03/16/99

By Doug Bedell / The Dallas Morning News

The computer solitaire lesson had gone well, and instructor Jean-Paul Peretz was winding up his last lecture of the course when a tiny voice of protest leapt from behind a huge monitor.

Evans Caglage / The Dallas Morning News Instructor Jean-Paul Peretz of the Lifelong Learning Center at Treemont Retirement Center helps Kay Beges learn to operate a computer. He specializes in computer classes for seniors.

"Jean-Paul, we don't want to play games," grouses 64-year-old Bernice Campbell. "That's for the grandchildren. We want to get out there and find travel bargains. We want to plan our trips, write letters to people. Just when do we get to that, anyway?"

Another course, another time, Mr. Peretz says with a smile. But Mrs. Campbell had made her point. She and the rest of her class of older people assembled at the Treemont Retirement Community's Lifelong Learning Center are champing at the bit. They've heard about this Internet stuff long enough.

"My grandchildren say, 'Grandma, you better get with it!' " says Mrs. Campbell. "That's just what I'm trying to do."

With classes such as those at Southern Methodist University's SeniorNet and the Lifelong Learning Center in North Dallas, growing numbers of seniors are striving to master modern computer basics.

Although they must overcome barriers that sometimes make learning difficult, senior citizens say their needs are real and their drive is strong.

"Once they catch on, it's like a big light that goes off in their heads," says Mr. Peretz, president of the Lifelong Learning Center.

Health professionals say simple e-mail contact with others can dramatically overcome feelings of isolation and loneliness. Senior chat rooms are booming. There are reports of marriages and all manner of newfangled compu-mingling.

A recent Microsoft study proclaims seniors "one of the fastest-growing groups of users on the Web." Those few institutions specializing in computer education for seniors are reporting rapidly swelling numbers of eager applicants.

But today, in the midst of the Department of Labor's Older Workers Week, many computer professionals still find a gaping need for computer education of older Americans.

"When we began looking at 'digital divide' and at different groups around the world, one of the things that came up very quickly was the lack of participation by seniors," says Craig Spiezle, director of the Microsoft Senior Initiative, the company's group devoted to the issues of older people.

Usage decline

As age increases, PC ownership and usage drastically fall away, Microsoft found in a survey last year of 600 adults. As a result, the very people who could benefit the most from the Internet communications revolution are being left behind.

The Microsoft survey found that 37 percent of those in their 50s owned and used computers, about the same as for 40-somethings. From there, computer ownership dropped steadily with age. Only 4 percent of those in their 80s had a PC.

"People a lot of times don't even know what they can do with a computer," says Mr. Peretz, a former software designer who regularly conducts free computer orientation lectures for seniors. "That's where it starts clicking: 'Oh, I can shop! I can travel!' "

Of course, other factors play into the statistics.

Eyesight often diminishes as people age, making computer navigation all but impossible. Mr. Peretz says expensive equipment - Braille printers and huge monitors, for instance - can help but says he knows of no outside source of funding to help his center get it.

Arthritic hands often struggle to control computer mouses. At his classes, Mr. Peretz keeps a huge track ball handy for them.

Many seniors, too, aren't mobile enough to attend classes such as those conducted at SMU by SeniorNet, a nonprofit organization that has established more than 140 computer learning centers with cash, software and equipment from firms including Microsoft.

Mary Margaret Clark, a 61-year-old computer learning center assistant at SeniorNet in San Francisco, says each center she helps open reinforces her opinion that seniors are ready for more.

"There are always a lot of questions, there's a great deal of excitement and usually way too many students," Ms. Clark says. But organizers are hard to come by, she says.

In Texas, SeniorNet has opened centers in Dallas, Austin and Nacogdoches. With assistance from local sponsors such Southwestern Bell and Texas Instruments, Plano and Fort Worth learning centers are scheduled to open in April.

But none exists in Houston - the largest city in the state and No. 4 in the nation - because neither an appropriate facility nor an able leader has been found.

For seniors fortunate enough to have computers and mobility, the technology sometimes proves daunting, and getting help can be difficult.

Charles and Kathy Fink of North Dallas, for example, were one of the first couples among their acquaintances to adapt to a digital lifestyle. Their home near Brookhaven Country Club is testament to an intense interest in electronics.

In one bedroom, Ms. Fink, 67, has set up shop with her 233 MHz Presario PC, radios and television. There, she works on her "great American novel," dabbles at free-lance journalism and has created a wedding "gift book" now being considered by a publisher. She also edits her church newsletter using a CD-ROM of biblical scripture and other electronic tools.

Nearby, Mr. Fink, 70, labors in his own office on his newest acquisition, a $2,000 Gateway 400 MHz machine. He's trying to tame it for a variety of uses, including video conferencing with their son, Larry, in Seattle.

Ms. Fink had some work experience with word-processing and says she's content with that function and her Presario.

"Most of our friends are well-enough acquainted with computers now from their children and whatever, so it's not like outer space that we have these machines," she says. "But it does kind of put us in a different category with them."

Technical difficulties

Mr. Fink owned Apple computers in the 1970s.

"I had a lot of friends back then I could talk to," Mr. Fink says. "But when I got into the PC end of the business, I couldn't find anybody" with a computer.

"None of our friends did," he says. "Some said they never would own one."

Without counterparts with whom to share computer experience, Mr. and Mrs. Fink have suffered through long, confusing, expensive lessons in purchasing, use and repair.

A former industrial customer-service executive, Mr. Fink is disabled with back problems and recurrent headaches. When equipment acts up, he finds that help desks and service personnel don't have time to explain everything to his satisfaction. And taking a machine in for service is getting harder, both physically and mentally.

Mr. Fink has encountered major system errors in each of seven brands of computers he has tried. A look at his Windows 98 desktop provides hints to the cause.

The system task bar is brimming with more than a dozen programs the machine vainly attempts to launch simultaneously at each start-up. Shattered shortcuts litter the rest of the visible screen.

"I've never really had anyone who gave me any pointers," he says. "I've had to learn everything myself."

For Mr. Fink and many of his contemporaries, a machine designed to perform a function had darn well better or it's going back for a refund. With modern electronics, that's not a policy always embraced by retailers.

"I wanted to get a dependable computer - one that would work day in and day out," he says. In his hands is a sheaf of screen shots from his various computers, each illustrating the alarming Windows system error messages he repeatedly encounters.

"I would expect any computer to give you occasional errors. Even a car will give you trouble now and then. But not 10 times in one day.

"You have to pick yourself up off the ceiling sometimes."

Frustrated, Mr. Fink has returned several computers after less than two weeks. Service people have evidently grown leery of him and weary of his complaints. One paid him full value with a check just to get the computer away from him.

"Another fellow said they'd spent over 500 hours with me trying to satisfy me with this other machine," Mr. Fink says. "I had to go to Denton to get another like it. They wouldn't sell me another."

He's also had mobile service companies sell him expensive motherboards for brand new machines and tell him things were broken that he knew were fine.

At the same time, the Finks have experienced incredible exhilaration from mastering e-mail and Internet surfing. A video camera installed in Mr. Fink's computer once even allowed a connection with Larry.

"It was neat to see the grandkids," Ms. Fink says. "That was the first time we've seen them in over a year. To see them like that was just something else."

Says Mr. Fink: "I got it working once, and I couldn't believe it. People all over the world have these little cameras like this. You find them out there. I mean, I tried to talk to this one guy in Australia one time. But it hasn't worked regularly, and I just haven't been able to find somebody I can talk to."

Computer and Internet companies see tremendous potential in the Finks and people like them. Seniors possess vast reservoirs of untapped capital. Once comfortable with the medium, seniors have proved adept shoppers and bargain-seekers.

They are intensely interested in services such as estate planning, genealogical research, health information, financial transactions and stock trading. Many control family fortunes.

Convenience factor

"If you took the proportions of people shopping online, I'd bet you seniors are a big part of it simply because of the convenience," says Mr. Peretz of the Lifelong Learning Center. "The boom of online e-commerce will really be fueled as more and more seniors have access to the Internet."

The new technology's ability to reduce or eliminate travel for transactions and goods makes it a natural match with the age group. Given just a little tutoring, many older Americans such as the Finks could remain useful members of the workforce with computers at their sides.

In fact, hope of securing employment is the No. 1 reason given by seniors in the Microsoft survey for purchasing computers in the first place.

"These seniors state the benefits of socialization, making a contribution and feeling needed - as well as the opportunity to be around and mentor younger people - as key factors inspiring them to work," the study says.

E-mail, the Internet's killer app, has proved a key motivator for computing in the golden years. Cy and Ethel Gaiser of Dallas say a computer purchase was becoming unavoidable.

"So many of our friends are always talking about their e-mail," Ms. Gaiser says. "We wanted to be up with the group. I figure it's not just the coming thing; it is the thing."

Adds Mr. Gaiser, 80: "I've got a friend who has all his banking operations on his. It looks like a very good way of keeping track of things. I haven't gotten that far. But we can talk back and forth pretty well with that e-mail operation. It's great to keep up with our son in California."

But the overwhelming majority of seniors, says Mr. Spiezle of Microsoft, can't see any advantage to an electronic lifestyle.

"My father was like most," he says. "I bought him a computer, and he kept saying, 'I don't have a need.' He was a very successful architect and engineer. And I was able to find a picture of a building he designed up on the Web. That was the silver bullet for him. All of a sudden, he wanted to know more - 'What else can we find?' "

After that, Mr. Spiezle's father quickly migrated to e-mail and beyond.

"When they invented radio, it took 38 years to gather 50 million users," Mr. Spiezle says. "For TV, it took only 14 years to reach the same level when people were saying, 'I don't need television; I have a radio.'

"In only four years, the Internet has made it that far, and people are still saying, 'I don't have a need.' In seniors, that initial reaction is enhanced by a high level of intimidation by the technology."

Change in the air

Some things may be changing.

Companies such as Symantec are providing donations of software designed to avoid many of the technical problems that routinely annoy elderly users. SeniorNet, for example, receives free copies of Symantec's NortonSystemWorks for its volunteers and learning centers.

The newest Windows and Apple operating systems have been imbued with numerous setup options that can help customize desktops for seniors' specific needs. Microsoft reaffirmed its long association with SeniorNet last fall by donating more than $1 million in cash, software and equipment.

As for Mr. Fink and his computer woes, a computer professional recently volunteered to help clear up the operating system problems that have driven both him and his PC "nearly batty."

"They ought to have some way of explaining their products better, seems to me," he says. "I don't think many of these companies are going to be around very long if they don't get better at that."

RESOURCES FOR SENIORS

Older Americans wanting help with technology issues can tap numerous resources. Senior-oriented Web sites, many in large type for easier viewing, have begun sprouting up. Here's a sampling of where seniors and their families can turn for assistance or information.

* Microsoft Senior Initiative (www.microsoft.com/seniors) and SeniorNet (www.seniornet.org), among others, mix health news, services and resources in a single spot for handy access.

* For local how-to classes, contact the Lifelong Learning Center, (214) 351-2148, or the SeniorNet Learning Center at Southern Methodist University, (214) 768-4332 and members.aol.com/dalsmuonli/.

* National Policy and Resource Center on Women and Aging - www.brandeis.edu/heller/national/, an examination of the special problems of women as they age.

* Blacksburg (VA) Electronic Village Seniors Home Page - www.bev.net/community/seniors/, listings of interest to seniors.

* 101 Online Tutoring, 1-888-848-8867, a fee-based tutoring service.

SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research

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