[Web4lib] Classes for Seniors

[McHale, Nina]

Karen's car analogy reminded me of my grandmother-in-law. A retired
librarian, she uses her computer to edit a news column for a local
paper, scans photos for geneaology projects, and communicates regularly
with her entire family via email. I've always been impressed at how
adept she is at *using* her computer. When it comes to simple
maintenance, though, enter my husband, who gets pulled into the office
everytime we visit to fix something. She is also very resistant to any
kind of upgrades, even though that is often the cause of the problem.
When my husband didn't know what to suggest other than replacement for
an obviously dying printer that was the size of a Mini Cooper, she asked
incredulously, "What? It's only eight years old!" (She also was aghast
that her furnace only lasted 50 years.)

I'm just curious: does anyone out there include in their senior classes
issues about personal computer maintenance and upgrading? I know getting
down to specifics would be impossible because everyone's computer is
going to be different, but covering basic concepts like regular
maintenance and frequency of upgrades might be helpful to those who
think like my GIL. Someone, I think Scott Brandt, suggested at a
conference that even showing patrons how to clean the lint out of a
mouse--go ahead and laugh, but my workstation mouse still has a
ball--made them feel a lot more confident about computers.

Nina

Nina McHale, MA/MSLS
Web Services Librarian
Auraria Library

Serving the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences
Center-Downtown Campus,
Metropolitan State College
and the Community College of Denver

1100 Lawrence Street
Denver, Colorado 80204
303-556-4729

nina.mchale at cudenver.edu  

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Danielle Plumer
Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2006 9:34 AM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Web4lib] Classes for Seniors


I like Karen's point, but one thing I've noticed in teaching classes for
genealogists (a high percentage of whom are seniors), is that you need
to take their physical limitations into account. This may include:
hearing loss, vision impairment (including special lenses), and limited
mobility/hand control due to arthritis, Parkinson's, etc. There may also
be cognitive issues, but, frankly, I haven't seen too much of that.

Whenever I taught one of these classes, I always explained that
usability and ergonomics are part of the reason why the students were
having problems. I also taught the students ways around the problems
(including my personal favorite, the two-handed mouse technique). My
students appreciated learning that some of the problems were NOT THEIR
FAULT.

Danielle Cunniff Plumer, Coordinator
Texas Heritage Digitization Initiative
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
512.463.5852 (phone) / 512.936.2306 (fax) dplumer at tsl.state.tx.us


-----Original Message-----

<snip>

I think the level of computer knowledge shouldn't need to be higher or
lower than that for most people, young or old, regardless of setting. 

<snip> 

Karen G. Schneider
kgs at bluehighways.com
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