The Discovery Centre’s students at work
Image: Emily Mierisch
Source: Museum Victoria
The Discovery Centre recently celebrated the 2006 Victorian Seniors Festival with the launch of its annual Internet for Seniors program.
More than eighty students, all over the age of sixty, took part in the sessions. Held over the first two Sundays in October, these covered internet research skills and setting up an email address.
With the Discovery Centre’s focus on improving community access to information resources and fostering the development of research skills, Internet for Seniors is now a regular feature on the Seniors Festival calendar.
Feedback evaluation indicated that all participants felt the course was worthwhile, and as in the past, the program also encouraged attendees to rediscover the Museum, with over two-thirds having not previously visited the current site.
Classes were delivered by Discovery Centre Staff with the assistance of Museum volunteers. The invaluable contribution of volunteers was perhaps best demonstrated by the number of course attendees who then enquired about following their example and volunteering in the future.
As course attendees came from a variety of backgrounds, with very different levels of computer experience, achievements and milestones varied between individuals. In the end though, whether searching for information or sending that first email to an old girlfriend overseas, the satisfaction on attendees’ faces summed up another successful Internet for Seniors program.