[jkincaid]

Years ago I ran a small computer class at a retirement community. Every week there would be four or five "students" who showed up (usually the same ones every time). They were all very bright and funny, and I enjoyed every minute of it, even when it was frustrating.

What I found, though, is that most of them weren't really interested in learning how to use their computers — at least, not to the point that they'd feel comfortable navigating to interesting new websites.

Instead, they'd usually tell me exactly what they wanted to do, be it access their webmail account or play Bejeweled, and asked me to write out a checklist detailing how to do it (click the Start button, click the blue IE button, etc.). This actually worked pretty well most of the time. But if something didn't go according to plan they were too scared of messing things up to trust their intuition (especially when I wasn't around).

I really wish the iPad was around in those days, it would have been perfect for them.