Connect, Learn

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Connecting and Learning

Many of us get out every day and see friends, shop, have a meal, etc. But many of us can’t or don’t for various reasons. One of the things that COVID brought us was the ability to connect with, meet, and visit with others by way of various services like FaceTime, WhatsApp, and Telegram. While those are good for small groups like families and close friends, there are other services that work well with larger groups and have additional capabilities like transcription, AI-generated summaries and so on. These are typically called video conferencing services (which provide video conferences). We can often do our video conferences on our computers, our tablets, and even our smart phones! While there are many different video conferencing services, one of the most popular is Zoom.

One can connect to learn and one can connect to interact with other people.

Connecting to Learn

There are many services that provide free learning resources. You can learn new cooking recipes, how to draw, how to declutter, learn more about technology, exercise, and pretty much anything else you can think of. I’ll mention a few in case you’re unaware of them. I’ll only discuss the ones I’m familiar with.

YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/) is a common site many use to learn or understand new things. While there are live videos, many of them are pre-recorded so there’s no way to ask questions or interact with the instructor.

Senior Planet (https://seniorplanet.org/) from AARP offers quite a number of classes on a variety of subjects both in person and via Zoom. Some are pre-recorded but many are live and interactive so you can ask questions and interact with the instructor and the other attendees. Senior Planet uses Zoom so the attendees can often chat with each other via text. You do not need an account with AARP nor Senior Planet to find and join classes. If you go to the site you can see a good overview of what they offer. https://seniorplanet.org/classes/ will show you a list of their online classes with times and links.

GetSetup.io (https://www.getsetup.io/) is another site that uses Zoom and has both live and pre-recorded classes. In order to join a class, however, you need to have an account. Accounts are free. The selection of classes is a bit limited and some recorded classes are somewhat dated but there are live classes available.

SCTC (https://sites.google.com/friendslongmont.org/sctc/home) is from the Longmont, Colorado senior center. Their main method of communication is by their newsletter but the site does have a calendar of classes. The senior center has a physical location so there is a lot of information about the center but they really do have quite a few useful online classes and help sessions for technical issues. They also have a YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@infosctc4952/videos) with lots of good information.

Stitch.net (https://www.stitch.net/) has discussion forums, virtual and in-person meetings. It’s specifically for people over 50 years old - you’re asked in what year you were born to start the sign up process. It requires you to join and has a free tier and three paid tiers. The free tier is pretty limited. The paid accounts gain you access to certain members only features, events, and discussions.

One last site I want to mention is ThePlayground Senior Circle (https://theplaygroundcircle.org/), a registered non-profit organization that’s a great place to meet up with people virtually and attend fun, casual events like Morning Coffee Time and Trivia Time AND it’s FREE! They control membership so that only real people can join. To sign up you need to give the admins your real name and wait for them to approve your membership. That said, you don’t need to USE your real name - you can pick a username that you will be known by. Once approved, you can join in the various conversations and attend any of the live, community-led events. There are also text-based discussions on subjects like Aging Matters, Artificial Intelligence, Crafting, Knitting, and a number of other topics. I’m a member and I enjoy the interactions!

Connecting to Interact

In my opinion, one of the wonderful side effects of interactive video conferences is that you get to meet and interact with people from all over the world! I’ve met people from all over the United States as well as people from Germany, Austria, England, Ireland and too many other places to even recall. I have made new friends - many of the folks I’ve met I see in other meetings. Since I’m technically inclined, I mostly attend technical sessions. I even host a few - drop me an email if you want a list. But I encourage you to find and regularly attend the classes that interest you. I’m certain that, over time, you’ll meet and make new friends.

That’s all for this time

I hope you’ll try out a few of the sites I’ve listed and find some classes that meet your interests. Don't hesitate to write to me if you have questions!

As always, my intent is to help you understand the basics and equip you to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, to sign up for my newsletter, or whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI!

And remember that I maintain a NotebookLM notebook of all my previous newsletters at https://go.ttot.link/TonysNotebook. It has access to all of my newsletters. You can ask it questions like “what are passkeys” or “what can I do to help me remember things.” You’ll need a Google account to access it and, when you visit, you’ll be given your own NotebookLM notebook.

If you like, you can read my most recent newsletter in the Hillsboro Times Gazette at https://go.ttot.link/TG-Column - I should have that link updated shortly after this edition of the newsletter appears in the online version of the newspaper.