29 June, 2006

Dream A Dream

Remember me talking about NGO way back in february Link. After due diligence, I zeroed in to work as a volunteer in Dream A Dream Web. DaD is a Bangalore based NGO working on enhancement of lives of economically disadvantaged children. Every one of us has tons of fruitful memories about our childhood. We might talk about our school, toys, joyful summer vacation, host of friends, punishments and pains, jocous moments and many more. Imagine a section of children are being denied of their rightful pleasant childhood just because they born on disadvantage state and family. For no mistake of their own, those kids lead a pathetic life. DaD steps in their formative years and believes in providing a good life. DaD conducts various programs like story telling, teaching computer, encouraging sports, trekking, conducting cultural programs. And with all those programs, DaD aims to provide a normal livelihood for those kids. That normal livelihood are crucuial in imparting more confidence and open up a world of oppurtunity to move ahead. And I strongly believe  in DaD's vision. Not lot of NGO's run with help of volunteers, they demand dedicated people. But DaD started as a voluntary organisation by 6 engineers and its work is purely based on volunteers's enthusiasm.
 
On my association with DaD, I went for volunteer orientation program in april and was waiting for suitable oppurtunity to contribute to their grand vision. I am now working with Dream A Dream computer program, where we impart basic computer training to group of children from the above mentioned background. In the forthcoming program, I volunteer to teach "How to draw using Ms paint" for kids. And here are my primitive ideas about the list of topics that I wanna cover in the training. Do feedback me about your thoughts after seeing the flash presentation. I am sure most of us would have stepped into teaching computer to kids at some point of time. We erred at some styles and found out better way to convey the information to kids. The intended audience for the training will be around 8-13 years. I am looking for more active and constructive feedback. Click on the flash file to move on to next slides.
 
Here is the revised version and it early version.
 
                           
 


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12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Sateesh,
Your slide is good. Let me give my comments about that slide. See whether it makes sense or not.
a. I believe that the content is too much for kids. Make the topic very simple and make it in a logical sequence. say for example, first you need to teach how to open the MS paint software then you can teach them how to start drawing that.

b. you have shown a picture of George Bush. Don't inculcate politics into kids. Though he might be a good guy or can be compared to monkey. I advice you not to bring politics into this. Becuase they catch it up easily. The impression might not be changed. Instead teach them something which enthuse them positively.


Nagavijay.S

Nirek said...

@Vijay.
thanks bro. I noted down your feedback, will structure the presentation more simple. I had to make this statement in defense of my slides: I thought of adding bush-chimp exercise because it is a funny way to drive the cut-copy-paste instructions to kids. basically i wanted to use some collage, ended up with this for humor reasons and nothing else. Viewes similar to yours are expressed by my team mates in DaD too, will definitely change that exercise.

Anonymous said...

Good to see u with DaD. Along with that why don't u spread the word of Free & Libre software? I wud have choosen to teach *TuxPaint* (http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint/)

Ram said...

Great job bro, BTW b4 doing this training, have these kids got a basic idea of what a computer is? What is windows? start menu and stuff. I mean nothing technical, but fucntional knowledge. As anon said this is too much for them, i suggest breakin this into 2 sessions.
Is this org. operating in Chennai? Am ready to volunteer for such an organisation. Waiting for one here.

Ram said...

Great job bro, BTW b4 doing this training, have these kids got a basic idea of what a computer is? What is windows? start menu and stuff. I mean nothing technical, but fucntional knowledge. As anon said this is too much for them, i suggest breakin this into 2 sessions.
Is this org. operating in Chennai? Am ready to volunteer for such an organisation. Waiting for one here.

Nirek said...

@ram,
thanks bro. yeah, this mspaint is supposed to second session. and the first session covers all the basics about computers. so when we start with paint , I hope we should be able to teach them advanced topics with ease. DaD has roots only in bangalore and org with similar motive will be in chennai for sure. If i know about that, I will keep you posted.
i will revise the presentation based on inputs, will update the latest one today

Nirek said...

@ranjith,
tuxpaint is good idea. I really dunno why not that for ms-paint. one simple reason could be Paint is widely available and fairly simple to teach in the whole gamut of softwares

Anonymous said...

MSPaint is with Windows only. If I want to get MSPaint, I need to buy a copy of Windows which is abt 96 USD. Do I have mony? (First of all, let the children know that for a computer, the Software is an entity which is not a parceled with it - has to be bought/pirated/copied - U cannot advocate piracy - Only option left is to copy - Certain Linux distributions can be copied & re-distributed among friends - Redhat allows that - But RedHat has no LiveCD based distribution) Thats why I can go for Linux that too LiveCD based. LiveCDs require no installation of any software - even a Blank HDD wud do. Just put in ur LiveCD & reboot, u'll get a full linux based OS. I suggest u to go to http://shipit.ubuntu.com/ & request for Ubuntu CDs. They'll ship you as many CDs u want, u can as well, re-distribute to the children, school staff & ur friends.

Nirek said...

@Ranjith.
lets analyse open source vs proprietary softwares
1. user friendly- For beginners, MS windows is easier and intutitive to use than linux. After you become an expert, linux/windows doesn't matter much. 2. be it a pirated/copy/original software, most of PCs we find on daily life use windows. Will teaching things on ubiquitos windows better or others? 3. I installed windows and linux in my pc before giving to my dad, and he chose to work in windows all the time than linux, he jus started computers then.


hv argues against linux usage in training, dont mean that I am against open source. I am die hard fan of linux, GNU and GPL group. all my softwares in my computer here are open source. its upto computer users to move from windows to linux. there may be time in future, where basic trng can be imparted on linux

gP said...

satu...its admirable for you to do this. certainly inspired me...wonder if we can do something from the 2050 blog to them...for them.

Unknown said...

Great lead da. My best wishes and possibly my time too !

Nirek said...

@gp. thanks a million for the encouragement bro. will find out how can our group blo can help this venture.
DaD is run by volunteers. we can write abt them and their work always

@jayan.. sure da. will ping you up next time when i go for NGO work. u need to attend an orientation program with them before any work