You might call Alan Howell “cyber-tentative.”
“I’ve had such a phobia about computers for so long,” says Howell, a high school teacher. “It’s a mixture of fear, not knowing how to use it, not wanting to go through all this upheaval.”
But this summer Howell decided that “there’s no sense fighting it. This technology is not going to go away. I’m 10 years behind everyone else. I’ve got to learn it.”
Howell bought a computer. He took a few classes sponsored by a discount store, but says he learned very little due to the lack of individual attention. Then he hired a computer tutor, Donna Glassman, to come to his Rogers Park home and teach him the basics.
When Glassman arrives for Howell’s second session, she pointedly asks “So how’s it going?”
“Pretty good,” he says. “Well, you know I can do e-mail because I e-mailed you the other day. You told me to create a document, and I did.”
“Did you save it?” asks Glassman.
“Yes.”
Howell sits before his computer monitor, his hands poised at the keyboard.
“All right, click on that and it will open up the word processor or whatever program you used to read the document,” Glassman says.
“There it is!” Howell exclaims gleefully.
They proceed through the basics of writing a letter, centering it on the page and so on.
“How are you going to get rid of that blank line?” Glassman asks at one point.
Howell tries something.
“That was a good mistake to learn on,” Glassman says. “I’ll show you a short cut.”
Glassman is nothing if not friendly, non-threatening and very, very patient. She favors plain English over computer jargon.
“I want (students) to feel at ease, to try things out and see what the computer does,” Glassman says. “That gives them the feeling that they can try things without fear about doing something wrong.
“It doesn’t have to be a nightmare. People become overwhelmed so easily, but with a little guidance and hand-holding they can be on their way. It’s an exciting thing. There’s no need to feel stupid.”
Glassman understands computers easily and intuitively. She went from one job involving computers to others, including one that involved learning a new system and teaching all 50 people in the office how to use it. She started her own tutoring business, Compustart Now, about a year ago and works out of her Lincoln Park apartment.
She is one of a growing number of independent computer tutors now offering services to individuals and small businesses.
For hourly fees that start at about $40 and go up from there, computer tutors provide an array of services. Some will even go shopping with clients to buy a computer and set it up in their home as well as provide basic instruction.
“Many of my clients are just people and their families who use computers for pleasure and entertainment,” says Alan Irgang, who started @home computing a year ago. “Often they have gone out and bought a computer and even set it up themselves, but they’re not sure how to use it. They want to maximize their investment. Up to 40 percent of my clients are complete novices.”
Irgang started his career as a computer programmer at Baxter Healthcare Corporation in Deerfield, then moved to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he managed a human resources computer system department. He left the business world for two years to go back to school for a master’s degree in social work. While trying to establish himself as a therapist, he started his part-time computer consulting business a year ago.
“I base a lot of my marketing and advertising on conquering fear of computers,” Irgang says. “That’s what tends to keep people away from computers. And that’s where I’m bringing in some of my clinical therapy experience.”
Teaching confidence
Computer tutor Jackie Cohen, who works on a part-time basis on evenings and weekends, says that “the biggest problem, especially for people over age 30, is that they’re afraid they’re going to break something. They walk around and say, `I’m a dummy. I don’t know how to screw in a lightbulb. How can I possibly sit down at a computer and make sense out of it?’ That’s how we talk ourselves out of the fact that we’re perfectly capable of doing anything that we want–if we want to badly enough. You’ve got to get past that somehow before you can do anything.
“What I teach is less about computers and more about teaching people how to have pride in themselves and confidence. That is more important than skill.”
Tutors tend to be people who simply have an affinity or natural aptitude for computers, while the majority of their clients probably don’t. “Some people have a knack for learning foreign languages, and it’s the same with computers, (although) I believe anyone can learn how to use a computer,” Irgang says.
He adds that age often is a factor. “Older folks are much more resistant, much more afraid than younger people, and it’s primarily because the younger folks started using computers in school. It cracks me up every time when I’m working with an adult whose kid is at home and the kids walks up and grabs the (computer) mouse and says, `No, Mommy. It’s like this or it’s like that.’ “
The sex difference
But Irgang says the most interesting thing he has observed is that “women are much more willing to ask for help than men are. A man will more likely sit in front of the computer for hours and hours trying to figure out why something isn’t working.”
Dan Behr, one of three partners in the company PC Tutors, says he has noticed a difference in how women and men deal with computers.
“A woman will tend to not want to play (on the computer) but focus on getting the job done,” he says. “She wants to get through with it as quickly as possible and get away from the computer whereas guys will want to explore and branch out.”
Computers, of course, come with instruction manuals but tutors say that they don’t seem to be adequate for many people.
“People who write softwear manuals are pretty technically literate themselves, and they make the assumption that everyone has the lexicon mastered,” Behr says. “They can’t put themselves in a novice user’s position.”
Julie Lemish, an accountant who started her own business, PC Connect, on a part-time basis, bluntly says that “there should be warning labels about the hours of frustration on all the boxes of on-line discs and programs. It requires a little bit of patience. You hit roadblocks. But once you start to get it, your learning curve is at a much higher level.
“I usually tutor people on a one-time-only basis. It’s like playing an instrument. It really depends on how much you practice. Some people, because of their fears, play around a bit but never fully explore the way that they should. Only about 20 or 30 percent of (clients) call back and want to move to a higher level.”
Those who hire a computer tutor on an ongoing basis tend to be more than casual users. They have definite goals.
Howell is interested in e-mail, the Internet and learning how to compile his students’ grades on computer.
Ellen Sawyer, executive director of the Girl Scouts Council in Oak Park and a private consultant to non-profit agencies, periodically makes a list of questions and things that she wants to learn and then schedules a session with her tutor, Irgang.
Like Howell, Sawyer says she felt behind the times without a computer, which she now uses for both of her jobs. Irgang, she says, has made “the experience smooth for me and natural. I didn’t have any problems, and I was totally new to the whole thing.”
Having a private tutor to rely on is a little bit like having an insurance policy.
“A couple of weeks ago I had an electrical problem, a surge that my surge protector didn’t protect me from,” Sawyer says. “I had a complete computer crash and had to take it in for service. The hard drive had to be replaced. But I wasn’t panicked because I knew I could call Alan and he would put everything back together again. I still haven’t learned to set up my computer.
“Learning doesn’t stop after a few sessions. I expect to be learning for a long time.”
PROBLEMS?
Some of the questions most frequently asked by computer novices:
What kind of computer should I buy?
How do I set up my computer?
How can I send and receive e-mail?
How can I get access to the Internet?
How can I find what I want on the Internet and World Wide Web?
How can I participate in chatlines?
How can I download and upload pictures?
SOLUTIONS
“I try to get (students) to think in the computer mentality just by sitting with them and thinking out loud,” says tutor Donna Glassman. ” `Why would the computer do that? What was my last step?’ They’re seeing how I’m thinking and so they’re going to be able to ask those questions themselves. It’s just a system of thinking.”
Local providers of in-home tutoring include:
@home computing: 312-248-6430
Compustart Now: 312-472-3639
Jackie Cohen: 312-943-5486
PC Connect: 312-296-6830
PC Tutors: 312-736-0248
