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Class Information

This series of classes is directed at those of our population that were 'busy with life' when personal computers were introduced in the 1980's. We missed learning computer basics because were raising children, working a day (and/or night) job to earn a living, maintaining a home, worrying about weather, etc. Now we have some spare time on our hands, and have begun to wonder how we missed out on something that seems to have taken over our society.

If you are finally taking the plunge into computers; or even if you just want to dip your toe into the water, we encourage you to begin at the beginning: Class 1. Even if you read the outline and believe you are too informed to begin at class 1, we encourage you to begin at Class 1.

We have spent at least five years working with people 55 years and older to organize the order in which you are introduced to computer related concepts. We are constantly being told how understandable and usefull the information is, even by those who thought they were already familiar with the subject. Please! Start at the beginning. It doesn't take long, and, who knows, you may learn something useful.

A note on videos and Internet browsers:

Due to industry licensing restrictions, not all Internet browsers (Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple Safari for example) are capable of viewing all video formats. If your favorite browser has problems with our videos, try a different browser such as Chrome from Google. It is the one we use for testing our web pages.

At this point, most of the people reading or listening to these pages are wondering what on earth is an Internet ‘browser’? An Internet BROWSER is a very specialized piece of software, or PROGRAM, that allows us to read FILES on someone else’s computer as long as both are connected to the Internet. You are listening and/or reading these pages thanks to the browser on your computer. We have a Class on BROWSERS, of course, AND a Class on FILES!

Before you actually begin the Classes, you need to know at least one more thing about browsers; most browsers apply a color and an underline to any reference to a different file than the one you are reading. That special notation indicates that the item is called a LINK, and when you select it by touching or ‘clicking’ on it, it will take you to (read a file from) the location indicated, whether it’s on the same computer or one somewhere else in the world.

NOW you can check the Class outline, below, and touch (or click on, if you don’t have a touch screen) any of the listed subjects to begin learning about said subject. You can begin at the beginning and work you way through, or jump to any specific subject as you see fit.

Popular Text Editing Functions
Advanced Applications

Class 9: Downloading Applications from the Internet

Class 10: Computer Security

External computer protections

Class Information

A note on videos and Internet browsers:

Class Selector

Class 1: Introduction to Personal Computers

Class 2: Getting to Know the User Interface

Class 3: User Interface, continued

Class 4: Where is all my Stuff on a Computer?

Class 5: Why is a File Folder so Important?

Class 6: The Internet - a Super Telephone System

Class 7: Backing Up Your Computer

Class 8: (RE)introduction to Word Processing

Class 9: Downloading Applications from the Internet

Class 10: Computer Security