Senior Circuit Learning The Internet Can Be Daunting, But Many Seniors Are Tackling The Challenge With Gusto

None of the keyboards in Christine Lewis’ classroom has a button marked “Explode Computer.”

Once the playful, 34-year-old Lewis points out this reassuring fact to the more apprehensive among her gray-haired North Idaho College students, “they’re off and running” in pursuit of Internet adventures, she says.

Lewis introduces older people to the Internet. Many of her students grew up in the 1920s and ‘30s — people who remember a time before television, nylon stockings and jet travel; a time when the idea of personal computers was almost as farfetched as … landing a man on the moon.

But they’ve adjusted to change, embracing microwaves, answering machines, ATMs and VCRs.

Now they’re eager to learn about the Net. They want to send e-mail to their grandchildren, research family history, shop for Christmas presents and play bridge without having to so much as punch their electric garage-door opener.

“This isn’t something they have to do,” says Community Colleges of Spokane Extended Learning instructor Nancy Bagley. “It’s something they want to do — and there’s a big difference. If you’re interested in doing something, you learn it much faster.”

Ironically, some seniors express impatience with the pace of today’s technology.

“They expect it to be superfast,” says Bagley, who traces her own computer roots back to the mainframe-and-punch-card days of the early ‘70s. “But it still takes time to transmit a message and get back information.”

Two years ago, CCS didn’t offer any Internet classes for seniors. This fall it has 16, with almost 200 students enrolled.

“Interest among seniors is definitely growing,” observes NIC’s Lewis, who teaches a variety of computer classes designed for students over 55.

Web sites, too, have begun catering to older audiences, as have publishers. Daniel Fingerman, author of “The Internet for the TYPEWRITER Generation” (Ten Speed Press, $14.95), promises to “steer clear of technical jargon, define terms in down-to-earth language and stick to the essentials.”

Fingerman patiently guides readers through the basics of selecting a computer, choosing an Internet service provider, sending e-mail, using “search engines” efficiently and chatting online.

He also offers a wealth of Web sites for seniors to explore.

Better yet, his own Web site - www.typewritergeneration.com - links visitors with dozens of Web pages devoted to news, travel, health, elder care, religion, genealogy, government, cooking and hobbies.

Still, seniors have to take the first step.

Some of Bagley’s students got new or hand-me-down computers months ago, but they lack the courage to turn them on. Others don’t have computers yet - “they’re just coming in to find out what it’s all about,” she says. After nine hours of “Computer Kindergarten,” they’re ready to take on the world - the World Wide Web, that is.

Many enroll in “Introduction to the Internet,” a hands-on course offered on the Spokane Falls Community College campus and at University City in the Spokane Valley. Total cost is $14. Upcoming sessions start this Friday, Nov. 4 and Nov. 18. Phone 533-3770 to register.

E-mail is a high priority among Bagley’s students. Those who already know e-mail basics want to learn about “attachments” - sending pictures, for instance - or how to “copy and paste” type from Web sites onto e-mail messages.

Before Bagley sends her students off surfing the Web, she warns them that “like anything else, there’s good and bad out there, and you need to be wary.”

During the final class, Bagley has students team up and plan a vacation - destinations, air fares, hotels, car rentals - using information gleaned from Web sites.

“They really have a lot of fun with that,” she says.

Across the border in North Idaho, instructor Lewis shares her senior students’ enthusiasm for this new communication medium.

“Sometimes I’ll tell them, `I can see the light bulb over your head,’ because they suddenly understand and go, `Oh, wow!”’ The Internet tries to be user friendly, but obstacles remain. One typical stumbling block: Students type a Web address or enter words in a search engine and then forget to push the “return” key.

“That happens a lot in class,” says Lewis. “Maybe that’s because on a typewriter you just type, and with the phone you just press the buttons. You don’t have to tell it, `OK, now go.”’ And, of course, what you type is important.

“We’ve gone to some pretty interesting sites by accident,” Lewis recalls with a laugh. “One time, instead of whitehouse.gov, we ended up at whitehouse.com. That’s a porno site.”

A favorite site is www.kbb.com, the Web page for Kelley Blue Book, a vehicle appraisal service.

“They like to see how much their car is worth,” she says.

One student just wanted to find sites where he could play cribbage, Lewis recounts.

“I showed him how the first night of class, and that’s all he did after that. He’d come in, sit down, get to his cribbage page and play. He had a great time, and he got what he came for.”

Others, though, get a more comprehensive overview, including how to bring the Internet into their homes.

“I usually recommend they not buy a top-of-the-line computer,” Lewis says. “A lot of these retired seniors have money, and they may go spend $3,000 on a machine that’s three times what they need.” Lewis suggests seniors buy their computers from a local dealer.

“It’s just easier, particularly if something goes wrong” Lewis says.

She also recommends they start with a local Internet service provider, “because if they have a problem, it’s easier to get tech support,” she says.

Another tip: Always ask Internet providers if they offer senior discounts.

Lewis discusses computer and Internet jargon but doesn’t dwell on it. After all, she says, “You don’t need to know every piece of your car before you drive it. You just put in the key and go.

“It’s the same way with computers. It helps to know a little about megabytes when you’re buying a computer. But you don’t need to know how many bytes are in a megabyte to use the Internet.”

One common source of frustration among students is search engines.

“They’ll type in whatever they’re looking for - say, `Great Barrier Reef’ - and get millions of hits,” Lewis says. “They get every site that says `great,’ every site that says `barrier’ and every site that says `reef.’ “I teach them to go to a search engine’s `help’ link and learn the syntax. With some search engines, if you put words in quotes, it searches for the phrase instead of each separate word.”

The nine-hour NIC course costs $69 and includes the book “Internet and World Wide Web: Simplified” (IDG Books, $24.99).

“It’s a good book for seniors,” Lewis says, “because it’s divided into really small blocks of information, so they can skip around” and focus on particular areas of interest.

One area that doesn’t generate much interest is chat rooms.

“Most seniors think there are too many weird people doing the chat thing,” Lewis says.

NIC’s next Internet-for-Seniors class begins Nov. 8 at the Post Falls Work Training Center. Call (208) 769-3333 to register by phone. Most Inland Northwest libraries offer free Internet access as well as brief introductory sessions. Call your local public library for more information.

This sidebar appeared with the story: Web sites to start with Seniors surfing the Internet will find an abundance of useful Web sites. Here are a few: * www.aarp.org American Assn. of Retired Persons * www.typewritergeneration.com Links to assorted senior sites * www.genhomepage.com Genealogy clearinghouse * igm.nlm.nih.gov National Library of Medicine database * www.spokane.net The Spokesman-Review * www.nytimes.com New York Times * national.sidewalk.msn.com Microsoft’s city guide * www.lonelyplanet.com More info about destinations * www.nws.noaa.gov National Weather Service * lcweb.loc.gov Library of Congress * www.culinary.com Over 73,000 recipes * www.quilt.com Basic and advanced quilting * quote.yahoo.com Stock quotes and research * www.gardenweb.com Everything about plants