One of my friends just bought her first computer and would like me to tutor her on computer basics. This friend knows next to nothing about computers and is 50 to 60 years old. I know that some on this board have taken the same journey recently, either helping or being the one with the new computer. Any suggestions on resources, books, online sites, topics to cover, would be appreciated. I could create my own curriculum from scratch, but see no need to reinvent the wheel. Thanks.
She may want to think about taking an adult education course in computers at the local community college. They are usually available in the evenings and the price is reasonable.
Teaching a friend can be uncomfortable (akin to teaching someone to drive), and a class will give her a support system. Most likely there would be people of her age group in the class which would make her feel more comfortable.
Just a thought
We’ve given my grandmother basic advice on email safety, spam, the difference between To, CC, and BCC, navigating folders, using the trashbin, saving files and finding where they’ve been saved to. She’s done pretty well figuring the rest out I think, though she has managed to get some kind of email bug that puts a logo into nearly every message she sends. It says “Not Approved”. shrug
What does she want to do on the comuter? One of my older brothers who is typically very bright bought a computer about 5 years ago and after he got it home had no idea what he really wanted it to do for him. He had just heard how everyone else had one and it sounded interesting. He had some vague notion about it doing his checkbook and using the internet. He didn’t seem to realize (or think about) that he still had to enter the information into the system for all of the nonroutine checks he writes, and in the long run he felt the pc didn’t offer a big enough advantage over doing it the way he had been going for his entire adult life. Plus, I think he was a little intimidated by the machine. I asked him a while ago how it was going and he said that it “quit working” and it’s sitting in his closet.
Obviously learning to use the mouse and understanding how the operating system works (windows, or whatever) are both esential to get the machine to do what she wants. It seems like Microsoft has a tutorial in their Windows program that walks the user through different processes. I believe this operates like th buttons on a vcr. But I’m not that familiar with some of the other tutorial products on the market for windows and some of their software products.
Will O’Ban
I agree with Will. If the new user has some goals–e-mailing children and grandchildren or playing with digital photos–that’s the best place to start.
I answered a newspaper ad once and ended up tutoring a woman who wanted to learn to e-mail and type up things to print out–fliers and what-not. I kept it simple and goal-oriented. She set the pace and agenda.
Also, it may not be obvious, but let the learner get as much hands-on time as possible. You can show them all day, but they won’t start really learning until they do it themselves.
Also, new users often need some reassurance that they won’t blow the thing up by clicking the wrong part of the screen.
M