Shared from the 8/19/2016 The Advocate eEdition

Novices learn to navigate web

Library’s courses provide help in updating skills

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Michael Cummo / Hearst Connecticut Media

Cindy Gruenfelder, of Rye Brook, N.Y., looks at the various options on the Google home page Thursday during a beginner Internet class at the main branch of the Ferguson Library in downtown Stamford.

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Michael Cummo / Hearst Connecticut Media

Sofiya Reyfel, of Stamford, left, helps Pat Oberbeck, of Greenwich, find a website listed on the projector screen during a class on use of the internet and email at the Ferguson Library in downtown Stamford on Thursday.

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Students take part in the class for adults on the internet and email at the Ferguson Library in Stamford.

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Sofiya Reyfel of Stamford, center, listens to instructor Sophia-Louisa Michalatos during the internet and email class at the Ferguson Library.

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Suet Choi, of Stamford, listens intently during a beginners internet and email class at the main branch of the Ferguson Library Stamford.

STAMFORD — While new technology comes easily enough to many of us, there are still some who get overwhelmed just thinking about web browsers and email.

“It’s horrible when you don’t know how to do something,” said Pat Oberbeck, a retired travel agent from Greenwich who declined to share her age. It has been 12 years, she said, since her job required sitting at a computer screen.

This week, she found herself back in front of one at a Ferguson Library class focused on email and internet basics. The session was one in a series of classes the library offers to those looking to develop or brush up on their computer skills.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” Oberbeck said, laughing. Through red-rimmed glasses, she studied the screen of an Acer laptop and followed the teacher’s instructions. In a few minutes, she was able to launch Mozilla Firefox and navigate to Google.

“Years ago, a man came to our travel agency and he said, ‘I’m going to tell you something: If your office is not on the computer, you might as well lock your door,’ ” she recalled. “Boy, was he right.”

In their skills deficit, Oberbeck and her classmates are not alone. A Pew Research Center study in 2015 found that 15 percent of Americans still do not use the Internet for a variety of reasons — either they had no interest, could not afford a computer or found it too difficult. Most were seniors whose jobs may not have required learning computer skills.

“It confuses me and I get crazy,” said Cindy Gruenfelder, a Rye Brook, N.Y., resident and former New York City public school teacher whose job did not require that she master the web.

The skills class, which the Ferguson Library offers at its main branch at Bedford and Broad, drew 12 students Thursday who spanned ages and backgrounds.

Megha Khandelwal, 28, moved to Stamford six months ago from India. Khandelwal said she did not understand email despite having it set up on her smartphone.

“I don’t use email; I only have an email address,” she said, before leaving the class halfway through.

While they’re unfamiliar with computers, many in the class said they have smartphones or tablets. Oberbeck said she uses her phone with the help of her grandchildren — ages 5 and 8 — and turns to her tablet for recipes.

“Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” she said.

The class was attended by women, with the exception of David Fine, who at 64 decided it was time to embrace the technology he had shunned for years.

“I realized that the computer opens a lot of doors to almost endless worlds,” he said. “It’s a completely different thing than I thought it would be.”

The class was led by Sophia-Louisa Michalatos, who defined the “world wide web” and the difference between “.com” and “.org” addresses.

Near the projector she used to demonstrate web browsing sat a 3D printer — one of today’s cutting-edge technologies — used in other library classes.

Michalatos stressed there’s nothing wrong with needing to practice the basics before taking an advanced class.

“It’s like if you went into sixth grade without grades 1 through 5,” she said.

At one point, Michalatos asked how many in the class used email. Three people raised their hands. She assured them all they would have an email address by the end of the class.

“You have to start at A to get to Z,” she said. eskalka@scni.com

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