Teachers become students

Yesterday was one busy day! Ten teachers, two each from Halagondanahalli, Sasalapura, Kadushivanahalli, Hunasanahalli and Cheeluru, arrived for an informal workshop on learning how to use a notebook computer. Only two of them had ever used a computer (which turned out to be a blessing in disguise). Out here, 'using a computer' means click ing buttons on a Windows box with no idea of what goes on underneath all the stuff. It is like operating those coffee dispensers in airports and railway stations. One can operate it for years without learning (or needing to learn) anything about brewing good coffee. No wonder such coffee tastes like waste water in many places.

The teachers started out with a whole bunch of questions, typical of those exposed to a complex equipment for the first time. I started them off with a basic KDE login and an intro to various areas on the screen - Kicker panel, KMenu, Program Icons, Pager, Task Bar, Storage Media, System Tray and the Clock.

The keyboard was really frustrating for beginners. Why does a computer keyboard have to be so complicated? No other consumer equipment comes with so many keys and controls. Aren't there enough special keys - ALT, CTRL, SHIFT, ESC, Fxx, Win, Menu - already? Yet, computer manufacturers seem to take sadistic pleasure in putting in more keys - Fn for hardware functions - and more 'one-button' keys that require special software to be installed. When will they learn the virtues of simplicity?

The teachers learnt some of the important key combos - F1 (help), ALT+F1 (Main Menu), ALT+F2 (Run Command), CTRL+Q (Quit). Two teachers knew how to operate a kannada typewriter. So I taught them how to switch layout from "us" to "kan" and back. When watching beginners use trackpad, I noticed that using both hands on a trackpad (like on a keyboard) gives better control than trying to use it with one hand (like a mouse). USB mouse drains battery, so this trick is really useful.

My next exercise was to get them to understand the power of their "little" box. A quick straw poll - "How many files are there on your hard disk?" I got various guesses ranging from 200 to about 3000. I introduced the filelight command to dig out the actual answer. The result, about 123,000 files occupying 2.2GB in a 60GB HDD, came as a shock to them.

I let them explore various locations on disk. The circular disk metaphor of filelight made it easy for them to poke around and explore various folders. It also crashes during close, so the teachers got to know about software crashes also :-).

Next, I introduced them to key applications - Konqueror (exploring folders, previewing files, service menus), Audacity (for creating audio recordings), and Kile (for creating Kannada documents). I wanted to introduce Xvidcap (for authoring videos) but ran out of time. Konqueror was a big hit. Learning few basic moves - hover for preview, left click to activate, right click for services, and using kio slaves made them productive very quickly. I let them loose on /usr/share/{sounds,wallpapers,doc} folder (with previews on!).

I also showed them how the interfaces evolved from a typewriter-based interaction (console) to graphical, direct manipulation mode. They also saw short tutorial videos of Xara Xtreme that showed how simple graphic elements like line, curve and fill operations could be shaped into wonderful works of art.

They were so full of questions. I had to leave them to find their own answers. I did stress on a few themes, though. Usually, schools get old and obsolete computers on donations, with software better suited for a business environment than a school. The teachers dont get much say in the software content and there is no tie-in to any learning outcomes. The students outnumber computers by far. They only get to use it sporadically and that too in groups. This experiment is very different. A modern notebook computer, specifically configured for their needs, is given to teachers for empowering them to author digital content, be it a document, photo, painting, drawing, sound clip or video clip. The 60GB hard disk gives them a humungous capacity to store their creations. The 1GB flash memory stick allows them to transfer files across computers or to service providers like printing shops. Next time they get an idea while teaching lessons, the computer allows them to record and build up on their idea without having to worry about pen, cardboards, paint and so on. In fact, living in a remote village now becomes an advantage. One can work for hours without getting interrupted or distracted. The success of this experiment is going to depend on how much content they can create towards improving classroom teaching and motivating their students. There is no bar on teachers using canned content for teaching, if he/she feels that it is appropriate.

Two teachers, who had already used computers before, had difficulties in this new environment which required active involvement. They were used to using computers as passive media players or simple editors and were never motivated to look further. Initially, active involvement is much more difficult than passive usage because learning how things work takes more time and effort. But this upfront investment is essential to build up their skills and to adapt computing to their own needs. After explaining the goals of this experiment, I gave them a choice of continuing in this experiment or to revert to their old system of desktops and canned content. All ten opted to continue in the program. This was truly exciting stuff for them.

The workshop, scheduled to end around 3pm, stretched to 5pm! The teachers left reluctantly as they had a long tough commute back to Kanakapura. One teacher wanted to take school snapshots and create a presentation out of it. Four teachers, who were trained in LaTeX, last month were quite impressed by Kannada Technical Dictionary built using LaTeX, esp. the ability to embed audio clips for pronounciation and wanted to put together such dynamic documents for their school. Another wanted to put together programs like Kalzium (Periodic Table).

Well, looks like the village school blackboard is under threat :-)!
K. K. Subbu