Re: [TCLUG:15961] Internet myths

[Jacqueline Urick <jacque@opencitizen.com>]

> Anyway, I was thinking that it might be interesting to begin my Internet
> class by discussing some of the more prevalent myths or misconceptions
> associated with the Internet itself or using the Internet. Many of the
> people in the class will be ultra-newbies. We really have to start at the
> basics.
> 

I'm an internet tutor at the public library and the biggest myth I
encounter with my students is that they are afraid of breaking the
computer, by surfing. When the browser crashes, a page misloads, they
get a security screen, etc, they think that they "broke" it. I think one
of the best concepts to teach is that software is not perfect and
unfortunately, it doesn't work right all the time, but that doesn't mean
its their fault and that they shouldn't be afraid of "breaking the
internet" or anything. I find that once my students understand that,
they don't get as frustrated with the internet experience. They relax more.

Alot of the ultra-newbies that I teach don't find the internet
'intuitive'. Things that we totally take for granted, like "if its
underlined and a little hand appears over it, its a link" is completely
foreign to them. Sometimes I need to explain what a link actually is.
I've also noticed that super-clutter search engines, like alta-vista and
metacrawler and even yahoo just completely confuse them, they just look
at it and don't know where to go, they sometimes don't know they need to
click in the little box to type. I'm thankful for google. Its a great
clean page to teach people how to search!

~j