Photo by David Schreiber Lana Jacobs offers computer classes to seniors in the comfort of their own homes.

Grandmother teaches Web-training classes for seniors

By Mary Beth Almond
C & G Staff Writer
   
BLOOMFIELD HILLS — Senior citizens who have been left behind by technology can easily join the digital revolution with the help of some local experts.
   
Lana Jacobs, a 63-year-old Bloomfield Hills resident, offers basic e-mail and Internet training for clients in the comfort of their own homes through her Grandma Can Use the Computer program.  In two one-hour sessions, participants will learn how to use e-mail to communicate with friends and family, share digital photos, surf the Internet for coupons and travel deals, and easily find useful information, such as driving directions, addresses and weather reports.
   
The program is divided into two distinct, easily mastered sessions — e-mail and Internet — and is designed for those who are intimidated by computers. Jacobs said participants would avoid “computer shock” by working at their own pace to master the area covered in each session before moving on.  
   
“It’s amazing how using e-mail and the Internet can make life both richer and easier,” said Jacobs. “… You wouldn’t believe the travel and shopping deals I’ve been able to find using some of the easy-to-navigate Web sites that are out there.”
   
Jacobs decided to go back to her roots as a computer consultant and trainer by starting Grandma Can Use the Computer after her ever-growing list of community service projects began to take over her free time. The projects themselves weren’t too demanding, but her inability to effectively communicate with association members and teams was costing her a lot of time. Jacobs knew that e-mail communication would save her a tremendous amount of time and energy, but many of the people she worked with didn’t know how to use it; meaning much of the communication was done via telephone or face-to-face in meetings.  
   
“It was easier to communicate through e-mail with my 10-year-old granddaughter who lives in Atlanta than with committee members for the service projects I was working on right here at home,” she said.

Jacobs’ daughter Leslie Guria, who lives in Atlanta with her husband and two children, said she is happy her mother knows how to use the computer and believes other seniors could benefit from learning how.
   
“If mom can’t be there for a birthday party, we can send her pictures through e-mail the same day,” she said. “It’s like in the olden days when people wrote letters. People don’t do that anymore, they send e-mails.”
   
Guria said many seniors who don’t know how to use the computer often rely on others for travel deals and other online information. She said if somebody showed them where these Web sites are, seniors could do the searching just as easily themselves.
   
“The Internet is a wonderful tool if you know how to find what you are looking for, and a little bit of knowledge can take you a long way,” she said.
   
Sterling Heights Public Library Director Carol Lingeman said seniors can also head to their local public libraries for computer instruction.
   
The Sterling Heights Public Library has free weekly computer demonstration sessions presented by staff member Mary Lou Metzger. The sessions explain the Internet and how it can be used to find information.
   
Program participants can learn how to get an e-mail account even if they don’t own a computer on Jan. 29 from 10 a.m.-noon. Using Yahoo, a free Web-based e-mail service, Metzger will cover signing up for service, sending and receiving messages, attachments, forwarding, e-mail etiquette and more.

A buying demonstration for online auction sites will take place on Feb. 8 from 10 a.m.-noon, and a selling demonstration for online auction sites will take place Feb. 15 from 10 a.m.-noon. Additional classes, including a Google demonstration and an iBistro and online database demonstration, are also scheduled for February.
   
Jacobs schedules private, in-home classes daily.  For more information, contact Jacobs at (248) 626-0616. To register for the Sterling Heights Public Library classes visit www.shpl.net or call the library at (586) 446-2640.
   
You can reach Mary Beth Almond at malmond@candgnews.com