How people use computers? Transcriptions

Primary school teacher

We’ve got a new program with 30 graphics to encourage young children to tell stories. We tried it out last term and now we use it regularly. There’s a mat in front of the whiteboard, like a carpet. There are pictures and sounds under the mat. When the children stand on them, they can move the cursor inside the pictures on the screen. If they stand on the right, they can move it to the right, and so on. The good thing is that it works better if there are more children on the mat. This encourages them to work together.

What I like about this program is that if you ask the children what they’ve been doing, they don’t say, “We’ve been working with the computer”, they say, “We’ve been telling stories”. The computer doesn’t get in the way of learning; it’s just a tool. We don’t get that reaction when we sit them down at a keyboard.

Open University student

I’ve had a computer for about three years now. I’m an OU student doing a degree and I use the computer to send and receive my course material. I study at home in the evenings and at weekends. Some Saturdays there are study weekends I can attend but mostly I work alone. I use the computer to write my assignments. I also use the CD-ROMs with the course. If I have any problems with the course work, there’s a help group on the computer. There’s also the option to meet other students on the course, not just here in the UK but worldwide.

Louise, aged 10

I use the computer to make cards for my parents. I use Word or Publisher with clipart. I use the mouse to drag in and change things. You can click on the screen and move them around, make them bigger or smaller. You can also add your own text. I like to use the CD-ROMs. I like the games, like Pets 3. You can choose your own dog or cat and feed it. You can take it for a walk, choose what you want it to do and teach it tricks. At the end you print it all out and it comes out as a card. And if you’ve got the picture, then I’ll save it.

Artist

I paint mainly figures in imaginary interiors. Erm, they represent myths. I work in acrylics although I also make woodcuts. Erm, I keep photographs of most of what I’ve done, apart from work I’ve destroyed and don’t like. I’ve scanned about a third of those photographs into the computer, and I’ve added paintings to them. I’ve organised the paintings onto CDs and made a catalogue. I used to send CDs like this. Erm, I’ll send the CD to dealers. I’m going to start my own website to try to sell my work. The difficult thing is to get people to visit your site.