Sunday, May 28 2006

Hints that there is more to come

A SECONDARY school teacher has created software to make learning fun. “Trini Trainer,” an interactive tutorial for Microsoft Word is geared toward students of the Microsoft Office Specialist Exams, CXC O’Level exams, GCE A’Level Exams and CAPE exams in Information Technology.


“It is also useful to managers in the corporate world to teach their secretaries how to use the programme, basically for an average user of the computer who wants to learn Microsoft Word,” said Keith Laban, creator of the tutorial.

Laban, 34, an Information Technology teacher at Trinity College East and a lecturer at COSTAATT developed this programme with the help of Network Technician, Neil Laban and Consultant, Ronald Nathan.

“This computer programme covers the whole Microsoft Office Specialist. It teaches different ways of doing tasks with on screen recordings to assist the user in understanding it,” Laban told Sunday Newsday.

The tutorial was released last November and is now being sold at Mohammed’s Bookstores for $100.

Laban said he developed the tutorial because he noticed there was a lack of local educational software.

“We are developing another tutorial for Microsoft Excel and CXC Mathematics,” he said.

His school was the testing ground for the programme.

“It is a chore for students to read through the notes. Finally with this tutorial they do their work at home and they have fun with it.

“What is great about this is that each student could move at their own pace. It really helps them with moving ahead in their school work. They have been responding to the programme very well,” he continued.

Laban, who has a BSC in computing from the University of Greenwich in England and an Associate Degree in Information Technology, is hoping to launch his own website to offer support, updates and practice exercises for his tutorials.

Laban is currently working on an updated version of the “Trini Trainer.”