Volunteer instructors aid alert seniors expand their horizons

Sign-up Thurs., Dec. 9^th for upcoming classes:

Learn computers ‘hands-on’ to expand skills

 

With more and more alert seniors buying or inheriting computers from their kids, or thinking about it so they too can easily reach out to family, friends and the entire world, the all-volunteer SeniorNet Computer Learning Center will provide that opportunity at its Thursday morning, Dec. 9^th registration in Bellevue from 10 am-Noon.

 

In making the announcement, REGISTRAR LOUISE FLORA stressed, “To more quickly process those signing up, registration has been moved to the New Hope Ministries Church in the Crossroads area at 15760 NE 4^th st., Bellevue. Seniors will be able to sign up for an impressive array of Winter-Spring classes. These range from beginner’s basics (What do I do first??) to advanced programs.  Classes, of course, are held at the newly-rebuilt Phantom Lake Elementary School, 1050 160^th ave. NE, Bellevue.”

 

To meet this increasing demand by eager seniors, 50 and over, the non-profit SeniorNet has expanded its class offerings.  Detailed information on courses, schedules, and nominal costs is available on the SeniorNet web site at www.seniornetps.org,. or via e-mail to senior@seniornetps.org.  Or, just call (206) 232-5892 for information.

 

Flora added, “The modern classroom features 18 new Dell high-speed computers, new thin, flat screen LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) monitors, Internet links and printers. Helping students to master lessons, the instructor has his/her own computer linked to a projector which follows each computer move by the instructor on a giant wall screen. And other volunteer teaching assistants are also there for one-on-one help during the classes.”

 

SeniorNet Pres. Adella Granger, a former mortgage banker who joined SeniorNet a few years ago on her retirement to expand her own computing skills, hailed the growing interest by seniors in learning computer operations. “Learning to use email helps us to reach out easily and frequently to family, friends. I am now in regular correspondence with many family members and friends I haven’t seen in years. Plus,” she added, “our programs such as surfing the Internet,  Word, Quicken, among others, can help you manage budgets, write a family history, follow your sports team, download the latest news, create greeting cards, update your home inventory, or create a mailing list.” And now with Instant Messaging programs, computer users can “chat” with others anyplace in the world, by typing brief messages in real time, she added.

 

“Your non-profit  SeniorNet Computer Learning  provides a marvelous opportunity to learn from other seniors, volunteers all, who teach with patience and understanding, using plain language which even the first-time student can understand. We want SeniorNet students to feel comfortable as they learn. Some even take two or three subjects a week,” she said.   

 

More than 600 seniors here enroll annually in the wide array of weekly classes. A small volunteer group of computer enthusiasts founded the Seattle-area SeniorNet some 16 years ago. It is one of 150 similar Learning Centers with 28,000-plus members throughout the United States. All are  affiliated with the national SeniorNet non-profit organization in San Francisco, funded by membership dues, modest class fees, grants and generous sponsorships.

 

SO MANY CLASSES TO EXPAND YOUR  COMPUTER SKILLS

COMPUTER BASIC BASICS	COMPUTER FUNDAMENTALS
INTRO TO WINDOWS XP	USING WINDOWS XP
INTRO TO WINDOWS 98/ME	WORD PROCESSING
INTERMEDIATE WORD PROCESSING	GENEALOGY: FINDING FAMILY LINKS
CREATE GREETING CARDS	PLAYING WITH NUMBERS
OUTLOOK EXPRESS E-MAIL	AOL & WAY BEYOND
INTERNET FOR INFORMATION (BASIC INTERNET  PROCEDURES)	MANAGING YOUR FINANCES USING QUICKEN
WHERE’S MY ( FILE) STUFF?	BURNING COMPACT DISKS
LIFE STORIES BY DESIGN	SCANNING BASICS
YOUR LIFE STORY— NEXT STEPS	FUN OF TRAVEL PLANNING
EDITING YOUR PHOTOS	DON’T DELAY! SIGN UP-LEARN

 

A WARM WELCOME TO NEW GRANPALS: Three SeniorNet members have volunteered as Granpals to work with Phantom Lake Elementary School students on various subjects. The announcement was made by GRANPALS COORDINATOR NANCY HARSH. The three new Granpals,  CELINE ALEXANDER, CLARICE MACDONALD AND IRENE MAJNARICH   are joining the other 13 current Granpals aiding students in reading, math and the like.

 

NEW SENIORNET COURSE CATALOG IN THE MAIL: The mailed SeniorNet Winter-Spring 2005 Course Catalog to help members and newcomers select computer courses at the Thursday, Dec. 9^th registration, another prize winner for clarity and information, again is the work of long-time CO-EDITORS CLAIR AND JOSEPHINE HUGH. The 12-page catalog  with detailed information on the many computer courses being offered, is always eagerly awaited by seniors ranging from beginners to more experienced users wanting to expand their skills.

 

OPEN HOUSE FOR MODEL TRAIN ENTHUSIASTS:  In addition to his SeniorNet teaching duties, which includes working as a teacher’s aide in other classes, and helping members with home computer problems,  ROSS ROBERTS also finds time for one of his major hobbies:  model trains. As he does every year, he and SANDRA getting their Issaquah home ready for their holiday open house  Sunday, Dec. 12^th from 1-5 pm, to demonstrate their room-full of model trains, including a huge layout of tracks, stations etc. Yes, visitors get the opportunity to play engineer with the control setup. For directions etc to the Roberts’ home, email him at roberts2100@comcast.net. In their invitation, the Roberts’ write:

“For those people who don’t want to stand around and talk, the Train Room will be open.  

“S Gauge / American Flyer / 1:64 Scale

“Train Table Layout and Suspended Track

“Run a train, pick up the mail, blow the whistle, load barrels, saw lumber and launch a rocket.”

 

THREE STEPS TO PROTECT YOUR COMPUTER from viruses and worms, and future threats , is included in a special alert from Microsoft, which was spotted by KEN CRANDALL, and forwarded here to make sure all members get the safety reminder. The three steps are:

 Please go to microsoft.com/protect and follow these steps today.
1. Use an Internet Firewall
2. Update Your Computer
3. Use Up-to-Date Antivirus Software
To get more information and resources about how to help protect your
PC, go to microsoft.com/protect.

 

STILL MORE HANDY COMPUTER TIPS:

 

A NEAT TRICK, as this writer discovered, when doing copy-and-paste, in a Word 2002 document (check your own Word version to see if this works), is the ability to easily open the Office Clipboard task pane. This small, narrow pane lists each item as you copy it in the pane, with the latest copy appearing on top of the list. After opening the document you wish to copy from, press CTRL-C twice. (One finger kept on the CTRL key, then tap the C key twice)  The narrow pane should appear on the right-hand side. You can then paste (insert) each individually copied item into any or many other Word documents you wish, and in any order you wish. After copying items from the originally opened document, when you open another existing Word document, or create a new Word document, you will (should) find all those copied items waiting for you in the Office Clipboard task pane, after you press CTRL-C twice. Then in the target document, place cursor where you want earlier copied item to appear, and click on that copied material appearing in the Office Clipboard task pane, and it will appear at the new site. No longer do you have to use the cursor to click on Edit, and then have to click on Office Clipboard, hence the neat trick tag.

 

HAL MOZER who teaches the importance of knowing what file extensions mean, and what to do about it, provides the following tip from a recent National SeniorNet Online Newsletter:

Knowing what extension a file has gives you the ability to determine how it should be handled by your computer and, when there are two files with the same name, to distinguish between them. One of the first things you should do when you get a new computer is to enable the viewing of File Extensions.

1 Click My Computer on the desktop.
2 Click the Tools menu on the My computer window.
3 Click Folder Options.
4 Click the View tab.
5 Click in the box to remove the checkmark next to Hide file extensions for known file types if there is one there.
6 Click the Apply button and click OK to close the dialog box.

View a video How To. Go to: http://www.seniornet.org/howto/fileext/fileextensionsrun.html

LEARNING HOW TO SAFELY SURF THE  INTERNET

 

JOE PONTECORVO has recommended the following website offered by an instructor in the SeniorNet Learning Center in Ewing, NJ, to learn how to safely surf the Internet, which, he says, he has checked out, and it is helpful:

http://surfthenetsafely.com/

 

USE WINDOW LOGO KEY FOR EASY WINXP SHORTCUTS

 

Tired of always having to reach for the mouse for basic operations? Using your Window Logo Key (the key usually on bottom left of the keyboard with the Windows flag, also known as the Start key) in Win XP can make it go easier and faster. The list in the current issue of  Getting Started With Windows XP, from the PC How-to-Guide:

 

(When Winkey is shown with a dash to another key, hold down Winkey and tap the other key at the same time)

Winkey: Display the Start Menu

Winkey-D:  Minimize all open windows and display the desktop.

Winkey-D:   Restore all windows. (It’s like a toggle switch)

Winkey-E: Display Windows Explorer

Winkey-F: Find Files or Folders.

Winkey-Ctrl-F: Find Computer.

Winkey-F1:   Display Help.

Winkey-R:  Display the Run dialog box.

Winkey-Pause/Break: Display  the System Properties dialog box. (The Pause/Break key usually at very top, extreme right)

Winkey-Tab:  Cycle through Taskbar buttons.

 

SHUT DOOR AGAINST IDENTITY THIEVES-From the current issue of PC WORLD  is the warning—yet again—to  fight off identity thieves  who are targeting your money and personal data, trying to steal  your secret and valuable information via your computer. Of course you’ve seen these before, but good to sound the alarm again. In brief, some reminders:

*Don’t click on links or images in unsolicited email.

*Use a good spam filter. With the right filter, phishing email messages may never even reach your inbox.

*Install spyware detection software. Lavasofts Ad-Aware (find.pcworld.com/44236) and Spybot Search & Destroy (find.pcworld.com/44698) have versions that are free for personal and noncommercial use.

*Review your credit card charges. Fraudsters will often make small charges over a period of time to avoid detection.

*Keep credit card information etc off your computer’s hard drive. Store such data on removable CD-RWs instead—and keep the discs out of your drive when you are not using them. 

*Keep  your Social Security numbers as private as possible.

 

YOUR SENIORNET DATE BOOK

AND DID YOU KNOW----??

 

THAT former facilities coordinator JOE PONTECORVO is the only SeniorNet member who can admit he actually lost a plane over Europe many years ago.  OK, so the former Federal Aeronautical Administration (FAA) member, when questioned by this writer about the incident, confirmed it did happen. But, said Joe, it was only a model plane, one of his hobbies at that time. Not the big commercial planes he was professionally associated with.

 

“I have built model aircraft all my life,” he wrote.  “I also flew them in competition.  I spent a little over 10 years of my career in Europe and while I was stationed in Brussels with the FAA I had joined a local model airplane club named ICARUS.  We competed against each other and members of other clubs in Belgium and neighboring countries. 

 

“One of the contests that I entered was held at a military base in the north Belgium countryside.  I was flying in an event called A2, which were gliders of approximately 2 meters wingspan.  This is a duration event requiring five flights.  The models are equipped with a timer to bring the model down after a MAX flight is achieved.  On one of my flights the timing device malfunctioned and the model was in a very strong thermal.  My son and I chased the model on foot and with the car until it went OOS (out of sight).”

 

Pontecorvo, an aviation safety specialist and who most recently was a consultant on plane safety with a foreign airline, still vividly recalls the lost-plane episode. “About a week later I received a call from someone in Germany.  I asked my neighbor to interpret for me. They had found my model. The models always carry identification on them.  That weekend my wife and son and I drove to Germany to retrieve my model.  Some teen-age children had found my model in a field while walking the dog.  The model was undamaged and had flown from Belgium across the tip of the Netherlands and into Germany, a distance of about 100 Kilometers.  One of the young children spoke some school English and we were greeted with a lot of questions and curiosity about the model and ourselves.  We also experienced great hospitality.  We were treated to coffee and homemade apple strudel and a tour of their small farm.  It was one of our great experiences.”  Pontecorvo is a frequent speaker on computers before other senior groups, including the Kirkland Senior Center.

 

THAT ART CONLEY, one of our veteran members, recalls he first learned about SeniorNet when he read a story way, way back in The New York Times that a Seattle area investment consultant, JIGGS CLARK was organizing an all-volunteer, non-profit group in the Pacific Northwest to help seniors learn how to operate those then newfangled computers. And Art decided to check it out himself.  And he quickly became an active member aiding instructors and later teaching his own class, along with other needed chores. At that point when SeniorNet was located on 116^th Ave. NE, SeniorNet had two large office spaces donated by Dr. McIntyre.  One room was the office, and hangout spot with a busy coffee pot and a few computers for practice.  Long-time members can still recall Art between classes, enjoying a cup of coffee with The New York Times spread out before him, with some curious members peering over his shoulders.

 

THAT PRES. ADELLA GRANGER, rested and tanned, has just returned from a month’s vacation in Hawaii, to begin another busy year heading up the very active  and growing SeniorNet Computer Learning Center here, one of the largest in the country. During her absence, VICE PRES. DELORES DAVIS kept the group on a steady course.

 

THAT VICE PRES. DAVIS is the featured columnist in the current print issue of the national SeniorNet Newsline with her “Lifestories by Design”  genealogical article describing the computer as a powerful tool in writing life stories. And as she teaches in her own writing classes here, “You can write, modify, organize and add enhancements to your story using the Word software program.” The newsletter devotes two pages to her article covering her writing approaches, including developing a system, making the commitment, collecting documents and doing the needed research. Included is a side article by the magazine where Davis was credited by Lisa B. Lee, author of Skin Deep, My Journey to Discover the Black & White Descendants of William Lee, with inspiring and teaching her to make her own family history come alive. To correct an earlier article, Vice Pres. Davis received her Master’s Degree from the Boston College School of Social Work.

 

 

 

 

A WARNING RE A PHONE SCAM

 

Nothing to do with computers, but phone scammers are always out there successfully ripping off trusting folks. The following is from REGISTRAR FLORA who received it from a friend, and is passing it along:

 
”I received a telephone call last evening from an individual identifying
himself as an AT&T Service technician who was conducting a test on telephone lines.
He stated that to complete the test I should touch nine (9), zero(0),
the pound sign (#), and then hang up.

“Luckily, I was suspicious and refused.

“Upon contacting the telephone company, I was informed that by pushing 90#,
you give the requesting individual full access to your telephone line, which
enables them to place long distance calls billed to your home phone number.

”I was further informed that this scam has been originating from many local
jails/prisons. I have also verified this information with UCB Telecom, Pacific
Bell, MCI, Bell Atlantic and GTE. Please beware.”

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NOTE: While all computer-operating tips come from usually reliable sources, readers are reminded you use them at YOUR OWN RISK.  Again, in case you have friends who are online, and may be interested in taking classes to expand their skills, please forward this newsletter to them by clicking Forward when this message is displayed. Then enter their address in the To box, and click Send. We welcome your brief personal news items sent to the editor at b26flyer@comcast.net. If you wish to receive this free monthly newsletter, update your email address or unsubscribe, rush your full name, phone and email address to pugetsnet6@qwest.net.

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President: Adella Granger; Vice President: Delores Davis; Treasurer: Joe Hesketh; Secretary: Martha Simon;  Registrar: Louise Flora; Immediate Past President and current Public Relations chair: Helen Hesketh; Curriculum Coordinator: John Wise;  Facilities Coordinator: Ken Crandall;  Member-at-Large: Gordon Young ; Granpals Coordinator: Nancy Harsh; Catalogue Editors: Clair & Jo Hugh; Online Newsletter Circulation: Bob Balsley; Online Newsletter Editor: Phil Scheier