Youth
Computer Diagnosis Services |
Practical
Training, Builds Real World Skills |
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| In
August of 2003, about 4 months after the training program started, one
of the Program's youth brought a friend's computer to the training facility
to see if he, his fellow students and the teachers could fix a problem.
While using his friend's computer over the weekend, the youth had accidentally
deleted all the files on the hard disk drive. This youth and a few of
his team mates, with advice from staff, started working on the problem
in between their regular learning activities. By the end of the training
period, they has succeeded in fixing the problem and the young man left
for home with the computer under his arm and a smile of pride and accomplishment
shining from his face. |
| From
this humble and accidental start, an exciting new facet of the program
has emerged. Soon after this first computer appeared others started arriving
from friends, relatives, staff of the Bank of Brazil and others who had
heard about the excellent diagnosis services provided by the youth at
Programa Para o Futuro. |
| The
Program's instructional team responded creatively to this opportunity
and provided time once a week for the youth to work on the computers
being brought into the training facility. The first step in the process
is for teams of youth to diagnosis the problem and determine what can
be done to correct the problem. If the problem is software or virus related,
the youth usually correct the problem and return the computer to the
owner fixed and ready for productive use. If the problem is related to
failed hardware, they prescribed corrective action and point their "client" to
a vendor where the hardware can be replaced. |
| Several
of the experiences with diagnosing, and in many cases, fixing computer
problems brought in by the public are presented though the following
links. These stories, published by the youth themselves, represent an
excellent example of the importance of creating a training program with
the flexibility to respond to unplanned opportunities for learning. Rigidly
structured programs with narrow training objectives generally are not
able to benefit from the types of opportunities illustrated by this example.
The stories presented below also demonstrate the powerful impact that
the project-based learning method used by the project is having on building
strong practical skills within our youth to solve real-world problems. |
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