Windows 7 - I need some input for a workshop I prepare

I hope this is not too much asked. But I am out of ideas for this workshop.

I prepare this workshop for members of my computer club (appr. 800 members). They are mostely older folks that know only the basics of Windows. The went thru the basic classes that some other instructors teach. But every time they see the word "advanced", they scare.

I therefore wanted to try something different. This workshop is going to be 4 times 2 hours (and if necessary we meet a few more times). The members bring their own laptops and will repeat what I will show on the screen right then and there. This way I am sure that they have done it at least once (and have the setup in their laptop). And if they have questions, they can ask right there. My experience was that in a normal 'teaching' class, they forget 90% of what I taught the minute they walked out of the classroom.

For some subjects I have also added little video tutorials as a reminder when they are back home. And come February when the workshop starts, I will probably have some more.

Below is the agenda (you need to download it) which they will download at the beginning of the class. The comments in green are for your better understanding of what I am trying to do - they are not part of the class agenda.

I would appreciate if you scanned the document and if you have an idea what could be added or improved, please let me know. Any new subject or suggestion for changes is welcome.

Seems pretty advanced Wolfgang. I may have to sign up In the Better Screen View section, are you planning to discuss the Ease Of Access Center?

A Guy

I may not be a good advice giver but i suggest that classroom software where the instructor can see the desktop of each and every trainee.I don't remember the software name but last time i saw it when i was having my SAP training at siemens.That way you can monitor what each and every student is doing and rectify their mistake on hand.JMT

At the end of the course you could do a session on the help we provide here and point them at the tutorials.

seems an extensive course , maybe one or two suggestions,
on the youtube download at the end, i would suggest downloading and installing real player.
( there will be different opinions of this)

real player installs in your browser a "download this video" tab that pops up when you have a video on the screen,(you can set a folder destination of your choosing), it works not only on youtube but on mostly any video on the internet, and you can convert the video also. i generally convert a music video to mp3 and then delete the video ,as they are usually just a slideshow someone has put together.

its the only time i use real player and it doesnt seem to create any other issues on my pc.


the other suggestion i would make is to introduce them to dropbox, it is an excellent way to share photos etc
and if you have an account wolfgang you could send each of your students an invite, as for every invite accepted you as the invitor would recieve a further 500mb of storage free and the student also 500mb for accepting. you could end up with up to 10 GB. also its really good for syncing files and folders between computers as a folder you store on one pc can be accessed on another by having the same dropbox account open on the other pc.
also you can access things online ,so anywhere in the world you may be .and away from your own pc, you can go online and download from your account, it could be a list of passwords for instance.

and lastly, maybe a session on skype as most elderly people like to keep up with their children and grand children,

Maybe I add that. The ease of access center itself is pretty messy, that is why I focussed on only some of the items.

Hmm, sounds like an interesting piece of software. But I will have my wife roaming the isles and she is pretty good at that stuff. I expect about 20 students each time - that should be manageable.

Agree, added.

Years ago I had some problems with Real Player. But let me explore how this thing works now.

I use Fileswap and Skydrive. Is there an advantage with Dropbox over those?

Skype is a good idea - although I do not use it myself because I do not like people to look into my living room. There is a special class about Skype at the club. At least I can point them to that.

Thanks everybody for the inputs. Keep them coming.