that we can have to help cover the cost of additional equipment and other things we still need like a virus protection software.  The administrator of the complex is interested in helping to meet some of our needs because we still need more laptops as the class grows. There are other things needed that have been identified by the instructor such as Microsoft Suite.

The beginning classes for the new year where started late because several students and the instructor had bouts with the flu and several along with the instructor’s assistant had other health issues. It was decided to suspend class until later in the year to give everyone time to recuperate. So, our first class began today.

The plan for the new season’s lessons are to have keyboarding practice using Mavis Beacon’s typing practice for the first thirty minutes of instruction.  Then move into the planned computer lessons. A survey was made thru Google to determine student interest in different types of computer skills that they would be interested in learning and usage of smart phones and tablets. We have enough laptops to allow for seven students plus two students purchased their own personal laptops over the Christmas holidays. We expect to have additional students joining the class because we can now accommodate more.

The instructor purchased a mobile digital “hot spot” so we can have internet capabilities no matter where they house the class. The device can connect 25 devices to the internet. A new dry erase board was purchased because the old one was torn and had sharp edges that might hurt someone while trying to use it. A large surge protector power strip was purchased so that all the laptops can be connected at one place which would eliminate having to worry about enough wall plugs for the classroom site.

Our plan is to increase the number of resident participants; purchase more laptops later; create opportunities to have fund raisers by putting together a resident cookbook and having a bake sale.  We still have more things that need to be purchased to make our program complete.  Needed is Microsoft 365 and an antivirus software to protect the machines.