Yes. I taught my grandma how to use the Internet, E-mail, and Skype. She played Freecell often before, but nothing else on the computer. (She still says "So can

Yes. I taught my grandma how to use the Internet, E-mail, and Skype. She played Freecell often before, but nothing else on the computer. (She still says "So can I X-this out?" to close a window.) I sat her down one afternoon and explained things very slowly, using metaphors such as the postman bringing mail to your house, and you putting mail in your mailbox when you want it to go out at some point. For the internet, I used the metaphor that "your computer talks to other computers" and shows you pages that live on other computers. I had to explain about hyperlinks, ads, etc. The key point to remember: They're not stupid; the internet is completely foreign to them. You have to explain things that we take for granted, such as hyperlinks, the windows taskbar, what a "window", "application", etc are. Technical details: I put her in Chrome, and added a shortcut to her start menu for Gmail. She can feel safe because the home button always gets her out of wherever she wants to go.