SOSMagAprilJune2020

PHS BoomSquad: Where Boomers Learn from Teenagers Dana Stahl learned of BoomSquad reading Serving Our Seniors Magazine. Perkins High School is making itself the go-to place for inter-generational education. At PHS retirees can be “tutored” (so-to- speak), by a high school student, on how to use their smart phones, laptop computers, tablets and other similar devices. Dana has a smart phone and he wanted to learn about some of the apps he has on his phone. He admits, “For me, the dichotomy is I thought I was supposed to be teaching kids -- they aren’t supposed to be teaching me.” Dana said, “It’s a resource and most importantly its free. Why not use what’s available? I spent approximately a ½ hour with PHS Senior, Gracie Neilson. I also enjoyed the conversation about her future plans after high school. It was nice to be able to interact with high schoolers. I don’t normally have a chance to do that.” PHS Senior, Leah Kenne, helped Alice Brosnan and had fun sharing what she knows about technology. “I like to help people,” Leah said. “BoomSquad is perfect for that. I have grown up with technology so I am good at using it. The world of technology is growing every day and is part of everyday life.” She makes a valid point. The human element is harder to find when requesting information from Social Security, Medicare, hospitals and doctor’s offices. More organizations and businesses are expecting their consumers to know how to navigate a website and use a “portal”. For more information, call or e-mail Jen Galloway at 419-625-1252 jgalloway@perkinsschools.org and request a student to help you. Do You Use a Computer? CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS!! By Chloe Brown, Senior Advocate Assistant & IT Trainee Are you one who doesn’t like using the computer much, except for Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends? Or maybe you sometimes purchase items through websites such as Amazon. To keep it simple, you probably use the same password for everything. That is a bad habit! This is why using different passwords are important… Let’s say you went to a website and purchased something at Ancestry.com – and it has been hacked. The hackers now have your email address, password, and any other information associated with this Ancestry account. Even worse, the hackers can now use the password to log in to all of your other online accounts, such as Facebook and Amazon. How can you avoid this misfortune? Start with your passwords. Make a unique password for all of your online accounts. Additionally, make sure you create strong passwords. Use multiple words or a phrase, a combination of upper and lowercase letters, and “special characters” such as $, &, @. Avoid using words or numbers that are easily guessed, such as “password” or “123456”, and don’t include any personally identifying information such as your name, address, or date of birth. To keep track of your passwords, I suggest keeping a pen and paper log of your login information for all accounts. Store this information in a secure location. In our increasingly digital world, it is imperative that you exercise the same level of discretion with your online identity as your “real life” identity 5