CDD Class Report Uhuru 11-14-09

WEEKLY CLASS REPORT
House of Uhuru / 11/14/09

Opening Comments:

Class went as planned with no major incidents. Students needed to be reminded that computers are needed to stay off during the lecture portion of the class. Seating arrangements may need to be adjusted to make grouping a bit easier. 
 


Attendance:

All but one of the students attended the class. One student was marked as absent.


INTRODUCTIONS OR OVERVIEW:

Loryn and I both introduced ourselves and gave a little bit of our background. The students seem to have a good understanding of the rules and expectations, as well as the attendance policy. 
 
 
 


1ST TOPIC COVERED:

The first topic was Windows Basics. Most of the students had trouble understanding what DOS is. It was explained to them as an early operating system that did not use a mouse or a graphical interface, and needed to be utilized by typing commands in the command prompt. 
 
 
 
 Covered by Robert.

2ND TOPIC COVERED:

The second topic was Typical Windows Icons. Students were taught about the most commonly used icons, with emphasis on the My Computer, My Documents and Recycle Bin icons. A couple students wanted to know more about the functionality about the Network Neighborhood and Connect to the Internet icons. These icons were explained, but let the students know that they probably wouldn't be using those too often.

 

ADDITIONAL TOPICS:

All of the additional topics were covered by Loryn.
 
 The remaining topics that were covered were The Windows Screen, Using the Taskbar, Accessing Help. The students seemed to grasp these topics as Loryn explained them in a very proficient and in a manner that was very easy to understand. Also, the first six discovery words were reviewed again. 


LAB TIME:

The lab was split into two groups. Half of the class was to work on their outline, while the other half went through a computer exercise. The students seemed to be nervous about the outline, although Loryn was able to calm them down and step them through the brainstorming process. They were also let known that the outline is not to be due until Nov. 24th. I created a simple exercise for the students to learn how to save a document, be able to view it in the My Documents folder and how to drag and drop it into the recycling bin. Most students were able to get through the lab smoothly. 
 


FINAL NOTES:

It seems that Samuel has no experience using a computer and has trouble navigating the mouse. Some special attention may be needed for him to get up to speed. The computer with the Microsoft keyboard as mentioned by Chris in the previous report seems to have a keyboard error when booting. This can be remedied by pressing the "help" key that is located where the F1 key normally is.