With technology, teens are the teachers

This summer a free one-on-one computer help program for adults launched at the Henry Waldinger Memorial Library.

Both teenage tutors and adult students benefit from this helpful tutorial, said Mamie Eng, Valley Stream’s library director. Teens are taking advantage of this summer volunteer work opportunity to fulfill their school requirements by applying their expertise in computers, while adults take in knowledge about technology and the Internet that are a vital part to this modern day and age.

The program’s function is, “offering services, getting people more computer savvy,” Eng said. More than 30 adults have had some type of training to date, according to Eng.

Some of the adults that signed up were first-time learners while others had few skills but wanted to develop them more. Adults have come in seeking assistance in reading and sending emails, setting up and managing Facebook accounts, help with popular picture editing program Adobe Photoshop, downloading pictures from their camera to their computer, and other requests.

Tutor Michael Yang, 14, who attends South High School and assists Valley Stream resident Kathleen Dolan, said, “We have all this technology, [however] technology is just useless if people don’t know how to use it.”

Dolan wanted to receive guidance on searching for information on Google, ordering products online, printing her emails out and streaming a radio station from the web. She said there is an Irish program that Hofstra University presents on the radio on Saturdays from 3 to 4 p.m. that she would like to listen to on her computer.

“I wanted to learn different things on the computer that I haven’t been able to do,” she said.

Valley Stream resident Monica Francis tutored by Kathlyn Rodriguez, 15, from Sacred Heart Academy said, “I want to keep in touch with my children and my grandchildren.” Francis signed up for the program because she has family in Queens, Brooklyn and Binghamton that have encouraged her to learn how the computer and Internet works so that they could stay connected.

Francis said her last encounter with computers was in 1996 when she took up computer courses. “I don’t even know how to turn it on,” she said with a laugh.

Aside from this being volunteer work for school, Yang said, the program gave him something to do over the summer. Tutoring on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 3 to 5 p.m., he said he feels it is nice and rewarding to be able to help people. Yang said he enjoys “the satisfaction that people know how to use technology better” because of his instruction to individuals.

Rodriguez said she became a tutor to volunteer in the library and to lend a helping hand. Tutoring on Tuesday and Thursday from 10:30 to 12:30 p.m., she said meeting her students is something that she looks forward to throughout the program.

For the teens, the satisfaction that they are instructors gives them “good self-esteem” because it is usually a reversed role when it comes to teaching, Eng said.

For next summer the program will definitely continue, Eng said. If it can be run during the school year, the library will offer it as well.