The Virtual Meeting Coach

A Report From the Field

This fall, I piloted a 4-week, face-to-face, hands-on Cloud Computing course for seniors and aging Baby Boomers who aren’t yet ready to call ourselves “Seniors”

I call the course, “Up, Up and Away,” and I promise to take people who are frustrated with their desktop computing experiences from hair-pulling to happy smiles and thicker wallets in just four weeks using a cheap mobile computer and Cloud apps. The first folks who signed up were my neighbors in the Mountain Meadows Community in Ashland, Oregon. In four weeks, participants made faster strides than even I had anticipated!

I took their performance as affirmation of three things:

1) The course design is sound and provides a useful scaffold for people who want to create a whole new relationship to computing to do so in just 4 weeks
2) Seniors can and do learn new tricks a whole lot faster than people might give them credit for
3) Mobile computers and Web 2.0 Cloud apps are going to change all of our lives – not just the lives of young people!

The photos above were made on Friday the 13th when a big crowd turned out for the Mountain Meadows‘ November “Friday Forum” to hear me talk about the way I look at new opportunities for seniors who willing to invest in cheap laptops or netbooks and learn to use free Cloud apps. New online ways to engage in lifetime learning, telehealth options, telemedicine options, meaningful online community participation, inexpensive (or free) connection to family members and other caregivers – wherever they are! And so much more… My deepest thanks to Cindy Earle and Hunter Hill for the photos!

I’m just crazy about my neighbors at Mountain Meadows! They’re all so smart! And they’ve moved into this community to manage their lives in new ways while they “Age in Place.” Coming to live among them has been a life-changing experience for me, personally. As a group, they’re deeply committed both to their own lifetime learning and to maintaining healthy, active relationships with the people they care about – here and across the globe! So, over the next 6 months or more, I’m going to be taking groups of 12 of them “up in the Cloud,” using “Up, Up and Away” as the vehicle. If the first group’s success was any indication of what’s to come for Mountain Meadows, this community will soon be setting a national standard for active, senior communities using the internet, social media, and virtual meeting technologies to optimize resources for “Aging in Place.”

I’m excited about “Up, Up and Away!”! And I’m looking for opportunities to offer it locally while I also finish a train-the-trainer program so that people who would like to can offer it in your areas.

I very much want to share my introductory talk, “Computer Frustrate Me – Why Should I Care About Them?” with churches, clubs, professional groups and at professional conferences several times a month during December, January and February and on into 2010. But I don’t know how to do this without investing lots of time or money on marketing.

Got any ideas?

Regular readers of this blog know I’m not a thirty-something. In fact, I’m almost sixty-something, an ABB (aging Baby Boomer) who’s been online teaching and learning with people around the globe since before we had graphic browsers. A hundred thousand hours of typing and mousing have earned me the arthritis showing up in my hands…

What you may not know is that this spring I moved the World Headquarters for “The Virtual Meeting Coach” to Mountain Meadows, an active senior community in beautiful Ashland, Oregon. The move was not planned, and I’m not retired. But coming to Mountain Meadows has turned out to be just as powerful a next step for me as it was for my neighbors who planned their retirement here.

I’m surrounded by beauty and some of the smartest people living in the Rogue Valley, ages 55 to 104. Some are retired. Some continue working. All of us enjoy meals in our fabulous clubhouse, the warmth and companionship of our community garden, an onsite fitness center, and the comfort and stimulation of each others’ humor, curiosity, and lifetimes of experience. I’ve been telling friends I fell through the looking glass into a world I never imagined could be so much fun.

Within the first week of my arrival, I hooked up with the computer users group, shepherded by Chris Menefee, a brilliant, generous retired librarian and active senior technology advocate. Chris had been leading the group’s exploration of social networking sites and begun working with Ning to setup a private site for Mountain Meadows residents. With a little more coaching from me from the wings, Chris launched the network within the month and residents began signing up for it by the dozens. At the same time, I started offering some informal group computer coaching for residents having trouble using their computers.

Like flowers just waiting for water, one resident after another has raised their heads – and their hands – asking for help crossing over the great “digital divide” into the 21st century. Bob Griffin, chairman of the activities and events committee of the Mountain Meadows Owners’ Association authorized my “cloud computing initiative” for interested residents. And, beginning in September, it’s our shared hope that over the coming year, we will grow a garden of elders who  feel confident and comfortable computing anytime and from anywhere they can get on a WI-FI connection.

I’m calling the first step of this cloud computing initiative, “Up, Up and Away: Elders Everywhere and Especially Online!” Participants who don’t already have a laptop or netbook have been shopping for them this summer so they can take advantage of all the FREE Web2.0 apps available in the cloud and the clubhouse Wi-Fi internet connection I’ll be using for their classes. Championed by the intrepid online shopper, Annette Pirie, dozens of Mountain Meadows residents have been shopping – both locally and online – collecting stats, features, and best prices for netbooks and cheap laptops, and sharing their research with each other in the community Ning. I’m so proud of them all I can’t quit grinning!

I promised folks I would put my own arthritic fingers on as many netbooks as I could find during a recent business trip to San Francisco and post my research and my recommendations into the Ning before September 1st.  As I started writing up my notes this weekend, it dawned on me it made good sense to share my experiences here, too. (Duh!)

So, tomorrow’s post will feature my brief notes and recommendations for currently available netbooks that I expect will perform well for Seniors and ABBs (Aging Baby Boomers who don’t yet want to call themselves “Seniors”) who are seeking an easy, cheap route to cloud computing.