John's Tech Tips

John Seyfarth - Sump Memorial Library, Papillion

Grants – LSTA and Otherwise

I just finished talking to one of the library directors about applying for a grant for computers in her library to enable her to hold classes for her patrons to become familiar and at least fairly competent and familiar with interacting with computers. I asked her if she had a digital camera and she answered in the affirmative.

I have written a number of grants over the years since working with education in the mid-nineties, and working in the library environment since the late nineties. One of the things I have learned is that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” My personal experience has been that with technology grants, and a close associate of mine during my early days in education told me to make sure you have some illustrations, diagrams, and better yet some pictures of what you want to do. This observation came as I was doing some inquiries about a technology grant that I was working on with two media specialists to enhance their services to students. So, working with these two media specialists at separate elementary schools, I had my trusty 35MM camera (no digital cameras back then), and at each place we cut out some mock-ups of where the computers would go that we were putting in for, and took some pictures of the cut outs in the proper places ( we cut out mockups of the computers, keyboards, mice, and the printer involved ). The librarians wrote out a detailed description of what they wanted, and we had photos to support it, and by golly, both were approved! Of course back in those days, we had to develop and print the film. At this time, digital cameras and word processors enable anyone to just incorporate their pictures right in the application.

Back to the case in the first paragraph. I asked her to cut out some mockups and take pictures to better demonstrate what she wanted to do. Her target audience was older people (like me) that had never worked with computers. She said that she needed to use laptops because of the storage problem in her facility. I suggested to her that she may want to purchase normal size USB keyboards and mice to make the eye hand coordination easier, since the keyboard and mouse pads on laptops are both crowded, and unless you are used to them, making it difficult to learn the eye-hand coordination techniques. I also suggested to her that she might want to use Windows Solitaire as a means of teaching mouse skills, since it involves dragging and dropping, and I had had such good luck with teaching older adults with it. When I saw what she had produced, I really felt confident that she would be successful. I don't know the result yet, but based on my experiences since the work I did with the two media specialist above, the methodology has been successful a number of times in obtaining grant money.

Speaking of teaching older adults . . .

I also run a course on Basic Computing every other month to help older adults learn to interact with the machines. A couple of observations that I have learned, since I have been teaching the class for the last eight years are

  • I “break the ice” with them in the first class by first providing and overview of the class.
    • In our class here at the Sump Library, we start by looking inside a computer and letting the class handle hard drives (old), floppies, CDs, memory and a motherboard.
    • This helps them overcome their fears that “I afraid I might break it!”
  • Secondly, I briefly provide an overview of what we are going to go over.
    • In our classes here, we start with the explanation of the hardware, and then talk about the similarities and differences between a typewriter and a computer keyboard (I usually make the connection that a computer is a typewriter “on steroids.”), and I explain some of the really handy things that are possible vs. a typewriter. If they don't know how to type, (about 85% know how) I suggest that one of my machines has a typing program to tune-up their typing skills, and invite them to work with it.
  • I usually go over a little about Windows and concept of operating systems being the environment in which computer programs are written and used.
  • Then I ask them if they know how to play Solitaire (90% do), and I get them into that for most of the rest of first session to tune up their mouse skills.
  • I take questions, and afterward tell them that the second session next week will cover basic word processing and the Internet, and invite them to return to the lab for more practice with Solitaire prior to the next session.
  • The second week, I ask how they are doing with the mouse, and then spend about five minutes letting them play Solitaire, and then start them with basic word processing. The objective is to get them to type something, save it, print it, close the program, open the program and then retrieve the document they typed.
  • The other thing we do is spend about 40 minutes with basic browsing skills on the Internet (launch the program, explain the address line, Internet addressing, navigation tools and a little on basic searching). At the end, there are again questions, and hopefully, they have a few basic skills to help them work with a computer. I always give them my business card, and invite them to call me with any questions. I don't get a huge quantity of calls, but they really appreciate the ability to get some support. Usually, about half or a few more subsequently come back for more instruction on word processing, the Internet, or digital imaging.

A Small Follow-up on Firefox

I am still an enthusiastic advocate of Mozilla's Firefox browser, but there is a new version, 1.5 that has come out and has quite a few new enhancements. Firefox always has very fast response to detected security problems, and usually has a corrected new version on the web the next day. It takes Microsoft sometimes months to correct security problems with their browser. Version 1.5 is even faster then the earlier 1.0.X versions, and does an even better job of blocking pop-ups, spyware, and ad-ware. Further, it is the first browser to meet federal requirements for physically disabled persons. It is highly recommended, and don't forget about the great tabbed browsing capabilities explained in the winter 2005 issue.

Alternative Office Software

About a month ago, Sun Microsystems upgraded their very powerful free office suite, OpenOffice.org 2.0 . If you don't have the money to purchase MS Office software, OpenOffice 2.0 will do the trick with its MS Word ® like Writer , MS Excel ® like Calc and its MS PowerPoint ® like Impress . The files that these applications produce will work in their Microsoft counterparts and vice versa. Further, unlike MS Office®, OpenOffice can save files in Adobe Reader® .pdf format, without any further software installed.

Alternative Software to Convert Documents to .pdf Format

I just came across this looking to help someone who wanted to convert a MS Publisher® file to .pdf format. You can go on-line and Adobe will convert a file to .pdf for you, but there is a privacy issue, in my opinion. You can purchase Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Standard for $149.00 to have this capability. But I just discovered a free solution on the Internet. You go to http://www.pdf995.com/download.html and download the free Pdf995 Printer Driver and the free Converter and install them on your machine. Then, when you have a file that you want to convert to .pdf, just click on Print, go to the PDF995 printer and print, and the file will be converted, ask you where you want to save it, and bring the converted file up in Adobe Reader. I have tested it with several files, including Word, Publisher, Excel, and etc, and it works great, and the price is right—free. If you don't want to see the ads when you print, you can send $9.95 to get a key that enables you to use the software without ads. The site has several other utilities available to deal with .pdf files, but this is the ticket for free production of .pdf files on your computer.