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Confidence with Computers Clients
Home users
These days no home is a home
without a computer! But it shouldn't be used just to hang the
clothes on! Having patient, understanding lessons it
is possible to inspire an interest and open up a new world of mental
stimulation.
Case Study
1
Rachel is a
housewife whose children had gone off to college, and found herself with
too much time on her hands. She had never used a computer before
and now wanted to partake of the hi-tech world.
To start with Rachel
was very nervous, as this was a totally new environment for her, she was
afraid she could break the computer, she had no idea how to control the
mouse, and was self conscious of appearing "stupid" in front of
me.
I totally appreciate
how scared people feel - my immediate aim is to relax the client.
In Rachel's case I showed her the paint program which comes as
standard on computers. She became so engrossed in her paintings
that she forgot her fears of this “unfriendly machine” and became
immediately fascinated. By the end of the first hour, she was able
to open the paint program, design a picture using all the various
techniques, save the picture, close it and then retrieve it. She
shocked herself by how much she achieved.
Since then our
lessons progressed so that she now emails her daughter constantly
at college, often to get permission to sell her old stuff on
e-bay!
Case Study
2
Edna
is eighty years old – and for her birthday her son bought her a laptop –
the first thing I had to do was make it adaptable to her needs. I
covered the mouse pad with post it notes so that her arthritic wrists
did not start dragging on it and moving the cursor around. I
went into Word and removed all the buttons along the top that she would
never use. I set the font in Word to be large by default
and I taught her to play various card games, putting quick links
to them on the desktop
She now happily surfs
the internet for all matters concerning health and weather, and regularly
emails her friends to inform them who has recently died!!
She loves
it!
Managing Directors
Members of Staff
Working from Home
Home Users
Students
Returning to Work
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Confidence with