Getting seniors plugged in and online

It seems that everywhere nowadays has an in-house information

technology guy to deal with the crashed servers, login problems,

viruses and other bugs.

But the Costa Mesa Senior Center?

Yep. People as old as 90 are still slow-waltzing aboard the

technological bandwagon, and the Senior Center is utilizing seven

volunteers to oversee its 13-computer lab, newly-stocked with

2.8-gigahertz, Windows-XP-ready Pentium 4s. Computer memory can now

document a lifetime of now-fading memories through photo storage and

file management, thanks to a little patient instruction.

Ron Perkins, a retired Hughes Aircraft computer specialist, said

he was called upon to serve as its first volunteer Computer Education

Coordinator in 1999, educating seniors about Windows, the Internet,

word processing -- even how to turn the machines on.

Through money donated by Senior Center Director Aviva Goelman and

San Francisco-based nonprofit Senior Net, whose primary purpose is to

bring seniors into the computer literate world, he’s seen the lab

grow into a modern training tool -- a big leap from it’s original

two-server table that once shared a room with French and yoga

classes.

Perkins, 60, said he’s discovered a love for volunteerism that

stems partly from his infatuation with the newest computer

technology, and partly from making differences in the lives of the

center’s patrons.

The Daily Pilot’s Jeff Benson sat down with the Orange native to

defrag the basic computer training he provides for seniors.

What kinds of students do you typically instruct?

Our students range from the mid-50s to the early-90s. Most of them

are mobile. Most can drive. But almost all of them have no experience

on computers. Many of them say they just sit there because they don’t

know how to turn the computers on. We give them the confidence to go

home and turn them on and get around on them.

Some people tell me, “I’m afraid it will explode.” I tell them,

“Have you ever seen a television explode? Well, these probably won’t

explode either.”

Why do you suspect most of them take these classes?

We ask them, why do you want to come in here to subject yourselves

to learning something so foreign and so new? About 90% say the same

thing -- that they feel out of touch. They really enjoy getting

pictures of their families and sending e-mail back. That’s what

drives most of them to take our classes, that desire to be connected.

When we get on the Internet in our “Intro to Computers” class,

we’ll do a search on Thomas Jefferson, for example, and back comes

three million hits. They can’t imagine there’s so much information on

anything.

Do you use any other real-world applications to help them

understand some of the technical jargon that computers are known for?

We’ll talk about the experience they have. Most don’t have any,

but many know how to play solitaire or know some rudimentary e-mail

functions.

So the next step is talking about databases. I’ll tell them, “The

most obvious database is your address book. It’s alphabetical and if

I wanted you to give me a phone number within seconds, you can.

That’s a database.” They get that.

We cover that in the intro class too -- managing files, filing

things, storing things. The better you organize your computer, the

easier it is to find things.

It’s absolutely so rewarding to see the lights come on with

people. Senior Net said that people remember up to 10% of what they hear, 30% of what they do and 99% of what they hear and do. If they

don’t try it, they won’t get it.

How did you get into computers?

I’ve always been interested in computers and read all the

magazines. I built my first computer in 1977, and that was back in

the days when there were no computing magazines and no computer

stores. I still have that computer up in the attic, and one of these

days I might try to fire it up. It came with a motherboard with

nothing on it ... and with a bag of resistors and sockets. Those were

fun days.

How did you get involved in volunteering with the Senior Center?

I became a member of the Orange Coast IBM PC Users Group, which at

one point had close to 1,500 people involved. Class size dropped off

considerably and they couldn’t afford to keep meeting with only 150

to 200 people at Orange Coast College.

Then, somebody from the group walked [into the Senior Center] to

see if there was space for the club to meet. The group walked in the

same time the center was talking with Senior Net, and suddenly there

were a ton of people with the capability to teach classes and use the

computers. It was perfect timing -- a marriage made in heaven.

That’s how I got involved. The OCIPUG said they found a place and

needed someone to help teach the classes. The group still meets here

on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon and a lot of us are still

volunteers.

How do people get into the classes?

First of all, our purpose is not to make experts of anybody, but

they need to be members of Senior Net. It’s a one-time fee of $40 and

then most of our classes -- Digital Photo Editing, Word Processing,

Using the Internet and Windows XP -- are $65. We have a “Computing

Made Easy” class Mondays for only $20.

But as long as they are members, they can use the computer lab

here as much as they want from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday.