Email and Photo Classes Completed

Picture: Don Ditlevson, one of several volunteer instructors, helping three students in the March 2010 basic classes.

Spring has arrived. Two more winter computer classes for seniors finished this week. Email instructor, David Scherrey pressed the send button and his email students returned to their regular computers to practice sending emails and following good email etiquette. It's been fun to visit some of the classes and watching people learn new skills. That's always been one of the rewards of teaching, at any age level.

This writer may have overexposed the entire digital photography group, but talking with several students after the final class, they felt they knew more about uploading digital pictures to computers and more about working with photographs than they knew when the class started. I also felt I had overreached and tried to cover too much material this term. Thanks to the suggestions and ideas in conversations and on the evaluation forms, we'll now have a few months to mull over possible changes to go slower on the content and try to add more hands-on practice -- particularly for students who have just completed some of the basic classes.

While writing this blog post, I became aware that both of the above paragraphs mentioned the importance of practice.

When we were in high school, years ago for many of us, we were constantly going to "practice" after school. There was football practice, basketball practice, baseball practice, band practice, cheerleader practice. Some of us had to go to work and we practiced becoming good workers and later good managers. We had to practice to be better at anything we did.

Computer skills are learned and eventually mastered in a similar fashion. The instructors can "point the way" and show you where to find the help files, but sooner or later each student gets to go practice -- to check their emails daily and reply to emails they receive. Other students will hopefully move their digital pictures into their computer and use software on their computer to make their quick snapshots even better.

If we all get lucky, some of our students will combine what they learned in email and photo classes and practice sharing their pictures with others. If you keep practicing, you'll keep learning and getting better. That's one of the rewards students of any age can achieve and enjoy.

We're never too old that all of us can't learn even more....

Feb. 9th Registration (rained)(snowed)(iced) out! [pick one]

 Due to inclement weather - any of the above that may be happening in your area - and a good chance of ice on the roads on Tuesday morning, the registration for the RVS/FSS Winter Classes has been rescheduled. The official announcement is below:

        What crazy weather! Hope you are enjoying the beautiful snow...even if it is wreaking havoc with our plans.

        We had to make a decision about what to do about tomorrow's signup and here it is:  We are going to postpone Computer Class Signup until NEXT Tuesday (February 16th) at the SAME TIME (11:00 - 1:30) AND combine the Meet Your Mouse and Fun 'n' Games class on Thursday (February 18th); then all the other class times will remain the same.

        Hope that meets with everyone's approval. BTW, you will all be glad to know that David has signed on to teach the Intro to the Internet and the Email classes.[We are!]

        So, relax and enjoy the beautiful but messy weather from the warmth of your homes...and hope that next week will be an improvement, weather-wise!

        Take care all,

    pjw

I've updated the class schedule below to reflect those changes. Sorry for the inconvenience if you had planned to four-wheel into town to show off your studded snow tires, but we'd rather our class participants stay safe. - BR

River Valley Seniors' Computer Class Registration

UPDATED: River Valley Seniors, formerly known as SeniorNet, will hold their Winter Computer Class Signup on Tuesday, February 16th from 11:00a.m. - 1:30p.m. in the Computer Lab at the Fort Smith Public Library (3201 Rogers Ave). These classes will concentrate on computer skills for beginner adults, with an emphasis on instruction for students over 50.

The classes are FREE but space is limited, so advanced registration is required at the times listed above. These classes are co-sponsored by the Fort Smith Public Library.

Classes this winter will include:

Beginning Classes:

UPDATED:

    * Meet Your Mouse & Fun and Games
      Thursday, February 18 (9:30-11:30a.m.)

These two classes were combined when signup was postponed due to weather. Learn how to operate a computer mouse in a VERY informal and fun class with lots of hands-on practice using computer games. Take this class if you are NOT comfortable with using a mouse. The skills you learn in playing the games already on your computer will be very useful in other introductory computer classes.

    * Intro to Personal Computers
      Tu/Th, February 23, 25, March 2, 4 (9:30-11:30a.m.)

 Intended for students who have little or no knowledge of computers; emphasis will be on learning to interact with the computer using keyboard and mouse. We will cover Windows XP not Vista.

    * Beginning Word Processing
      Tu/Th, March 9, 11 (9:30-11:30a.m.)

Learn how to use your mouse and keyboard to type, change, and enhance documents (letters, poems, the great American novel, even recipes!). This class is intended to continue our intro to Input devices started the previous week and as prelude to Intro to PCs.

    * Introduction to the Internet
      Tu/Th, March 16, 18, 23, 25 (9:30-11:30a.m.)

A beginning course in using the Internet intended for those students who have completed Intro to PCs with knowledge of the keyboard and mouse. Learn how to "surf" the web and use Search Engines to find information; learn to download programs, pictures, etc.

    * Basic Email
      Tu/Th, March 30, April 1 (9:30-11:30a.m.)

Intended for students who have completed Intro to PCs and Intro to the Internet. Learn general techniques of using email using Yahoo! Email.

Intermediate Classes:

    * From Digital Camera to PC
      Tuesday, March 16 (1:30-3:30p.m.)

Learn how to get your pictures out of your digital camera and into your PC.

    * Edit and Enhance Your Digital Photos
      Tuesday, March 23 (1:30-3:30p.m.)

Learn how to make corrections and other changes to your digital photos with Google's free software program, Picasa.


    * Share, Print, and Save Your Digital Photos
      Tuesday, March 30 (1:30-3:30p.m.)

Learn how to print photos, copy your digital photos to CDs, and share photos with your friends via email and/or a photo-sharing website using Google's free software program, Picasa.

    * Facebook for Seniors
      Tuesday, April 6 (1:30-3:30p.m.)

Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users will learn how to add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, and organizations.

UPDATED: Remember: you MUST sign up for Beginning and Intermediate classes on Tuesday, February 16th from 11:00a.m. - 1:30p.m. in the Computer Lab at the Fort Smith Public Library (3201 Rogers Ave).

Special Interest Workshops:

    *  PC Questions and Answers: "The Doctor is IN"
       Wednesday, March 3 (1:30-3:30p.m.)

     * PC Questions and Answers: "The Doctor is IN"
       Wednesday, April 7 (1:30-3:30p.m.)

Students in current or former senior classes, library patrons and others who are encountering difficulties with their computers are invited to either of these "First Wednesday" walk-in computer clinic sessions and ask computer-related questions. Depending on the size of the group, we may have time for one-to-one help or may need to write down questions if the group is large. Either way, the emphasis will be on demonstrating how to use online resources that help us solve our own tech problems. We'll try to show you how and where to start looking. The answer is probably out there somewhere.

For more information, please call the Main Library at (479)783-0229.