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 For
many years I've been known as Char Wood, "The Computer Granny".
I
started my adventure into the world of computing well over a
decade ago, by earning a degree in computer programming and
software engineering at the age of 48.
Upon graduating with
honors in 1999, (not bad for
 a grandma huh?) largely
due to my observations while working at the computer lab at
the college which was part of my curriculum. My late husband
Ron and I decided to opened The
Adult
Beginner's
Computer
'School in Daytona Beach Florida.
It
was while attending college that I saw a great many seniors
who had already taken the schools so called "beginner to
intermediate" classes and had passed with flying colors were
still having a terrible time actually using the computers!
And the rest as they say...is history!
The ABC
school was the first school of it's kind in the area,
catering to the needs of the older generation who did not
grow up with computers. It was our distinct pleasure to teach hundreds of
local seniors how to use a computer
with confidence and competence, in terms they could
understand in a very short amount of time. What a great
concept huh? But it was not a simple task!
 For
months Ron, who had worked for Hewlett Packard for 27 years
before retiring, and I sought out an appropriate textbook to use
in our classes.
What was needed was a written text with click-by-click instructions
and lots of illustrations that was written in plain
ENGLISH so that students didn't have to spend half the class
taking incomplete notes they'd not understand once they got home.
The Dummies & Idiots books were a joke. They
unfairly assumed that everyone who sat down at a computer
already understood computer lingo so
they were totally useless not to mention they degraded the
student before they even had the chance to learn.
After investigating literally every so called
"beginner to intermediate" book on the market, we
discovered that there was absolutely nothing that taught
computers in a common sense, logical order, using a
click-by-click method in plain English, so that students
could truly understand what to do, how do to it and why.
Students also needed the advantage of having these instructions
on hand at home long after their classes were through, so
that should they forget how to do something in the future,
all they had to do was open the book and follow the
step-by-step instructions!
That is when Ron took over responsibilities
in the school so that I could write my very first
Baby Step Thru Computing
series.
And although I had to give up writing books in 2009 due to
the tremendous cost of marketing, I sold over
20,000 copies of my books without one single return. Not a
bad track record wouldn't you agree.
Unfortunately, after
Ron passed away in 2003, I was not able to reopen the school.
However, that does not mean that I stopped teaching. In
fact, I expanded my services to include in home
computer
repairs & tutoring at a substantial savings to those in the Daytona Beach area!
So the next time
you need computer help of any kind, please...call Granny!
You'll be glad you did.
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Granny is uniquely qualified to help you with your computer needs.
