IT divide 2

image by Svadilfari, 2008 @ flickr.com

Serban saunters into the room. He feels so at ease in the IT suite, I sometimes think he is going to set up home there. He glances over his shoulder laughing and points to his screen. “Look” he says as he shows me what he has already achieved. I feel he should be conducting the session himself. He starts to help his neighbour asking him what he wants to do. Serban shows him with a few clicks how to drag a file, add some text, audio and play it back. I sometimes feel inferior to Serban. He speaks in Gigs and chuckles in RAMs. Processor speed is everything to Serban.

Namir slouches into his chair raising and lowering it for comfort. He looks at me with his arms folded. “So what do we do?”
I tell him to switch the computer on and check his email. “What’s my password?”
“ I have no idea. Go and see the assistant outside she should be able to give it to you.” He comes back in 10 minutes later, and turns on the PC.
“What do you want me to do?” I tell him to follow the instructions on the worksheet. “I don’t understand.”
“ Remember what we did last week? We will be working on the same project. It is a simple task, which involves using some images in word and making text boxes and using various fonts.”
He copies everything out as laid out in the same font. “How about using different fonts and sizing like it asks you to do?”
“ What do you mean different fonts?” I start to show him. “Ok Ok I can do that”.
He grabs the mouse but not in a confident way. He starts searching for a way to change the font. He turns and asks me “how do I change this?” As I show him he begins look sullen, like he is an outsider.


Anicka’s beaming smile permeates the room. She bounces in, plonks herself into HER spot. Switches on and off she goes. 15 minutes later I haven’t heard her talk hardly. She has finished the first task, and it looks good. She knows how to use lots of different programmes on the PC. She can’t wait to get her hands on Movie Maker. She skims through the video files and drags some onto the desktop. She is creating an image heavy story. It uses various still images and some of the video footage already taken.