Second Day of Teaching

March 25th, 2011

Second Day of Teaching:

There was no session for the last two weeks, since on the week after the first session, Liana had something to do and on the week after that, I had called a sick day. While I was away, it seems that she had reviewed the materials that I provided; she now has a fine understanding on what HTML is and able to illustrate the XML tree structure by looking at a source code.

Today's topic is to demonstrate string manipulation on a static HTML page. May be because she have taken a course on Microsoft Word, she have been able to understand the material much quicker than the previous session. She can now create a simple page using headers, italic, bold, colored font and paragraphs. It was very nice to see her creating a sample webpage by her own hand without looking the notes that I have provided. Look forward to your student improving; I think this is the reason why people choose to be a teacher.

First Day of Teaching

Mar.4th, 2011

First Day of Teaching

Every day, there are new technologies being created. These new technologies have enabled people in the society to live better quality of life. Unfortunately, these advances are not available to all people throughout the community; there are certain people who are being left behind. The gap between people who has effective access to these technologies and those who are not is known as the "digital divide". An atmosphere at St. Christopher House clearly shows the world of digital divide.

The first world that I have discovered is the gap between the haves and not-haves: rich and poor.  The haves are people who have economical capabilities that can afford the new technologies such as computer, internet, Smartphone and others. On the other hands, the not-haves are the people who doesn't have any or very limited access to those technologies. Being located in Trinity-Bellwoods neighborhood where the probability of being in low-income is 47.3% among the individuals of age 15+(1), the most of visitors to St. Christopher House have no computer access at home or have no technical education background. May be the economical status caused people to be tense, the computer lab is always full with people who are eager to learn the new technologies.

The other side of digital divide that I have observed is the language barrier. Trinity-Bellwoods neighborhood is also a place where the % of non-official home language and the % of no knowledge of official languages are much higher than the other neighborhoods (2). The use of computer technologies have undoubtedly enhanced communication and provide greater flexibility in hours and locations, the computer lab is also always full with people who wants to use the computers as a tool to communicate with families and friends in their homelands.

My student, Liana, is a person who represents the both sides of digital divide: she came to Canada 4 years ago from a country in South America and is willing to learn HTML to create a website for a place where she works. She also have completed all the basic computing courses from St. Christopher House. Since it was the first day of class, I was focused to teach what HTML is and the XML tree structure. Although it was very difficult to teach a person without any knowledge on the programming, it was good to see that Liana is doing her best to learn it. I hope in someday, she achieve her dream of creating a website.

References:

1) City of Toronto Demographics, http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/cns_profiles/2006/pdf4/cpa81.pdf

2) City of Toronto Demographics, http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/cns_profiles/2006/pdf2/cpa81.pdf

First Day at St. Christopher House

Feb.18th, 2011

First Day at St. Christopher House:

I have scheduled a meeting with Judi Snively, the adult learning coordinator at St. Christopher House, to discuss what to do and to plan how to effectively and successfully fulfill the service learning activity.  

I have decided to a research on St. Christopher House before I be there to prepare myself what kind of skills the community center is looking for and find out how the center is helping people in the community to accomplish its visions and goals.

Being one of the largest community centers in Toronto area, It also had a long history at the behind.  St. Christopher House was founded around 100 years ago as a settlement house.  Although it has been moved from its founding location, its goal of assisting people in the community never perished; It is continuously serving approximately 10,000 individuals in the community with its own designed programs.

I have arrived about 15 minutes earlier than scheduled along with my friend, Sungjun. The first impression that I have gained is that the people who are visiting the center is diverse: not just seniors, but from a kindergarten kid to an old person with different ethnic backgrounds. Judi mentioned that the most of visitors are immigrants or refugees to Canada. Leaving the surprise behind, Judi guided us to a meeting room. while we walk through the hallway, she briefly explained the tasks that would require volunteers' help: web server setup, desktop admin, webpage admin, and "Bang the Drum" which is the program that teaches how to use computers and technologies to people who doesn't have any or have minor knowledge on computers. I have chosen to participate in the "Bang the Drum" program, because this is the only choice that involves with teaching which cannot be easily obtained while working in the IT fields. Since many volunteers have missed this orientation meeting, we had a chance to discuss about the "Bang the Drum" program more deeply.

As a start, she briefly explained about the program itself. The program consists several courses including internet use, office programs, Windows, and other basic computing courses, which are held by volunteers like myself. To continuously provide quality learning programs to those who have completed the basic courses, St. Christopher House is planning to expand the courses to advance technologies like HTML, Photoshop and Java programming. I have found that HTML tutoring would be suitable for myself, because HTML always been the area of my strength and I have felt that the language itself would be easy to start from scratch for those of who doesn't have any knowledge in programming.

According to what Judi have said, the "Bang the Drum" program was in decline. Not only because the number of volunteers are decreasing, mainly due to the shortage in funding. The recent economic crisis have hit the country hard, especially in the government budget. As of winter 2010, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada have decided to curtail the supports to Community Technology Learning projects, including the "Bang the Drum" program. "We need more volunteers to keep the program running." Judi said.

As being one of the countries where the immigrants serve as the largest portion in the  national population, I have felt that it is not a wise decision to curtail the funding. The policy may not show its effect in a short period of time, but in a long term perspective, the decrease in education level among the immigrants would lead to the downfall in the national competitiveness. With hope that the government withdraws its policy, I have made a way back home.