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Japan SeniorNet Presentation 【013】he third factor is the low ratio of students to instructors. The third factor is the low ratio of students to instructors. The design point for the classes is to have one instructor or assistant instructor for every three or four students. This ensures that every student will have as much individual attention as he needs. So in a class of 8 students, there will be an instructor and two assistant instructors (also called coaches) conducting the class. The job of the coaches is to immediately go to a student who is falling behind, and without disrupting the class, help the student get back on track. If more than two students are falling behind, the instructor (who probably was going too fast anyway) will stop and help the third student, and then restart the class. In Boynton Beach, with a classroom containing 12 computers, our recommended maximum, we had three coaches in addition to the instructor for every class. In all our surveys, it is these factors … small size of class, peer-to-peer instruction, and the low ratio of students to instructor … that get consistently high marks and bring our students back for follow-on courses. Other issues. All of our centers are, by nature of the sites that host them, accessible to those seniors with disabilities. However, a larger issue for the centers is how to help those with disabilities such as tremors in the hands, vision problems and hearing problems. For someone with tremors, often the use of a trackball (essentially, a mouse turned upside down) has alleviated the situation, or increased use of the keyboard. In the area of vision problems, we are now working with IBM to develop a standard interface which will allow the user to easily customize Internet screens, increasing font size, eliminating background colors and other distracting items and implementing several other "fixes" for those with vision problems. While the hearing disability has not received the attention of the other two areas, most often, just sitting the student so that his better ear is toward the instructor, fixes the problem. |
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シニアのための市民ネットワーク仙台 仙台市青葉区一番町２ー５ー１２ 一番町中央ビル８階 Copyright(C) 1996-2000, Sendai Citizens' Network for Seniors E-mail:info@sendai-senior.org |
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