Learning the Internet

ianmc38

Hi all,

Can anybody recommend a good onlin tutorial for learning the basics of using a pc thats free, kinda like ECDL. The main priority is using th einternet and email. Its for my mum who's not overly computer literate(she probably wouldnt know how to create a folder).

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Ian

degsie

Here's a thought. Go to your local LIBRARY

1234567890

i suspect it would be very hard to find a free "how to use the internet" tutorial on the internet. best bet is to go to easons or something. they have a lot of good books.

what you could do is set up a hotmail account for her and then teach her how to use msn messenger. thats really user friendly. when she gets the hang of that she'll probably feel a lot more confident about using the internet. add a shortcut somewhere on you internet browser for a search engine like google. it wont take long to cop on to using a search engine and once she has that down she should be able to surf away to her hearts content! sure thats how i showed my folks!

If you don't have a pop up blocker, i'd suggest to get one too! parents find it hard to understand that clicking the window that says "you have just won one million pound" never really ends up with you getting any money, more so a virus of some kind! you'll find a load of really good free ones in this thread!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=231147

Sully

Id write a tutorial for this but it would be really hard as id need to know how computer literate is she? What programs will she be using for mail/browsing? The OS is WinXP or Winwat?

I might give it a shot..

ianmc38

Sully04 wrote:

Id write a tutorial for this but it would be really hard as id need to know how computer literate is she? What programs will she be using for mail/browsing? The OS is WinXP or Winwat?

I might give it a shot..

her computer literacy is at a base level. She can use word, but using bold or italics would probably be a challenger for her. She has used Outlook express abput 10 years ago, but would have no idea what to do other than open the program (i'll configure the POP3 settings etc to bring in her mail for her). I'll also setup a gmail a/c for her. OS is XP with IE for browsing the Web.

Cheers.

minotour

Hey Ian,

Why not get her to do the EDLC?? My Ma did it and before she started i though here we go now with phone calls, how does this work, and whats after happening here, but no.

She learned loads, compared to what she started with and she made some friends and had a bit of a laff.

Only problem is now she keeps me sending photoshop pictures of crap!!!

......but sure how bad?

ianmc38

Money is extremely tight so she can't afford to do any fee basec ourses. That why i was hoping someone here might know a good online one thats free. I looked for a while on google but couldnt find anything really suitable. All the web tutorials were talking about servers and TCP/IP. Not the ideal place for her to start...

Ri_Nollaig

minotour wrote:

Hey Ian,

Why not get her to do the EDLC?? My Ma did it and before she started i though here we go now with phone calls, how does this work, and whats after happening here, but no.

She learned loads, compared to what she started with and she made some friends and had a bit of a laff.

Only problem is now she keeps me sending photoshop pictures of crap!!!

......but sure how bad?

my mother wouldnt even no how start a computer never mind use PS so u should b impressed

BopNiblets

Tell her to press all the buttons and click everything until something happens.
If the PC blows up, she probably did something wrong...

The Troll

BopNiblets wrote:

Tell her to press all the buttons and click everything until something happens.
If the PC blows up, she probably did something wrong...

Hmm_Messiah

Hey
I did the JEB teaching diploma diploma in ICT skills. Any one who does it has to do lesson plans on different aspects of ICT, some one should have fairly basic tutorial written up for it. I remember doing excel and word ones, and powerpoint, think I did a Hotmail based Email instruction (I teach adult literacy so tend to do things at a basic level)

I could if you like burn my JEB folder to cd and you could browse it for anythign useful , alternatively if you had messenger or somethign set up for her I'd be happy to do a few tutorials over the net .

I also have cd rom of ECDL, version 3, but it has basic and advanced on it, I could make a backup copy and let her "borrow" it.

Hmm_Messiah

also see
www.learnthenet.com if you can get her used to clicking links it seems nice and simple site

RicardoSmith

ianmc38 wrote:

Hi all,

Can anybody recommend a good onlin tutorial for learning the basics of using a pc thats free, kinda like ECDL. The main priority is using th einternet and email. Its for my mum who's not overly computer literate(she probably wouldnt know how to create a folder).

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Ian

Why don't you show her yourself?

monkeyfudge

Where abouts in the country are you?

I run an IT training centre on the Northside of Dublin and we offer basic IT training courses for €5.

The course runs for 10 weeks.

RicardoSmith

monkeyfudge wrote:

Where abouts in the country are you?

I run an IT training centre on the Northside of Dublin and we offer basic IT training courses for €5.

The course runs for 10 weeks.

Wow :eek: 10wks for €5.

monkeyfudge

Ha. yes.. It would be free, but I've got to make ends meet...

Actually the reason it isn't free is because people would put there names down and take up places on courses and then not bother turning up, so I introduced a €5 fee to get some sort of commitment out of people... the money generally goes towards buying biscuits.

RicardoSmith

monkeyfudge wrote:

Ha. yes.. It would be free, but I've got to make ends meet...

Actually the reason it isn't free is because people would put there names down and take up places on courses and then not bother turning up, so I introduced a €5 fee to get some sort of commitment out of people... the money generally goes towards buying biscuits.

Great idea. A lot of free courses have a non show rate of about 40-50%. Which means that 40-50% of people who were turned away because of lack of capacity miss out. I just thought it was staggeringly good value. I assume its either a volunteer or sponsered scheme of some sort.

monkeyfudge

We have funding from the CDVEC and we're just starting to get new funding from the Dormant Accounts fund.

From next month we'll also be able to offer a FETAC certification for the courses.

We just cover the basics, file management, word processing, email and internet... People who just want to learn to use a computer don't really need to learn about spreadsheets, databases and powerpoint.

Hmm_Messiah

really sounds great !!

I tutor FETAC foundation level computer literacy, and its more taking aware fears etc than specific skills; my idea would be that they be comfortable sitting at their kids/ library pc without worrying they'll destroy something.

I have done excel with some too; its a neat way of dowing the fetac numeracy stuff ? they can type in answers, get true/ false etc

Also use MS Paint ; harmless way of developing mouse control, and being "icon" minded.


oh, my bro works in cdvec ballsbridge

monkeyfudge

Hmm_Messiah wrote:

oh, my bro works in cdvec ballsbridge

Argghh... is he one of the people who make it really hard for me to purchase anything? ha...