>
> Educationally what we are trying to avoid is what I call the 5-step
> computer user. My primary work is in a hospital, there I have
> encountered many highly trained medical professionals, people who are
> bight, articulate and well educated but who are 5-step computer users.
>
> [snip]
>
> So here is how we avoid producing "5 -step users"
>
> [snip]
>
> 4. We prohibit the taking of notes in computer labs except for
> programing classes. No writing down the steps to open a file and so
> on. You will internalize how each kind of computer works. You will
> know it in the same way you know how to drive any car be it a Ford,
> Volvo or Rolls Royce. You don't get into a car and have little notes
> all over the place saying "put the key in" "turn key to the right" and
> so on nor should you wit a computer.
OK, but...
While I employ the car analogy myself, telling my students and parents who
say "but we don't have a Mac at home" that when they turn 16 they're not
gonna tell the Driver Ed teacher "but we have a Ford and this is a Chevy,"
the rest of #4 doesn't exactly follow.
For example, I've been driving for 34 years now. And while I don't need
notes to tell me where the key goes, where the gas and brake pedals are, and
basic stuff like that that you really need to be able to do reflexively, I
*do* need notes, and have them in each of our cars, about how to reset the
clock, how to program the stereo, and a number of things I don't do on a
regular basis. Heck, what are notes anyway but a condensation of the owner's
manual for things you know you'll want to do, but don't do on a regular
basis? Do you forbid your students from RTFM also, but demanding that they
commit everything to memory? I don't expect *me* to remember all the steps
for all things all the time, so why should I expect them?
And if the manual is poorly written (as they sometimes are), why shouldn't
the student write down the appropriate steps in a way that makes better
sense? I've known how to use a TV since I was three and a VCR since I was
23, but every time there's a power outage here, we have to reset our VCR and
the instructions in the manual are abysmal.I have to do this more than I'd
like, but not so often that I have the sequence memorized. So I wrote down
the five steps it takes to do it and posted them near the VCR. Why should I
have to remember *everything*? I'm trained as a librarian, and we teach
people to look it up and write it down.
You and I have spoken on the phone and it seems that the difference between
what you're doing there and what the rest of us are trying to do is that
you're trying to train people who are truly (and I mean this in the most
complimentary usage of the term) computer geeks who can get under the hood
of any system and get going in a minute. The rest of us are trying to train
people whose primary focus may be art, literature, science, or whatever, but
know how to use a computer for those things they normally need to use it
for. Maybe this is the dreaded five-step user, but maybe not everyone needs
to be Alan Turing.
Going back to that automotive analogy for a moment, I think that you're
teaching Auto Shop while the rest of us are teaching Driver's Ed. When it
comes to *maintaining* their cars, most people are five-step users, and get
along just fine knowing only how to fill it with gas (unless you live in NJ,
where you're not even allowed to do it), add wiper fluid, and put air in the
tires. When it comes to things like changing the oil, changing a tire, or
dealing with a dead battery they tend to deal with Jiffy Lube or AAA.
Most people get along just fine without the specialized under the hood
knowledge that auto geeks have. Similarly, most people function just fine as
five-step users because they only ever really need the computer for those
five things. Their primary focus and training is on administering IVs or
teaching violin, or preparing legal cases. Not everyone needs to be MacGyver
with a computer.
--
keg
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Keith E Gatling - Computer Instructor
Manlius Pebble Hill School
5300 Jamesville Rd
DeWitt, NY 13214
315.446.2452
http://www.gatling.us/keith
Some teachers teach subjects. Others teach students.
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