First Computer Memories – When I Got Started…
Remember when you sat down in front of your first personal computer? I vaguely remember sitting there as a pissed off eight year old in 1991, starring at a DOS prompt. I was trying to play a 16-bit race car game and it kept complaining about HIMEM being unavailable.
That’s how it all started for me – I wanted to be Mario Andretti, and be damned if that big cold metal box was going to get in my way. No one else in the house could figure out what was wrong, so my grandfather handed me the user manual for the IBM 386/DX Personal Computer and told me to figure it out. After all, Wheel of Fortune was on and it was much higher priority than these “computers” were ever going to be. That was the day I learned that RTFMing is probably the best way to go when problems happen. I’ve been RTFMing ever since.
Teaching An Old Dog
Nineteen years later – about a month ago – I gave my father his first computer to help him run a convenience store he recently bought (his first business). Nineteen years after sitting at my first computer in 1991, he’s in the same situation of not knowing a damn thing about computers other than he has to use them to stay in business. But he’s got a much harder learning curve to deal with, and I’m sadly unprepared to help him through that journey.
I take the last 19 years for granted. Computer jargon is almost it’s own language now. What IS a link? What IS a URL? What IS a tab? More importantly, how MUCH knowledge is required to be effective when using a computer?
What is a Link? How Do I Plug In a Galvanized Chain Link?
ME: A link is a URL…
DAD: URL? Ugly Rearrangement of Letters?
ME: …yes, that tells the browser…
DAD: I hate trousers! I prefer blue jeans.
ME: …the BROWSER…how to request content…
DAD: Like those slow people at the Luby’s line? Why would I want those in my computer?
ME: …oh boy. Let’s start over. It’s like an index card in the card catalog at the library.
DAD: Well if the internet just tells me to go to the library, what the hell good is it?
Who The Hell Is Windows Defender? Is He Hitting On My Girlfriend?!
DAD: Why does this guy named Windows Defender keep telling me to run a scan? The only scan I have to run is with my shotgun when the dogs bark at night!
ME: Please, don’t point your shotgun at the computer! Windows Defender is a great guy once you get to know him. He’s the Trojan Man’s second cousin – he helps keep the good times rolling and the viruses at bay!
How Do You Make a Computer Stutter? Ask It To Define Itself!
So the question my father asked that I can’t answer:
“How do I learn how to use a computer without spending 19 years and giving up what’s left of my social life?”
The knock on my social life aside, what are the best resources to give new computer users, and what is the best way to teach them? Do we order him some of those DVD’s I see on late night TV? A Computers for Dummy’s book? What’s considered a “good enough” level of knowledge for beginners? Give him an abacus and pray? Any help would be appreciated!
