joferder

I am new to the TSF and thought that I would introduce myself and seek a little bit of help from you all right off the bat. First for my introduction, I am currently deployed to Afghanistan with the US Air Force. I have a few more months here and then I will be headed back to Ft. Lewis Washington. My job consists of forecasting weather for the military. In my off time I like to work on computers and help others with their computers when I can. That last part is actually what brought me here.

I recently thought about coming up with a class for beginner computer users. I am really looking to tailor this more towards older people who want to learn how to use a computer. My grandparents recently bought a computer and seem to be having a lot of trouble with it and I want to help them but I think that something like this would be very helpful to other people too. I realize that there are programs out there that you can buy that will teach you how to use your computer but I feel that a classroom setting would be better for something like this. Since most of the people that I would be looking to help would generally be older people I would be looking to do this for free or just enough to cover any type of costs that I have. Once it gets established I may charge a small fee for the classes but I know that a lot of retired people don't have a lot of money to spare so I don't want to break the bank.

So here is what I am looking for for the users here....I would like ideas of what people should know about how to use their computers. I thing that starting with a very basic class about learning to turn the computer on and off properly and a few other simple things like that would be a great way to start. I would poll the class to see what they are interested in learning and also to find out what there comfort level is with their computer. After the first class I would create a syllabus that I would hand out at the second class and that way all of the attendees would be able to decided if they wanted to attend classes on certain subjects based off of how comfortable they feel with the subject for that class. I want to cover things as simple as loading software or printing a page from the internet. I would also cover topics about identity theft and viruses and phishing.

The reason that I want to do this in a classroom type setting is because I think that it would be good to be able to help people one on one whenever possible. I'm sure that the pre-made programs are work fine but one of the problems that I can see running into is that some computers are different and these are people that may not be very technologically advanced and so they may not "just figure it out".

Any help or advice that anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated. I figure that this is a tech support forum that you all would have some good ideas of what the very basics are that a computer user should know. This isn't something that will be done any time real soon but I figure that since I am sitting here in Afghanistan I have time to work on the general idea for it all and then refine it as we go.

Thanks in advance for any help that you can offer.

joferder

I am going to apologize if this isn't the right place for this post...I have been having a really hard time finding the right place to put this request for information. I know that the rules for the forum says not to post questions about computer problems that I am having but since this isn't a computer problem I thought that maybe it's OK...I would still really appreciate it if anyone could help.

John

dai

hi and welcome to the forum

certification and career would be the closest to post in

kodi

Welcome to Tech Support Forum, hope you enjoy it here

Tumbleweed36

Hello and Welcome to the forum.

JohnthePilot

Hi there. Welcome aboard.