A Guide To Getting Started For Older Australians
This program, produced by the Department of Education, Science and Technology is available free as a CD or on VHS tape. It is specifically designed to help persons who “have left school before computers or have been too busy bringing up families.” It is stresses that no prior knowledge is expected.
The message from the presenters is that age is no barrier to learning new skills and “we do not expect you to be able to do everything in this presentation immediately it is over but with this introduction, a little extra help and time you will be underway surprisingly quickly”.
Material is arranged in Chapters: Introduction and Benefits, The Personal Computer, Operating Systems and other Software, Word Processing, File Management, Internet and e-mail, Digital Photography, Conclusions and Contacts.
This program shows very clearly the wide range of things that is accessible from a computer. There are many clips of seniors being very encouraging and explaining what computer knowledge has been able to do for them. The general consensus is “it was easier than I expected”. The program finishes by telling beginners where they may go for help, such as computer clubs for seniors. It is shown that it is not necessary to own a computer; public and community libraries can provide access to e-mail and the internet. Several web sites which specialise in computing training for Seniors are given.
There is, in our community, an increasing interest by seniors in learning some computing skills and the provision of opportunities for this to be achieved is very important. The question is “How useful is this program in actually helping someone get started?”
Many older persons are particularly interested in e-mail. Access to email enables them to have more contact with family members. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this. For an older person to get started with a computer, they need to be able to insert text into a document be it a letter or an e-mail. I have looked very carefully at this video to see how this basic skill is demonstrated. There is an assumption that the software program “Word” has been installed on the machine. The icon for “Word” is shown and described as “one of the most useful”. One “double clicks on this icon with the left button” and Word opens up. Neither the desktop nor shortcut icons have previously been mentioned; I doubt that a total beginner would intuitively find the icon. Earlier, in the video, there is a display, in a shop, of the overwhelming variety of mouses that can be purchased, but no previous mention of a “left button” or of “double-clicking”. To access the helpful web sites that been given, the URL would of course have to be typed into a browser. I have carefully studied the scenes where this is done and I do not think it would be possible for a beginner to grasp what occurred.
If one talks with persons who have been extensively involved in helping older people to learn computer skills, universally the comment is “In the beginning, patience and one on one personal instruction is essential.” I would also suggest a good book such as “PCs for Dummies Quick Reference 3rd Edition” ($23.95). A beginner often needs help when he/she is on their own at home. It must be taken into account that many older people often have short attention spans and may also have some loss in retaining new information. While the video explains there are aids in Windows to help those with some form of disability, I have never encountered a beginner who has found and is using them.
I think this program is very useful in demonstrating to seniors the wealth of possibilities of a computer. On its own, I do no think that it would help at all in “getting started”.
I am 80 plus, a recent recruit to computing and very interested and active in helping older people develop computing skills.
Adele Millerd