How do I teach my old parents how to use their new iMac?

you could get them a personal trainer from Apple for 99 a years
http://www.apple.com/retail/onetoone/

I’ve found that one of the biggest issues older people have to overcome when approaching technology is fear of breaking it. This fear prevents them from probing and experimenting in ways that would make them comfortable with it.

Backup the computer automatically and reassure them that they have nothing to worry about. If they ask you what a button does, tell them to press it. If they’re not sure what a setting does, tell them to change it. If they ask you how to do something, don’t just do it for them. Have them sit in front of the computer, hold the mouse themselves, and talk them through it. They’ll learn by doing.

Slow, steady and perhaps separately if your parents learn at different speeds.

My daughter bullied me into buying the eMac when I was over 60 and thought I would hate it..The trick was for me to have found a teacher (I used a teen-ager) who was patient and, as sferik so wisely says, let me “do” it. I also took a three-evening class for beginners on PCs at the local adult ed at the high school. When I was able to play solitaire, it was an “Eureka” moment.

I found also, that I could absorb only an hour’s worth of info at a time. Now I can’t imagine living without the iMac. If I had started w. a PC, it might have been different. Also, the David Pogue “Mac for Dummies” book was a good reference to have at hand. However, I love to learn new things and am an autodidact. Be patient w. them or find a neutral instructor.

PS. I would have someone come to them so that they can work on their own computer; if they go to the Apple store, the configurations might be different from what they have and confuse them.Even my sister’s iMac does things slightly differently than mine.

download some podcast tutorials

sferik: Great Answer!
I did it just that way with my grandpa. And he learned Windows…

How old are your parents? I would also suggest that you and they define some simple goals to start with; email, viz:email, address book, using web (google), trash.

Off-topic. could any of us speak Dutch as well as klass4 speaks English? What a nice young man!

i can speak spanish as good as klaas’s dutch (but thats cause i took 4 years of spanish)

Wow. Thank you! I’m flatterd!
Wow. Dank je! Wat een eer!

@mirza: Klaas’s Dutch is his primary language, I think. So we would be comparing your Spanish to his English. So, la manzana = an apple, and not een appel. Klaas; does your family speak English? And is your teacher a native speaker? This has nothing to do w. Macs, I know.

Be sure to set them up under non-admin user accounts AND get 2 gmail email accounts for each or both to do every day surfing, emailing. 1 gmail account to use for family, the 2nd to use to sign up on the sites they want to ‘join’

CAVEATS: make sure the block popup setting is on for safari. make sure the firewall is on / advanced options > stealth. Get clamXAV and set it up in the admin account, set up regular scans and updates.

AND You have to train them to come up with/use a standard Pseudonym, alternate birthdates (like their favorite celebrity or something), alternate addresses (or use PO boxes), standard passwords for those sites > create a note file and put the info in there, keep it on the desktop.

and make sure they know never to give out ANY personal information and NEVER click on links in an email or a site they don’t personally know (like the nytimes.com or AARP.org) They’ll be asked for that sign-up/log-in stuff for almost all news sites, online forums/communities, so it’s better to have a PLAN ahead of time.

AARP has some good resources / online communities. the FBI site has good info on indentity theft. It IS the wild wild west out there—so It’s better for seniors from my experience to just have a flat-out rule NOT to do any buying/credit card purchases online unless you’re sitting right there with them. Under no circumstances should they ever ever ever use a debit card or checking account to make purchases online—these are not covered by the same protections as credit cards.

If they do all their trial and error/learn by doing under user non-admin accounts (it will occur without tinkering with the admin settings/root/etc) and they’re unlikely to do anything that can’t be reversed—as long as they don’t give out any of their personal info/etc. They can’t give out info in the online forums or chat rooms—you have to help them be paranoid and on high alert in that regard.

Also, by not using the admin/root account, less likely that they will download or click anything that gets to root access of the system… and believe me they will download and click stuff that will try to do evil on their systems, but luckily they’re in safer territory than windows users, but it’s not 100% safe.

and then, let ‘em just go at it—trial and error, hands on is the best way to learn. and to get past the fear (but always keeping in mind the caveats and that nothing is 100% safe.)

also, get the free version of 1Password and set that up —it works great w/ all the major mac browsers
http://agilewebsolutions.com/promo/macgems

HURRY while still available

or if it’s on sale you get the upgrades/updates
http://agilewebsolutions.com/promo/christmas_2007?d=ChristmasSpecial2007

(PS make sure you email yourself all their password set up info directly from there as you’re getting it set up so you don’t forget)