WebJunction

I am not currently working in a library, but when I was, I had a hard time getting many participants for classes for kids and the computer -- We had great turnout for genealogy, investing, Internet searching, but kids topics just didn't take off. Most of the attendees were seniors, so maybe that explains it? Or maybe I just didn't get creative enough with my marketing ;)

Brenda

That's a great idea. Blogs are being used in education because they promote communication and writing skills, not to mention research skills.

I just found this bit about <a href="http://georgiasla.blogspot.com/2004/08/teaching-blogging-workshop.html" target="_blank">teaching a blogging workshop</a> offered by science librarian, Terry Vogel.

I just talked to the Silas Bronson library in CT (for a library of the month interview) and they mentioned that their most popular courses are their "Introduction to Computers" classes. I bet that the most popular courses will really vary by the needs/demographics of the community that the library serves.

We are thinking of offering hands-on classes on working with digital images as well. Whenever we offer a lecture on digital photography it is very well attended -- in fact, I think our last session on this topic had over 90 people show up!

However, that being said, we still do have a high demand for Computer Basics and Intro to the Internet...

Hey kbastura! Welcome to the discussions on All Aboard. How did you find us?

I bet it depends on where you are in the life-cycle of your library's training program and class schedule. Once all (or most) of your community is familiar with email (assuming this is a big starting point) then maybe there becomes less of a demand there, but more of a demand for other things?

Just thought I would update about what is HOT at PPL right now in training.

I have developed two new courses and just started offering them and they are a hit!

The first one is the Photo Sharing Online course. It fills almost instantly and creates a wait list within a week or two. Everyone leaves class with an account created and several pictures uploaded. I have students bring a CD or flash drive to class with 6-12 images on it for us to work with and it is a lot of fun.

The other class is School for Scanning and in it the students bring in photographs and documents and even slides and negatives and we fiddle around with the scanner and scanner software and everyone leaves class with several digital images burned on a CD! We limit this class to 5 participants to keep it hands on...

My motto was New Classes for the New Year and I am seeking new ideas for other new courses... share what is HOT or NEW at your library!

Re:
Janie:
Both of the classes you described sound like something our patrons would also be interested in taking. Would you be open to sharing your handouts - instructor notes?

Hi Bobbie,
Yes I would be more than willing to share -- once I have them finalized. I have taught these courses twice now and they have met with excellent response as well as some good feedback. I am going to teach the class once more and see if I am happy and then I will gladly share.

The scanner class is fairly specific to the scanners in our library, but the photo sharing class is so much fun and would be of interest to anyone.

We had a patron take the photosharing class who had a CD of 50 photos that someone had given her from a family reunion that occured 3 years ago. She didn't know HTML or how to make a web page, but had wanted to share these photos ever since she had gotten the CD. She was so thrilled with her new Picturetrail account and the fact that she could now share these photos with relatives far and wide. Her excitement of being able to share these photos was the highlight of my month!

I'm not sure how "hot" it will be, but our newest class is "Savvy Online Shopping." From all the requests I get, I think "Successful downloading" would be a hot one

We have offered an Online Shopping class that was popular, too (we did it in the fall in preparation of the holidays!). Travel Planning is also popular. One of my favorites to teach is Computer Basics - we open an old CPU just to show what is in that mysterious box, then move on to powering up the computer, mouse and Windows basics (having more than one window open, maximizing/minimizing, resizing, etc) and play with Paint just to perfect mouse skills.

I love the photo sharing idea - when we upgrade our computers so USB devices are an option I will certainly want to do that one!

mslastlib, thanks for your kudos. it's always great to hear that folks are listening...

can i just say again that i LOVE the idea of using topics people are interested in to teach them about using technology and information. shopping is one, here's another...

i recently talked with a friend about doing a pro-bono job where i teach an older relative of hers how to use online dating services, just to get them into the library, working a mouse, getting an email account. how's that for motivation?

like you say, whatever we can do to get them into the library! i know i'm getting off topic here a bit...now we can go back to the library course ideas.

Our training center has been opened since 1998 and our classes have been very popular in our city. Our most popular classes have been Basic Computer Skills, Keyboarding for Beginners, and Windows. Our Microsoft Office classes go over really well to. Our most recent class is Spyware, Plugins and Popups, how to eliminate spyware, adware and popups from your computer and how to download the free and assistive programs. Everyone that's taken this class really likes it. I am currently working on a class on How to Purchase and Care for your Computer. I also color code my handouts and the students really like this.

We are forging ahead with even more new classes and our new HOT classes at PPL include "Digital Camera Test Drive" and "Photo Editing Boot Camp".

We have purchased 2 digitial cameras for our lab and in the Digital Camera Test Drive we have a small class of 4 students come in and try them out. It is a simple class to run and people love it.

The first 20 minutes or so is spent discussing the different types of digital formats, pixels, and some of the technical aspects of the cameras (like what all the buttons do). We then send them out in to the library in two teams, each with a camera and they have ten minutes to take some pictures of our art work or the books (we ask them not to photograph people without permission, they often just take pictures of each other or staff).

Once they return to the lab we show them how to hook the camera up to a USB port, download the photos and open them up using photo software. It is so much fun... we have had several people bring in their own digital cameras and we help them out too. A lot of people have bought digital cameras and don't understand how to get the pictures off! One person came to class with 5 memory cards full of photos that they didn't what to do with... they were so happy to learn how to get them off the camera!

The Photo Editing Boot Camp uses Adobe Photoshop and we show how to crop, remove red eye, fix blemishes and remove wrinkles.. fun, fun, fun!