Google Video Teaches How To Make Text Bigger

~ John Rochford

A new Web site, TeachParentsTech.org, was announced by Google recently. Its purpose is to teach basic computer skills to parents. See the announcement and explanation.

The site teaches exclusively via videos. Among the 50+ videos now on the site, “How to make text bigger (or smaller)”, embedded below, is included in the first group displayed on the home page. My guess is that’s because learning how to make text bigger is one of the most common skills parents (older adults for whom vision may not be ideal) request to be taught.

The video starts be reassuring the audience that the task is “super easy”. The skill is then succinctly defined. It is taught exactly how I intend to do so, in that the audience is shown how to use a two-key combination within a Web browser. There is perhaps one main difference between the video and the one I hope to produce for people with cognitive disabilities. I intend to show an image of a keyboard, focusing specifically on how to press the correct two keys, in sequence, to make a Web page (text) larger.

Notes:

3 thoughts on “Google Video Teaches How To Make Text Bigger”

  1. Showing the keyboard is crucial! Google made a classic mistake – there is no “control” key on the keyboard. Assuming that everyone knows what ctrl means is skipping a step.

    1. Thank you for your comment.

      My guess is that, because Google wanted to keep the lesson simple, it did not show the keyboard. There are a few standard Windows keyboards with differing key configurations. Showing just one would be confusing to people not using that particular keyboard, or for those using Mac keyboards.

      Also, as your comment implies, had Google shown the keyboard, it may have had to explain / associate the name “Control” with the “Ctrl” key, an additional complication.

  2. True about the variations in keyboards… But simply zooming in on the ctrl key while talking about it would have helped to make the association

Comments are closed.