Corporations spend a great deal of time and money training their employees how to work the office computers. But when it’s a personal computer and it’s sitting at your home with its bottomless pit of myteries, God help you.
God, that is, and the small Lake County corps of helpers stepping into the void to coach PC users through territory where, it seems, no man has gone before.
David Roeser, sales manager of Productivity Point International in Deerfield, provides computer training for local and international businesses. But on the homefront, he sees a great need for coaches to guide home users, no matter what their age.
Roeser recently bought his 60-year-old mother a computer.
“She never used a PC in her life,” he said, but she had a son to teach her. “Now we communicate four times a week through e-mail.”
David Cohn of Cohn & Associates, his training business in Buffalo Grove, has seen the personal side of computer training take off in the last few years.
“It’s become more popular for people at home recently,” he said. “I think it started first with people who had home-based businesses, and now I think it’s people who have a computer and want to know what to do with it.
“A little bit of basic knowledge goes a long way. If you can spend a little money, you can learn a lot quicker.”
Personal computer coaches come in all shapes and sizes, from full-time professionals available for technological relief day or night to moonlighters available only on nights and weekends. The more accessible the coach, both on the phone and in person, the steeper the fee.
According to Cohn, 43, his $80-per-hour fee, discounted to $60 on evenings and weekends, correlates with trainer expertise. In the last seven years, Cohn has contracted with 36 trainers to meet the computer literacy needs of his PC clients on a one-to-one basis.
“We use computer coaches who have experience doing what they do best, . . . who are familiar with using a program out in the `real world’ and can teach you shortcuts and ways to use this program to your best advantage.”
Cohn’s trainers coach about 12 novice PC users per month.
His favorite story involves a 78-year-old grandfather who baby-sat his 8-year-old grandson: “He just wanted to know everything he could so he could keep up with his grandson. He was just like a sponge, soaking up as much information as I could throw at him. He totally disproved the theory that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
Although computer coaches in general can walk a person through the steps of buying an IBM or Macintosh computer and software, each trainer has his own preferences and expertise.
Evan Hill of Buffalo Grove is a self-employed graphic-design artist well versed in the Mac, or Macintosh. On nights and weekends, he traverses Lake County as a representative of Personal Computer Instructional Services Inc., based in Des Plaines, teaching home PC users what he once taught himself.
Hill, 29, has worked with more than 50 clients in the last three years, either in a one-shot three-hour tutorial or a two- or three-session series.
“Most people find it too overwhelming to sit down and read the manuals. . . . It’s easier for them to ask me questions about their specific needs,” he said.
According to Hill, novice PC users are “pretty educated people . . . who just have a phobia about the computer.”
The two most frequently asked questions are, “Can I break the computer?” and, “Can I lose files?”
Hill said he reassures his students that “you can’t lose it unless you throw it in the trash.”
Hill adheres to the philosophy of Joanne E. Lurie, 39, his boss over at PCIS, who said, “We customize our training to fit a person’s particular needs and level of understanding, as well as educate multiple family members in their most comfortable environment, . . . thereby eliminating the need for spending long hours in a classroom.”
Diane Anstadt, 39, is an enthusiastic alum of PCIS. “You have to trust the person to guide you,” she said.
The Buffalo Grove social worker said the $70 hourly fee was a good investment.
“Joanne shopped with me because I knew nothing about computers. Then she installed my computer and software programs. She was very positive, explained things well, . . . made me feel like I was catching on quickly. She taught me how to set up Windows, walked me through files and gave me cheat sheets to refresh my memory after she left.”
In the realm of computer coaches, moonlighting is a common “profession.” Many a computer-literate Tom, Dick and Mary find themselves itching to chuck their 9-to-5 jobs and make a living doing what they love best. Hiring themselves out “after hours” at lower-end fees is one way to see if they’ve got what it takes.
Tim Lucido, 41, owner of Computer Services in Round Lake, is a case in point. The computer whiz spends his days working as a database specialist and his nights and weekends as a $25-per-hour computer coach. Like his competitors, Lucido offers on-site classes as well as in-home computer tutoring.
In the last four years, Lucido has been Father Confessor to many a dejected adult who confided that “I can’t get my software started” or “I can’t understand the instructions in this book.”
“People feel embarrassed, like they’re stupid, but they’re not,” he said. “The key to it is remembering where these people are coming from.”
Lucido developed this empathy for others after experiencing “student burnout” in college. “Professors would go off and start talking about something. The class would get lost, but nobody wanted to say anything because they felt stupid. These people forgot who their audience was. Lots of times people are at a very beginning level, and you can’t just zoom up to where you want to be.”
Before working with his students, Lucido asks them to jot down any problems they are having “so they don’t forget.”
“When we go through the list,” he said, “they’ll be sure to show some progress.”
Owen Zapel, 80, a retired audio-visual producer with a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago, is one of Lucido’s success stories.
As chairman of the finance committee for the Leisure Village retirement community in Fox Lake, Zapel said he wanted to create visual information to present to his board of managers but “was frustrated because I didn’t know how to accomplish it.”
Zapel said Lucido not only guided him through the learning process but also trained him to analyze personal financial investments.
In the computer coaching realm, Adventure Learning Club in Vernon Hills, which opened in Hawthorn Mall last January, holds the title for “most precocious kid on the block.”
The brainchild of Chicagoans Kathy Rudy 31, and Beth Kljajic, 39, two computer industry veterans, ALC offers a comprehensive “electronic community center” for parents and tots as well as school-age children and adults. Not content to sit on its laurels as a family learning and entertainment center, ALC also offers in-home personal computer training at $45 per hour. Like its competitors, ALC allows other family members to sit in on sessions.
Only about 20 percent of the in-home clients Rudy sees are at the intermediate level; the rest are beginners.
“Once people get past the point about being a beginner, . . . they have the gumption to try things, open a book,” Rudy said. “They’ve worked through their confusion and seen that they can be successful on their own. They’ve learned to be problem-solvers.”
Dawn Daun, 50, and husband Bob, 52, are two of the 40 novice PC users trained by ALC in the last six months. After launching their four kids into adulthood, the Wauconda residents said they were ready for “another avenue to go down,” something to stimulate the imagination. “We just wanted to enjoy the computer, see how much we could learn at our age,” Dawn said.
Bob, who co-manages the Jewel Food Store in Highland Park, said Rudy made him and his wife feel comfortable about purchasing an up-to-date computer. “She walked us through it, showing us how to get into the self-learning programs.”
Dawn, a scanner for the Jewel in Wauconda, said she was amazed that “one minute everything was totally Greek, then 60 minutes later, you’re no longer afraid.”
She initially wanted to use the computer to write out personal checks, learn new recipes and build an insurance plan. But after just three one-hour lessons with Rudy, the PC trainee had progressed into the world of travel and research using an on-line service. “I could go to the Smithsonian, . . . read the whole New York Times if I wanted to or put the Hawaiian Islands up on the screen, find out the temperatures and rainfall and plan a trip,” she said.
For those still unsure about whether they need a rent-a-coach, they should consider Dawn Daun’s words as she enthusiastically popped a floppy into her A-drive: “It’s a whole other world on the computer, and I want a piece of it.”
HOW TO FIND A COACH
To find a good coach, David Cohn of Cohn & Associates in Buffalo Grove suggests networking first, Yellow Pages second.
For example, the office computer whiz may be a good place to start. If you’re lucky, that person may be willing to coach for free.
On the other hand, Cohn cautioned, you might get what you pay for.
“You have to be careful with computer geeks. They may know a lot but not be able to communicate that knowledge,” he said. “Some people are good doers but not good teachers.”
With that in mind, people who are in an office that has an in-house trainer might consider pursuing help there after hours.
Failing that, start asking other PC users if they have ever had PC coaching and, if so, from whom.
“I’m in the Yellow Pages, too,” Cohn said, “but some of my best referrals come from word of mouth.”
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Adventure Learning Club, 708-680-0880; Cohn & Associates, 708-634-2505; Computer Services, 708-546-9196; Personal Computer Instructional Services Inc., 708-296-7247.
