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Teaching the elderly tech skills

KO896

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What tricks do you have to teach the elderly tech skills, and not only teach it, but retain what they learn?

My dad calls me once a month for the same thing. He has a file to send and can't remember how to do it. I've tried to get him to write down the steps, but he insists he remembers and then I get the phone call anyway.
 
My dad calls me once a month for the same thing.

I've taught my mom, who is in her early 60's, a few tricks over the years. My grandma on the other hand is unteachable when it comes to computers. She can't tell the differences between a tablet, or a mac, or a windows pc.

I can only do windows pc and grew up taking classes in school on how to use one. In the past, my grandma has called me over to her house saying that it was a pc only to hand me an Ipad wanting me to fix it several times when I've told her I don't do Apple or know anything about. That was pretty frustrating when being called over there for the same damn thing. My mom is an expert with apple products and I told my grandma for the umpteenth time before she finally got the hint. She asked me if I could try with it anyway and I said "no". I told her again, "I don't like Apple products. I don't know how to mess with them because I've never had any of their products. The ones I have messed with are a pain in the ass. Nope, call my mom, she'll deal with it."
 
I have been lucky that my mum, dad and grandma are all pretty tech savvy and as much as they do on odd occasions need help, they always seemed to get it the first time I showed them and learned pretty quickly.

Unfortunately, my dad who was recently diagnosed with dementia can no longer use the internet or his laptop anymore which is a shame as he was always using his PC and the internet for both personal and work purposes.
 
I failed to teach my mother how to use her mobile phone before. She does not care about the features and only learns how to make and receive calls. On the other hand, my father is very into learning the technical part of it.
 
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