Here is my report of my day at Tackley last week when I attended OFWI Go Online training day with four other Oxfordshire WI members.
Our day began at 10.30 with a brief personal introduction by each member to the class for our tutor, Penny Marsh, to know just what each wanted and hoped to gain from our day’s course. It seemed that safety and security were high on our collective wish-list, ease of opening techniques, easier usage for basic computer tools, shopping online ideas, how to acquire an email address and confidence in using the computer as a tool for everyday usage, communication with the wider world of family connections plus usage of Face Book, emailing with word and photo attachments. In fact, emailing was the one subject Penny barely touched on because of all the spontaneous questions which kept popping up all day, furthering our acquisition of knowledge and confidence.
From my point of view, the course was basic instruction for beginners and those more advanced in basics with a smattering of gained usage from use of slightly more complicated tools and applications using Word and shopping sites. We each had a computer set-up for our use to sign into the BBC website, to send emails to Penny and to work alongside her, viewing all her hand movements and moves on a large wall screen.
We had a short coffee break squeezed into a busy morning, stopped for lunch for about 25 minutes, followed by an afternoon session of approximately 2 hours’ duration.
Penny’s tuition put all at their ease, allowing a flow of questions throughout a full day, made even busier as confidence grew, prompting even more questions which continued with coffee and lunch.
Increased confidence was definitely felt by all course members, the member who needed an email address certainly went away with the desired article and security about what information not to provide for Face Book and how to stay secure online was received.
Personally, I left confident in my basic understanding and usage of the computer and reinforced knowledge about other more complicated issues. I had wanted to know how Tackley’s courses were organised and at what level they were pitched and also to have my basic knowledge confirmed and this is what I took away with me at the end of the day.
One other interesting gain I came away with was a photo taken of the 70th Anniversary Tapestry made in 1989 for OFWI 70th Anniversary celebrations for 1989 and here is my photo of a part of the tapestry…
Our contribution, presumably from Adderbury with Milton, is on the second row from the top, 1st square on the left, depicting our church, sheep and the river.
The tapestry was exquisitely stitched and obviously made by very skilled needle women. It was a delight to behold. Here is a smaller photo which looks better…
OFWI 70th Anniversary Celebratory Tapestry – OFWI 1919 – 1989
Margaret Halstead