Seniors in the Cyberage.

Based on an interview with Jane Weingarten, Director of Communications, Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly, Boston

It's often said that when you have problems with computers, go to a 10-yearold, because children understand them better than anyone. Or, to put it another way, the Computer Age is for the young.

When I step into the Tenant Computer Center at Senior Housing in Brighton, here is what I see:

* An 88-year-old Russian man, whose English is minimal, keyboarding page after page of the most fascinating personal memoirs of his life in the former Soviet Union;

* A man e-mailing his granddaughter about the necessity of saving her money;

* An elderly woman e-mailing a relative in the Ukraine;

* A recent immigrant from the People's Republic of China creating a Chinese language program for teaching English;

* A woman creating greeting cards online for her great-grandchildren;

* A leader of the JCHE's Brighton Tenants' Council laying out a flyer describing an upcoming function;

* A group of residents putting together a facility cookbook.

Of a population of about 900 residents in this three building complex, at least a hundred (and maybe twice that) routinely visit the center and spend hours at the six large-screened, state-of-the-art computers. Only a few years ago, very few had even heard of computers, much less used one.

All of this is the result of a program we began in 1996 with the help of a grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development's Neighbor-hood Network Initiative. After we raise the money to purchase the computers, HUD covers the cost of teachers, other instruction, Internet access, telephone lines and consultants. The HUD portion amounts to $35,000 a year for the Brighton center, which serves 710 apartments. The seniors have received training by instructors from the Jewish Vocational Services, who conduct regular classes and award "graduation certificates" to residents completing the course. There is always someone knowledgeable--either a tenant or a teacher--on hand to help with problems during the center's open hours, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Even more interesting, though, are the initiatives the residents have taken themselves. For one, the center is operated by a tenants' committee, which consists of members whose only initial qualification was an interest in computers and how they might fit into community life, and a willingness to learn. Their rapid advancement has been gratifying to me. These residents, many in their 80s and 90s, learn very quickly; it is just a myth that older people can't learn something this new or technological.

The growth I've seen has been remarkable. One of our residents wrote, "I haven't used my mind since I retired 15 years ago. Now the computer has opened me up to think again and learn new things."

The Brighton tenants' most recent project was to go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Media Lab to learn how to set up a Web page. MIT gave them the software, and now the residents are learning interviewing techniques, so that they can get some of their fellow residents' personal histories online. They are always trying to understand each other, treat each other with dignity and respect, and bring each other to life.

Our Brighton Tenant Computer Center has become an important factor in making that happen. And, carrying on with that, we have just opened another Tenant Computer Center at Campus House in Newton, and soon we will be opening one at Golda Meir House in Newton, as well.

Jane Weingarten, director of communications for Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly, a provider of nonsectarian housing for low-income elderly