Please - GIVE THEM WRITTEN DIRECTIONS to use until they are comfortable. Walk them through the process of sending and receiving an email. You want them to use it, not necessarily understand how it works at the beginning. Program in email addresses for everyone they want to contact. I thought my dad was going to have a heart attack when he got his first porno email. Write down email addresses and passwords. Make it an easy to remember and secure address such as j.doe iCloud is going to keep them safe and it is reliable.
#Learn to use a mac how to#
They don’t need to know how to set one up the first day out of the box. Sometimes it is hard to erase those preconceived ideas.Ĭreate an email address that is easy to remember and set it up for them. People of my parents generation still considered long distance calling to be expensive and to be used only in emergencies long after it became a routine part of phone plans. My dad was suddenly able to contact all his children and grandchildren. Most elderly users will love email once they can use it. By the time the student is comfortable with a game they enjoy, they have learned how to turn on the device, open the game, move the mouse (or a finger), and play the game without worrying about all they have to learn.Įmail. By games, I mean Solitaire and other kinds of apps that mirror what my parents grew up with. When my father was in his 80’s I taught him how to enjoy a Mac. You didn’t learn it all once, why should some one else? Everything else can be fixed.ĭon’t Try To Teach Too Much At One Time. Technology is not something that is familiar to many elderly people and their biggest fear is that they will break "this expensive piece of equipment." I always tell older students that the only way they can truly break it is to throw it out the window or hit it with a hammer.
I don’t care of they have raised six kids who all turned out perfectly or if they ran a business. Understand They They Will Probably Fear The Thing. And for heavens sake, let them do the tasks themselves. Here are my suggestions for helping elderly users learn how to use their Macs, iPhones, and iPads, in no specific order.įigure Out How They Learn Best.
#Learn to use a mac manual#
We have all this stuff taking up room in our heads, like black and white TV, and phone party lines, and manual typewriters, and even cloth diapers. Those of us who are older will never catch up with them.
#Learn to use a mac tv#
Or the two year old who knows how to switch the TV settings to Apple TV and then select a program to watch.īut I digress. Or the five year old who taught his father how to work his iPad. Since it is holiday time, may I make a few suggestions to help if you plan to give a Mac or iOS device to a first time user who is elderly? Never mind the kids, they seem to be born now days asking for an iPad which they somehow seem to already know how to use.Įxample, the three year old who accompanied her mother to work and used her iPad to place a Facetime call to her grandmother because she was bored.