On a morning when subzero temperatures closed schools around the metro area, every seat in the Senior Surf Day class at the Columbia Heights library was taken.
Not a surprise, though, said adult services librarian Barb Kondrick. "It always fills up," she said. "There's always a waiting list."
Chee Moua, of the Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging, led the class. After passing out stacks of informational material and a classroom guide, she announced, "We're going to be doing what we call 'mousercises.' "
She then set the students to work, and they advanced through tasks like scrolling down a screen (through sections of the "Iliad"), using drop-down menus (to select pizza toppings) and double-clicking (on sticks of dynamite to blow them up).
While those kinds of skills might seem like second nature to regular computer users, they can prove intimidating for seniors. Issues like arthritis, which one student said was a problem for him, can make clicking tricky.
"A lot of times," said Moua, "you run into people who are scared to use a mouse."
These days, more seniors than ever are online. According to 2013 data from the Pew Research Center, 59 percent of Americans ages 65 and over use the Internet. However, the transition to becoming Internet savvy can be daunting, and among those who said they don't use the Internet, 66 percent said they would require assistance getting online.
Moua said she'll field questions on everything from where to find the "enter" button to what to do when a screen suddenly disappears — which is the kind of thing that can leave seniors rattled.