The Coordinator is Marianna Ryapolova |
|
During the past 10 years the information technologies
are being developed very rapidly all over the world. New programs and computer
engineering allow usefully increase the efficiency of work, to keep in touch
with the whole world using Internet and e-mail.
Now the situation in Kazakhstan is the following: people over 25
have a vague idea of working with computer.
And at the same time the level of teaching computer literacy in secondary schools
is pretty low because of bad financial support (far from every school where
800-900 students study has even one computer class).
The average earning in Kazakhstan is low and far from every family
can afford buying a computer or going to Internet cafe of Computer Club. However,
building career in our days is not possible without computer skills.
"Mitsva" Association of Jewish national organizations
of Kazakhstan with financial support of AJJDC, FSU Dep., renders assistance
to members of the community in raising the level of their computer skills.
This year Computer Class was opened in Almaty Hesed "Polina"
and Jewish City Community Center "Rimon".
We have some experience of work and we present our first review:
 The
premise for computer class has been purchased and equipped with 4 computers.
All necessary modern equipment has been purchased: scanner and printer
are working in a local net. All computers are connected with a global net.
The curriculums for different courses have been drawn up, the groups
have been formed and a teacher has been hired. The coordinator of this project
is Marianna Ryapolova, she is a very good teacher and a nice person.
The work of Computer Class is organized in the following way:
There are 4 students in every group, they have classes twice a
week, and the classes last an hour. These courses are for beginners. They study
Windows and Word.
Every day 3 groups work with the teacher and they have 5-6 hours
for free-will attendance for those community members who can work with computer
and correspond via e-mail with their relatives or surf Jewish Internet resources.
The courses for adult beginners give them a chance to extend their
knowledge and get high-qualified job.
 The
courses for children provide studying computer games such as "Who stole
Chanukkah?", interactive game "Haggadah", "Studying Hebrew"
etc, also children have a chance to correspond via e-mail and study office programs
and many other things.
Elderly people have a chance to lead an active life, to correspond
with their relatives living abroad to get Internet news about Israel.
Parents now can keep in touch with children living in Israel, USA
and other countries.
If you could see the eyes of old men who could congratulate their
relatives with Rosh-ha-Shannah via e-mail and got replies!
Many adult members of the Community came to us because they do
not want to be behind their children who study computer at school.
Students got an opportunity to use Jewish Internet resources and
encyclopedias.
Totally 6 groups (24 people) study at the class. The queue for
the classes is 2-3 months from now on.
Computer class has attracted the attention of those Jews who have
not attended Community events before.
 Many
of them go to the classes, taking their children with them. One couple is very
interesting: it is grandfather and his granddaughter who decided to study computer
together.
Youth and the volunteers use Jewish Internet resources and Jewish
Encyclopedia (scenarios, pictures, poems and songs) for preparation to Jewish
holidays.
Now when first groups of beginners have finished their study we
faced the problem of teaching intermediate courses. We can see the potential
and needs of the Community members. We are planning to organize courses on MS
Office programs and Internet browsers, so we need a teacher on these programs.
 Unfortunately,
young generation is not involved in this type of work. Generally, young people
studied computer literacy at school and they want to continue education, work
with Graphics, write programs, create computer games on Jewish themes, correspond
with relatives and people of their age from Jewish Communities from other countries
or have their own web page.
That is why we really need teachers of graphic programs, computer
design and programming.
There are some volunteers among young people who want to share
their knowledge with juniors. For example, one of the volunteers Oxana is teaching
a special course for Internet users.
The computer class appears to be very interesting and useful. We
hope to extend the field of activity in the nearest future.
Galina Chelokhsayeva
|
