We have enrolled Maureen on a computer course

[wendy]

Chill has paid for Maureen to do a professional course.
Maureen has kindly accepted and she is going to be taking an online computer course which will enable her to help people to take their first steps on the internet.

This  course will help Chill to work with beginners and we plan to share the course with any members of chill who wish to take part in our forum.

As you know I campaign to get family carers on the internet and Maureen is passionate in teaching people how to use the equipment.
We will be able to use the certificate on our Computers 4 Carers website.
We are really excited about this big step forward for us, and we hope you will find it helpful.

[Honey]

gre55555 gre55555 gre55555 gre55555
That's a wonderful idea. than999 to Maureen for doing this.
x

[mumxtwo]

happi to Maureen and thanks to Chill for helping it happen. o904

[maureenho]

I am very excited about doing this course and being able to help people use a computer and get the best out of  the Internet and be safe on line.

Thank you Wendy for making this happen.

o904 o904

[chenrezig]

than999 Chill for organising the course, and  than999 Mo, for doing it

[daisy]

Thank you Wendy for arranging this and thank you Maureen for your willingness to do the course.  Hope you will enjoy this course    gpr

[Fairview]

This site is amazing. I wish I'd heard about you folk before 754  Carol

[JaneJ]

It's great isn't it Carol?

than999 than999 than999

Mo for doing this course and to Wendy for organising this. It will benefit so many people.

You are little cyber heroes.

xxxxxx

va654 va654 va654

[annie]

Sounds just great!!!! gre55555 than999 gre55555 o904

[Jeanne]

Great news, good on you Mo. x Jeanne

[Misspears]

than999 chill  than999 mo enjoy the course mo

Love Ann x

[sandy4]

than999 happi co900 33900

Well done ! 

[maureenho]

I have now accessed the course and have had a look, my first task is deciding what to teach to whom, motivation and how to motivate learners.

[chenrezig]

If it was me you had to teach 1 - Me, 2 - bar of choc, 3- cattle prod !

Seriously Mo, good luck to you with your course

Liz xx

[maureenho]

So a rap on the knuckles is not the way to go then  do877

[maureenho]

I am interested to know 'what was it that inspired you to start using a computer'

754

[wendy]

it was because of my son

but I had used word processors at work for years and been on computer courses with work in the early 1980's

[annie]

I had shied away from using  computers at work, to be honest, they scared me to death, but after I retired,  I had friends in US & Canada who used email & whom I wanted to keep in touch with, so bit the bullet and bought a second hand one from a neighbour.  

[Honey]

Had to get one for the children when they started school. They were basic computers and only played floppy discs. there was no internet then.
Here is an example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT-IyFercZQ
Anyone else remember this?
The arrival of the internet  has been costly but necessary in todays society.
x

[wendy]

this is part of Mo's course, so please join in

[chenrezig]

The nearest thing we had to a computer when I was at the Hewett 1969 to 1976 was a printer connected to the computer at City College. There were two "games" we used to play, under strict supervision.

One was where we had to land a Lunar Module on the Moon -you did this by working out (guessing!) what the fuel burn rate should be. You typed in the number and then you got an answer back on the printer (more like an old fax machine/teleprinter). If you got it right, you landed on the Moon, if you got it wrong, you either ran out of fuel and crashed or floated off into space never to be seen again - bear in mind this was all done on a printer so all you got were words.

The other game was called "Shootout", like an old Western-style shootout between two gunmen.  You typed in your opponents name -for some reason Dr Roy's name (the then much respected head of the Hewett)  seemed to be popular. It then asked if you wanted to shoot at a set distance, and you typed in yes or no. It would either say you missed or hit your opponent, if you missed too often you were in dire danger of getting shot yourself.

I remember a visit to City College where we were shown the computer... it used punch cards, bits of card with holes/slots cut in, then they were then put into "something" then the computer started work. At the end of the visit we were given the choice of either a picture of James Bond (Sean Connery) or Concorde. Yours truly went for Concorde. The computer then printed it off -the pics were made up from letters n numbers and symbols printed in bold and non-bold text.

I remember when we had a really good clear out of cupboards at one place I worked ... we turned up some 5 and a half inch floppy disks ! I still have an external floppy disk drive and a few unused disks .. I have even seen the odd few floppy disks for sale in charity shops...

My least fave job where I last worked was "shredding" clients floppy disks after they had finished with them as they had CV's and personal info on. The shredding involved splitting the hard plastic outside open, having two separate bins, then cutting each actual floppy disk film into little bits, afetr each bin had a good stir round to mix up all the little bits, one half went for rubbish one week, and the other half the next week - incidentally this was supposed to be the safest n best way at the time, but boy if you did too many you didn't half feel it the next day

Liz

[maureenho]

Thank you to everyone who has replied so far, it will help me enormously.

The first proper computer I ever used was a Windows 3.1 with 4" floppy drive, pre internet days.
Prior to that we had one of these in the mid 80's that you connected to the TV  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_ST

[chenrezig]

Another few bits n bobs ...

Until the company I last worked for got some new PC's we used to struggle with desktop PC's with a hard drive with a whopping 3 GB, we had to clear the stored cookies am and pm to have any chance of it being fast enough to do anything useful with it. We also had dial-up when I first started there ... there was one client who I had the job of keeping an eye on until we got monitoring software as he used to spend up to 40 mins at a time looking and betting on online gambling/horseracing websites !

The monitoring software came into its own, as then each client had their own password to use any of the PC's so we could trace it back. One chap started looking on a very dodgy site, he was crafty as he kept two windows open, the one he was looking at was of some scantily clad girls... if he thought he was being watched, he would switch the windows, then shut the other one down... I was standing behind him one day and he didn't spot me quick enough... he denied everything, acted the innocent, downright accusing me of telling fibs about him... then I went and got the printout for that PC... his password along with a list of all the dubious sites he had accessed ... he was kicked off the course...

We also had some software installed for some of our dyslexic clients .. Dragon Naturally speaking ... we nearly wet ourselves one day as one oldish gent was shouting louder and louder as it was typing a lot of nonsense ... the louder he shouted the worse it was .. the reason was that he had such a broad accent the poor computer couldn't make any of it out! Out of curiosity I did once try speaking supercalifragerlisticexpialidicoius ... it near as got it 100% right !

I remember using a PC at Heatrae Industrial, this would have been c 1993-1999 with Windows 3.1

When the city library burnt down some years back the services were split across the city. The old HMSO offices at Anglia Square were used as part of the reference library.. they had two internet PC's. I asked the librarian if I could have a go on them and they left me to my own devices... at the time I thought I had managed to bust both of them as they "crashed", I now know all I had to do was re-boot.

Before I had my PC I used to go up to the Forum to use the PC's there (sorry I can't give a date), I used to print off quite a bit of stuff -very complicated as each print request I had to have a separate password as they had to be printed off on a public printer..., there were quite a few times when it wouldn't accept, or froze... the worst was when a particular librarian was on duty.. I quickly learnt to avoid doing printing when he was working as he would regularly lose all my print lists !

[Bernie]

It was Ian who got me using a computer, never had any dealings with them before that. Being on-line has been a life saver since being on my own, love Berniexx

[chenrezig]

I started having dealings with computers using what I think used to be called a "dumb terminal" that was linked to the computer room from about 1984-ish when I was in stock control. About the size and depth of a small portable TV, with a black screen and green text. Any info that had to be put on the system, I had to write onto forms which then went to the computer room (clean air room - filtered air with more pressure inside than out to keep the air cleaner for the computer). The info was then keyed in by the computer room staff to update the computer.

I think very late at that place they got one PC which is anything near what we have now, I did have a go once or twice  but never took to it as I hadn't really a clue as to what I was doing ... the one chap who used it tried to show me stuff but just couldn't get the hang of it .. At my next employer I had no option but to learn by myself as no training was provided I went to the main library, got a book out and looked up things as I needed to do it.. eventually I began to get the hang of things more.

There was only one course provided... that was on spreadsheets... and only half a day... all of us who took the course had the greatest difficulty as we all wanted to laugh as the tutor kept saying "Let it be so" when we had to have a go at practicing tasks ... What creased us up was that it was the "catchphrase" if you like off Star Trek - Patrick Stewart.