Sadie Floyd works on her computer skills with Kerrin Duggan at the People’s Place Library Feb. 8. (Richard MacKenzie photo)

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Instilling “confidence.” That is what Kerrin Duggan sees as the biggest benefit to a five-week computer course she has been conducting at the People’s Place Library.
The course was originally put-together for seniors but Duggan, a Community Access Program (CAP) trainer with the Pictou Antigonish Regional Library (PARL) in Antigonish, noted it has become more of a basic computer skills course with a focus on internet applications.
“It’s going really well, I’ve definitely seen a lot of progress,” Duggan said last Wednesday (Feb. afternoon following a session.
Duggan said participants range in age from 50 to 80 and there are two groups, both with sessions on Wednesdays.
Duggan said gaining confidence means those involved with feel comfortable to do more exploring on the computer and, in-turn, teach themselves.
“I know a lot of them are feeling more confident because I see them come in to use the computers or I’ll see them do things on their own… beyond our sessions.” she said, gesturing to the many public accessible computers in the middle of the library.
Breaking the course down by week, Duggan said the first week is going over the basic parts of a computer such as looking at the keyboard.
Week two moves into looking at search engine sites on the internet such as Google and the popular video site YouTube.
Week three is learning about email, week four is about Skype and the fifth and final week is a wrap-up of everything covered with a lot of time for questions.
Duggan said the email and Skype sessions are important to seniors who find, more and more, they are the perferred methods to stay connected with adult children and grandchildren who live outside the area.
Learning about YouTube is popular as well because for a lot of those taking the course, it’s something they have often heard about but didn’t know exactly how to access.
“They just find it so interesting to see all this new stuff,” Duggan said.
While the current five-week course is just about completed, Duggan said with continued interest it will continue and she encourages anyone looking for basic computer skills to visit or call the library.
She added they will likely continue the Wednesday afternoon time slots because there seems to be a lot of space available during those periods.