A quick shower

Lesson 12 – Computers

I’m teaching my grandmother how to use a computer. First I showed her how to start up and shut down the computer. Then, I helped her get online or access the internet so that she can check her e-mail. She quickly learned how to write and send messages, reply to an e-mail and forward an e-mail (send a complete e-mail that you received to a new person), but it was a little hard for her to remember how to attach a file to an outgoing message.

We tried to log into her bank account online, but the bank’s website was down (the website was not functional, or was not online). There was a notice on the home page (the main page of the website) that they were doing some scheduled maintenance on the system – so we’ll try again tomorrow.

This afternoon, I’ll teach her how to use a search engine. I think she’ll really enjoy surfing/browsing the web (exploring the internet) and using social media. If she needs to do something more advanced, like burn a CD (put files from a computer onto a CD), then I can do that for her.

She’s a little bit afraid of pressing the wrong key and accidentally deleting an important file, but I told her that we can always recover the file from the recycling bin. I also explained that if the computer freezes or locks up (stops moving/functioning), she can simply restart/reboot the computer.

It’s also a good idea for her to back up her files (make an extra copy of the information) so that she doesn’t lose her data if the computer crashes (the computer breaks) and can’t be repaired. I installed a program that periodically runs scans for viruses and spyware to ensure that her computer hasn’t been infected.