Improving my computer literacy

Primrose

As an older retired person I'm conscious I'm no longer keeping my computer literacy up to date. I would appreciate having access to a daily hint or learning process which would gradually improve this situation.


Does anybody know of such a website or online facility which I could visit on a daily basis to slowly acquire more hints and knowledge about the general management of a computer, how to do new things, etc. Realise this is an enormous topic but I have to start somewhere! No local computer classes in my vicinity. Need to kick in at a pretty basic level I suspect.

AndyPix

I think it would be best if you focussed on what you WANT to be able to do.
eg think to yourself , i would like to be able to XXXX
And then google how do i XXXX


I think you will learn easier that way because you are reading about something that you actually want to do, rather than follow some instructions to an end that has no meaning to you and you will just forget.


Stuff that you are interested tends to stick in your mind better and after you have learnt to do a few things that you want to do you may start to find similarities and begin to join dots and work stuff out for yourself.


I find "monkey see monkey do" learning doesnt tend to sink in


However somebody else may be able to direct you to a site such as you suggest ..

Cornucopia

I agree, but I would also say that some things lend themselves more to that approach than others.

Finding your way through an application that is designed with end-users in mind should always be more straightforward than following a complex, multi-stage procedure for a tricky system re-configuration activity.

I would either concentrate on one or more apps that will be useful to you on an on-going basis, or take an existing off-line activity and find an app that is intended to help with that activity and start to explore it.

There are many good, free apps out there for different activities, I would recommend:-

- Paint.net (somewhere between MS Paint and Photoshop)
- Audacity (a comprehensive sound recording and editing package)
- MS Visual Studio Express (now free for certain classes of users, and a very comprehensive way to develop simple windows applications of your own)

There are also several free "Office" suites, and the Starter versions of MS Word & Excel are also available, though the Windows 10 download process is not straightforward.

Above all, whatever you learn needs regular practice, otherwise you will easily forget it, and in fact, becoming a technology expert seems to be a question of learning 2 things, forgetting 1 and having the capability to go and research 2 new things the next time you need to do something that you don't know anything about.

Heedtheadvice

Some good advice there.
There is so much out there on t'interweb it can sometimes be overwhelming especially if you do not know the search terms to get surfing answers or you hit on all those sites written by experts/geeks in language that you cannot understand.

For some general help for starters I recommend http://www.silverhairs.co.uk/
Written by a great chap, Keith Paterson, who is getting no younger himself (so he would admit) who would not claim to be an expert but it is written in understandable language. He is very approachable and will also include contributions if he needs correcting or information adding to the site.
Some is his own opinion, but nothing wrong with that, but has no affiliations or axes to grind I understand.

googler

AndyPix wrote: »

I think it would be best if you focussed on what you WANT to be able to do. eg think to yourself , i would like to be able to XXXX

And then google "how do i XXXX"

I concur. And for what it's worth, this has essentially been my own method for years. Sometimes it takes a while for obscure matters, but ...

psychic_teabag

AndyPix wrote: »

I think it would be best if you focussed on what you WANT to be able to do.
eg think to yourself , i would like to be able to XXXX
And then google how do i XXXX


I think you will learn easier that way because you are reading about something that you actually want to do, rather than follow some instructions to an end that has no meaning to you and you will just forget.

I agree to some extent. However, without any kind of feel for what's doable, it might either never occur to you that something you want to do can be done with a computer, or you might decide to research something that's really hard to do on a computer (but a sub-part might be doable).

Of course, if you refuse to accept that there are things that cannot be done, you might achieve great things !

AndyPix

^^ Excellent points

[Deleted User]

psychic_teabag wrote: »

However, without any kind of feel for what's doable, it might either never occur to you that something you want to do can be done with a computer

This^^

If you don't know what you don't know then you aren't aware that you need to learn it. (The difference between known unknowns and unknown unknowns, to quote Donald Rumsfeldt.)

I was once loaned to a department at work where they were typing up lots of specifications on word processors. Having no experience of WPs I asked for the handbook, and was just met with "what d'ya want that for? Just get on with it." I didn't know much about WPs, but I did know that they were capable of automatically numbering paragraphs, the others in the office were inserting new paragraphs and then wasting hours trawling through the whole document re-numbering everything by hand.

Primrose

What does "This^^" mean? . I keep seeing it used but have no idea what it means.

AndyPix

Hehe it points to the post above and agrees with it

Hoseman

As suggested you need to focus on what you want to do as there is a lot out there. YouTube is a good source of course. Im sure there are channels dedicated to this but I would stick to what is going to help you rather than learning stuff you dont need to know like Advanced Excel for example.

If you put computer literacy in YouTube there are a fair few videos and playlists (videos group together to watch one after the other) to view. Just make sure they are not 5 years old.