Training On Teaching Methodology Of Computer Literacy

From February 4 to 8, 2008, the ART initiated a five-day training within the frames of “Sustainability of Computer Centers” project. The training was conducted in the lab of Yerevan Physmath Special School after A. Shahinyan under the Yerevan State University (YSU) by Ara Baghumyan and Lilya Totolyan who are the authors of “Computer Literacy Handbook” developed by the ART. 31 trainers from ART established Computer Centers (CC) from eight regions of Armenia: Aragatsotn, Shirak, Tavush, Gegharkunik, Kotayk, Armavir, Ararat, and Yerevan participated in the training.
The goal of the training was equipping participants with basic computer and Internet search skills. Objectives included exposing the site staff, who are actually teachers or teaching in the centers, to interactive and effective methods of teaching computer literacy, new approaches and ways to work with the youth and adults as well. The training consisted of 16 comprehensive sessions which were led by the trainers in turn according to the following outline: MS Windows XP, MS Word, MS Excel, MS Power Point, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express.
Each session was followed by practical operation of different tasks on computers while exposing by Projector for easy comprehension of participants. Based on project guideline, during the training, Alla Sarkissova, ART Program Officer, developed and facilitated five program sessions followed by Power Point Presentations for participants. The trainings aimed to enable site staff to maintain their computer centers, gain new skills to work with communities, foster integration of technology into education, actively collaborate with local authorities in the direction of sustainability of Computer Centers as well as enlarge the scope of work and target groups. All the sessions were followed by discussions, giving new directions to participants and planning of further activities.
The training covered the following topics: stages of sustainability of CCs; how to organize educational and community opportunities in CC gaining new skills; design combined knowledge about strategic planning in CC; a quarterly report form and a strategic planning form were designed as a result of teamwork discussions; working mechanisms and tools for realizing sustainability in CCs.
To estimate the effectiveness of the trainings we tested and evaluated the overall training at the end of the fifth day.