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Loman Home Group 8 - Trip Report

Ever since I found out about our Loman home project i dreaded it. My great grand mother raised me and over the years I would try to teach her new technologies whether it be VCRs, cameras, or Dvds she always had a tough time getting a grasp of them. I also had a grand mother and great aunt who also had trouble using computers. They would often call me two and three times a day asking for to solve simple problems and after a while it would get on my nerves. I understood that computers have a learning curve but I have always been pretty good at using them and couldn't see why after I showed them how to solve problem they couldn't do it themselves after I had finished. So before going into the Loman Home I had the feeling that it would be a room full of older folk that didn't have a clue as to what computers can do or even have the skills to use them. Our group had a fairly easy topic to discuss with them Computer Security. I remember our group meeting a week before our presentation, I keep on cracking jokes on the dumb questions that we were going to be asked. But when the time came for our presentation I was thoroughly impressed, unknown to me but a group before us had been working with the Loman Home teaching them basic skills and general computer knowledge.
During our presentation the old folks paid close attention and seem to soak in all that we talked about, they also asked very good questions about email security and questions about when to use a credit card online and when not to. I was very impressed, but the high light of the day was when we split up and helped them go though a few work sheets on how to spot phony emails and after that we helped them set up email accounts and answer any questions concerning there email if they had any. The lady I got paired up with was having trouble sending an email because she couldn't figure out how to use the "_" when typing her grandson's email address. I showed her the short cut and added her grandson to her contact list so she could use his address easily. She wrote her grandson and email talking about the class she had just taken and also told him how good of a teacher I was, and meant a lot to me after all the dread that went my mind leading up to the Loman Home project was completely thrown out the window when the kind old lady said that. The main reason she wanted to use an email was to keep in touch with her grandson that is stationed over in Iraq currently, she said she impressed the whole family when she started doing it. Overall I ended up really enjoying the Loman Home project and I think its a great idea to educate the elderly on new technology.