Computer as the Second Language

“What am I gonna do with an email?” asked the man rather boisterously.

“I’ll send ya a joke!” replied his classmate with a laugh. She was a 60-year-old woman with round cheeks that filled with a healthy blush as she spoke.

In a second they both turned their attention toward the busy Yahoo webpage displayed on a 20 inch Dell screen. The class was still in progress. Younger than most of her students, Yvette Brockington spoke with the zeal of a motivated mentor. “Software is the intangible part of the computer,” she said, carefully overlooking each of the six students in attendance. “They are the programs that run inside the computer.”

Sheepshead Bay library is tucked between two apartment buildings on East 14th Street and Avenue Z in Brooklyn.

The calm, but dynamic classroom activity of the computer basics workshop was taking place in the warmly lit children’s floor of the Sheepshead Bay library, a small two-floor branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. Amidst the tightening budget cuts across Manhattan’s and Queens’ library systems, Brooklyn Public Library is still largely open full-time, and is not yet deciding which programs to let go, and who to fire next. Brockington’s classes that started six months ago are quietly thriving behind the beige brick walls of the Sheepshead Bay branch. They have the energy and engagement needed for some among the older population of Sheepshead Bay to advance their lives with the speed of the Internet, a speed not offered for most of their life.

Yvette’s computer during the workshops is usually circled by nine patrons in their 60s and 70s who come early afternoons on Monday, Thursday, and now Wednesday too for Yvette’s recent additional workshop, introduction to Microsoft Word.

Occupying bright orange, yellow, and green chairs in the children’s room, most of the students have a pen and a small notepad. The supply of new information grows by the end of the session with handouts and in-class worksheets that Yvette distributes during the class on computer vocabulary, steps on how to navigate a webpage, and questions on new terms, like floppy disk drive, megahertz, “right-clicking”, and browser.

Yvette was absent on March 20th, Monday's workshop. Some students occupied the free computers, and collectively traveled through the desktop and Internet.

Knowing these terms is vital for some of the attendees. The economic downturn left the older generation stranded at a time when use and knowledge of technology is one of the bullet points in the list of duties and responsibilities on the job. A laid-off fashion industry worker in her mid 60s never had to use a computer on the job, except the email function. A post office young retiree only remembers how to use a typewriter, the closest thing to technology he ever touched.

One of the patrons, a tall skinny 61-year-old man in large size trousers and overly thick tie tightly attached to frail skin of his thin neck, seemed like a student with a course overload after Wednesday’s workshop on April 9^th, carrying a worn checkered roller backpack, and a “Microsoft Word 2003” textbook in his hand. He is unemployed after serving 30 years in the security field, and is now trying to pick up the pace of the online world.

“It’s all send me this, and send me that,” he said, with an air of conformity to the digital age. He’s in the process of completing his typed up resume, and is slowly becoming comfortable with websites like Monster.com, and JobSearch.com.

“It’s like everything today. You gotta have an Ezpass to get through on the roads; or a metrocard. You gotta swipe it to get on the subway. It’s your pass; otherwise you can’t get in,” theorized Jim Scott, a quite energetic man for a retired 59-year-old police officer. Before the workshops he goes to the nearby Bally’s fitness club after driving 10 minutes from Marine Park, a neighborhood adjacent to Sheepshead Bay. Jim still doesn’t exactly know what use he’s going to have for his recently set up email account. But he enjoys the easy accessibility to information on the Internet, and the various opportunities that facilitate learning of new skills, like the Learning Express Library, Brooklyn Public Library’s website perk that Yvette demonstrated during her workshop on March 26^th.

Not knowing so, Yvette might have found her niche coming to work at the Sheepshead Bay branch six months ago. She filled the newly vacated spot of the Technology Resource Specialist, a position that was created within Brooklyn library’s system in 2004 to help the IT department coordinate technology-related problems across the 6o branches of the BPL. “Yvette’s personality truly connected with the eagerness of the patrons,” said Svetlana Lerner, the librarian at the branch. Svetlana is an old woman of few words, but she is highly perceptive of the life inside this small library, which is half the size of a 300-student auditorium.

One month after Yvette’s arrival, the Monday column on the calendar of activities was marked “Computer Basics 12 PM”, and Thursday’s column, – “Surfing for Seniors 1 30 PM”, next to “Story Time”, “Arts & Crafts”, and “Chess workshop”. Aside from monitoring the computers, the copy machine, and the library kiosk self-service, the Technology Resource Specialist must provide this kind of computer training to the public at least once a month.

By Mid-March, however, Yvette has volunteered to land the third workshop onto the weekly calendar, – the Microsoft Word basics.

“They need it,” she said. “You’re talking about patrons that have come from scratch; they didn’t even know how to turn on the computer, and now they’re able to go to the desktop, double-click on E, the internet opens up, go to the address bar, type in the web-page, and sign on.”

At a time when city agencies, like senior centers, are booked, and most BPL’s branches offering infrequent computer workshops, Yvette’s modest school is a treasure to the patrons.

It’s a treasure to her as well.

At 42 years old, Yvette is married and after having guided her two daughters to college, is now raising her 17-year-old son who goes to a Midwood high school nearby. Once outside the active classroom environment she carries a scent of indifference, her haughty eyes guarding what’s inside. But the genuineness and her kind intentions break through.

“I have one patron,” she recollected, her eyes twinkling with joy. “He’s an older guy, he’s retired from the post office. He came here; he knew nothing. Now all I do is turn on the computer, I go up there, he’s already checking his inbox, he’s typing and all. I mean, when I see’em progressing, I’m so proud of them!”