Booting up, turning on the lightbulb

Dan Dickinson, a California native, teaches computer classes for

people at the Costa Mesa Senior Center. After retiring from his

career as an architect, designing buildings such as the office for

U.S. Divers in Santa Ana, he decided to start teaching himself about

computers. He put one together and began researching the magic boxes

and all their powers.

The Irvine resident joined a local computer club and eventually

got involved with SeniorNet, an organization devoted to teaching

computer skills to senior citizens. He’s been coordinating the

computer program and teaching classes at the senior center for seven

years, which he said is fun and rewarding volunteer work.

The Daily Pilot’s Lindsay Sandham recently met with Dickinson, 80,

to hear about his adventures in cyberspace.

So, you teach computer classes here at the Costa Mesa Senior

Center?

I’m the coordinator in charge of the whole group. I also teach

three classes, and I help in a couple more.

That must take some patience, teaching the old dogs new tricks.

Right, right. But it’s really rewarding when you finally see the

lightbulb go off and they’re saying, “I really can do this.” It’s

intimidating to us old [people] that haven’t grown up with it and a

lot of people feel they’re beyond it, it’s for the young people.

When I can convince them that this is really something you can do

and it’s so much fun, it’s so rewarding. There’s so much to it.... So

many of them finally take the class because their grandchildren want

to e-mail with them, and that’s a good incentive for a lot of people

to get started.

Once they get on there, they probably get pretty hooked.

Once they do and they realize all the other things that they can

find and do on there. We try to teach them that besides going online,

which is very rewarding, ... there are things actually on the

computer they can do. We start them out by showing them how to play

solitaire -- fascinating to people that never even realized that they

could do that.

So what exactly is SeniorNet?

SeniorNet’s a nationwide -- actually worldwide, now --

organization that’s dedicated to teaching seniors how to use the

computer. It started in the San Francisco area originally and has

gained so many people... and by the time we heard about it here, they

had contacted the senior center, saying, “We’re looking for new

places that would like to teach... “

And the senior center said “Yeah, but who can we get to run it?”

So they suggested contacting the computer club [of which Dickenson is

a member].

How did you get started? Have you always been interested in

computers?

No, no. I was an architect in my prior life, drawing buildings and

what have you and too busy in those days to get into the computer

thing. But finally when I retired, I decided it might be something

fun to do. I put one together -- there weren’t many of them already

together in those days -- it was in the early ‘90s, maybe in the late

‘80s ... never had any lessons myself, because there weren’t many

places or people teaching in those days, so I just sort of messed

around with it and learned as I went.

Are you still teaching the basics here at the senior center?

We first started out with one class that taught introduction to

computers, to tell about what computers were. We began to realize

that people wanted to learn something more. So we started adding a

few more advanced classes -- the word processing class is quite a

popular one, Internet class, e-mail class and right now, we have

classes for digital photography, which is really advanced.

What’s your favorite thing, your specialty, when it comes to

computers?

That’s a tough one because they do so much. I’m teaching a class

in money management using Quicken, and I find that invaluable.

What’s the most rewarding thing about teaching other people how to

use computers?

Actually, it’s just being able to see people accomplish something

that they never thought they would be able to do.