Back to School with Grand parents

 News reports of the spurt in cyber crimes and more importantly more of senior citizens falling victims to the lures of cyber criminals were a matter of concern and was more disturbing the mind than the other mundane news updates over tons of news reels and endless 'Breaking News'. Whenever a cyber crime occurs, it hogs the headlines for a few minutes and then everyone move on - be it media or common man. Not sure how many dwell deeper to analyze what would have happened if their own aged parents were conned ordering a dinner or medicines over online or trying to make payment for tele consultation to the doctors. The wards , lounging on the sands of Florida beach or Bondi , though concerned, find themselves helpless, and mostly do nothing more than asking them to be careful. 

Well, is that enough- will you allow your child to cross a busy road, just after advising him to be careful? Will you not go with them, walk the path going through and explaining different colors of signal lights, interpret the road sign, identify the place for the pedestrians to cross  and at times even follow them without their knowledge just to get reassured that they can be on their own ? How many of the children do the same to their aged parents in walking the digital path ? All they do is to buy a costly tablet or laptop before emplaning for their dream land , more with an intent to continue to keep connecting with them rather than expecting them to make eCommerce transactions with their new toy. Then why cry over the spilt milk when they become cyber victims when you could have spent some time to atleast brief them about the Don'ts than the Do's?

Beyond these disturbing musing and sermon , I was wondering what more I could do , unlike their wards, and help these to stay safe on the cyber shores. I did not want to stop with cautions and remembered that a hungry person will be served better to be taught a lesson on fishing which could bring a permanent solution to his travails, rather than a piece of fish to satisfy his immediate need. 

Wanting to take one step further above the statutory precautions, I connected to my senior friends and pat came the response of about 150 topics that need support , which included 'how to connect to internet',  'what is anti virus' and 'how to create safe password' !! On analyzing the responses it was clear that the seniors lack basic computer operating knowledge and it is no surprise that they were sitting ducks for cyber criminals. It is only because they confine to attending online sloka sessions over Skype and Google Meet they have not yet fallen victims and those who venture crossing that Lakshman Reka are waiting to be gobbled up by the lurking Ravanas of the cyber land!

Deciding to impart some basic computer operating skills I threw my offer far and wide through my contacts and was surprised to receive more than 100 registration for few free sessions on 'Basic Computer Operating Skills'.  90% of the registrants were senior citizens including some super seniors above 80 years and their enthusiasm to learn was infectious. Though almost all of  them were well educated , held very senior positions like General Manager and Vice President in organizations, their lack of computers could be more attributed to the late introduction of computers when they were into the higher cadres of their career, than their attitude. 

Being aware of this, I designed a simple curriculum similar to that of lower KG for these senior citizens including how to operate the mouse and where the critical keys of Ctrl, Alt and Del situated on their keyboard. I followed every session  with a set of practice exercise and being aware of their feeble memory retention, supplemented every exercise with a simple five minutes video and this, I feel, made their understanding better.

It was a pleasant surprise that each of the six session over Google meet was attended by 50+ seniors,  33 of them attended all the sessions and one senior took the class on her mobile when she was waiting at a clinic for Doctor consultation - I could not help applaud their tenacity ! I was stunned that  three 80+ people never missed a session and were prompt in completing the exercises. It was hard for me to take my eyes out of the participants attendance analysis, shared here!

And thanks to improved communication channels available people could participate from places like Vadodara, Trichy, Tanjore, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mayiladuthurai, Pondicherry, Pune, Coimbatore, San Jose, Austin and Virginia with a large chunk from Chennai, despite differing time zones !!

Can we also revisit our claim that parents are too old to be computer savvy and our attempts to escape our own missed duty of educating them, as they did to us when we repeatedly tripped in our effort to walk- Time for kids away from India to think and act !

I have been imparting computer skills since 1986 to a variety of audience including very senior Government officials, Top Police officials who later retired as Director General, Senior Bank Executives , Professionals and also college students.  During this near four decades , I have never had a better satisfaction of serving and it was truly gratifying to receive grateful acknowledgements from such elders. And in their feedback, when people commented that they can now open their system more confidently, I feel my day was made ! 

Interaction with elders, in progress

As for me, this is my Magnum Opus, of my passion for teaching - of taking 70 year old seniors again back to class rooms and make them do exercise, not by force or cane, but by supporting their initiative to learn and make them smile out of glee of achieving it. My late brother who was a Math professor used to say that teaching is one of the few professions that provide ultimate satisfaction and it took me this long to understand his claim.                                                                                                              

I have also heard that there is more joy in giving rather than taking and this was the day, when I came face to face with experiencing that. Gratefully acknowledging the Goddess of Education for having provided me with an opportunity , I remain.