Kent Foster Care Association
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KFCA Computer Project
The first Computer Training for Foster Carers was successfully completed in November 2006 at the Canterbury Cricket Centre, feedback from the pilot session was excellent from the 14 carers (and staff) that attended. We have a meeting booked on 16 February 2007 to extend this to other areas.
Online Computer Lessons
Progress Report (April 2006)
We are having communications with the Head of Education and Kent Social Services Training Manager about the development of ICT workshops for carers, we are looking to use community schools to provide local and free access to computers. We are in the process of setting up dates to meet to see how we can progress this further.
If any KCC carer wishes for computer training please let us know from the contact page. There is no guarantee that there will be a course soon in your vicinity unless there are many applicants. The focus for the stage one foster carer computer training will be targeted toward competency of sending and receiving email. This course will be used as a foundation to find out other foster carer computer needs.
How to send an email - DRAFT v1.00 (March 2006)
This will be fun, amusing and in some cases exciting and by the end you will know exactly how to send and receive email in 7 easy steps!
Firstly a few points that you need to know . . .
If you tap a wrong key or click on a pretty looking picture the computer will not blow up, disintegrate or phone your brother to say how stupid you are!
The computer does not need to be connected to the internet for you to read or write email.
Most email programmes have spell checks which will automatically check for spelling errors (and in some cases grammar to) as you type, so relax.
Using email you can not only send a letter, you can also send pictures, photographs, documents, Web pages and/or music.
It is best practice to know exactly the email address of the person we are sending.
Different email programmes tend to work the same way. Whichever software you use, the way you send and receive messages will probably be much the same.
And most important, we are not using a 1930’s typewriter here, get on the screen what you wish to say, we can then play with the text until we are entirely happy, then we send!
And tomorrow, we will learn how to build a personal computer out of odds and ends.
STEP 1
Turn on your computer and wait for the cursor (the mouse pointy thing on the screen) to settle into a small arrow, we do not want to use the computer all the time an ‘hourglass’ shaped pointer is seen, which often happens while the computer is settling down ready to be used.
STEP 2
Find your email programme, normally on the bottom bar of the screen or on the screen to the top left, we ‘left click twice’ to open the programme. If the programme is not seen, use the mouse and ‘left click’ on “Start” then “Programmes”. We are looking for a programme called “Microsoft Outlook” or “Outlook Express” (whichever the computer has really). Once found we ‘left click’ once on this and the programme will load onto your screen ready for use.
STEP 3
Open a New email. To the top left of your screen you should be able to see the word ‘New’. You will ‘left click’ once on this. A page will open ready for the first stage of our journey into the World of the unknown! This page will eventually contain all the information that we wish to send. Including the person we are contacting and who it is from. Please note that the computer is still not connected to the internet at this point!
STEP 4
Compose a new email. Bearing in mind we still have the pretty screen showing in Step 3, we can continue. We will now write an email to Father Christmas. Firstly we will write our email. ‘Left click’ the mouse cursor on the big white area that is facing you, you now have control over a second cursor (vertical line), this cursor will be controlled mainly by the keyboard and is where a keyboard characters will appear when the keys are tapped. So type away with your message, we wish to see on the screen a list of presents not forgetting to start our email “Dear Father Christmas,”
STEP 5
We have made an error, don’t panic! It will surly be one of these:-
Spelling mistake, this is most normally picked up by the spell check and will show a red wavy line underneath the incorrect spelling, to correct the spelling place the mouse cursor over the word and ‘left click‘, we now have the keyboard cursor on the word and can use the ‘arrow keys’ (on the keyboard) to move left and right over the word to delete letters or add letters as need be. Alternatively we could ‘right click’ over the word which brings up a menu of words that closely match the one your trying to spell, you simply ‘left click’ the one required.
A word spelled correctly but used in the wrong context, please see spelling mistakes.
Text, paragraph or sentence in the wrong place, we can select a block of text by using the mouse. We first place the mouse curser at the beginning of the block we wish to move and ‘left click and hold’ now move the mouse curser to the end of the text and release the mouse button, you should now be looking at a block of text white in colour with a black border. We now ‘right click’ (over this text) and a menu appears, we now ‘left click’ our selection which will be “Cut” and the text will be removed from the page. We can now place the mouse cursor anywhere on our page where we would like the text to be repositioned, ‘right click’, menu appears and select “Paste” by ‘left clicking’. Job done!
STEP 6
Getting ready to send our email. On the top of your finished email there is some blank bars named “To:” and “Subject:” (forget CC: for the mo), The “To:” box is where you place the persons email address who is going to receive your email. In this case, type “FatherChistmas@neverland.uk”. You also need a subject, this is how others (including yourself) can see instantly what the email is about, so in here we would type something like “My Christmas Wish List”. We can now click “Send” at the top of our email. This will not actually send the email but place the email in our “Out Box” ready to be sent when we next connect to the internet.
STEP 7
Sending our email. Firstly we may still have a screen full of email programme which we need to clear so we can see what we are doing, for this we ‘left click’ the “_” button found on the far top right of the window. This does not close the programme but places it on the bottom bar, for us to find in a while.
I am assuming here that your computer is already set-up for email. We need to find the icon that connects to the internet (usually seen on the screen to the right) and ‘left click” twice. You should notice after a while that you will have what looks like two small blue TV’s on the bar to the bottom right, this means you are online and connected (if any other windows open at this point, close them ALL by ‘left clicking’ the “X” to the top right of each window.
Once connected we can ‘left click’ back on the email programme on the bottom bar and the ‘left click’ Send/Receive at the top, the email has now been sent! Job done! Also, by clicking “Send/Receive” you will see if anyone has sent you email, this will be placed in your “In Box” which (if email has arrived) will have a number next to it, this is how many new emails you have which require reading. You may if you wish disconnect from the internet now, ‘right click’ on the two small TV’s to the right of the bottom bar, and select “Disconnect” by ‘left clicking’.
(c) Kent Foster Care Association