2. Do students receive clear instructions on how technology can be used to deal with aspects of the restaurant problem (for example productivity software for letters and payroll). If so, how and when?
I think our students receive clear instructions on how they can use the technology to better serve whatever aspect or component of the problem they happen to be working on. One method of instruction is to show by example. Oftentimes, when it's a brand new skill, we will have something for them to touch and to look at with explicit written directions, with a warm body going over each of those things. There is no threatening feeling that "I can't ask a question if I'm lost" or "They're already ahead of me two spots" because the entire atmosphere is so individual. You could be at a spot different from your neighbor sitting next to you, so your question doesn't sound silly because they're somewhere else altogether. We try and create a learning environment where people are not embarrassed. The instruction aspect of the technology is very gentle and very straightforward, very paced according to the individual because not everybody that comes to a GED classroom has had the same kind of computer technology experiences that our children in our schools now are experiencing. So we try to make it as painless as possible.
