ElderCollege goes online

By Lloyd Brown-John

Canterbury ElderCollege serves the Age 55 and better community with short, diverse and enriching courses throughout Windsor, Essex and Kent counties.

ElderCollege is an affiliate of Canterbury College at the University of Windsor. Canterbury ElderCollege, founded in 2010, was designed to achieve two basic purposes. First, to provide informative, interesting and challenging short and low-cost courses for folks aged 55 and better. Second, ElderCollege was premised upon the realization that many older people needed opportunities to socialize and engage in social interaction.

ElderCollege’s Spring 2020 Semester offered over 70 courses throughout Windsor, Essex and Kent counties. However, as we all know, the world changed dramatically in March and like so many other groups and organizations, Canterbury ElderCollege had to first postpone and then cancel most of its Spring 2020 courses.

Now, thanks to the support of the Emergency Community Support Fund from the Government of Canada and Windsor-Essex Community Foundation, Elder- College will experiment, beginning October 29, with an array of 13 online courses using Zoom. Courses will run throughout November and early December.

The courses will be offered free as Canterbury Elder- College and its volunteer instructors hit the technology stream in order to try to serve our community of seniors.

Details on courses and course registration will be available on the website: www.eldercollege.ca, this coming week.

We will launch with a course titled “Controversial Art” on October 29. Thereafter there will be courses titled: “Easter Island: An Exploration Visit”; “Grist for the Mill” which includes a discussion of probably Ontario’s oldest grist mill in LaSalle; and “Accessible Diversity: Acquired Disabilities”

A cool computer course “Cheater’s Trivia: Improve Your Internet Searching Abilities”; “Computers: Beyond The Chips and Wires”; “Pelee Island: Birthplace of Canadian Winemaking”; “Remembering the Royal Visit of 1939”; “Stories of Home” little known stories and tales of Essex County; and “Unknown Wings: The Aviation of WWII You Never Heard About”.

Finally, we will have two courses involving the Windsor Symphony Orchestra. Recognizing that many senior folks in our community may have issues with technology, Canterbury ElderCollege will do its best to ensure that all those interested have the opportunity to join our experiment in online learning for those of us who really would prefer a classroom setting and those cookies, cakes tea and coffee at break-time.