Are there any computer programs that could help my 50 year old mother learn basic computer skills?

Well, there are a few different things you can do for your mom, but it all depends on what you're looking for. If you want something free, then your best bet is to go read some books at a library. If you want something free that doesn't require you going anywhere, your best bet is to find some free online tutorials. If you just want to pop in a CD in your computer and let it do most of the work for you, then your best bet is Video Professor, which claims to be "free" but does charge you shipping and handling. Video professor also has an online video tutorial option that you can get straight from the site, but only a limited number of lessons are free. If nothing else you can always find a friend who knows a thing or two about computers and who's willing to give your mom some free lessons. Whatever option you choose, it's going to cost you either time or money or both. My advice is to go with Video Professor because it works well with all learning levels which is a plus since most software and programs that teach computer skills are designed for children with cartoony characters and games which may be fun, but are not too popular among older adults. Of course, if you're willing and able to teach your mom yourself that's probably your best option. Here's some links to help you out though if you need them:

For free online tutorials, here's a couple of good ones. If they don't work when you click them just copy and paste them in your URL.

http://www.umuc.edu/distance/odell/ctla/basic_skil...

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/Tutorials/

For Video Professor (my recommendation) here's the link.

http://www.videoprofessor.com/

Hope this helps.

she sounds really cute and you are a good son who is taking all this trouble. get her a manual first. there must be someone living nearby who can come and teach her. my neighbour has also bought a computer recently and i go for one hour everyday to teach him and he is 65 years old! something as simple as email and google is not very difficult. don't have too many icons on her desktop, and have large icons and fonts. fix a long interval before the screensaver comes on and reduce the speed of the mouse-drag. simple exercises in using Word will teach her Edit-functions and File-functions. my neighbour gets very worried when he thinks he has lost all his typed stuff and so i had to teach him the joys of Undo!! go slowly and get her to use the keyboard confidently first, then start her on email. my neighbour has learnt a lot and now plays solitaire too!

Ditto all the above, but...to "take the edge off" so's she'll KNOW it's not all that hard, let her build a file in NOTEPAD.

Actually, 50 ain't all that old ya know! Gimme break! I'm 56 and I've BEEN a systems programmer and now I'm writing websites! And still learning, and learning PHP tomorrow! And A records and CNAME records and .htaccess and robots.txt and SEO and on and on... Can YOU say the same for yourself?

I think the best thing to do is get a basic computer book from your local library to start her off in a platform she is familiar with.

They're advertising the learning professor on TV. Learn Windows, Excel, etc. You chose one CD/DVD and they'll only charge you shipping and handling. Keep an eye out.

Go to your library. There'll be either books or classes offered (probably both).

Sit next to her and teach her.