eBlue: Sacra Blue Online

Number 201 - April 1999

SPCUG Update	Pre-Meeting Tutorials Help Newbies Play Catch Up By Edwin Holloway, Training Coordinator
	Bob Benson has been a member of the Sacramento PC Users Group for a long time. “My membership number is 591,” he says proudly. “I was a member when Barney McCauley was president. Remember Barney?” Barney who? With a membership number five times as large as Bob’s, I had to admit that I didn’t. But despite Bob’s early entry into the users group, he felt he had fallen behind the times, as he put it. “This is a chance for me to catch up.” Bob was referring to the recent learning opportunities held before the beginning of the monthly general meetings. The February tutorial was on Internet access. Bob was among some 25 or 30 people to take part in the tutorial held a half-hour before the February 17 general meeting. Folks at the Internet tutorial saw a live session projected on a screen from a laptop. Ron Lambert offered his hardware expertise in the setup. Dennis Duffy of Customer Development Systems led the session using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser, saying, “This is an introductory class for using the Internet.” Yahoo Dennis likened the Internet to a gigantic library, using a bibliography concept to explain its interconnectedness. Reading the bibliography in one book would lead you to one in another and then to another. Only all the bibliographies are electronically connected, allowing you to get still more information, “There’s probably more than you ever wanted to know,” Dennis quipped. “There are 4,000 new Web sites every day!” Bob wanted to know why the opening page was Microsoft’s Hotmail e-mail service. This was a great chance for Dennis to explain more about how an Internet browser works. He showed how to set the opening screen, or home page for Internet	Explorer. In the process Dennis covered features such as the title bar, the tool bar, the help button, and bookmarks, or favorites, as they are called in Microsoft’s browser. These and many other browser features were covered in the half-hour session. Dennis opened another window, or session, of the browser went to one of his favorite Web sites—Yahoo. Yahoo is a “portal” Web site that has many different kinds of places you can visit from that one site. Bob got to see how he could go from one site to the next, eventually arriving the NASA site. It included exciting views of space images, and Dennis showed how to make the site one of his favorites. At the conclusion of the tutorial, Dennis summarized the points covered and encouraged users to explore and play on the Internet. A nice round of applause at the end of the tutorial expressed the participants’ appreciation for Ron and Dennis’s fine contributions. Educational Outreach The Internet tutorial alternates with another free-form class on using Microsoft Windows 95/98. These tutorials are part of the Sacramento PC Users Group’s plan to expand its connection to the larger community. Last year our group established an Educational Committee, chaired by editor Eric Butow, to explore ways that SPCUG could share its considerable knowledge of computing with and beyond its own members. The large scope of this mission includes resource sharing at off-meeting sites. The Internet and Windows tutorials are a first step in this expansive direction. If you’re interested in attending a tutorial, or know someone who is, check the back cover of our newsletter for the tutorial being taught before the meeting. Tutorials start at 5:45 p.m. and end at 6:30 p.m. All you need to do is show up ready to learn.
Number 201 - April 1999