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What Should a Community Computer Lab Offer?
Ballresin asks: "A local computer company is expanding and including a computer lab in their setup, and they want me to come in as its Administrator. I am supposed to be giving them input on what to teach/host. What does Slashdot think a medium sized tourist town (Okoboji, Spirit Lake, Arnolds Park, Iowa) should have to offer to the locals? I was thinking something along the lines of 'How to Use Windows 101' and 'How to Use Office 101'. My compatriots want to offer some off-the-wall classes such as 'Hacker Ethics: Why and How' and a few other odd classes. I have polled people in the area, which resulted the discovery that 80% of them are from out of town, so don't really care. What you guys think; What kind of classes or what games/LAN party setups should a new, small business offer? Any ideas/input is greatly appreciated."
How many tourists (80% out of towners) are going to take a Windows 101 class on vacation?
I know that the post asked about courses, but I would have some good policies setup if you allow public internet use.
You can get to theoretical stuff eventually as you guage community interest and expertise distribution. But the practical classes are the ones grandma and junior will find the most helpful. You'll get more potential teachers and students that way, and it will be easy to pass off the classes to other people if necessary.
Give them meaningful titles though. Don't title it "Excel 101". Title it "Using spreadsheets to make your life easier". People will come to classes in order to do things better, not to learn a specific app (well, most people at least). In the description, say "this uses iMovie, and we'll touch on moviemaker", but for the title, something like "making home movies that last forever".
good luck with your project!
Because if it is, I want to short.
Most people, especially in small communities, probably don't realize that they don't have to buy M$ Windows to do 90% of what they want to do (e-mail, surf the web, download pr0n). The other things like "Windows 101" they could get at the library or various adult education centers.
But before you decide what to do with the lab, you've got to know why the computer shop wants to open one. If it's to drive up sales by pushing the shop's good directly, then tailor classes towards Making The Most Of The SB-Live! Audigy Card.
If it's to be an uber-cyber-cafe and hope that business picks up based on your civic contribution, then teach Using The Internet For Research and Homework Help, or maybe How To Install Filtering Software To Keep The Kids From Porn.
Whatever it is, it's got to jive with your employer's reason for doin' it!
--
If you're thinking of Windows 101 and Office 101, then I'd suggest Internet 101, and go over email, browser basics, Usenet, FTP, etc. It's remarkable to me how so many people think the Web, email, and IM make up the entirety of the Internet.
:)
A more advanced class on WWW usage would be good - teach people how to use search engines effectively, etc. That would be a short one-day thing that a lot of people could get a great deal of benefit from.
Another good idea would be 'Privacy & Security 101'. Teach people about software firewalls and hardware NAT routers, how to keep their privacy on the internet, and how to avoid spam, etc. Definitely a lot of value there.
Perhaps something about how to use digital cameras with photoshop to do photo editing / printing. And maybe another one for an intro to video editing. Lots of people take pictures & home movies. It'd be good to show them how to get that stuff off their cameras and onto CD-Rs and DVD+/-R(/W)s.
Basic home repair & upgrades, though that may cut into your business.
How to set up a (wireless?) home network, perhaps?
Connecting your TiVo to your home network.
Intro to Linux & the BSDs.
Free. Gratis. Libre.
Software y Libertad!
La computadora es de quien la trabaja!
First - assess age and experience. If very low, basics such as using the mouse and what is the internet. Introduce email and chatting to them.
Second - assess local business needs: spreadsheets and document writing. Basic desktop publishing. Also, give out certificates so people can take classes and have something to add to resumes.
Third - student and school needs. More than likely you have student classes needing access to computers. These range from low to high, but I'd start out w/ computer basic and hit the Gifted and Talented teachers to give you some nerds to work with linux and open source.
Fourth - Ecommerce classes: yeah, that's so five years ago, but you're not in San Francisco so maybe the dot-com is about happen there. Explain that a good website can boost mail order sales and supplement income for niche markets, primarily small vendors/manufacturers.
Fifth - programming courses. All this net stuff don't mean jack without programmers. Download perl and get people started with scripting - then build from there.
Invite members of the community to teach your courses (as long as they have a lesson plan), and if there's a local geneologist and/or historian, invite them in to teach about the local history.
-NJ
In this same vein...
How to conduct meaningful web searches period.
People often waste too much time trying to track down useful/pertinent information on the web.
That's great if you want job security, I guess. It'd be nice if there was a course that could teach people how to apply what they learn about one program to another, even if it doesn't do the same things. For example, that the "print" menus are almost always under "file" or that "properties" are usually to be found in "file" or "edit." Simple things like that that will make them actually functional when they are faced with something novel.
I suppose that's really placing too much of a demand on the students rather than too much on the teachers, though. Sigh...
(Worked in computer labs for 2 years...has stories)
Out of town? Tourists or snowbirds? You mean your typical camera toting crowd? Teach them digital photography, a few types of image compression, and the best ways to e-mail photos to the family back home. And throw in a little Gimp/Photoshop to show how to remove the wrinkles from their faces, brighten the Oregon skies, and in general make the stay-at-homes jealous. I'll be happy to sell them the cameras....
Not a big deal to most users yet, but they are catching on. I'm a big fan of them personally - more reliable than floppies and easy to carry around ie. your keychain. Drives me nuts when I'm using a public lab or work computers and I'm not supposed to use one because I'm not allowed to install a new device. Yes there are ways around that ;), but most normal users wouldn't know that.
Anyway, if you're gonna restrict people from installing a new device on your windows machine, go ahead and install the USB flash drive ahead a time for everyone...i'm betting it'll pay off eventually.
puck
Actually, you make a good point.
Knowing how to drive a browser is not sufficient. A course teaching meaningful search construction, search-result filtering (on relevance and reliability), and the often-successful art of 'guessing-a-URL', could be of value, and of interest.
Of course, I guess these are the study/research skills we're all supposed to learn at school...right?
True. I'm thinking no slashdotters ever have a problem finding exactly what they're looking for, but from looking at colleagues and the random familiy member, the public at large is not that well versed in the art of web searching. Of course, web searching is not that big a subject for a whole course; so maybe a workshop will do.
Remember Mudding(the free kind)? We need YOU @
Are you going after tourist? If so, why not have a class for people who travel --> "Making the most of your computer while traveling" Some topics could include "finding great rates (air/hotels/cruises/etc) online, wireless connections, tech saavy hotels, etc" as well as how to allow them to be the "mobile techie" -- ie getting connected to the internet from various locations, using webmail, gps & computers, etc. If you want to gear toward the locals, decide on what YOU want to do -- if your looking for larger classes, then you will probably need to stick with the basics "Intro to the Internet, email, computers" with perhaps a few lan parties for the kiddies every few weeks :)
I teach classes for a training company, so I can suggest classes that are successful for us:
1. CD Burning. We teach using Nero, since it comes with the drives we buy, but the major topics are the different kinds of CDs (audio vs. data, CD-R vs. CD-RW). We just added ripping and burning DVDs (using DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink). VERY few people actually understand the filesystem; a substantial portion of the class is explaining that, say, "My Shared Folder" lives under the Program Files Folder on the C: drive. In real life, I've found most home users just don't do very much with files. Maybe that's another class?
2. Internet Security. The "anti-Spam class". We demonstrate pop-up blocking, programs like adaware, manipulating the hosts file, antivirus software, anti-spam techniques. All this is predicated on reasonably advanced internet users.
3. Troubleshooting. Break a bunch of computers in a thematically appropriate and easily fixable way (sound issues, network problems whatever). Let folks pound their heads against the display for awhile. A decent tech can have a lot of fun with this.
4. Internet Searching. Hard as it is to believe, many people click the search button in IE, that takes them to MSN search, which may very well be the worst search site on the internet. Teach google, refining searches, choosing keywords etc.
5. Shopping Online. Goes over magically in oh, October or November. Teach safety habits, finding product reviews and lowest prices (simpler now that there's froogle, but show differences between say mysimon and dealtime).
6. Digital photography. Many, many people buy a camera and never change the settings from the defaults. Showing things like color and white balance controls, basic photography (when to use a flash, whatever), and how to make things look good when you print 'em out.
Those are things that get decent numbers of sign-ups every time we offer them. Maybe you can do something similar.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
the basics of privacy, and securing yourself to go online 101. It should be a REQUIREMENT to get your community lab drivers license so to speak...
Things like DO NOT INSTALL COMET CURSOR, YOU DON'T REALLY HAVE A URGENT MESSAGE even though that popup says you do, Broadcasting an IP address is NOT A BAD THING even though the OTHER popup says it is, How NOT TO respond to spam, what a GOOD password is, and the survival tools needed, such as a popup blocker, purging histories and the implications of using a SHARED computer. In a similar situation in Yuma, AZ, the snowbirds like email, you could not get an ID until you passed their very basic course, and the heightened awareness gets things reported.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
One topic that I've always thought would help your average user:
:)
Effectively using a search engine (or how to use Google
My mother works at a library and part of the staff has been taught how to work the system, etc (her half). However, whenever they type up any sort of bulletin or flyer (done frequently) they NEVER use tabs. They space everything out with spaces, or occasionally the default tabs. So I deeply sugget you, in your office explanation, show them the basic tabs. Be sure to include all types of tabs (left, right, justified) and how you can put them wherever you want instead of relying on the default half inch.
Live life to the fullest. It's not that life is short, but that you are dead for so long.
The community lab needs to provide a lot more than just courses. In fact, I would think that its best buisiness would come from being an internet cafe catered to a non-tech community.
Get some of the local kids onto LAN gaming and encourage it in your lab. In addition to weekly classes (in the evenings or whatever), make it clear that it is a place where people can come to check their email, type up something in word, or whatever. The most important part though is to always have someone friendly and knowledgable staffing the place so that people know if they come in at a slow time they can get personal help with whatever they're working on. This help shouldn't cost them above and beyond what the computer time is costing them, nor should it be the only reason they come there. They should come there to get stuff done, knowing that if they get stuck someone will be there to help them out.
I'd imagine you'd get a fair degree of interest in a course teaching people about what the bits of computers are, and how to decypher the local computer stores' advertisements to choose the system that suits their needs best. So many people will go out and buy a high end gaming machine with a super video card they'll never use, to check email and use Word. Alternately people whose kids want to play Star Wars Galaxies need to know they should ask for a better video card upgrade than is included in the basic word processing machine. So many people don't even understand the difference between hard drive and memory, and what affects what. I had a part time job selling computers a while back and the number one type of question was "so what does memory do?" "so how do I know which system I need?"
A more advanced course on how to build your own computer might be something to consider in the future if you see interest.
I also definitely agree you don't want to call your courses things like "Internet Basics 101", instead call them something more user friendly and descriptive.
All I ask is a warm bed, a kind word, and UNLIMITED POWER
I'm not sure how many people would want to spend the time taking a class when they're on vacation. Personally i'd rather go out and see the sites. But it would be nice if some computers had memory card readers in them for me to upload my digital pictures to friends.
1) How to avoid identity theft on the web (don't sign up for stuff using your real info)
2) How to combat spam (don't sign up for stuff using your real info; use filters)
3) How to avoid spyware (don't click on banner ads; use ad-filtering software; don't install file sharing or useless stuff like cursor/theme changers)
You could offer stuff like "How to pirate software and not get caught" but hopefully people would have enough of a clue to not sign up for a class about that...
Kallahar
If you found 80% of the people don't care I'd say seriuosly rethink classes.
you could make a cybercafe style setup. But with a few perks such as: card readers, scanners, web, e-mail, etc. Allowing users e-mail photos to loved ones where ever they may be. Games are never bad either for the kids who dont want to go see some sites with mom and dad all day or go shopping all day let them game all day until mom and dad get back.
If you absoulty must do technical classes do more research to find out what people will want or use. What about appealing to other local businesses to train their people to use word, outlook, excel, acces etc?
The question most folks who havn't used a computer before will have is: What can I do with it an why is that better?
For the Internet part, cover things like:
Read the local newspaper
Check the weather report
Use Google to find the complaint address for the company that made your shoes
and so on
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
A class that taught people how to assess their needs, order parts individually, and then assemble them into a computer would probably be very useful.
I think it would help a lot of beginners to lose their fear of computers and give them a better idea of what the different components do and why they do them.
Not only that, but part of the curriculum might invole leaving with your own PC that you built yourself. And then once you have it, knowing what to do when a fan fails, or if you wish to add more memory.
As my dad always told me, everyone who drives a car should know how to change a tire, change the oil, and get a jumpstart. In my opinion, computers should be looked at the same way.
having installed and admin'd a few community labs, my current opinion is that they should offer the kitchen sink. anything less is a disservice to the community. providing opportunities should be the name of the game. not just "office productivity" apps (geez, are these the things that attracted us to computers?!!?) install games, audio apps (headphones for public spaces), cd-burners, video editing apps, programming tools, network utilities, DTP apps, etc.
configure the machines to be easily rebuilt. if you don't know how to do this run all the machines off Knoppix CDs.
and that segues into the last but not least most important point. install some free *nix on the machines. community labs should be enabling NOT disabling. if you install all kinds of proprietary software you are making people dependent on tools that are by and large poorly supported. imagine installing Knoppix on all the systems and then making Knoppix CDs available to the users so that they can use the same tools at home! that's the cherry on top of a community lab sundae.
...because you have two audiences.
First, you need your tourist side. Very simple stuff. Web browsing, email, a scanner for photos, a color printer for stuff they get from home. This can be on any OS, and might as well be on something robust (*nix) if you can get the right drivers. If you can afford credit-card reader setups, do that... if people can walk in, stick in a card, do their thing, get their total, and click ok and walk out without ever talking to you, they'll be very happy. (Just make sure there's someone easily available to talk to if something comes up... don't *rely* on the no-interaction setup.)
But your locals need something very different. I've done a lot of support and teaching in some pretty wacky environments, and I have a pretty different idea of how it should be done. So these are the kinds of classes I'd offer:
- What is the Internet? This is not a class on how to use Outlook to check your email. This class, if someone's paying attention and taking notes, will after several hours allow someone to get on the phone with their ISP and actually get their internet connection fixed. Learn the general topography of the Internet, insofar as data turns into packets and hops from server to server. Learn how to do and read a traceroute. What a DNS server does. Why email and web are not the same thing. Why they might be able to get to one website, but not another. People use the internet hours and hours a day without having the slightest idea what's going on... and when there's inevitably a problem, they are completely at the mercy of a $9/hr tech in Texas who has a script, but no brain. (Not a comment on Texas... that just seems to be where companies go for cheap tech labor. We have the same brainless idiots here in Los Angeles, but they cost $11/hr.)
- Computer structure. Open up the case. Here's your memory... this is what it does. This is the hard drive, and this is how it's different from memory. That over there is your processor, and it performs this function. People won't necessarily come out knowing how to build a computer, but they'll be able to buy one without being dizzied by the gigahertz and gigabytes. The difference between RAM and drive space is crucial, and very difficult, mostly because it's measured in the same units. Actually showing them the parts may help to make the distinction. It will also help with a surprising number of error messages... I can't tell you how many people I've talked to who were very dissapointed that the "low memory, close programs" message didn't go away after they deleted a bunch of documents.
- Databases. Sure, teach SQL, Filemaker Pro, or even *retch* MS Access. But offer a class on what a database *is* and how it works. One-to-many relationships. Fields and records. Just try to get across the three-dimensional nature of database information. That way, once they learn a database program, whether it's Postgre SQL with PHP or MS Access with VBA, they'll actually be able to *use* it as more than a glorified spreadsheet.
- Microsoft Word productivity. Lots of people have been using Word for years, but they will spend hours and hours trying to make a somewhat complex document print out correctly because they don't really know how to use tabs, tab leaders, tables, etc. A couple hours of the "tips and tricks" can save people cumulative days on typing up their simple-seeming menus, brochures, flyers, and resumes.
Teach them what they ask you to. Listen to the questions they have. Maybe offer "office hours" where people can just come in with their questions and others can sit in and (hopefully) learn from them. Make it a community thing. You've got a heck of an opportunity to empower people (yes, I used that word... but it's appropriate here) with technology, and you can do a lot with it. Make it your goal to put yourself half out of business, because when people know the fundamentals of computers, they won't need your expertise nearly so much anymore.
Don't you wish your girlfriend was a geek like me?
There are many suggestions here for the basics (win 101, excel, photography, internet)
How about a ground rules class?
Brief overview of computing today. Platforms, types of computers, and the very general reasons people use them. Perhaps a bit about where we came from, where we are today, and where we could be going.
Then a bit of positioning for them. The sort of thing that helps them place themselves in charge of their experience. Let them know they have choices and how those choices can potentially affect their computing future.
Then expand by area.
The computer itself. What does save really mean? Does it mean "keep this for later?" or does it mean to "toss what I had in exchange for what I have now?" Continue with that sort of general sort of knowledge that will help them to make sense of what they are doing no matter what the application.
The Internet. Putting new people on the Internet without some basic cultural guidence is like walking around in the worst part of town with no clue. Use scenarios to illustrate how things like e-mail, IM, web forums and such work. Let them know what others expect. Let them learn by interactive example. Make sure they can e-mail you and others in the class. Be sure they have a forum to use both in class and away from it. Privacy on the Internet. (Read: what privacy?) USENET in the form of google groups would be nice as would be the rules.
One thing about e-mail in particular to illustrate and allow them to work with is the fact that things can easily come across far differently than intended. Tell them why and help them with creative and funny examples they can remember. Same goes with forums. Tell them what a troll is...
Their Data vs other peoples data. What are backups and how best to perform them. What needs to be archived for later and why?
Software and data. Let them know the difference between Open Standards and Closed ones.
Getting help. If you have framed the discussion right and managed their expectations, they should be able to make use of USENET, web-forums (Your own in particular with volunteer help from the smarter ones helping along), friends, and books.
Lay out the rules for technical support. Let them know exactly what they can expect for a few common situations. They should know enough to decide what is worth the money and what is not.
All of these suggestions are directed toward empowering these people to help themselves as much as possible.
Computing today is really easy if one has the right expectations. It all can be done one simple question at a time. Everyone getting started should somehow know that.
A lot of things would be a lot better if they did.
Good luck with your project.
Blogging because I can...
Apple gets this. Microsoft gets it but has a business-model problem with it. The Linux community doesn't get it at all.
Set up a membership scheme that gives locals cheap access to the whole works, but charges visitors more for cybercafe facilities. Then get your business customers to give you free advertising pitched at visitors.
Paul.
You are lost in a twisty maze of little standards, all different.
* What directories are and how to use them. Again, the number of people who just save to a default directory and then can't find the file later is surprising * How to use Office or similar - word processing using your favourite package, etc. By default this tends to be MS Office because that's what they'll face when they hit the real world. You can push OO or similar which may be ethically nice but it's less useful.
*Use of the internet. This includes web searching, email and *usenet*! There are kids today who think "Google Groups" is news!
*Run options in things you think they'll be interested in: DTP, graphics, etc etc
*Anyone who runs a "hacking 101" will be rebuilding their community PCs every few hours and fending off enquiries from their ISP. Why give yourself the hassle?