Re: OT: Self Help for the Computer Illiterate

On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 16:33:41 -0700, in sci.electronics.design Tim
Wescott <tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>I have some friends who own a small retail shop. They have some cool
>stuff and they need to get a website, and do some minimal maintenance on
>it. The problem is that they're old enough to be pre-literate as far as
>computers go, and they know _nothing_. They have a PC sitting in their
>shop and they need to start using it.
>
>So far they've had two kinds of instruction:
>
>One was the guy who built the computer for them, who couldn't understand
>folks who can't understand computers (and was more interested in showing
>them how to download porn than how to actually use the thing).
>
>The other was a program he recommended that was entirely centered around
>teaching by rote. These are smart people, and they need to know at
>least some of the principals behind whats going on, not just "push this
>here button and that there dirty picture will pop up".
>
>Anyone helped anyone with this recently? Anyone _been_ in that spot and
>been helped out of it? I'd like to recommend a book and/or program that
>they can use to learn in their spare time (I've already suggested a
>community college class but I'm afraid it may be the learn by rote
>approach).
>
>Thanks
long shot... bbc.co.uk, have a commuity fo "doing it" but I cant quite
remember, maybe something on the message board there would start
something. Must be zillions in the same position, sad.


martin
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