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How long do you teach Technology Access Training?

With all the updates and new technology, when do you end the lessons? We have seniors who don't want the instructors to stop teaching them - saying they need to learn the new technology.

There must be a time to stop. Perhaps we need to tighten up the goals, find out what they want from the new technology, teach concepts so they can do the newest on their own, record lessons so they can practice - other ideas?

How are you handling the technology lessons as far as time and number of lessons are concerned?

 

Comments

Bill Tomlin's picture

Submitted by Bill Tomlin on August 29, 2018 - 3:13pm
Kay, you bring up an interesting point with the limited resources of time and money that our older blind programs have across the country and the frequency of changes in technology, how do you keep up? My opinion is that teaching the process of how do adapt to changes is key. If you attempt to keep up with every update, new piece of technology, and new app, you will not have time to do anything else. It will be interesting to see how your peers are addressing this issue.
Steve Kelley's picture

Submitted by Steve Kelley on October 23, 2018 - 8:22pm
Bill and Kay, this is a great topic that will continue to come up again and again, and I personally find a challenge in my daily work with clients. The professional answer is that as VRTs or CATIS we are teaching accessibility and accessibility features, not necessarily computer/tablet/phone basics. The basics you might learn from community Adult Ed or manufacturer support. The reality, however, is much different. With each upgrade to the device, there may be glitches in the accessibility, and not all support personnel know the accessibility available on their devices. As Apple rolled out iOS 8 and 9 it was almost a guarantee that clients using Apple devices would be calling, because the accessibility was breaking at times. Some of this has improved with Apple Accessibility and Microsoft's Accessibility numbers--users can call and get decent phone support with accessibility features. It is far from perfect, and there is increasing scrutiny about the time spent with clients on tech and their ability to use it independently. Thank you both for the topic-- I look forward to hearing from other consumers and professionals on this topic! Steve Kelley CVRT, Iris Network, Portland ME
Holly Kaczmarski's picture

Submitted by Holly Kaczmarski on November 15, 2018 - 12:57pm
I am limited to three visits with each client which is not enough time and I think more like a dozen visits for each client would be more reasonable to teach them to learn to use the new technologies. Many of them are still working and need to keep up to speed with the current new technology out there. Unfortunately we are limited as to the number of times we can help them.