COMMUNITY SERVICE - strategy program

Our problem, computer illiteracy, shall be taken be the group by doing a range of undertaking in order to bring out the best in our workshop. Doing a step by step process and distributing the assignments are the strategy that the group will be using to accomplish and succeed.

To be able to respond to our situated problem, the group had come into the decision of sharing their knowledge about computers, especially utilizing the different computer applications to be taught and including the Internet as well. The group shall be teaching the 5th graders of Bayanan Elementary School (MAIN).

In this unfussy approach, participants will be gaining knowledge so that they’ll be better and more prepared when they step into high school. The group shall respond by introducing the participants to Computer Technology, and furthermore, giving more advance information that will absolutely helpful to the in their latter use. By this, they won’t be ignorant no more, technologically-wise.

To be able to give benefit to the participants, some specific actions are included by the group in the strategy plan are as follows.

The first thing to do is grouping of the members into different committees. Each committee shall have their own responsibilities for easy distribution of tasks. The committees are Food, Registration and Teachers. Each committee shall be discussed below.

As a group, the preparation of useful and easy to understand lectures to be taught is the initial action facilitated. In order to respond to our problem, which is Computer Illiteracy, the knowledge of the participants about computers should boost. Included are the parts of the computer (Hardware, Software and Peopleware). Basic use of common Microsoft Applications, such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint is also to be taught. In order to get a better overview about the use of Computers, introduction to the Internet is incorporated.

For them to follow while the Teaching Committee of the group is discussing, a special hand out is geared up for them. So even if the workshop is already long over, the participants could still get a glimpse and remember everything educated to them.

Another action done was every participant is having his own personal tutor during the hands-on part of the program. This is to assist him while he is applying the lessons he has absorbed from the teachers. The tutors will make sure what the trainees will do is right.

To ensure the safety, several students from the Food and Registration committee shall multi task. They will be in charge for the security. This is to make certain that from the minute the workshop begins and the last second it is over, no one shall be left behind and every one is still present. Unregistered students will also be blocked by the security to guarantee that the workshop is exclusive for the participants only. For when security is around, unexpected incidents would be avoided.

Preparation of snacks and refreshments, not only for the participants, but for the members of the group as well is in command of the Food Committee. It is their duty to provide every one with a meal that would satisfy their appetite. Food sanitation is also part of their responsibilities. The food committee will also take charge for the cleanliness of the site we would be conducting the service. The group is planning to have not a buffet style of servicing the food. The snacks would be lined, and given to the participants the moment they give their food stub. Refreshments would be placed in a table where anyone who would drink is serving himself. Food committee will be responsible that no one will be left not having a snack.

As for the registration committee, they divide their responsibilities into themselves. As a whole, their basic responsibility and action are registering the eligible participants. Handling out of hands out, nametags, food stubs are also under their control. In the program proper, they would be assisting the students in everything that they would do. Long after registration of every participant is over, they shall come inside the learning room, in our case the computer room, to be assistants of the teaching committee. Registration committee is also part of the tutors lending a hand for the bewildered participants.

Teaching committee is responsible on how the students will learn through their teaching. In this regard, the teaching committee shall prepare visual aids that will help the students absorb the topics well. Aside from the prepared handouts, special presentations about each topic will be made in assurance that the step by step method shall be followed. Activities about each topic will be asked for the students to do, so that the teachers could evaluate how much knowledge had they accumulated from us. The teaching process would be in this sequence: Discussion, Questions, Activities, Checking, Questions or Clarifications, Free Time for them to apply more techniques taught.

Since the group shall be handling students half their age, without doubt, vocabulary-wise, the group knows more than them. An initiative was conducted by the group in recalling easier words that the participants could easily absorb. The group does not want further perplexity when it comes to discussing. The group shall conduct this to express, not to impress. So, the use of too many flowery words is not part of the group’s strategy plan.

Also, in view of the fact that the group will be dealing to young students, boredom will obviously be a problem. In the tendency that the workshop turns into more of a seminar, the group might just get short span of attention from them. A strategy is about time management. The sequence of the workshop shall be: 30 minutes for registration process, 1 hour and a half for the discussion proper, 30 minutes for food break, 10 minutes for question and answers, and the remaining 1 hour and 20 minutes for the hands-on practice. With enough time for every action to be done, the transition of one work to another shall be crucial. The group targets that there’ll be no dead air time wasted for something not much relevant to the workshop.

Another line of attack that the group shall be pursuing is what they call inspiration. One of the main purposes of this community service is to inform them that they should just not waste their potentials onto activities that will do them no good. Like the workshop, it shall be done after their classes. So that instead of playing their usual computer games, they’ll in the group’s workshop, still using computers, but these times, they’ll be learning new stuff that will help them reach the pinnacle of their future careers.

Being said so, during the whole session with the group, the members will be telling, not preaching, the students of the positive effects that studying hard and setting their goals can do. But this tactic is not counted as a part of the whole four-hour-session. This will look much more like just a normal conversation with a friend. In this case, the participants will listen and understand what their Ate’s and Kuya’s have said. The group wants to become an inspiration to the future generation.

Included in the inspiration approach, the special presentations (mentioned in paragraph 12 of this chapter) shall include witty but substantial quotations. This is to encourage them as well. One of the included quotations is “Dalawang dekada ka lang mag-aaral. Kung di mo pagtityagaan, limang dekada ng kahirapan ang kapalit. Sobrang lugi. Kung alam lang yan ng kabataan, siguro wala nang gugustuhing umiwas sa eskwela.” (You’ll be only studying for two decades. If you won’t struggle enough, five decades of poverty will be in exchange. If only the youth knew that. Perhaps everyone will be avoiding school no more.) “Nalaman kong hindi pala exam na may passing rate ang buhay. Hindi ito multiple choice, identification, true or false, enumeration, o fill-in-the-blanks na sinasagutan, kundi essay na isinusulat araw-araw. Huhusgahan ito hindi base sa kung tama o mali ang sagot, kundi base sa kung may kabuluhan ang mga naisulat o wala. Allowed ang erasures.” (I learned that life is not an exam that has a passing rate. It’s not multiple choice, identification, true or false, enumeration, fill-in-the-blanks that is answered, but an essay written every day. This is not judged if it’s written right or wrong. Thus, it is based accordingly, if what you have done has a sense or none. Erasures are allowed.)

Just like those, inspiration comes from wit. Several of that shall be included in the special presentations. The group will not only teaching academically and technologically speaking, but shall be educating values as well. We would still be teaching, in a sense that, the group is not giving a sermon, but more of giving an advice.

Another is to encourage them to be aware that computer technology is significant in terms that their future jobs will definitely need a background in using the computers. With the entire fast-changing environment, the future successors of our generation should not only be aware, but also competitive enough that they could reach the future milestones that would them reach the apex of their abilities.

With our basic knowledge, imaginative tactics, motivating campaigns and cooperation as a group, we are looking forward to get the risk of students reaching high school computer illiterates lowered. In the strategy the group has brought together from mere thoughts to paper. And the group foresees that the cycle of strategy won’t end in paper alone, but will absolutely come to accomplish every goal and mission intended for this service.


**claiire**