PowerPoint is not my friend.
Usually, I’m pretty good with it, but it just did not want to cooperate this week. Since it is not my project, and since Regina is supposed to be learning how to do this, I refused to do it for her. That is, she had to do all the manipulation of the mouse and keyboard. I often told her exactly where to click, but I thought if she did it herself, it would mean more.
I don’t know if it helped her, but it certainly made me crazy! It would have been so easy just to take the mouse out of her hand and do it for her. But then she wouldn’t have learned anything. At one point, I had to sit on my hands to keep from grabbing the mouse!
Each time she wanted to add an image, I had to walk her through the entire process. Click here, navigate to your flash drive. Ok, first click on My Computer.
By the end of the session I wanted to scream! It’s so frustrating trying to watch someone who really doesn’t know what they are doing. And it’s even more frustrating to know that I’ve been working with her for weeks to that she will know what she’s doing!
I’m not sure that my service-learning experience was what was intended in this course. I tried to make Regina more digitally aware. We worked on why computers and information literacy are important. We found “fun” examples of computer use. We completed many assignments from her instructors. We did accomplish a lot in terms of webpages visited; projects completed; software programs used. But on a philosophical and intellectual level, did we get anywhere?
Does Regina appreciate the ramifications of what we’ve been doing for the past few weeks? I’m sure she appreciates the passing grades, but will she be able to apply any of her experiences in the future? Will anything I’ve done have a lasting impact?
I suppose only time will tell. What I do know is that I worked hard to get Regina to understand, and I really don’t feel much of a sense of accomplishment. Rather, I feel more aware of how far behind some people are and I realize that we, as a community and a nation, must do something about it.
