Broadcasters toolbox of online applications

For Training Workshops - 2010 Remote Indigenous Media Festival

TIPS for getting people started using online tools and computers -

Georgina Nou - Online Educational Consultant

"I've started hundreds of indigenous mob...young and old on computers and the place I always start is images, whether it's searching for images of well known people or favourite animals/places, Google earth or taking photos of themselves and kids to use next up in a poster or just print out to hang on their wall at home. Computers and the internet are fabulous for sound and vision, images and moving pictures not only for people who aren't that familiar with the English language but for people who remember steps after being shown in an exemplary fashion. Get people excited about the possibilities with the computer.
Important always to show or get someone to demonstrate, often a friend who benefits from sharing their newly acquired knowledge, and then handson as quickly as possible...not much talk needed! Show, watch and do...the traditional way of learning..and then experimentation. The usual fear of blowing the computer up , so common with mainstream participants is not something you encounter with Indig mob...they discover through doing and find the most uncanny workings of programs.
Early on I show how to create and save documents and they prepare their own folder and practise the pathway there so they have their own space to store images and documents. File navigation can be a pain when people start out and can't find things so getting that sorted can be helpful, especially when people are sharing a computer as they always are in public places. Outbush now people often use USB memory sticks to store their data.
I introduce visual/audio programs like Paint, sound recorder, Publisher that are on most PCs and Photostory, Photoshop (for image manipulation) and moviemaker.
There are fabulous educational and fun activities online...I search for things with the 'theme' word and then 'interactive' and 'educational'. Using the computer needs to fun and purposeful. Peoples' interests and needs should determine the pathways they pursue in using the computer and internet. If literacy is at a low level there are still plenty of websites which can motivate and in fact improve literacy as use of the pairing of text with image on many pages. For those with a functional level of literacy searching for info can be an eye-opener...a library at their fingertips.
Access to multimedia that others have produced, especially Indigenous publishers can be inspirational. Indigitube can be a good place to start showing people what can be done with multimedia on the net..a great first session activity. Word can be introduced early to create 'hotlists' where people make a Word document that can be shared with others which contains links to a website they've found on a certain topic and a screen capture from that site to give users a taste of what the website is about.
For people who are working with less experienced users, the screen capture program Jing can be helpful. It's a free download and enables you to explain any on screen demonstration that you are doing and give an audio commentary with markup tools to draw attention to certain features on the screen. A terrific tool for trainers or people assisting others in remote locations. The demo is saved as a flash video file...easy to send or put on a website.
The internet allows people to keep in touch with family and friends..this is HUGE for Indig mob so using email...even if its to send a picture and just say a few words, or chat programs like Gtalk are welcomed along with web conferencing where people can see and talk to people in other places.
Keep things moving, introduce little steps to develop and give people scope to explore."