Seniors get computer savy

Lolita Harper

A hard drive is not commuting from here to Los Angeles at 3 p.m.

on a Friday. Software has nothing to do with cotton. And a mouse is

no longer a fury little animal.

Instructors at the Costa Mesa Senior Center are redefining key

terms to get the city’s more mature residents up to speed with the

Internet, e-mail and basic word processing programs that have become

a way of life for most people.

Reports show that adults older than 50 are still the “least wired”

segment of the population.

“The whole point of this is to bring seniors into the

technological age,” said lead instructor Daniel Dickinson.

The Senior Center initially opened its learning center in 1999

said executive director Aviva Goelman. Following the passing of

Goelman’s mother and the resulting generous donations to her memorial

fund, center officials were able to build and create a computer

classroom, with seven workstations, a large screen television, two

printers and a scanner.

Dickinson and his fellow SeniorNet members volunteer to teach the

computer classes in return for free space to hold their monthly

meetings.

Costa Mesa resident Jim Miller, who is taking the Windows 98 Part

2 class, said he first started using computers about 10 years ago. As time progressed, he found his PC became more essential to daily

production. Miller adapted but found he still had a lot to learn.

Most of his frustration came from vanishing documents, he said.

“I would hit save and the thing would just disappear on me and I

wouldn’t know where it was,” Miller said.

Two sessions at the center and Miller said he has learned how to

store his work where he can find it again. Nonetheless, he listened

intently Thursday afternoon as instructor Ron Perkins explained in

great detail exactly how to name and store a file and figure out

exactly where it is going.

The instruction is slow, repetitive and designed specifically for

seniors, Dickinson said.

Margaret Kos said she is grateful for the deliberate teaching

style. Most do-it-yourself instruction books are written for the

general public and do not take into account the fact that some senior

citizens have never even touched a computer, much less downloaded a

file.

Kos said she was in her third class and would continue taking

classes as long as they were offered.

“I give seniors a lot of credit for exposing themselves to this

kind of foreign technology,” Perkins said.

Dickinson, Miller and Goelman all agreed, saying computers can

present very intricate and intimidating challenges to the elder

class.

But it’s a challenge worth facing, the trio concluded, and

definitely a task that can be accomplished.