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Surrey County Council

Enclosed are the comments made by tutors and students who used the laptop computers with Basic Skills/EAL Adult Education at Highlands in Woking for a 10 week period from October 1999 to January 2000.

SCC Adult Education- North Surrey

Woking & Runnymede Area (Highlands Centre)

The laptops came to Highlands Basic Skills at a time when very old desktop computers had virtually given up working satisfactorily. The initial feeling from students and tutors alike was euphoria in that we suddenly had computers that worked, with modem up-to-date operating systems and software packages on them (we had been using DOS and Windows 3.1).

Students were delighted to have the opportunity to able to print in colour and also to use scanners- this was a first for everyone- tutors included. Also it was an opportunity for many students to use MS Publisher- they scanned in a picture, cropped it to fit into Publisher, and then added Word Art (example of work produced enclosed). They also had the opportunity of using Encarta (encyclopedia).

However many students found using the mouse pad on the laptop difficult and frustrating. Our students are generally not confident using computers and they found that if they hesitated with their hands over the mouse pad ‘thing s would move’ on the screen all on their own’ (as the students would say!). We had the problems of the MS Office shortcut bar disappearing and other minor ‘hiccups’.

Unfortunately the computers came to us halfway through the Autumn Term, we did not receive any on-hand personal induction or support or how to use them. We also had problems trying to link to the Internet. The computer technician based at Highlands spent two hours trying to get on-line, without success. The problem that she encountered was that we only had one phone line and so if she was trying to get on-line she couldn’t talk to the on-line help. Eventually, she had to abandon her attempt- but it appears that our problem is that we have to dial 9 to get an outside line and the Internet help were unable to advise at the time how to set this up. We therefore never succeeded in showing our students the Internet using the laptop computers.

The technician was able to locate a few spare ‘mice’ that would fit the laptops so some students had the opportunity of using the computers with them. They all agreed that had the standard mice been available from the start they would have found using the laptop computers much more enjoyable, beneficial and efficient. In passing them to another area for use with Basic Skills/EAL students or similar, I would strongly recommend standard mice are made available from the onset.

by Lyn Pepe
Basic Skills/EAL- Highlands

SCC Adult Education

Woking & Runnymede Area (Highlands Centre)

Supplied:

Available to: Basic Skills/EAL Office Skills Class and Basic Skills/EAL Introduction to Computing Class from October 1999 to January 2000 (a total of 10 teaching weeks)

The following are comments from students, volunteer tutors and tutors (in their own words) involved in using the laptops supplied under the laptop initiative:

Student:
I am working towards taking my OCR Word Processing Stage 1- Part 2 in June. I found the laptop too sensitive. If you highlighted the text to change either the margins or the spacing it took two or three times to get it to highlight- and on other occasions I lost all my work. The mouse was very difficult to use. I feel that if I had had a standard mouse I would have achieved much more than I did.

Student (Japanese):
I like a laptop because it’s so compact and yet has all that you need. It is very useful for busy people, so you can use wherever you like. Smart, compact and useful. I really enjoyed the scanner to make a poster. It seemed very difficult for everyone to use the mouse, but it wasn’t too bad for me. It was quite sensitive but with a little practice your fingers get used to play on the pad. When compared between a mouse and a laptop pad, because I need to slide my fingers on the little space but when I use a mouse I have to move all over the mouse mat.

Volunteer tutor:
I found as an individual and as a tutor the laptops very difficult to use because they were so compact. I found the mouse difficult to control and as such it was difficult to give the proper instructions to students. They were extremely sensitive machines and I felt they were not very suitable for the students needs as laptops are not often used in office situations.

Tutor:
I got mixed reactions from the students using the laptops. Some found the mouse extremely difficult to use. Also those trying to practice their touch typing keyboard skills found it virtually impossible because the keys are so much closer together. However, all the students very much appreciated the opportunity to use these machines, they were a great improvement to those they had been used to and they enjoyed the opportunity to use the scanners, Encarta, Publisher etc- all of which are not usually available to our class. Our only disappointment was that the Internet linkup was not successful.

Tutor:
The laptops proved to be an interesting challenge for both students and tutor. It was quite hard to make the initial adjustment to smaller screen and keyboard. Above all the mouse proved tricky for novices. As someone pointed who has arthritis in my hands I found the mouse took a lot of getting used to. The great advantage with the laptop was the very easy to use and reliable printers. They were excellent. The scanner was an added bonus and very useful for designing and making Christmas posters.

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