I’ve agreed to teach a basic computer introduction class to largely seniors at one of our schools. I’ve taught technology to six year olds with a fair bit of ease. Sure, they’ll run around a bit, maybe push something the shouldn’t but for the most part learn pretty quickly and easily.
I’ve never taught seniors. I have shown my dad a few things but that’s it. I have taught many reluctant adults but usually with a very specific purpose. Now I have carte blanche and want to give them the best bang for their six hour investment (3 nights/2 hours each).
So I’m asking for your help. I’m sure I’ll cover file management, email, internet and searches but I’m not sure of the depth or focus of these topics.
If you had this time to teach seniors about using computers. What do you think are the critical skills they should have?
It took my parents a long time to understand what the difference was between tasks like dialing into their ISP (a lot of seniors still do dial up) and using IE to navigate the web. It also took them a while to understand that there are several different ways to do the same thing: using the Back arrow in IE vs. closing down the window and going to the URL again, scrolling via the mouse wheel or down arrow key scroll bar and stuff like that. The other thing I struggled with them with was understanding what a pop-up is and why you don’t click OK or Yes, and understanding when they were being spammed and phished in email. They were so trusting they found themselves with all kinds of nasty stuff on their computer and couldn’t understand how it got there.
I’m sure the seniors will appreciate whatever you show them. I’d begin with the basic Windows stuff and then spend a lot of time on email (basics, attachments, junk mail safety, etc.). Then provide 10 solid sites to visit (discovermoosejaw.com, google, etc.). Then I would look into simple word processing. After that let their interest drive the class.
I’ve helped some relatives in the past and email seems to be item they were most interested in. Good luck Dean.