Saturday, February 14, 2009

Re: 21st Century Computer Skills

On Sat, Feb 14, 2009 at 2:26 PM, Dennis Arms <darms@haverford.org> wrote:

> These "five step computer users" are the people who have never had formal
> training. I see them every day, scribbling down the steps I am giving to
> them..."wait, wait, I need to write that down."


And if we don't continue to formally train people in the basics, we'll crank
out another generation of five step users. However, the most important of
the steps I teach is how to RTFM, which is something many people don't want
to do these days.

Back when I worked at the Computer Center at Syracuse University, my office
partner and I had two different approaches to dealing with a new piece of
software. I'd take the manual home over the weekend and read it cover to
cover so that I knew what it was capable of doing. She'd take the disk home
and just try to figure it out on her own. By Monday morning we both had a
fair bit of knowledge about how to use this program. But despite the
knowledge we had gained from our respective methods, there were often times
when we just had to write down those much-maligned five steps until it
became something we could do in our sleep. Then we moved on to writing down
another set of five steps.

The problem seems not to be people who are five step users, but people who
remain at the same five steps for decades at a time. And yet, it needs to be
remembered, as I've alluded to before, that the five step Microsoft Word
user may be the person who knows the Periodic Table backwards and fowards
and can balance any chemical formula you throw at him in his sleep. I've got
no problem with this guy being a five step user, his brain is obviously
being used for something that I couldn't even begin to fathom.
--

keg

========================================
Keith E Gatling
mailto:keith@gatling.us
http://www.gatling.us/keith
The fact that I'm open-minded doesn't mean that I have to agree with you.
========================================

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