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HOUGHTON -- MTU BASIC (Building Adult Skills in Computing) students host a series of events to teach community members how to use and navigate through digital technology.
BASIC is an outreach program made up of students and faculty members who offer tutoring for adults who are interested in learning more about technology.
The group's latest event, "Finding Your Way Around the Internet," was held on Thursday at the Portage District Library.
The purpose of the event was to help participants use digital search and navigation options to get them where they wanted to be.
"We like to help older adults feel more comfortable taking on technology without having to ask family members," said Jamie Berger, a student and volunteer.
Participants were encouraged to bring their own digital device to participate in the hands-on activities.
After showing different ways to search and browse, there was an online treasure hunt to test what was learned.
Berger wants participants to leave with the ability to search easily.
"I hope that they would be more comfortable finding information online and be able to recognize navigation tools," said Berger.
Prior to these events, the students have been using Saturday mornings to teach seniors in the community how to use computers, Facebook, browse and whatever they may have questions about.
The students chose the events in the series by using prior knowledge from working with the adults to choose common issues they faced.
"We tried to think of common things that came up and we framed the different courses that we designed for these common things," said Berger.
The next events that will be held at the Library are the "Sharing (but not too much) on Facebook" (Tuesday) and the Fake News event (Thursday).