Saturday, February 10, 2007

Feb. 9 & 10, 2007 Introduction to Email and the Internet

This is the third time Lake City Community College has offered this free computer course, and this time every student had their own coach for the first 2-hour session! Jay, Phyllis, Zeda, Alex, Betty and Rose have their own computers, but a couple of them did comment that they did not have enough access to practice as much as they needed.

Dawn Havird, instructor and coordinator of the LCCC Learning Lab, began the session with a mouse tutorial found at http://www.seniornet.org, and pretty soon, students were drawing pictures with their mouse! (not an easy feat...)

Then we got down to work by applying for a free email account, and practiced by emailing each other. Dawn ended the first session by demonstrating how to create basic Word and Excel documents. Our brains were bursting with all of that information, but Librarian and FACC member Vickie Lepore explained that the introductory courses offered by LCCC's Community Education would explain these topics more thoroughly, if students wanted more instruction.

The next day, Saturday, we reviewed how to access email, and then dived into the business of the internet. The students were supplied with plenty of hand-outs to remind them of all information covered during the two sessions. When Librarian Vickie Lepore showed them this blog, everyone requested that she add all of the internet links into the blog. Now there's an excellent example of how new students can instantly understand how blogs serve as useful tools for continuing education!

Our thanks to FACC for supplying us with bottled water and cookies. Our brains were mighty thirsty and hungry after all of this hard work! We really appreciated how Dawn and the coaches kept the course upbeat, relaxed and fun.

Thank you Ben, Esther, Nora (all members of LCCC Anime Club), Kurt Havird (LCCC faculty), Dr. Elizabeth Hodges (High Springs artist), and UF & LCCC Librarian Paul Victor for volunteering their time as coaches!