Editor’s note — The following information about free technology training sessions for local seniors was submitted by Highland County Health Commissioner Jared Warner.

The Highland County Community Action Organization has had the opportunity to provide several digital literacy trainings over the past few weeks with many Highland County seniors. These trainings are being offered during weekdays, evenings and even on some weekends in an effort to be accessible to as many people as possible.

For those unable to attend these training sessions in person, I wanted to offer up a few training highlights that produced the most “Aha!” moments in class so far.

THE LONG HOLD — Many of our training attendees learned for the first time about how to hold down their finger on a phone application icon in order to see additional options and settings for applications. This was especially helpful when we went through the process of finding and connecting to wireless internet, where holding a finger on the phone wifi icon brought up the list of available networks.

SIDE SWIPING — Many of our attendees learned for the first time about swiping their finger from the edge of the screen towards the middle in order to bring up additional settings. For Android users in particular, this helped them quickly find their phone settings screen as well as their applications list. Learning moments like this are exciting to see.

DO NOT CALL REGISTRY — Many of our seniors talked about the number of sales calls and scam calls that they get on a daily basis. We talked in class about the national Do Not Call list, which can help in removing personal phone numbers from marketing call lists. Anyone interested in adding their number to the do not call list can go to www.donotcall.gov and register. You do need an email address in order to register for the do not call list, which is something else that we cover in our “Introduction to Technology” training.

The HCCAO and the Highland County Commissioners have sponsored a series of “Introduction to Technology” trainings for Highland County senior citizens. Below are the times and dates of upcoming trainings. No registration is necessary, and all events are free!.

● Saturday, March 30, 1-2 p.m. — Hillsboro Library

● Saturday, April 6, 1-2 p.m. — Leesburg Library

● Monday, April 15, 5-6 p.m. — Lynchburg Library

● Saturday, May 4, 1-2 p.m. — Hillsboro Library

We hope to see you there.

This project is supported by the Highland County commissioners and Highland County Community Action Agency through funding from the Ohio Healthy Aging Grant.