Yesterday I taught my first Email for Beginners class. I had advertised the class as a “set up an web email account and learn how to use it” sort of outfit, but interestingly enough half of my attendees already had email accounts, and the other half didn’t. I thought this might present a few intersting problems, but since I collect email addresses from those who willingly volunteer them at class registration (I send out email reminders to them instead of calling, according to their preferences), I was able to track down the webmail URL for their respective services, so that they could learn to use their existing email in the class. The timing worked out better than I expected, since it took the people with email addresses about the same amount of time to find and log into their webmail as it did the newbies to sign up for accounts on Yahoo! Mail (which has, by the way, some really nice email tutorials for patrons to refer to).
Originally there were 8 patrons signed up for the class, and 4 people on the wait list. Despite the fact that I left reminder messages for all of the attendees saying that if they couldn’t come to please call to open up seats to the wait list, only 4 of my students showed up. I know the people on the wait list really wanted to come, so the whole thing was really frustrating. I’m contemplating keeping track of the people who skip class often, and perhaps after a certain number of infractions telling them that they will be placed on the wait list for any future classes they sign up for. Especially since, as it is now, almost all of my classes have 4-8 people on the wait list, and I don’t want them to miss out because of no-shows. I might also call people on the wait list and tell them that they are welcome to come down and see if anyone doesn’t show to fill the seats. Alternately, I could beat bad patrons with a stick, but I’m guessing that’s all sorts of illegal. 
Long story long, I had 4 students yesterday afternoon.
I find it interesting how little self confidence people have when they’re sitting in front of a computer. I’m not trying to be snide or anything here, and this is not just the knowledgeable techie in me talking. I really do feel like most of my job is to instill people with faith in themselves. I do find that the people who attend my classes are able to take what they learn and apply it to computer situations that are unfamiliar to them. I tend to give out lots of little tips here and there, in bite-sized chunks, that they can take away with them, and I see them apply some of those bites in other classes, which is really cool to watch.
In teaching webmail, the easiest part seems to be filling out the form. The hardest part seems to be trying to disconnect the concept of email from all of the other, bigger computer and internet concepts long enough for them to understand that everything on the screen really means what they think it means, and that it really is that simple.
But the most fun of all is explaining culture. Much like the IM discussion that was going on over at Mark’s blog, while email can be used just as a tool (write a message, send, be done), email can also carry a bit of internet culture. Emoticons, phrase abbreviations, writing and reading styles, all feed into a sort of cult of email. OK, not really a cult, but a subset of internet culture that really does exist. In teaching people how to use email, I feel it’s my responsibility to teach them about cultural aspects, and good etiquette. And, well, in my mind, the understanding and appropriate use of emoticons is totally a (very fun) part of that.
I wrote a colon and a close parens on the board, and told everyone to tilt their heads to the left, then asked them what they saw, remembering fondly the first time I saw a smiley and was told to tilt my head. After a few chuckles, I tried a colon and an open parens, then a semicolon and a clost parens, etc. Everyone thought it was really very nifty as I explained that emoticons show up in email, in IM, on bulletin boards, all over the internet. I encouraged them to use them, and to look them up if they ever didn’t understand one. Meanwhile, I explained that they could use them and look all sorts of wicked cool and old-school, which they seemed to like.
Then we covered LOL and LMAO (and me saying the word “ass” in class actually went over with lots of laughter) and a few abbreviations they might see here and there. When I talked about the concept of SHOUTING, I actually saw someone go back to the message they were composing and quickly start deleting and retyping. While I didn’t talk too much about copying original messages in replies, I did mention it in the handout. It was a festive time.
Most patrons are generally suprised that I’m so patient in class, especially given that they make so many mistakes (their words, not mine), and that I’m a techie person (everyone’s had bad experiences with the impatient, know-it-all tech types). I actually had one patron tell me that it’s usually these mistakes that cause her to give up, and that at home her husband doesn’t have the patience to explain everything. I told her that she’s not allowed to give up in my class, and that she can keep coming back to take as many classes and ask as many questions as she likes. She learned a lot yesterday, went home proud of herself, and she’s signed up for 5 more of my classes.
So yeah, it was a good class. I had fun, they had fun, and typed emoticons are still just a little hip in the age of smiley icons.
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