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Bulletproof Tool For Golden Age Browsing?

Posted by kdawson on from the just-the-web-ma'am dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I work in a retirement/assisted living home. Many of the residents had never used the Internet but really find it fascinating once they are given a little training. However, I've stopped introducing it to them because of the drain it puts on me. There are a million and one things that a computer novice can screw up, and I don't have time to solve all of them. These folks don't need any sophistication. and they need only the most basic options. Adjustable text size would be nice, but otherwise — no email, no word processing or editing, no printing — just Internet browsing. This may not seem like a big market, but it's getting bigger every day! Is there an absolutely fool-proof device that can provide this without requiring virus scanners and constant attention?"

2 of 366 comments (clear)

  1. Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Man, you should know better than to ask a question like that on Slashdot. The Mac guys will say to use a Mac, and the Linux guys will say to use Linux. And then the Windows guys will complain about bias. Just watch =)

  2. Give them some responsibility by stranger_to_himself · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would suggest something like the OLPC as an everything. Yes, it's geared for children but I guess you're kind of dealing with ... well, in some cases degenerated minds.

    'In some cases' is the key phrase here. In most homes there will be enough people who are perfectly capable of using a computer.

    In short, my advice is to find the one of them with the most clue or potential for clue and make him/her the sys admin. Then let them do what they like.

    I work in geriatric psychiatry and my group has been interviewing older people in institutions to understand in what way their needs are or are not being met. A common theme that arises among the cognitively intact (who are quite often smarter than most of us) is that they feel useless, they can see there are needs within their environment that are not met and they are not empwered to do anything about it. This upsets them greatly.

    You've probably got people in your home who were in techincal jobs before they retired, and are more than capable of looking after a couple of PCs. Give them some Linux CDs or Windows or whatever and a good book and let them figure it out. They've probably got nothing better to do.

    They'll feel empowered, they'll teach their friends, and leave you alone. Don't patronise them, don't give them a crippled system.