Teaching Grandmother THE INTERNET

Lesson 1: How to turn the laptop on

Beth: All you do is push this button.
Grandmother: How do I push it?
Beth: Uh, you just hold it down until something happens.

Lesson 2: This is a mouse

Lesson includes: holding the mouse, doubleclicking on the desktop, single clicking on the internet, not moving the mouse while you're clicking, not right clicking so that you pull up something you don't know what to do with.

Lesson 3: Here is gmail.

Lesson includes: finding a username that includes her miniature chihuahua, practicing typing in the password correctly, and trying not to confuse her about the jumbled words google makes you type in so that you can prove you're not a robot.

Lesson 4: Here is gmail (part 2)

Beth: Okay, click on inbox.
Granmother: Can I click anywhere? How does the computer know I want inbox?
Beth: It doesn't. You have to click there.

Lesson 5: Repeat lessons 1-4 with patience.

What a fun experience. In a day and age where babies come out of the womb with a facebook account, it is cool to see how someone who has NEVER been on a computer before learns about it. The questions that she asked were very interesting to me.

In other news, school starts tomorrow and we are sleepy. I also rediscovered an old blog (welderbeth.xanga.com) I'm going to start updating that one, too. This one will be reserved for updates on Alex and I.

Goodnight!