For example: I teach Internet classes to Latinos living in my state, who are simultaneously learning English at the agency where I work. They are neither tech-savvy nor tech-avoidant. Forty people show up every week to continue to practice click and drag, copy and paste, and other functions many office professionals mastered a lifetime ago. Unfortunately, one person teaching the course doesn’t make it a terribly productive class — although it hasn’t made them stop coming and practicing. (In fact, no one gets out of their seat for the 10 minute breaks throughout the class.)

I pose a question for the audience:

For those who don’t have an office job and can’t afford a home computer, how do people learn how to use a computer? I have done Internet tutoring for the public library — because the resources there are so scarce in addition to a 1-hour per day time limit (in addition to a login which has taken me 30 minutes to coach people through), I have deemed the library not as a place for computer literacy.

The only people I’ve seen that have some computer skills (without the job or personal computer) are those who have family members or friends who have computers.

On the other hand, the rest of the blog entry regarding professional amateurs makes perfect sense. I think professional amateur should encompass a larger entity than a single technical vehicle of business delivery (Web sites).