Halfway through 2012 already, and more minutes are ticking by. The Tutor “scene” is subtly, but rapidly, changing, partly to keep pace with the progress of technology, and partly as the expectations of students who attend our classes/workshops change.

This is all to the good, and these changes have meant that those of us who have been tutors for the past five or six years or more are faced with

the need to re-invent our approach to the topics we deal in.

It has also meant that our students need more diverse and – often – more in-depth explanations to their questions. As with so much else in our lives, people no longer necessarily just sit there and accept what they are being told as the be-all-and-end-all!

Recently, several of our long-serving  tutors  have through health or age decided it was time to retire, and we have reluctantly had to farewell these stalwarts.

On the upside it means that we now have openings for new volunteer tutors, and NOW is an excellent time to make the move to joining our dedicated group!

You do NOT need to have an all-encompassing understanding of the computer. Very few of us are THAT clever! In fact, if you enjoyed coming to grips with basic computer skills and mixing with like-minded people, you’ll get a “buzz” from helping others to achieve as you have, and YOU have the qualifications required to become a tutor!

Being a tutor helps with your continued growth as a computer-user, as with every class you tutor you too learn something new!

Start as an assistant, gain confidence by working in a small group, take students through prescribed tasks, and answer questions to do with the topic. If you don’t have an answer, someone else will! So you are never on your own.

More experienced? Great we are always in need of the more experienced person, too, and if YOU have a particular interest in subjects such as Photography, Genealogy, Publishing, Power point presentations, Spreadsheets or Graphics, and would like to share your knowledge with others, then we would be very pleased to hear from you.

You may already be familiar with our workshop type sessions where members are helped with more one-off type problems often requiring general comprehension of the running of computer programmes. Here too we welcome skills to help us helping others.

Our tutors meet every month, and discussion/debate is invariably lively! You can air any concerns relating to classes, topics, technology etc. while at the same time socializing with others with similar interests.

To some, computers can be an isolating technology when everything you need to do/know is done in a home situation, on the other hand computers open the world to us and allows us to freely communicate with family and friends. We can follow our interests, we can learn new skills and we never have to become bored.

English: A medal to recognize good tutors (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

SeniorNet, and more specifically, tutoring gets you out and mixing with people who have interests just like yours. I started from “zero” in 2003, and  SeniorNet gave me the confidence to go beyond the Email-only mentality, discovering on my journey just SO much of interest, and realizing I had ability to help others to similarly become confident users of the variety of technology available. Can YOU help to inspire others to be confident in their use of the computer??

I’m sure you can!!! Give us a call today! Or just fill in the form below and submit it to us and we’ll be in touch with you. Thank you.
Lois Brinck