What's the distinction, though? What's the difference between right-click and all the other things she can do?
She can work her digital camera. She can work her cell phone. (She even sends text messages now!) She can work the DVD player, the TV, and her fax machine. She even managed to program her VCR to record shows a few times back in the days when programming a VCR was a real accomplishment.
Also, she considered majoring in math in college and became a high school math teacher in her forties, so she's never been averse to abstract thinking. (It also proves she can work a graphing calculator.) She's had Windows in the house since 3.1, and before that we had an Apple IIgs, which had a GUI finder and other mouse-centric apps.
So what's the distinction? To say that people who came to computers late have trouble with stuff is an observation, not an explanation.
Pretty much all of those things require you to memorize some arcane series of steps to accomplish anything. Most likely, she is taking that mental model of how to use electronics and applying it to the computer.
I believe you said that, once given specific instructions to accomplish a specific task on the computer, she can generally remember and repeat those steps in the future. This fits the model of those other devices, where you must memorize some arbitrary button or combination of buttons to make it do what you want. VCRs, TVs, fax machines and digital cameras do not have a "right click" menu attached to them, and these are the devices on which she has formed her mental model of how to use electronic devices.
There's no point in denying the fact they have trouble, though. If a similar group of people keep having trouble with the same interface of a user application, then the usability is just plain bad. It's not the fault of the users, it's the design's fault.
Don't get me wrong, I feel with you, though. I don't want to count my problems explaing the concept to beginners^
I wouldn't say that, Tichy. If people buy a computer for their homes, they are motivated to learn new things. If it doesn't work out for them, they certainly could manage with more motivation.
But so could anyone achieve a BSc. Everyone with a BSc could have an MSc. All having a MSc should be working on their PHD. You get the idea. If you can go one step, you _could_ always take two.
Sometimes you don't want to go that extra step, because there's not enough ROI. And sometimes you don't need to, because it was a design flaw.
Or you don't need to because you have a son you can ask for help instead...
Maybe it is one of the few excuses to get in touch. So the iPad will lead to more loneliness in the lives of old people, because suddenly they don't know what to ask anymore :-)
Or they could for instance share pictures they took of their beautiful summer garden instantly with their grandchildren - including an invitation for dinner on the weekends.
As a techie, I want to believe that technology enables communication sometimes. Especially for edge cases like older folks.
I'm only available on the phone, and she usually suffers with something for a while before asking me. She's good about that. Also, the questions have become less and less frequent every year as she adds to her repertoire of concrete know-how.
Didn't mean it in a bad way - just some people don't know what they are missing if they don't use computers, so they don't make that much of an effort.
She can work her digital camera. She can work her cell phone. (She even sends text messages now!) She can work the DVD player, the TV, and her fax machine. She even managed to program her VCR to record shows a few times back in the days when programming a VCR was a real accomplishment.
Also, she considered majoring in math in college and became a high school math teacher in her forties, so she's never been averse to abstract thinking. (It also proves she can work a graphing calculator.) She's had Windows in the house since 3.1, and before that we had an Apple IIgs, which had a GUI finder and other mouse-centric apps.
So what's the distinction? To say that people who came to computers late have trouble with stuff is an observation, not an explanation.