Triumphing over technology

A group of grandparents is taking on their fear of computers at a course designed just for them at Stewart-Isom CME church.

By KIBRET MARKOS

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 9, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- Every Saturday morning, 55-year-old Lydia Brown goes to the Stewart-Isom CME church on 18th Avenue S, walks along the hallway past the prayer room and enters the computer lab to take her spot next to eight other grandparents at their keyboards.

Grandmother of 10, she is in the first batch of seniors -- eight grandmothers and a grandfather -- taking the two-hour, 10-week Saturday morning class.

Introduction to Computers for Parents and Grandparents was the brainchild of Cal Hopkins, pastor of the church at 1820 Walton St. S.

"Many grandparents are sitting home, watching TV or raising children, while the world keeps getting more technical," said Judy Fowler, executive director of the South Saint Petersburg Computer Empowerment Program, a 2-year-old computer school at the 85-year-old church, which offers computer classes on weekdays, too.

"So Hopkins thought, "Why not teach them computers so they could get a chance to get involved in this world which is becoming even more technical?' "

The program put together by Fowler had its first session for grandparents, free of charge, on May 20.

Twelve grandparents attended, but two dropped out, Fowler said. She said two registered again and are now on the waiting list of five to join the second batch.

Faith Williams, the facilitator of the grandparents' class and co-administrator of a software training and development center, conducted a survey among 11 of these grandparents at the beginning of the course.

Her survey shows 10 had no knowledge of computers when they started, and all had the goal of becoming computer literate. One had basic computer knowledge and wanted to learn more.

"They all came with technophobia, with the anxiety that technology is not for older people," said Williams. "So our first problem was whether they can catch up and get used to computers."

The grandparents quickly became comfortable. "Our concern now is to keep providing the resources for the senior adult population, which is really thriving," she said.

Williams said the course was organized in three modules, in which the students first learn the very basics of computers.

In the second and third modules, they learn to use software applications such as Microsoft Word and take up whatever else is of interest to them.

Some of the students, like Brown, are still working and said they needed computer skills for work. But most are interested in being able to write letters, work on spreadsheets or send e-mails, Fowler said.

Williams' students are not as adroit at maneuvering their mouses or at starting up applications. In fact, nine of them did not know how to type and needed first to be familiar with the keyboard.

Still, "they are showing a lot of enthusiasm," Fowler said.

Williams agrees. "No one wants to leave when the two-hour class is over. I am pleasantly surprised that they are hungry for it."

Brown is already through with the basics. Until she took the course, she was "scared of it," she said. "But learning it is helping me lose the fear I'd had for years that I can't do it."

Norma Uter, who had no typing skills and no computer knowledge when she started the class, said she can now write letters on the computer, compose files and search for information.

"I don't think the computer is complicated," she said. "It's fairly easy and you just need to practice."

Uter, 62, said she wanted to buy a computer for home use. "My 11-year-old grandson is so good with computers, and he will be showing me around a lot," she said. "But all the same I'm surprised at myself for learning so fast."

The lone grandfather in the class is 63-year-old Curtiss Long, a pastor at the New Faith Free Methodist Church.

"We never even typed when I was in school," he said. Waving his hand toward the grandmothers, he added, "We let the girls do it."

Refusing to look away from his screen as he typed a letter on Microsoft Word, Long told a story from the mid-1980s when a friend of his in Atlanta was learning computers.

Back then, it sounded as if those machines were really intricate, he said. "They're less complicated now, so I guess it's never too late to learn."

Long also plans to get a computer for home use. His classes at Stewart-Isom ended last week, but he has no intention of stopping there.

"I will go as far as I can go, probably take more courses after this one."

Williams said all her senior students have the same common goal: They want to keep up with the world. "They don't want to be left out."

They won't be, for they all seem to uphold the first tip on how to learn about computers, posted on the front wall of their computer lab: "Assume that you have the capacity to learn about PCs."

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.