If you train patrons or help customers (or relatives) use email or word processing applications, here are resources to help you — and your customers — succeed:
- Patron Training: this WebJunction resource is chock-full of training materials to work from, so you don't need to start from scratch.
- Templates and Resources for Patron Technology Training:
- Selected Curriculum for Computer Classes: computer class lesson plans & materials for teaching classes on basic computer skills
- Advanced E-Mail: covers all major web-based email services; includes setting up a signature, creating an address book/contacts, and attachments
- Facebook for TechnoSeniors Workshop
- Help New PC Users Learn How to Copy, Cut, and Paste
- How to Master Text Highlighting with Your Mouse
- DigitalLiteracy.gov offers your customers self-paced instruction:Using a Computer or Mobile Device; Using Software and Applications; Using the Internet; Communicating on the Web; and Child Online Protection
- Seven Qualities of Highly Effective Technology Trainers. These are a few (which could be librarian fortune cookies); read the article for more:
- The problem is on the desk, not in the chair.
- No mouse touching.
Good trainers are patient. One sure sign of this saintly virtue in teachers is that they never touch a learner’s mouse or keyboard. No matter how exasperating it becomes to watch that ill-coordinated teacher find and click on the correct button, good instructors' hands stay well behind their backs, no matter how white knuckled they become.- Knowing what is essential and what is only confusing.
- Creating Lesson Plans for Teaching the Public
- Silver Surfing the Sunset Years: Electronic Literacy Classes for Seniors