HelloFlemington Reading and Writing Program

has amalgamated with Flemington Neighbourhood House

We are now the Farnham StreetNeighbourhood Learning Centre

computer skills

We do many things

including teaching

and multimedia

to adults

in the community

Our most popular

are Multimedia 1

and Office Skills 1

computer classes

Some of our best students are women who have young children...

But we had a problem:

They miss some classes and fall behind...

so they get discouraged...

and they don’t come back to class...

AccessACE came to the rescue:

with some funding & some advice...

we made our plan

to help retain our students

Our plan was approved:

Tutorials on line

ESL

Linux for Sale

Open Source

Logins

VPNProject Photostory by our Multimedia 3 students:http://users.tpg.com.au/adslsrxj/accessACE/index.html

Tutorials on line

Our best tutorials

are now accessed

from our website:

frwp.org.au

Status: Completed Value to the project : Very high

ESL: English as a Second LanguageESL: English as a Second LanguageESL: English as a Second LanguageESL: English as a Second LanguageESL: English as a Second Language

We now have a separate virtual network

with ESL logins, ESL software and laser printer

just for ESL students.

This keeps the work of all computer and ESL students safe

Status: Completed Value to the project : Very high

Linux 4 Sale

Open Source software

Our Wokshop class rebuilds old computers into Puppy or Ubuntu Linux desktops. We sell them to students for $20 each

We give Open Source software discs to our students, with advice on installation. We don’t encourage them doing OSS downloads because they are just too big

Status: Completed Value to the project : Moderate

Logins

We set up different logins for teachers and for different student levels

Each login provides a different desktop configuration,

and different software, appropriate admin authority and preferences

with access to their separate folders on a network server

sysadmin fnh adv student esl

Status: Completed Value to the project : Very high

VPN: Virtual Private Network

To give students access to their work on our server from home or anywhere

But there are major security issues:

We don’t want our server attacked

So we are building a new Linux server just for student VPN access

Status: In progress Value to the project : High

Some other results from this project:

PhotoStory very popular with students

Status: In progress Value to the project : Very high

More video editing

More complex student projects

Better performances, higher expectations

Better employment prospects

How did we do? Did we retain our target students ? Yes !

How did we achieve this? Some preliminary ideas...

We had more time for teachers to plan lessons. Each lesson now has clearer objectives

Tutorials and homework class have proven very popular at all student levels

AccessACE gave us some extra teacher time resources...

Students have understood our project aim and they feel more supported. They are less afraid to return to class.

There is a stronger community understanding that we care for our students and that we want them to succeed

Students have understood our project aim and they feel more supported. They are less afraid to return to class.

Thank you for your help & support

Robbie, Manrico & Chiemi

Farnham Street Neighbourhood Learning Centre

frwp.org.au fnhouse.org.au November 2007