Improve Your Computer Literacy at The Edge
We hear Christmas music in retail stores, so New Year’s resolutions can’t be far behind. And if 2018 is the year you vow to get comfortable with your computer, why not head to the Edge?
We recently heard from three adults who did. You may recognize yourself in their stories of feeling left behind by technology. They tell it best how those worries melted away at the Edge Community Technology Center.
Betty Beach retired from a 40-year career and wanted a part-time job in a new field. Quickly, she realized, “I needed to refresh and improve my generic computer skills to make myself marketable.”
Since then, she’s taken 10 classes including Basic Computer Skills 1 and 2, Microsoft Office, Word 1 and 2, Excel and typing.
“The class atmosphere is very relaxed and very supportive,” she says, “and organized.”
With new computer skills now, Betty says, “This has empowered me to go on my job search.”
Adriana Irvin enjoyed the quiet, unhurried atmosphere she found in the Edge classroom. The instructors were “very patient, very nice. These are great teachers,” she says.
Adriana got help setting up Facebook on her Mac computer, and she took a class to learn Excel and WordPerfect.
Marla McLane recently relocated to Springfield from working in Africa, “and I was feeling very far behind as far as my abilities to use some of the Microsoft Office programs. The Edge helped me get up to speed with where I needed to be for work and for school,” she says.
She took Microsoft Word and Excel, and each time she arrived for a class, her specific program was set up and ready to go. She also learned how to create a PowerPoint presentation for her college classes, and she’s not finished. “I’m planning to go back and continue some of those courses!”
The Edge is at the Midtown Carnegie Branch Library, 397 E. Central St. See a schedule of all the free classes in the Edge catalog, at thelibrary.org/edge, or call 837-5011.
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