The year is 2010 - and I give you ... solitaire??

[QwUo173Hy]

I've installed Ubuntu on my mothers first and only laptop. She's gotten the hang of emails - just about, and she can use the office suite. But I've noticed that she spends most of her free time playing solitaire. As someone with a tech education and interest, I feel I'm letting her down a little, given that we have so many amazing technologies at the moment.

But the likes of Google Wave are probably out of her reach and she has no interest in beating my frag-count on Alien Arena.

Has anybody any suggestions of things I could introduce her to now that she might find useful or interesting? I've considered maybe showing her how to find a forum on a subject she likes and teacher her how to register and post etc. But even that seems a little dull to me at this moment.

I expected the Ubuntu / Internet combination to open up new worlds for her, like it did me a few years ago.The fact that she's playing solitaire tells me I should be teaching her something but I can't for the life of me think what.

[Bachstelze]

How about you just let her do whatever the heck she wants on her computer?

[QwUo173Hy]

Now Bachstelze, besides being very unfriendly - you're also not understanding my questions. She's new to computers and to a large extent will only discover things that I show her.

[pwnst*r]

How about you just let her do whatever the heck she wants on her computer?

this^

i bought my step dad a new HP last year with 22" monitor dedicated graphics, etc and he can't get enough of solitaire. it's all good - whatever floats his boat!

[lovinglinux]

I don't know about your mother, but mine is on her sixties and I introduced her to the world of computers 2 years ago. I tried to teach several stuff, but it doesn't matter, she only do simple stuff, which is basically watch videos that I upload to her machine, search news and stuff with Google, send/receive e-mails trough GMail and play flash games. Everything is done through the browser, since using the file manager is a little bit too complicated for her.

She loves the computer and says if one day it stops working, she will buy a new one on the same day.

It doesn't matter if she "waste" the technology available to her. Her needs are not the same as mine. It was hard for me to realize that, but eventually I gave up.

[QwUo173Hy]

I don't mind what she does, but I want her to know what's available to her. More importantly, she want's to know.

lovinglinux, that wasn't wasted time showing her all those things. You gave her a choice - which is what I'm trying to do here. It doesn't matter if she settles on just a few of them.

My mother told me that she's found the Irish newspapers online so I'm pretty happy with that. My father has a thing for Google Earth at his work place so I might show her that too. I've found out that some of her friends have Skype, so I might set that up for her too.

[Ms_Angel_D]

You could always help her keep in touch with old friends and family on Facebook, I don't know why but it seems to be becoming very very popular with the Older people these days, even my mother has a facebook account. You can always try Gourmet, to help her organize her recipes, you could even teach her to organize her photo's with f-spot. besides those I'm not really sure..

[houseworkshy]

I think I know what your getting at, using computer to interact with other humans or explore new interests through the wonderful new technologies sort of thing? My own mother is actually quite tech savy but mostly uses the machine to write, just as she previously used a typewriter, pen, pencil. For most people the tech is just a means to an end. Which is how it should be I think. For my familly, all writers, the task is more important than the tool. So maybe playing solitare is on the button for your mother when it comes to relaxing.

Your Mum will already have her interests, the best suggestions you can make are those which help her to further them. Whatever they are anyway. Eg if she is researching, for example, geneiology then programs and sites relating to it.
It's her machine so, bar occasionally suggesting things you think she may find useful and hasn't heard of, just let her get on with it.

I know she has a child so maybe she'd like skype as a way of staying in touch. My Mum thought that one was cool, straight out of 1960's sci-fi and in her own lounge.

It's her machine, help but don't impose.

[bshosey]

The biggest thing to teach her is how to do quality searches on the Internet. That is the most useful asset the computer has. I try to teach people that a couputer allows you to connect to a digital library. Once they realize that they will find other uses for their computer. But let them devlope their own interest at the rate they choose. If you push they will just get frustrated. Once they are frustrated they will use the computer less.

[ElSlunko]

Just solitaire! Boy when I was your age I'd kill for eletronic solitaire. We used to play with leaves and bird leavings to mark the "cards".

[QwUo173Hy]

Thanks Ms_Angel_D. In particular, the Gourmet program might be right up her alley. Also, it had never crossed my mind to tell her that she can store her photos on the computer :) She has a digital camera so that's perfect.

I also don't understand the facebook popularity. But I'm seeing the same thing as you - a lot of my mothers friends are on facebook. I find it very confusing though so I don't think I can teach her without making it sound complicated. Every time I use it it's like I'm figuring it out all over again.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[QwUo173Hy]

The biggest thing to teach her is how to do quality searches on the Internet. That is the most useful asset the computer has. I try to teach people that a couputer allows you to connect to a digital library. Once they realize that they will find other uses for their computer. But let them devlope their own interest at the rate they choose. If you push they will just get frustrated. Once they are frustrated they will use the computer less.

Thank you bshosey, that's very practical.

[QwUo173Hy]

Just solitaire! Boy when I was your age I'd kill for eletronic solitaire. We used to play with leaves and bird leavings to mark the "cards".

ElSlunko, maybe I can make a new Aislerot deck-theme with leaves and bird leavings for you :) I take the point though that what she likes is what she likes. I just want to give her proper exposure and let her make her choices then. She hears everyone talking about how great computers are, some of her friends are in their seventies and are computer addicts!

[QwUo173Hy]

I think I know what your getting at, using computer to interact with other humans or explore new interests through the wonderful new technologies sort of thing? Pretty much. She just wants to know what all the excitement is about I guess. I think I put so much time into the actual install that I forgot about the 'induction' part and just left her to her own devices a little.

Skype is a good one, I'll definitely do that for her. I'll show her the Gramps homepage as she's getting very interested in the extended family now. Great idea. Thanks!

[houseworkshy]

I posted too slowly and hadn't seen "wants to learn". That's differant. The browser and search engines including opperators eg +tutorial +video Should get her started and able to learn independantly. Plus how to install things, not hard in Ubuntu, though maybe leave the command lines and synaptic for later.

[samh785]

My mom does the same thing except she spends her free time playing Cafe World on facebook instead of solitaire.

[QwUo173Hy]

That's okay - I don't think my original post was very clear, given some of the replies. But I think I'll help her a little with the searching, as it seems it leads to everything else. I didn't realize the '+' operators still worked in searching today.

[JoshuaRL]

Think about all the cool stuff that's happened in the past few years, and show her the cream of the crop. Video has been huge, and you've got Youtube and Hulu. She could watch a lot of shows or old movies on there. If she want's to pay a monthly fee, she can use Netflix or even stream movies that way too. For music you can help get her set up to buy music from Amazon, or even just set up accounts for her on Pandora and Last.fm. For games, show her Iango and Sudoku. Old people love those. And you could even show her how to get new applications, so she can try out other games she might be interested in.

[QwUo173Hy]

Wow, yeah! I'd never thought of showing her what commercial offerings are out there. Very cool. I could give her a tour of the Software Center too, as you suggest. Thanks so much.

[gnomeuser]

Install PySol for her and she will have more solitaire games to keep her entertained, let her enjoy the machine. Maybe if she likes card games you could find her one of those fun gaming websites where she could play with other people.

[houseworkshy]

The whole boolian lot work in google. It is also worth mentioning "safe search", don't know her character but be a shame if the er....genre?....of some sites put her off.

[QwUo173Hy]

Thanks gnomeuser, that's a nice suggestion. I'll look for something like that for her.

[houseworkshy]

Yeah media. This one is bound to have something of interest http://www.archive.org/index.php And it's all legally free.

[handy]

Install PySol for her and she will have more solitaire games to keep her entertained, let her enjoy the machine. Maybe if she likes card games you could find her one of those fun gaming websites where she could play with other people.

+1 to that.

I used to always get new computer users into solitaire, as it has the dual function of being not only an addictive game, but the new user is also gaining mouse skills without even being aware of the fact.

[houseworkshy]

+1 to that.

I used to always get new computer users into solitaire, as it has the dual function of being not only an addictive game, but the new user is also gaining mouse skills without even being aware of the fact.

Browsing the archive has the same effect. On the side one is also learning about various media formats and file types, how to use them and what with, downloading, streaming etc etc

[gnomeuser]

On a sidenote, I once read Microsoft originally included Solitaire to encourage people to learn how to use the mouse through a fun and familiar activity.

Today it's still used for this purpose in classes for new users. e.g. here:
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/volunteer/seniorclasses/class1.html

So don't be ashamed that she is using her machine to play a meager game, she is learning how to interact with the computer. Once she is comfortable with the machine, if she so desires she might enjoy exploring the machine and what else it can do.

[QwUo173Hy]

I just had a look at the www.archive.org - what an amazing resource. She'll love it. When she watches TV, she flicks a lot so I'm pretty sure that having the choice available on the internet will be more appealing to her. I'm just watching a documentary on it called La Libération de Paris - fantastic.

I'm with you on the safe search by the way. It's enabled by default but when she gets more up to speed I can explain it to her.

Both of my parents still confuse the google search box on www.google.com with the address bar at the top of the page. It's taking time for them to understand the difference. But I've found they're more interested in what they can do than in the technical details behind it. So they loose interest in anything that get's complicated, so I've set google.com as the browser home-page so that regardless of where they type the web-address or search, they still get a result.

[pwnst*r]

facebook...ugh.. if she goes that route, make SURE you help her with her privacy settings. default is crap.

[QwUo173Hy]

On a sidenote, I once read Microsoft originally included Solitaire to encourage people to learn how to use the mouse through a fun and familiar activity...

So don't be ashamed that she is using her machine to play a meager game, she is learning how to interact with the computer. Once she is comfortable with the machine, if she so desires she might enjoy exploring the machine and what else it can do.

Thanks gnomeuser. I really don't mind if she never goes beyond solitaire. But I know that she sees me as the 'computer genius' in the house - and if I don't introduce her to things, she might assume that solitaire is all there is :)

But there have been so many great replies here. Thanks to everybody for taking the time to improve her experience of technology, and to improve my way of showing it to her.

[QwUo173Hy]

facebook...ugh.. if she goes that route, make SURE you help her with her privacy settings. default is crap.
I belong to that rare group of people who find facebook confusing. I even find twitter confusing, and I did software engineering in college so try to find the sense in that!

I'm not sure that I'll be able to show her facebook, but I might set up an account for her - fix the privacy settings as you suggest and then maybe one of her friends can explain it... to both of us!

[VastOne]

The biggest thing to teach her is how to do quality searches on the Internet. That is the most useful asset the computer has. I try to teach people that a couputer allows you to connect to a digital library. Once they realize that they will find other uses for their computer. But let them devlope their own interest at the rate they choose. If you push they will just get frustrated. Once they are frustrated they will use the computer less.

+ 1

This is my sole mission in teaching nowadays...The more people know the variables of searching google, the less traffic we have and the more learning they will enjoy

[VastOne]

Make sure you setup Exaile and install the Shoutcast plugin and show her how to search for whatever genre she would like and let her have a great listening experience while she is learning~!

[QwUo173Hy]

Oh, that's a good one! She'd love to catch up with her old 60s favorites if possible. Does it have to be Exaile? I would have though rhythmbox would do the job just as well, no?

<edit>okay, I understand now. The shoutcast plugin is for Exaile. That's a great suggestion. She can even do that *while* she's playing solitaire :)
</edit>

[VastOne]

Oh, that's a good one! She'd love to catch up with her old 60s favorites if possible. Does it have to be Exaile? I would have though rhythmbox would do the job just as well, no?

I like exaile for its small footprint and python code and it seems to be the best one to handle Shoutcast. I would have said Banshee but it does not do Shoutcast to well, yet...


Exaile is my preference but you can setup whatever you want

[sailthesea]

Beware!
My Mother started with her first computer 3 years ago at first it was solitaire and the odd email to family then Facebook and she slowly got to grips with things (with very little help from anyone I may add)
This year its been political pressure groups, flashmobbing and organizing the local pensioner activists for March For Climate Justice!
:lolflag:

[handy]

Browsing the archive has the same effect. On the side one is also learning about various media formats and file types, how to use them and what with, downloading, streaming etc etc

Far more complex than playing solitaire, & from my experience, many elderly people are perfectly happy to have a computer just to play a few simple point & click puzzle games.

They very often aren't even interested in using the internet.

Some type a letter, print & post; some get adventurous & handle their digital photos on the computer, but again, for many elderly people that stuff is just stressful & they would rather do without things that they find difficult.

These difficulties only exist due to the physiological deterioration of the brain. It happens much sooner for some than others. You never know your luck as the years roll by...

[VastOne]

Beware!
My Mother started with her first computer 3 years ago at first it was solitaire and the odd email to family then Facebook and she slowly got to grips with things (with very little help from anyone I may add)
This year its been political pressure groups, flashmobbing and organizing the local pensioner activists for March For Climate Justice!
:lolflag:

You should be so proud! And a deep bow to your mother for what she is actively doing!

[sailthesea]

You should be so proud! And a deep bow to your mother for what she is actively doing!

I am, even though it all makes me slightly anxious!:)

[QwUo173Hy]

She'll be logging your keystrokes next LOL. But seriously, well done to her.

[houseworkshy]

Far more complex than playing solitaire, & from my experience, many elderly people are perfectly happy to have a computer just to play a few simple point & click puzzle games.

They very often aren't even interested in using the internet.

Some type a letter print & post & some get adventurous & handle their digital photos on the computer, but again, for many elderly people that stuff is just stressful & they would rather do without things that they find difficult.

These difficulties only exist due to the physiological deterioration of the brain. It happens much sooner for some than others. You never know your luck as the years roll by...

You have a point there, from what has been said I don't think this lady is in that boat yet ( ok with word processors and email). That said one thing that must be avoided is for the teachers enthusiasm to translate into "information overload" for the learner.

I think that the archive should ok as it is really point and click, And the link text is colour coded too. the file associations should take care of that, It would be helpful to put in the restricted extras in for her as seeing the auto installer may be a puzzle if she is alone the first time she sees it. By on the side I didn't mean each new file type should be lectured on. But one will incidentally learn that, for example and depending on connection, that a large file type such as an mpeg1 may stutter if streamed while a small ogg should be ok. Or that clicking on a pdf will open one application while a .txt will open another. Whether to open or to download is only a matter of which mouse button to press.

It is a good point in general though. I don't know but think it likely that more people are put off things by enthusiasts pushing too hard for the capability or interest of their audiences than anything else.

[Chris Edgell]

I'm thinking maybe it's time you had "the talk" with her. It can all be done with much humor and great fun.

Here's my approach, "Mom, I think we need to have a little talk. There are things you know and there are things you may not know, things you haven't learned with your girl-friends. Now I'm not sure what you know and what you don't know so let me tell you some basic stuff and try not to be put off if I am over simplyfing something you already know."

And then proceed to explain and show her how to navigate through the nuts and bolts (to mix metaphors) of things like paypal, how to order a book from Amazon or even how to find stores that interest her. Show her how to tell if trying some new game costs money, what is safe to download, what she can try with no risk costing money. Many people are afraid to express their fears and their seemingly childish inability to understand something that looks simple.

Have her keep a notebook of questions that come up, sites where she didn't understand what exactly they wanted to register, to retype those codes, etc. See if you can transact some business on line with her...you didn't say how old she is, (at least I don't remember reading it) but empower her for business transactions; many people are afraid of identity theft, tell her about what's safe and what's not.

Very important! Teach her how to make folders and all, how to keep her favorites organized, how to get back to what interests her. Blogs, news sites, information (like snopes, etc), I hope her computer has a great favorites system as mine does!!!

So you see, teach her to swim in these waters, then she can have her beach outings on her own.

Teach her how to make screenshots, (gee all of a sudden I myself am wondering if I can attach a screenshot on an email); if so have her email you and describe a situation she's come upon. Show her how to find the worlds of information on YouTube.

That's all I think of right now. Let us know how it goes! You sound like a real nice son.

[handy]

Something that I found to be critically important when teaching a new computer user how to do anything, is to have them be the one sitting in front of the computer, doing ALL of the keyboard & mouse work.

It is much slower than if you zip through & show them things, but they remember next to nothing when someone else is showing them all of this alien stuff. Because its alien, it makes it so hard to find anything to connect it with in their brains, so it just mostly gets lost.

If the person gets their hands involved & they are the ones being instructed to move the mouse & click the buttons, they have just incorporated other parts of the brain into the process, which helps the memory, & they are actually doing it at their speed.

Making some useful point style notes on a pad beside the computer describing how-to for various tasks is hugely helpful also.

I also used to ask them to write down questions they had on a note pad, for next time I saw them, or they could phone me if it was urgent.

[Raian the Fallen]

My mother and all of her friends play Pogo (http://www.clubpogo.com/).

You should show it to her- she might like it. xD

[earthpigg]

My mother and all of her friends play Pogo (http://www.clubpogo.com/).

You should show it to her- she might like it. xD

ha! my mom spends lots o time at pogo, too.



and +500 to the folks above that suggested teaching her how to get the most out of a search engine.

[QwUo173Hy]

Pogo looks like a website with lots of games. Is there a game in particular there I should look at?

[Ms_Angel_D]

Pogo looks like a website with lots of games. Is there a game in particular there I should look at?

Just find out what your mom likes and look at those, Turbo 21 if she's into cards.

[El_Shrander]

Is your mom into cooking? Or does she have any other hobbies? Maybe you could find a nice forum on the topic for her, one where she can interact with other people, load pictures, share tips... it might be challenging at the start, but it also might be a way of scratching the surface of Internet's possibilities past your basic flash games.

Skype is definitely a must if she has any relatives abroad: speakers, mic, cam... understanding and operating those simple peripherals might help her understand her computer a little bit better.

Or, for instance, my wife's grandpa is really into family trees. He is also 80. He wouldn't know where to start looking, but every time we sit together and I guide him through the different search engines he has the time of his life while we build up a family tree that now reaches back as far as 1748.

Sweet post, in any case, and very thoughtful - hopefully one day my own child will take the time to teach me how to make the best of the technology that will be definitely commonplace for him and possibly too advanced for me.

[houseworkshy]

Another thing which is useful is to plug small amounts of new knowledge into the wealth of old knowledge

I'll clarify by anecdote. My own mother was a copy taker so has good typing skills. When word processors came along she just switched and when she retired continued to use them daily as her hobby is writing. Windows was frequently getting ill and work had been lost several times. The remedies and anti-malware programs were so alien to what she knew and complicated that she asked me to set up a duel boot system. I'd raved about Ubuntu and she had seen it run from the CD already. This meant switching to open office. Formats, pagination, style sheets etc. is fairly complex stuff yet it was all in the area of old knowledge so presented no problem whatsoever.. She could use it in a basic way instantly and had writer jumping through any hoop she wanted within days.

Then She got a new mobile phone which could take pictures. That , despite being simpler than the inner gubbins of a full featured word processor, was difficult for Mum because it was unfamiliar. Part of the problem was that it seemed to have been made for an small handed elf with good eye sight, she's changed models since. That's an aside, it's what we had at the time and could be set to >push up arrow > press centre button, and you're in the camera mode> press centre button again and you've taken a photo, press again and it's saved. Even that took practice to make the knowledge stick. So what we did was to take an afternoon walk through the local park and take photos. Then we went back and I back seat drove her through the process of putting them on the drive. I agree with what Hardy said earlier that the learner has to be the one physically engaged with the machine Once they were there, attaching them to emails ( exactly the same as attaching documents which she knew ) was easy. Importing them to documents was something she hadn't done before but no problem as she knew the application and was simply playing with another tool inside it. We used the default image opener to browse the photo's and while we were there I showed her how to set an image as a desktop back ground. She liked that so then we had a browse around the net, which is old knowledge for Mum again, and grabbed a few pics of crop circles ( one of Mums' interests) and learned the right click to “save image as”. We actually and ended up with the andromida nebula as the desktop background because we got distracted by NASA.

It was fun and Mum is now ok with taking or downloading and putting photo's on the machine and a few simple ways of using them once they're there. But the thing that I think helped was that it was just a few new things attached to a lot of old things. Technically I was teaching her but really we were playing with Mum's new toy ( the mobile ) and that light mood also helped. It wasn't too much either, more would have been. We've had sessions since, with Skype, so she can use that too now. Trawling the net for videos of UFOs, another interest, and on the side she learns the basics of downloading or streaming video. My Mums in her late seventies now and, only a few months into using Ubuntu, so comfortable with the GNOME desktop that She tells me as soon as she gets rid of the cannon printer in favour of an HP one she wants XP off the system altogether, this She decided browsing for herself after I'd failed to make it work for her.

So that's what I mean by a small amount of new tied in to a lot of old. Seems to have worked for my own Mum.

[Chris Edgell]

Great post, houseworkshy!

(Also great name LOL)

[LeifAndersen]

Teach her to play gnomines, or minesweeper, or whatever it's called. I love that game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHY8NKj3RKs

[Pastor_JW]

Really all she really wants is to not be "shut out". Moms enjoy being involved in YOUR life! My mom loves e-mail as it keeps her in touch with her sister and her other children. She also likes spider and KMahjongg but staying "in the loop" is her main interest. She has noticed that as she gets older, less people come to see her. A computer is perhaps poor company but at least it is some company!

[peter d]

Whatever she chooses to do on her laptop needs to be relevant to her. I have lots of woodworking tools in my shed, but I mostly I only use a screwdriver and a hammer. Just occasionally I use a saw. I very rarely use a plane or a chisel. If I needed to I would.

A computer is a tool. I helps with tasks we need to do. that's its value. When she needs to do something else I'm sure she will. Then you can teach her. Teaching to do something she doesn't need to do, just because the computer can is madness. It's no use to her.

Give her time. She'll find more things she wants to do.

[QwUo173Hy]

I don't really agree with that one peter d. That rationale is fine when you already have *awareness* of the tools - but if nobody told you that a plane existed, you might dream about it and think 'if I were a blacksmith I'd invent one of those to make my woodworking life easier'.

Tools are for productivity. But when someone has an appetite to discover a new world and interact with it and even express themselves through it (adjusting a nd publishing pictures for example), I think we go beyond tools to 'do a job'.

I agree with you that there's no point teaching her something she's not interested in. But she doesn't 'need' any of this stuff, and exposure is a different thing to teaching.

Thanks for the ideas!

[QwUo173Hy]

handy, the notebook is a great idea. I got a nice Ubuntu sticker from a Loco too so I can put that on the cover to make it dedicated ;)

I also agree completely with putting them in front of the computer. "See, and I forget. Hear, and I remember. Do, and I understand"

El_Shrander, I've mentioned Gramps and Gourmet to her and she's excited at the idea. I'll install them on my own machine first and spend time with them. I haven't figured out Gourmet yet but she's hoping she can type in the contents of her cupboard and have a recipe suggested - that would be cool!

Houseworkshy, that's great advice, thank you. She's got the hang of youtube and searching in general now and from OpenOffice and other programs, she's becoming familiar with interfaces. She Skyped her relations today, it was great to see :)

Pastor_JW, I agree that the aspects that connect her to other people are the most popular with her.

[VastOne]

I am glad I found this post as I may have/had become jaded at the posts that I was seeing or maybe I was just bored with seeing all the same things over and over.

This post has done two things for me, first in showing the great care and value in teaching the ones you love.

Second is seeing us as a community reaching out to someone new without sniping (except for 2nd post) and freely giving our experiences and genuine help.

Happy new year to all and I know for one I will resolve to follow the scope of this thread and try to see everyone needing help as this young man's mother starting fresh.

[Chris Edgell]

I just loved reading your post and wanted to say so.

I also liked having people thinking about how the truly new computer user can be seeing the world. (Count me in that group too). I have had a hard time with some simple things and I loved seeing approaches to expansions of the mind and the world around us.

[cprofitt]

I suggest showing your mother how to connect to W.O.P.R. and ask to play Global Thermal Nuclear War.



http://colonialvigor.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/wargames.jpg

[spupy]

* deleted *

[QwUo173Hy]

Thanks for the suggestion cprofitt - I want to connect her with people, and the FBI are certainly people.

[cprofitt]

for 'safe' people engagement -- Facebook or Twitter could be interesting.

[QwUo173Hy]

Twitter might be an easy one to get her into the social networking thing actually. It seems easier than Facebook to use. I'll try to see if there's anyone in the media or other publicy facing people who she could follow on twitter.

This is fantasy, but how cool would it be if your mother fragged somebody on Alien Arena :) It wouldn't surprise me - she wasn't welcome in the local pub as a young girl because she beat all the men at darts. :D