Literacy Bridge
By Andy Bayor.
Introducing and training users for the Talking Book is one of the most interesting things to me. Though interesting it is full of complexities especially when one has to train varied group of people with different backgrounds in education, exposure to technology and age among other things. In view of this, one needs to adopt a general model that takes into consideration all these factors. These are my notes on my trainings and I adopted this as a general model that works very successfully.
Usually, my trainings begin with an introduction to the Talking Book and its applications and uses stressing on the context in which it will be used by the trainees. This stimulates the interest of trainees and clarify their understanding of how they will be using the Talking Book. It is also worth here telling them what the device is about and the three major things the device does – Listening, Recording and Sharing. I will teach them how to replace batteries, and the signs that will show that batteries are weak and need to be replaced among other things.
1. INTRODUCTION TO THE DEVICE
First of all you introduce the trainees to the UI. You introduce them to the buttons on the UI and their names as been used in the audio instruction. I will randomly test them by asking the names of the buttons; mostly will check this with trainees with the least education or the most aged. I will mention a UI button’s name and call a trainee to identity it on Talking Book. The problem you might have here especially with the aged women is that they forget these names in the next stage and you will have to be patient to remind them twice or thrice before it sticks to their minds. When the button names are on their lips
2. TURNING ON THE DEVICE
The next thing I do is to show them how to turn on the Talking Book. In the manual it says you start with the centre button but I like to use the scenario of sleeping in a house to teach them how to start the device. I simply say when one sleeps, he sleeps in a house and if you need to wake the person up, then you will have to go to house. In the same way the Talking Book is sleeping and if you need to wake it, then you have to go to the house. I do this because, if the device was paused in the middle of a recording or whilst listening to a message and one presses the centre button again it actually doesn’t start the device but continue from where it was paused. Not starting from the house makes it difficult to locate the help menu, because the device actually starts properly when you hear welcome.
I will tell them even though you need to start the talking Book, it goes back to sleep when you are not doing anything on it for 15 seconds. I will introduce them to the next button (the centre-pause button) as the button that can stop the Talking Book from speaking but doesn’t switch it off.
** I teach them how to switch between the language especially if the device doesn’t start in the in the local language. I will tell them to press the black circle until they hear welcome in the language they understand.
Once they know how to start the device, and how to pause to eventually hibernate, I will ask them to pause all their Talking books and mostly with the help of a flip chart and a marker, I will introduce them to the concept of categories (subjects). I will draw four boxes (and name them as health, agric, education and stories) to demonstrate this. Inside each box I draw some folders and labeled them with numbers. I will now tell them that in the same way as the folders are in the boxes, so are messages grouped in the Talking Book. This makes them right away know that the messages are grouped into categories or subjects and in each category they are several messages pertaining to the category. Once the concept of categories is understood, it’s easier for them to locate messages from categories without getting confused or glued to only the first category.
I will demonstrate this two or three times using different categories and ask them to turn on the device and move from category to category
I will leave 5-10 minutes for them to play around different categories. Immediately by observation, you will notice those that are having problems and give them special attention.
After this I will individually test each trainee to ascertain their competence in the activity. Depending on the level understanding, I will repeat the process two to three times before getting very high degree success and as well note participants that might not have picked up perfectly.
3. LOCATING, RETRIEVING AND LISTENING TO A MESSAGE FROM A CATEGORY
We transfer the knowledge of categories here. I will pick a Talking Book and ask a trainee to tell which category he wants me to play a message from. Then I will systematically with them locate a recording from the category and play it asking them what to do at each stage from the audio instructions. I will demonstrate the process using different categories for four times and ask for clarifications and ask each trainee to locate a message from a category of their choice.
I will allow 15-20 minutes for them to practice after which I will ask each one of the volunteers to locate a message in a named category and play it whilst the others watch. Mostly I observe some will fumble and when they suddenly stop, I will ask the other trainees what she should do next. This makes them learn from their friends and it’s usually interesting. Mostly I will find two or three people who are confused and note them. It is easier at this stage if you have assistance from another person who can attend to those that have problems and are slow learners, who mostly pick up after a few demonstrations.
4. MAKING YOUR OWN RECORDING.
Here I will explain to them the essence of feedback and tell them the category that is meant for feedback. Then I will demonstrate by recording my voice systematically following the audio instructions and asking them at each stage what I should do based on the audio instructions. I will make three short recordings in different categories systematically following the audio instructions with them and ask each one of them to make a recording in a chosen category. I will allow up to 5minutes and go from trainee to trainee for them to play their recorded messages for me. Here I checked again their understanding of activity three (locating and listening to a recording). I will repeat the process for everyone to catch up and give attention to those with problems until they understand.
5. SHARING A RECORDED MESSAGE WITH ANOTHER DEVICE.
I usually will ask a trainee to record a short message in the class in a category. Then I will call another trainee with a device with a different color to bring her device, and then following the audio instructions and asking them for direction based on the audio instructions, I will copy the message to the device. It is usually a very interesting experience since they begin to wonder how! I will demonstrate this thrice and pair them to do the same thing. I will now ask each pair to demonstrate in front of the class. I will ask two trainees to demonstrate to the class and it is usually picked very easily.
6. DELETING A MESSAGE.
After sharing messages in pairs, I will ask one of the trainees to record a short message in a category. I will ask a different trainee to retrieve the recorded message and following the audio instructions after pressing the black circle, delete the message. This becomes more like a repeation because they would have heard the delete option during the copying. I will now demonstrate to the class and ask each of them to record a message in a category and come up to the front, retrieve it from the category it was recorded in share it with a chosen friend and delete it.
7. GROUPING.
This is usually the last activity. I will now group the trainees into two or three groups depending on their number and at this stage, you would have notice those that are exceptionally good and get them to help moderate. The moderator will ensure that each person in the group makes a recording in a chosen category from the first person to the last. Then from the second person to the previous first person each will retrieve her recorded message and play it to the group, copy it to the next person and deletes it from her device. It follows the same order until all the activities are carried out and understood by all members. I will give extra attention to those that need to polish up and in over 100 people that I have trained, only eight people never picked things strongly before leaving the training session. All of them improved with overwhelming success rates when I visited them a week after leaving the device with them.
GENERAL TIPS.
I will re-group them and tell them general information about proper handling of the device against water and fire. I will teach them how to fix batteries and tell them not to listen in high volumes except they are in a groups because that will weaken the batteries much faster. I will show them the help menu and let them know that essence of the audio manual so that they can always refer to it anytime they have a problem with using the device.
I then give those that can read user manuals and allow them to take the device home for practice.
The time frame on training is variable depending on the background of the trainees. Averagely you can spend between one hour to three hours training an oral person and in some instance only 30minutes on others with varying exposure to technology. Training in groups could take two days with spaced intervals. Five to eight hours with breaks of 45mins and concluding activities six and seven the following day.
