How to Teach a Parent to Use a Computer

Once your parent has mastered the basics of their computer it is time to move on to the Internet.

The first thing that you will need to do is to explain to your parent what the Internet is. If you are a little sketchy on that yourself, then try using the following definition:

The Internet is basically a group of computers that are all connected, or networked together. Through this connection they are able to share information with each other. You sign up with an ISP, or Internet Service Provider, in order to be able to connect to these other computers. An example of an ISP might be AOL or your local telephone or cable company.

Now that you have explained the definition of the Internet, you can move on to some other basic terms such as "web address." Remember to take it slow, and start them off with some addresses that they might be familiar with. Ask your parent if he or she knows of any web site addresses. Most people have seen one or two on television, most notably eBay.

Once you talk a little about what constitutes a web address you need to show your parent how to access the web browser. I will sometimes rename the icon for their web browser to something that they understand better. Usually something like "Click Here for Internet."

After you open the browser you need to show your parent the address bar. Explain to them that this is where they type in the website address. From here you can review the back button and so on. Now is also a good time to show your parent the "favorites" menu and explain how they can use it to save frequently used website addresses.

It might be a good idea to make them a screen shot of their browser with little reminders about what each button does (see figure 1).

One of the first web sites that I like to teach a parent about is a search engine. More times than not your parent is not going to have a web site address for where they want to go, but they will know the name of the company.

Another important thing to cover is navigating a web page. You will need to teach your parent how to recognize a link and how you use a menu. These things seem like second nature to you and I, but to someone who has never used the web before it can be very confusing.