The internet is run by young people. In fact, most of them don’t remember life without it. Therefore, they may think they’re being helpful when they direct senior citizens to a “useful” website. Many of these older people have no idea how to get there much less use a computer to begin with. However, as other forms of communication become more inaccessible, computer literacy has become important for seniors.
Basic computer skills seem like they would be simple to master, but something as intuitive as using a mouse is like teaching a senior to hit a baseball. There’s hand-eye coordination involved in simply moving your hand to what your eye sees on a screen. Couple that with training the eye to know what to look for in the first place, and the challenge is much greater than it is for the youthful generation that grew up with computers. Teaching methods for computer literacy will vary based on what knowledge the older student has to begin with. Some may be able to use the word processor and print a document, and others may have mastered email, but they may have no idea how to find an all important website. Therefore, the teaching methods have to address these kinds of seemingly simple tasks.
The older student will need a basic glossary of terms because they won’t know what many of the words in the computer vocabulary mean. Part of literacy training will include helping the individual know how to correlate those new words with a particular action or element on their computer screen. If the senior becomes a frustrated student, be patient. It’s about as easy for them to wrap their head around becoming computer literate as it is for you to predict the weather without technology to help you do it. Just be patient and help seniors live in a technical world.