Columbia Opportunity Center Activities

The centerpiece of the Columbia Opportunity Center is its computer laboratory, providing a resource unparalleled in any of the Maya villages in the Toledo District. During the school year, the lab is used during the evenings and on weekends by students conducting research, typing their homework, and improving their typing skills. Some students ride their bicycles from other villages on hot, dusty roads to use the Center's resources. We charge BZ 50¢ (US 25¢) an hour for computer usage.

The evening sessions were managed very well during the last school year by Bena Cal, a young mother of three, and Jennie Ical, a graduate of our Introduction to Computers course. Since they both encountered increasing responsibilities in other areas of their lives recently, we're adding more managers to our list. We've recently welcomed Armando Choco, Jorge Teul, and Gabriel Pop as part-time managers of the Center. They are working evenings in exchange for classes with Connie Burk on various topics, such as QuickBooks Pro and Computer Lab Maintenance. So far, this program is working very well.

In January, we completed our first Introduction to Microcomputers course, a 50-hour course covering the Microsoft Office software suite, designed jointly by Belizean Education Department staff and Peace Corps volunteers. Six young village women, of various ages and with various levels of formal educational attainment, participated in the course, meeting twice weekly for two hours each lesson. It was a very successful course. The students worked hard and had a good time as well.

The most challenging part of the course was the final unit on e-mailing and internet usage. Knowing how difficult it had been to teach a group of students to design a Power Point presentation when most had never seen a slide show of any kind, Instructor Connie Burk wondered how to teach them about the concepts of the internet and e-mail. Athens area attorney Don Wirtshafter, while visiting the Belize Agroforestry Research Center near the village, saved the day. As a guest instructor, Don showed up for class with his laptop computer, and the students gathered around while he gave them an overview of his heavy reliance on e-mailing. He then read a few messages in his inbox, and wrote a couple replies in front of the students. Next, the students learned how to navigate through groups of sample web pages on the network in the lab. The following week, on a field trip to the internet-connected computer lab at the Education Department in Punta Gorda, twenty miles away, the students were instantly comfortable with the internet. They surfed awhile on their own, then participated in a contest using web search engines. Then they all signed up for their own free e-mail accounts, and wrote each other and replied! It was an enjoyable experience. End-of-course evaluations were positive, and the beginning course, as well as an advanced course, will be taught this year.

Although Mavis Beacon's typing software program was already popular in the Columbia Opportunity Center, her popularity rose sharply this summer as the Center sponsored a summer-long typing contest. Children worked hard, and many prizes were awarded. Some have learned all their letters and have joined older students in receiving self-guided lessons in Word and Excel. Usually, several students work on the same lesson, and assist each other, with some guidance from Connie.

Other resources of the Center, such as digital photography and photocopying, are increasingly relied upon by many of the villagers, who, more and more, are thinking of the Columbia Opportunity Center as their own.

Back to Newsletter Table of Contents