Dawn and Marie Cobalt of the Sedona International Film Festival’s tech crew will be holding a series of “Tech Savvy for Seniors” workshops at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre this summer, beginning June 21.

“Tech and art have always been in our lives,” Dawn Cobalt said. The duo were part of one of the first groups of students at their high school to work with the school’s first set of Macintosh Classic computers by making the dean’s list. They’re also graphic designers. “We were tech when tech started, so to us it’s just second nature.”

They initially launched the workshop series in partnership with a nonprofit while living in California.

“We did these seminars out there. We broke them down like medical apps, games for your brain, Facebook, Instagram. We don’t try to overwhelm with too many subjects in one workshop,” Dawn Cobalt said. “Then we moved out here and were just kind of doing our thing, and I saw a headline that said, ‘AI is going to pass the boomer generations by.’ I was like, ‘It doesn’t have to.’”

“We should bring back ‘Tech Savvy for Seniors,’” she said. “So that’s where it came from. Just wanting to help people.”

They plan to hold the monthly workshops at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre, with the first at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 21. Events may move from the third Saturday of the month in the fall. Additional workshops may also be conducted at the library or a senior center if demand increases.

Tickets for the workshop are $30, or $35 the day of the event. For more information, visit sedonafilmfestival.com or facebook.com/profile.php?id=61576296850870.

“Because it’s a workshop, I think that’s what really makes it exciting for the theatre,” Marie Cobalt said. “We don’t have any right now. I think that was kind of like what the board of directors, they’re interested in workshops — we didn’t know that, we just wanted to do one.”

“Everyone’s very excited,” Dawn Cobalt said. “I think we’re filling a need that’s not being met out here.”

Each workshop will be structured around a single topic to prevent information overload, currently to include iPhone basics — the first workshop — email essentials, video calling, social media and online communities, shopping safely, music, medical apps, digital entertainment, ebooks and audiobooks. Photography is another possibility.

“Do they know everything about their camera settings? Probably not, cause it’s pretty advanced now, which I really appreciate because I’m also a photographer,” Marie Cobalt said. “The iPhone is probably one of the best cameras out there right now for the amount that you’re paying. Seniors, they have a bazillion pictures on their phone, but as far as sending them off, airdopping, or emailing, or sending them over another platform, is difficult for them, because they don’t know how to do it. If they don’t know how, they just don’t do it.”

“I’ve had people in the grocery line talking about frauds and scams,” Dawn Cobalt said. “I’ve had a friend whose father lost half his savings cause he got scammed. We want to help prevent that.”

The workshops will focus on helping seniors with the use of mobile devices.

“We will have some computer ones also, but most people have this in their hands wherever we go,” Dawn Cobalt said, holding up her phone.

“Spending time here in the theatre, that’s what we’re running across,” Marie Cobalt said. “‘Can you help me, Marie? I want my text bigger, how do I do that?’ Little things like that. And then it mushrooms into something more.”

“We want to get the feedback and see what people really need to begin with, so we can fulfill that need, and then expand it,” Dawn Cobalt said. “We do want to have a workshop on AI because of that headline, so we would tell people, if you have a laptop, bring that in, it’ll be a little easier on you. We do want people to do their hands-on right then and there so they learn it … At least it will take that fear away from them.”

“What more comfortable place to do it than a place they know so well, a place they come to almost once a week,” Marie Cobalt added. “It’s very much a confidence-building workshop, too … it feels good when you’re able to fix some thing and figure it out on your own.”

“I don’t think it’s the device that’s the challenge, I think it’s the lack of knowledge that’s the challenge and the fear of, well if I hit this button, I’m going to screw everything up,” Dawn Cobalt agreed.

However, that challenge can also provide intellectual benefits. “It helps with cognitive exercise. When you’re learning new things, at whatever age, it’s very invigorating,” Marie Cobalt said.

“Builds new neurons, and that will help people,” Dawn Cobalt said. “As we get older, the neurons don’t fire as fast, and you need to do it more to make that connection strengthen in the brain.”

“A lot of times it’s the concept. This is a search engine, as opposed to this is a web browser,” Marie Cobalt explained. “The concept of having an organized laptop, which will make your desktop not as fragmented, but also have your machine overall run better, that’s a concept they will understand. ‘Oh, it’s like a car.’ You want to make sure it’s working the right way all the time.”

Dawn Cobalt said she had found the most effective techniques for helping people to learn to be “going slow, hitting the basics … answering the questions as they come, not waiting … but also having them do it. And repetition.”

“Don’t have a billion tabs open. Stuff like that,” Marie Cobalt noted.

“Or, close your apps,” Dawn Cobalt tagged on. “‘What do you mean, close my apps? I didn’t know you could close them.’”

“Sedona will be a town of tech-savvy seniors,” Dawn Cobalt predicted. “Education knocks the fear away.”