MASST participants Tom Maple, Tommy Ray McCaskill, and Jon Gorham (from left to right) focus on internet basics.
On a cold Thursday morning in the Fairbanks Job Center, a small group of seniors gather to learn more about computers and how to work with them. Their guide is also a senior, also still learning about computers.
The seniors are participants in the MASST program. MASST stands for Mature Alaskans Seeking Skills Training. It's a federal program of the Department of Labor, administered by the state of Alaska Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, within the Alaska Department of Labor. The MASST participants volunteer for twenty hours a week at community service agencies in the area, receiving an hourly wage of $15 while gaining skills and confidence for a potential return to the workforce. One of the skills many seniors wish for is a better grasp on computers and how to use them effectively in today's digital world. The blue screen can seem intimidating if you haven't spent forty years looking at it.
One early lesson for all of us is that, with computers, nothing lasts forever. If you make a mistake, you can usually undo it. If you lose something, like a file or a document or a photo, you can usually find it. In those ways, computers are forgiving. The lesson also means that you can learn as you go. You may not have a complete grasp of how a particular program works or what a particular term means, but you can usually get help right on the screen you are using. It can also help to have a coach or friend nearby.
Let's say, for example, that you want more information about MASST. You go to your desktop computer and open one of your favorite browsers, like Google Chrome, or Microsoft Edge, or Mozilla Firefox. You type in "MASST," hit the "enter" key, and look at the screen. You see a bunch of blue underlined hyperlinks that connect you to more information. Some links take you to websites about mass spectrometry, or the physics of mass and matter, or an advanced software program for construction projects. But three of the links take you to Mature Alaskans Seeking Skills Training. Two are hosted by the Alaska Department of Labor, and one is hosted by a nonprofit organization called SERRC (full disclosure, SERRC is my employer). With just a few keystrokes, you have a world of information at your command. You choose where to go, and you judge what is relevant or helpful.
For many of our Thursday morning participants, the computer literacy class is a way to practice skills like typing on the keyboard, using a mouse to navigate websites and programs, diving into word-processing or spreadsheet programs, or sifting through the possible paths of the Internet. But we don't surf the Internet on Thursday mornings. Instead, we use a free online learning website, GCFGlobal.org. This nonprofit educational organization offers free learning tutorials on more than 200 topics, in text and video formats. In our case, we focus on topics like Windows, Microsoft Office, typing, digital media literacy, workplace etiquette, and much more. The topics are interesting, and just as important is developing skills in working with the mouse, keyboard, and screen.
Our classes are not speedy. We take plenty of time to practice the skills that the tutorials are teaching. We also feel free to move away from the lesson plan to see what our desktop shows us. Sometimes it's fun to see what we can learn from the icons stashed around the edges of the screen. For the individual trying out the website at home or at the library, the GCF tutorials are self-paced. You can take as long as you like or spend a short time, if you like, learning more about the topics that interest you.
On that recent Thursday morning, three seniors gathered around a workstation to work through a 12-lesson tutorial on internet basics. The group was enthusiastic, friendly, and talkative. We spent two hours together and managed to make it through the whole tutorial and take a 25-question group quiz. There were lots of stories, some of them pretty far away from lessons like "Choosing a Web Browser" or "Using Search Engines." The stories always circled back to work and how it has changed over the past fifty or sixty years. Somehow that also circled back to why these people, with rich employment histories and deep knowledge of physical and mechanical labor, still were eager to learn about a new world of possibilities.
One man's hands had operated nearly 50 different kinds of heavy machinery for almost 60 years. Another's hands had built and repaired thousands of vehicles more than 50 years. A third's hands had laid flooring and done finish carpentry for more than three decades. Despite a stroke, a crushing accident, and a heart attack, they were all here to learn how this new machinery could help them do more work in this new world of ours. Maybe computers could be our friends.
Jim Warren is the MASST coordinator for Northern and Interior regions, based in Fairbanks.
