Guys, I have been using a mac now for just over 10 years. I started in the days of mac OSX 10.4.1 Tiger with a Power Mac G4 Quick Silver.
I am at the point now where I could not function without my mac, end of story! There are a few things on Windows I still do, but very few. I'd say out of an 8 hour work day, I'm probably only in Windows maybe 30 minutes to an hour out of that timeframe. So, here is what I am thinking. For those who live in the US, or have telephone calling to the states, how interested would people like Andy, or Arnald etc. be with me coordinating and teaching a 1 hour class on the basics of the mac OS from the standpoint of someone blind who has used Windows all their life? Make it very clear that I do not plan to charge for this class. I would very gladly vollenteer my time to do this for you all in a group setting. The classes would not be all lecture based. I would make them very interactive. This means, though I might have a small portion of the class devoted to lecture, 95% of the hour would be helping you all better understand Voiceover, and your new mac system. Over time, the coriculum would be: a.. Deciding which mac is right for you b.. The differences in keyboard layouts c.. Identifying the FN, CTRL, Option, and command keys d.. Discussing the Voiceover modifier keys e.. Turning on your mac for the very first time ever f.. Turning on Voiceover with no sighted help g.. Basic VO keyboard navigation h.. Basic VO trackpad navigation i.. Why trackpad gestures over keyboard navigation j.. Completing the first time setup assistant k.. Creating an Apple ID/ICloud ID, and why l.. The basics of Quick Nav m.. Accessing and navigating menu bars n.. Accessing and navigating menu extras, and what they are o.. Connecting to a wifi network p.. Configuring Finder view options to your liking q.. Accessing right click context menus r.. Navigating the dock, and what is it s.. Switching between opened applications t.. The Running applications window u.. Switching between opened windows within an application v.. The Window chooser w.. System Preferences, and useful configurations x.. The Finder, and basic navigation y.. Opening files/folders z.. Explaining concepts of volumes vs. drives aa.. The Finder sidebar ab.. The finder browser ac.. Icon, list, and column views within the Finder ad.. Changing between the three different views ae.. Renaming files/folders af.. Copy/pasting files/folders ag.. Selecting files/folders contiguously ah.. Selecting file/folders noncontiguously ai.. Adding items to the dock aj.. Aliuses, what are they, and how to create them ak.. Properly disconnecting USB drives, and external media al.. Closing opened windows am.. Quitting applications an.. Force quitting applications, and when to do so ao.. An entire class hour long devoted to the Voiceover Utility ap.. An entire class devoted to the concept of interacting aq.. Routing the mouse pointer ar.. Querying location of keyboard, Voiceover, and mouse focus as.. Getting very detailed coordinant locations of cursors at.. Moving and resizing windows with no sighted help au.. Hiding vs. minimizing av.. Zooming vs. maximizing aw.. Closing vs. quitting ax.. Setting some useful preferences for Safari ay.. Two dedicated classes to surfing the web az.. One dedicated class to working with E-mail ba.. Three dedicated classes to the basics of ITunes bb.. The extreme basics of Quicktime, and why you'd need it bc.. Basic word processing/text editting bd.. A very basic introduction to Pages be.. A very basic introduction to Numbers bf.. A very basic introduction to Keynote bg.. The mac App Store bh.. Software Update bi.. Disk Utility bj.. An incredibly extremely basic intro to Terminal bk.. The notification Center bl.. Audio/Midi Setup, and its rare uses bm.. An intro to the stocked DVD player bn.. An intro to Airplay bo.. Booting into System Recovery bp.. Imaging your drive with Super Duper bq.. Time Machine, and its uses br.. Migration Assistant, and its uses bs.. Installing, reinstalling, and clean installing OSX bt.. Troubleshooting misbehaving login items bu.. An intro to Activity Monitor bv.. An intro to ICloud Drive bw.. An Intro to Keychain Manager The final class will be wishing everyone farewell with the mac, and answerring any questions which may have not already been covered. Upon completion, everyone would receive an electronically e-mailed certifiquet certifying their full completion in the corse. Along the way, some weeks will have weekly assignments which I will ask the group to complete for the next class. If I do this for you guys, and I do it for free, then realize, I am giving you a $300 value. Normally, this corse is charged at $300, but seeing how many on this list have lately seemed to be struggling, I believe in you guys enough, and I believe in Apple, and their products enough, that I would like to offer this to you all as a free gift. It's not something I normally do, but if it will help you guys, then, I'll do it. Let me say this though, if I do this for you all, I need to see true commitment. This means, don't return your mac within the first week of getting it. I will expect all participants to be fully engaged. This will mean completing all assignments on time, or at least to the best of their ability, staying in direct contact with me either via phone, Facetime, E-mail, or Skype if they have any questions or concerns. It will mean if I'm moving too fast, tell me! I'll not be able to make this effective for you all, if you don't come to me, and say, Christopher, I'm having a hard time, please help me. If you tell me you're not getting something, I'll work with you one on one until you do. I won't know if you don't tell me though. I don't want this to be like the other free corses in the past I've tought where sometimes people show up, but then usually 98 percent the time, they don't. Realize that if I do this, it's going to take a lot of my time! I'm very very willing to do it, but I need those who attend to be very very serious about this. If you really truly are struggling, and really want to learn, then, let's do it, but if you're only coming to be at a few lessons, then goof off the rest of the time, then I don't want you, frankly, in my class. It's that simple. I'll give, but you all have to be willing to openly receive. Idealy, I'd like this class to run an hour a week, and generally, I'd like it on an average to be ongling for about 3 months. This means 12 weeks, so 12 lessons, equaling to about 12 hours all total worth of training, not including any one on one help you may need along the way. If we need to go longer, we will. This is only a starting goal. I'm very flexible. If you all are interested, then write me off list. clgillan...@gmail.com If you're not in the states, and cannot call the states via phone, then let me know. If the international demand is high enough, then I have some ideas we can take to rectify that problem, but let's cross that bridge when, and if, we need to. Again, I'm not selling this, so no need to ask for Mark's approval, I'd not think. I'm offerring this totally for free as my gift. I really wanna do this, and I really wanna see you guys love your mac, and succeed. You all can do this! I know you can! Allow me to help you! Chris. -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. 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