"Have you guys heard of search engines?" asked Kristina Bostley.

Lydia Cruz and Norman Morrissette seemed nonplussed. The two Bridgeport residents sat on opposite sides of a classroom in the city's Dwight D. Eisenhower Senior Citizen Center on Golden Hill Street.

Both were students in a computer class for senior citizens taught by Bostley, a 21-year-old senior at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield.

During this class, they were to learn how to surf the Web. And, if Cruz's response to Bostley's question was any hint, they have a lot to learn.

"Search what?" asked Cruz, who gave her age as "over 50."

Bostley, who hails from Yonkers, N.Y., began the class at the senior center in October, as a service project for Upsilon Pi Epsilon, an international computer science honor society.

Now in its second session, Bostley's class, which is free, teaches older people such computer basics as operating a mouse, opening a word processing file and, of course, navigating the Internet.

Bostley got the idea for a computer class for seniors from her grandparents. Last summer, they got a computer and elicited Bostley's help in learning to use it.

"I realized that there are a lot of older folks who don't know how to use technology as easily as we do," Bostley said. "It's something we take for granted."

She approached staff at the Eisenhower Center, and set up the class. Upsilon Pi Epsilon adviser Frances Grodzinsky said she was impressed with Bostley's idea.

Grodzinsky, also professor of computer science and information technology, said there's an increasing need for classes like this.

"We're living in an information age," she said. "More and more things are moving online. And there are more and more active seniors."

It only follows that these seniors would want to know how to access all the services available to them online.

Indeed, according to a report from the AARP, the leading nonprofit membership organization for those aged 50 and older, more than half of older adults have at least heard of using a computer to search the Internet, communicate with others and play games with people living in different places.

Bostley said most of the seniors she sees are enthusiastic about becoming more tech savvy. Last year, she held four classes a week, with the help of other Sacred Heart students. Bostley started a new session of the class a few weeks ago, and runs two classes a week, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Generally, Bostley said, the seniors she works with are good students.

"They pick this up pretty quickly," she said.

Once Bostley explained to Morrissette and Cruz the finer points of using search engines, the two students embraced the idea. Cruz typed "travel" into the Google search engine and was floored by the pages and pages of links that popped up.

Cruz said she initially enrolled in the class to kill time while her husband took an exercise class at the center. But she also is thinking of getting a computer, and wanted to know a little more about the technology.

"There are a lot of things you can look up," she said.

Indeed, many seniors in the area are realizing that the Internet, and computers in general, are useful tools, and a number of local senior centers offer classes like the one at Eisenhower.

The Stratford Baldwin Center has held senior-skewing computer classes on and off for about 10 years, said Stratford Senior Services Director Diane Puterski. Puterski said seniors of all ages, from their 60s up to their 90s, have a renewed interest in learning computer skills.

She said many older people are realizing that the computer can help them research illnesses and medications, shop without arranging transportation, and stay in touch with family members. The latter is especially important, Puterski said, as many seniors have relatives who live far away.

"Many times, the family is just not that close by anymore," she said. "The computer is a very effective way to communicate with children and grandchildren."