Daddy Dohsis plays kid and mouse
“Kids come into the class on the first day, they sit at the keyboard and they don’t have a clue,” Dohsis Lokot laughed as he hunched over and held his fingers like 10 little spears pointed down at the keyboard. “Then, in just a few days, they’re just, like, so cool.” And with that he settles his fingers in the correct place, turns and puts an “I’m the dude” look on his face.
This summer will be Lokot’s third teaching computer basics to nine to 12-year-old children at the University of the South Pacific’s Marshall Islands campus.
“First I teach them how to turn the power on, second they learn about the keyboard and the mouse and then after that it’s Microsoft Word basics.
“The kids don’t get bored at all,” he said. “The last topic I teach them is doing research on the Internet. And in that I always tell them to ‘ask Uncle Google’.”
USP’s summer course is held on Saturdays (July 2 through to July 23) and each lasts three hours. The cost of the course is $35.
“I believe it’s really important for youngsters to learn about computers in order for them to be able to continue through school,” said USP’s Continuing and Community Education Coordinator Tamara Greenstone. “Many children don’t have access to computers at home and I don’t believe there are many computers in the elementary schools. We’re trying to let them be familiar with technology so that they’ll be ahead of the game.”
