Computer Literacy Skills for Adult Students

Returning to school? School supplies are not what they used to be. In the olden days, we picked up pencils, pens, a spiral notebook and a slide rule. Today, you will need a computer and an internet hookup. Not only that, but you will need to know how to navigate cyberspace!

Kids learn computer skills in kindergarten these days. Preschoolers practice the ABCs on a keyboard. These tykes can point and click and zap circles around the rest of us. Elementary kids are engineering their own websites!

What computer skills do grownups need nowadays to keep up in school?

Word Processing Wizardry

Adult education usually involves a fair amount of writing (and typing). Coursework may include essays, journals, book reports and even term papers. To complete these requirements, you will need to master basic word processing skills. Creating and saving a document file, using a mouse to manipulate type, and keyboard skills are essential. Learning to save a file to a disk or portable drive will be helpful. Locating that file, after you have stored it, is important. Undoubtedly, you will have to print your documents to turn in homework assignments.

Online Communications

Quite likely, teachers and professors will employ electronic mail to communicate efficiently with their students. You will need to know how to create and send e-mail messages, as well as how to open and read those sent to you.

Opening file attachments and storing them to your own computer is important too. You may need to send file attachments, as coursework may be submitted this way.

Instant-messaging know-how and chat-room etiquette are essential school skills. Today's professors and teaching assistants often conduct discussion groups online.

Using your cell-phone, you will want to understand text-messaging. You never know when an instructor might schedule an impromptu study session or cancel a class!

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