Program For Seniors Does Compute

At the front of the classroom, Mel Quinn calls up a Windows 7 dialogue box on the overhead projector connected to his computer. The box shows how to control mouse functions.

“Do any of you have trouble double clicking – your fingers aren’t as agile as when you were teenagers?” he asks his students. “Move it to Slow, and you’ve got all day to do your double click.”

Quinn is a volunteer instructor with the , which has been teaching computer skills to seniors since 1995. His class, Windows 7 – An Introduction, is full, with all 11 computer stations in the classroom occupied.

One of his students, Margit Vogel of Lake Barrington Shores, signed up for the class because she bought a new computer with Windows 7 installed. “I felt it was time for me to learn a little bit more,” she says.

Vogel’s attitude is typical of the seniors taking courses these days, says another instructor, Don Van Cleave. Many already have computer experience and wish to pick up more skills.

“When we first started,” Van Cleave says, “half the people who came in here didn’t have a computer.”

“We were getting people in here who were 60 years old and they wanted to do things because their grandchildren were doing them,” adds another instructor, Dick Krouse.

Originally known as Palatine SeniorNet Learning Center, the group was created in April 1995 to provide computer classes that focused on the needs of seniors. At the time, older adults who enrolled in computer classes through school districts or community colleges would feel out of place among teenagers and 20-year-olds. “It [SeniorNet] was geared toward mature students, and we were the only game in town that offered what we call a non-hostile environment,” Von Cleave says.

The Palatine Township Senior Citizens Council sponsors the computer learning center, as it has since the beginning. Diane Lancour, program director for the council and one of the council’s representatives to the 50 Plus board, notes that Palatine was one of the first sites in the area to offer computer classes to seniors. “We still have a very quality program,” she says.

also has been instrumental to the program’s success. District 15 has donated the classroom, located in the district’s administration building at 580 N. 1st Bank Drive. The classroom and its equipment, including 12 Dell Dimension E521 computers installed in January 2007, are used exclusively by the computer learning center.

Courses are taught by a corps of 40 volunteer instructors and coaches, some who are former teachers and many with backgrounds in computers and technology. Quinn, who began teaching at the center after retiring in 2007, had a 30-year career at IBM that began in 1963. Krouse used to work for Motorola. “It’s a diverse group of people who are very sincere about communicating skills on computers to seniors,” Krouse says.

Lancour says the instructors are always willing to help each other as well as their students. “They are excellent. It’s a very close-knit group of instructors,” she says. “They’re really computer savvy, and that’s a bonus.”

The center offers four-week courses that deal with computer basics to software such as Excel and Word. Classes that teach Word skills are among the most popular, Van Cleave says, and grandparents still look for ways to stay in touch with their grandchildren. “People want to know how to do the Internet and e-mail,” he says.

 Once the program was running, the board discovered students wanted shorter courses covering various topics and software. Instructors responded with one-session workshops. “We saw a need and were able to turn around and offer a quick class outside the curriculum,” Krouse says. Workshops in the most recent schedule focus on Facebook, flash drives, smart phones and “The Power of the Right Click.”

The program changed its name to 50 Plus Computer Learning Center in January, breaking off from the national SeniorNet organization. While the board still admires the purpose of SeniorNet, Krouse says, changes in fee structures would have meant charging Palatine students an extra $40. Currently, four-week classes cost $50, which includes a fee for materials,  to members of the Palatine Township Senior Citizens Council, while workshop prices range from $15 to $35.

Classes are open to people of any age, but are geared toward seniors. The instructors hope to pass along skills that will keep seniors connected to the modern world, but that’s not all.

“I want you to have fun with your computers,” Quinn tells his students as class ends.

For information, visit the group’s website or call (847) 991-1112 and ask for the 50 Plus Computer Learning Center.