Patricia

Hi, I am an adult learner looking to improve/update my computer skills as I`ve realised this year that things have moved on substantially since I first learned what I`ve been using for years to support my work as a Special Needs teacher, including Word, OneNote, emails and Skype.

My areas of interest are:-

(1) Terminology & Usage
I don`t know enough of the correct terminology for the things I use and I don`t know what they are capable of beyond what I use them for or why/how to utilise them more fully. For example, in my version of the terminology: if I want to find out about something: I go to the bottom of the screen and click the green/red/blue ball to get a Google box, then I enter what I`m looking for and it gives me results to choose from. I do this all day every day, I don`t have the correct words to describe it. I have recently discovered that the correct terminology would be something like: if I want to find out about something: I go to the Task Bar and select a web browser such as Google Chrome/Mozilla Firefox/Microsoft Edge and then I enter a search term which a search engine program such as Google Search, Bing or Yahoo uses to produce a list of results. This is huge progress! My lack of correct terminology makes it very difficult for me to learn what I need to know from books or the internet because a search result leads to more terms I don`t know within the explanation and then I have to search for those, and so on. This is neither efficient nor interesting, and nothing sticks because I lose the thread as my brain focuses on the route I’m taking instead of drawing the map of knowledge I’ll need going forward!

(2) Downloading, Installing, Zipping & Uploading
I don`t know how to download and install a program or unzip files - or upload material either. Up to now, I have always been busy with work and asked my partner to do these jobs as and when. Now I have more time to learn and I`d like to be able to do these things for myself. I want to be independent. I realise that there would be some variability in doing these jobs with different programs, but I`d like some kind of this-is-the-type-of-thing-you-can-expect template as a map or general guide of what I’m likely to have to do.

(3) Settings & Synchronising
I would like to know how to find, understand and use `Settings` in things, particularly for things like customising something for myself, including being able to synchronise between pieces of equipment that I have, namely PCs, laptops and mobile phones. Or choosing one piece of equipment as the centre or main one and understanding why I would do that and how to manage it.

(4) ‘New’ (to me) Stuff
I would like to understand the kinds of things that I know almost nothing about as concepts, never mind as tools I might want to use, which have taken off in the last few years, including things like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and other popular social media, Teams, Zoom, Spotify and how to share whatever it is that people share. At the moment these are just brand names to me. I don’t want to become a social media user particularly, but I would like to ‘understand the conversation’.

(5) Back Up
I would like to know how to back up photos and notes on my mobile phone (a Samsung 7) to an external hard drive, and then be able to sort them into groups and manage them. I would like to know how to put photos or files to do with a single topic into folders, and then be able to find them again!

(6) Microsoft Edge, 365 and The Cloud
I would like to know what The Cloud is and why/how I would use it. I expect it`s buildings full of machines somewhere that store stuff in compressed files, but I don`t know why you would want to use it, how to do that or how secure/accessible it is. Same goes for Microsoft Edge and 365: what, why, how?

(7) Internet Security
I would like to understand more about how to be safe and secure when using the internet.

(8) Excel
I have tried and tried to learn Excel from books and did a short, skim-the-surface course and still it eludes me. Years ago, I learned VisiCalc, which was intuitive and brilliant - but lost out to Microsoft’s Lotus 1-2-3 in the marketplace - but Excel defies me! I understand the cell structure underneath what you see in a spreadsheet and I’m fine with mathematical formulae but Excel’s commands for putting stuff in boxes evade me.

(9) QR Images
I think I understand what they are – fancier barcodes – but I don’t know why you would use them or how you would do that.

I understand this is a large wish list and the items on it do not carry the same `weight` in terms of teaching/learning difficulty but, as the saying goes, the journey of a 1000 miles ... so any help you could give me would be very much appreciated.

I realise that what I`m asking doesn`t follow, say, a GCSE curriculum, so I don`t expect you to teach me everything yourself necessarily - it would be ideal, but it does look a bit daunting! - but there may be some areas/topics where you could point me in the direction of easy-to-access, easy-to-understand books, videos or websites to work on perhaps, and then we could see how I got on - or didn`t! I`ve tried books by myself, but they don`t seem to hit the spot. They make assumptions that don`t apply and the pace isn’t right for me – often too slow and detailed on the easier parts and too fast and superficial on the more difficult interesting parts. And, of course, there’s always the terminology problem!

I am a methodical and systematic learner and I enjoy learning very much. I learn relatively little by osmosis. I have to learn consciously and constructively because I need to understand what I`m doing at each stage. I draw `knowledge maps` in my head to refer to – contents pages, if you like! - and then I feel confident and well-grounded and I make progress. These characteristics are probably something to do with having Asperger`s Syndrome, which gives me the capacity for enjoying hard work, the single-minded determination to succeed and a good memory - plus it`s loads of fun once you know it`s there and you work with it as a different way of being!

I hope you are able to help me on my learning adventure.
Patricia

Availability: I`m currently teaching on Tuesday and Sunday mornings, and Fridays all day, otherwise I am available.

Willing to travel: Home Only