Computer Pals Northern BeachesFor the Trainers

A term’s plan

Ten sessions for somebody starting from nothing — or for anyone who would rather have a shape than decide it fresh each week. Term 4 runs 13 October to 17 December, which is about ten teaching weeks.

A suggestion, not a curriculum. What we are after is us helping each other build better content for our students. Tell me what is wrong, missing or in the wrong order — the ten below are something to argue with.

There are two lots of ten on this site, and they are not the same lot. The ten questions on devices is for a problem happening in front of you right now — she says her storage is full, where is that on an iPad. You open it mid-lesson and close it again. This page is next week: what you would actually teach, in an order. Five subjects appear on both — accounts, scams, passwords, photos and making it bigger — because they are the five that matter most. Same subject, different moment.

Why this exists. On my first session I got no introduction at all. I sat beside a member who had two problems, fixed them both — and then he looked at me, waiting. And I had nothing.

The rest of the thinking, if you want it

I would have loved something like this in front of me that morning. Not to be told how to teach — just to know there was a path, and that somebody had thought about it.

They are sessions, not weeks, on purpose. Three weeks on photos is not falling behind, it is three good weeks. Take them in any order, or ignore the lot.

If you have done this for years, it is not aimed at you. It is for a new pal who has not built up their own way yet, and a new member who does not know what to ask for.

All fourWindowsApple laptopiPhone or iPadAndroid

1 Show me how this thing actually works

Where everything lives, and the one button that always gets you back. Nobody is ever taught this — they are handed a device and left to guess.

Windows: Start button bottom left · the taskbar · the X closes a window

What trips people up. On an Apple laptop the red dot closes the WINDOW, not the app — it is still running. On a phone there is no closing at all, and that is normal.

Learn this yourself before you teach it — 4 places

2 Can you make it bigger?

The single change that makes the most difference to the most people, and it takes two minutes. Brian's best hour with a member was this and nothing else.

Windows: Settings → Accessibility → Text size · and Display → Scale

What trips people up. Text size and everything-size are two different settings on every platform. Change one and the person still cannot read half the screen.

If it goes wrong on the day → Make it bigger and easier to read on the devices page.

Learn this yourself before you teach it — 2 places

3 Which account am I in?

The answer to about half of everything that goes wrong. Tap the circle, read the address. Five words that save an hour.

Windows: The circle top right in the browser · and Settings → Accounts

What trips people up. The Mail app and the browser can be signed into different accounts on the same device. Yes, really. It is the commonest cause of “they shared it and I cannot open it”.

If it goes wrong on the day → Which account am I signed into? on the devices page.

Learn this yourself before you teach it — 2 places

4 How do I send an email and get one back?

Writing one, replying to one, and putting a photo on it. Most people can read email and have never confidently sent one with something attached.

Windows: Mail or Outlook · the paperclip attaches · Reply vs Reply All

What trips people up. Reply All. Show them the difference once, deliberately, or they will find out the hard way in front of forty people.

Learn this yourself before you teach it — 2 places

5 How do I get the photos off my phone?

Taking one, finding it again, and sending it to a person. The most-asked thing in the club, and the one that most often ends in tears.

Windows: Photos app · or plug the phone in and copy from This PC

What trips people up. Sending a photo sends a COPY — the original stays put. And deleting from the phone can delete it from the cloud too, which is not what anybody expects.

If it goes wrong on the day → Where have my photos gone? on the devices page.

Learn this yourself before you teach it — 3 places

6 Is this a scam?

The one with no settings answer. It is a judgement, it is the same judgement on every device, and it is the one that costs real money.

Windows: Same judgement

What trips people up. Urgency is the tell. Anything that says act now, your account will close, or do not tell anyone, is a scam until proven otherwise. Teach the pause, not the checklist.

If it goes wrong on the day → Is this a scam? on the devices page.

Learn this yourself before you teach it — 3 places

7 What about all these passwords?

The device is already remembering most of them, in a list they are allowed to open and read. Almost nobody has ever been shown it.

Windows: Settings → Accounts → Passwords · or in the browser under Autofill

What trips people up. A notebook by the phone is perfectly fine and a great deal safer than most alternatives. The real danger is the SAME password everywhere, not paper.

If it goes wrong on the day → Where are my passwords kept? on the devices page.

Learn this yourself before you teach it — 3 places

8 How do I look something up, and is the answer any good?

Searching, and judging what comes back. Newer and harder than it used to be, because the first thing on the page is now often written by a machine.

Windows: Edge or Chrome · the address bar IS the search box

What trips people up. The first two or three results are usually advertisements, marked Sponsored in small grey type. Show them where that word appears — once seen, never unseen.

Learn this yourself before you teach it — 2 places

9 How do I see the grandkids?

Video calls and messages. Usually the reason the person bought the device in the first place, and often the last thing anybody gets round to teaching them.

Windows: WhatsApp, Messenger, Zoom · Teams if the family uses it

What trips people up. Find out what the FAMILY uses before you teach anything. Teaching FaceTime to someone whose grandchildren are all on Android wastes the hour and the person feels stupid.

Learn this yourself before you teach it — 2 places

10 myGov, the bank, and the doctor

The official business. Genuinely useful, genuinely frightening, and the place where a mistake actually matters. Left until last on purpose.

Windows: Open the bank’s own site by typing the address · myGov via my.gov.au

What trips people up. ⛔ Never follow a link from a message or an email to a bank or myGov. Ever. Type the address, or open the app. Say it in every one of these ten sessions if you have to.

If it goes wrong on the day → Is this a scam? on the devices page.

Learn this yourself before you teach it — 3 places

Something to put in their hand

Print this and give it to a new member in the first session. It is where you could go together, in their words, with nothing technical in it. It is not a contract — it is so they can see there is a path, which is the thing most people are anxious about.

Where we could go together

Computer Pals for Seniors, Northern Beaches · one hour a week, at your pace

  1. Finding your way around it, and how to get back to the start
  2. Making everything bigger and easier to read
  3. Your account — what it is, and which one you are in
  4. Sending an email, and putting a photo on it
  5. Getting photos off your phone and to another person
  6. Spotting a scam, and what to do when you are not sure
  7. Passwords — where they already are, and keeping them safe
  8. Looking things up, and telling a good answer from an advert
  9. Video calls and messages — seeing family
  10. myGov, the bank and the doctor, done safely

In any order you like, and for as long as each one takes. There is no test, nothing to keep up with, and no such thing as a silly question. Bridging the Gap since 1995.

Print

Make it better for the students

That is the whole point of this page — us helping each other build better content for the people we teach. Between us we sit with fifty-two of them a week, and what any one of us has worked out is currently known only to that one person. Wrong order, missing session, a platform detail I have got wrong, or something that simply would not work with a real member on a Tuesday morning — put it here and it improves the hour for somebody else’s student.

And if you have already made something, send that. A handout you print for your own students, a page of notes, a cheat sheet, or just a way of explaining something that lands every single time. Most of us have something in a drawer or a folder. It goes on here with your name on it, and it is worth more to the next pal than anything I could write on my own.

Computer Pals for Seniors Northern Beaches · The Tramshed, 1395a Pittwater Road, Narrabeen

Bridging the Gap · Established 1995 · compalsnb.org.au