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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