During the recent Tech-Week, senior citizens were urged to make themselves tech-savvy, but many senior citizens don’t know their mouse from their elbow, and are terrified of accidentally ‘blowing-up the machine’.

On Monday, The Royal Gazette spoke with a group of students who are learning to work through their hang-ups by taking computer courses with the Seniors Learning Centre at the Bermuda College.

June Pitt, a retired Police officer, said she decided to take a computer course at her daughter’s urging.

“My family were always promising to show me how to use the computer, but somehow never got around to it,” she said. “I knew how to turn on the computer, and things like that, but there were different things I wanted to do that I didn’t know how to do.”

She was particularly frustrated to see that her four-year-old granddaughter was more comfortable on the computer than she was.

The Seniors Learning Centre offers a couple of different computer courses to people over age 55 including a word course, a basic course and a course in how to use the Internet.

Gaynette Hayward, a retired primary school teacher, said it is important for senior citizens to remain active. She took a number of computer classes before finding the right one.

“I wanted to do the Internet,” said Mrs. Hayward. “That is when I came to the college to take the Seniors Learning Centre course.

“This Internet course has been one of the courses that I have really appreciated. The instructor, Liz Carlington, has been very patient. She makes you feel like all you have to do is try and not give up.”

Mrs. Hayward said many senior citizens tend to be very cautious around computers.

“We don’t want to do a lot of things because we might do something to the computer or we might not get it,” she said. “But Ms Carlington just kept saying, ‘go ahead and do it’. That is what I appreciated about her.”

She said the nice thing about the seniors computer classes was that they were small, so everyone got individual attention from the instructor. There were only five students in her class, although there could be as many as 12.

“I would encourage seniors to take part,” said Mrs. Hayward. “Even if they haven’t had much education in the computer, eventually they will get to the point where they feel comfortable. I didn’t realise that using the computer was so easy to do.”

Her sister, Shirley Christopher, also took the Internet computer course with her. Mrs. Christopher is also a retired teacher. Mrs. Hayward taught students at the beginning of primary school, and Mrs. Christopher taught them before they went off to high school.

“Taking the course has encouraged me to go online more,” said Mrs. Christopher. “I was timid about going on to the Internet. Especially, to make airline reservations. I was sceptical about that. I haven’t done it yet, but I am going to.”

She said when computers first came out she used them to teach geometry to her students, but at that time there was no e-mail or Internet to access.

During the Seniors Learning Centre class, students learned how to play different games, and also how to find more useful services like Seniors Net.

“I have shown them things about the Government website,” said instructor Ms Carlington who is the training co-ordinator for the Help Desk at the Bermuda College. “A lot of people become sick and shut-in, or they don’t have transportation. There are all sorts of things on the Government website that they can do from home. They can pay their taxes.”

She said one of her students who came in afraid to press the wrong button, went away having registered and paid for her car licensing online.

“We went to the land evaluation site and some of the students were quite shocked to see how their houses were evaluated,” said Ms Carlington. “Some people were way down in a lower bracket because they hadn’t updated their evaluation.”

Ms Carlington said she tried to make sure that her students went away having learned something that they really wanted to learn.

“They wanted to know how to do their airline tickets online,” she said. “We have covered a lot in this course. I have to give my students a hand, because there are a lot of seniors who are afraid to even take the course.”

She said in a class of ten students, at least half will start out being fearful of the computer.

“I have had one guy who came and said, ‘I really didn’t come for this’,” she said. “I asked him why he came. He said he wanted to know how to get invoices at his place of employment sent by e-mail so he didn’t have to physically take them there.

“So that is what we did. He was happy with that. He sat and just listened for the rest of the class. He didn’t want to deal with any of the other things. He walked away happy. On occasion he will send me a little e-mail to say he is fine.”

Phyllis Emery, who retired from the Department of Tourism a few years ago, said she really enjoyed learning how to make greeting cards on the computer.

“I have done a bit of everything on the computer,” she said. “There are still other things I would like to learn. I feel a bit timid about going onto the Internet and talking with someone. I guess, as I get going, I will get comfortable.

“I will explore to see if I want to find out something about quilting or shopping specials.”

She said she and her fellow-students had been using the computer to look for deals in stores in Bermuda and overseas.

“I would never order online though,” she said.

“I would rather call the store and place my order. I find it interesting to find out what’s there. With the first computer I had before, I made business cards, anniversary cards and even a calendar. With the one I have now I can’t seem to conquer that. I haven’t been able to get right into that. I haven’t given up.”

Mrs. Hayward said she had found it useful to learn how to use a computer programme called Microsoft Photo Story which works something like PowerPoint. It allows you to put together a narrated slideshow presentation with music.

“I think that programme is really fabulous,” Mrs. Hayward said. “I did a picture story called ‘Sister Act’. I did pictures of all my sisters and my sisters’ children that were sisters.”

Another student, Muriel Archer, said she has smuggled Bibles into communist countries and taught prisoners to read, but before she took the course she was a bit intimidated by computers.

“There were seven-year-olds who knew more about technology than I did,” she said. “I didn’t want to be left behind.”

Mrs. Archer enjoyed taking the course so much, she has been back to take it again several times.

Classes at the Seniors Learning Centre are closed for the summer, but will start up again at the end of September. The organisation offers a host of different classes for people over age 55, including dance, current affairs, art and much more.

Founded in 1990, it is a self-supporting charity of around 800 members. The main office is located in Bermuda College South Hall, and classes are conducted daily on campus in the spring and fall semesters.

The average course is held once a week for between one to two hours, and can run anywhere from four to 12 weeks. Course fees are charged to cover expenses and are purposely kept to a minimum.

To learn more go to http://www.bercol.bm/seniors.asp or telephone 239-4029.