Hi Tyson, If the problem is something related to what the student has been doing and is learning (e.g. they get their Git staging area in a confused state) I'll try to get them to solve the problem by talking them through it with them driving.
If it's a complete mystery to us both then, like you, I'd ask to drive and then explore. Likewise, if the issue is something quite outwith the scope of what the lesson is covering (e.g. some esoteric exception involving system paths when trying to run Make in Git Bash) I might not explain it or the solution at all, and just say the "it's fixed now" (as when systems fix an esoteric issue with my laptop). This may violate the SWC guideline of "no magic" but an explanation would throw a lot of concepts unrelated to the lesson the student's way and could leave them even more confused. A colleague suggested that this is sometimes a no-win situation whatever the cause. Explaining to the student the current problem and solution distracts them from the instructor, and they then fall further behind. An alternative approach can be to have the student buddy up with a neighbour, and then work with them to solve their problem, and catch up, at a break. cheers, mike --- Michael (Mike) Jackson Software Architect EPCC, The University of Edinburgh Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)131 650 5141 WWW: http://www.epcc.ed.ac.uk ________________________________________ From: Discuss <[email protected]> on behalf of Tyson Whitehead <[email protected]> Sent: 29 November 2017 04:10 To: Paul Ivanov Cc: [email protected]; Belinda Weaver Subject: Re: [Discuss] On not touching people's devices I usually take over someone's device when I don't know the answer to why something isn't working and need to poke around and run several diagnostic tests. Trying to get them to run archaic commands that I'm not even sure will be part of the solution, or explaining what I'm checking for, seems like it would overload them at their current level and just leave them more confused. I general explain what it was once I know though. Thoughts? On Tue, Nov 28, 2017, 20:50 Paul Ivanov, <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: ...and for those times where a discouraged learner wants to hand over their keyboard to you - my go to phrase is "Go ahead, you drive" - meaning I'll give directions, but not going to hold the steering wheel. After all, it's their "vehicle". On 11/29/17, Belinda Weaver <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > Hi all > > Just saw this tweeted - https://sec.eff.org/articles/touching-devices > > Interesting piece on why taking over someone's device is a no-no. > > regards > Belinda > > Belinda Weaver > Community Development Lead > Software and Data Carpentry > e: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> | p: +61 408 841 > 882 | t: @cloudaus > -- Paul Ivanov http://pirsquared.org | GPG/PGP key id: 0x0F3E28F7 _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/listinfo/discuss -- The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.software-carpentry.org/listinfo/discuss
