On 06/30/2011 04:50 PM, Gary Schnabl wrote:
On 6/30/2011 4:27 AM, Marc Paré wrote:
Based on my experience as a K-12 teacher a decade ago, I know that
kids do not bother to read texts, even if assigned as homework. So,
users will do as much as they can on their own before consulting the
online help or user guides.
One reason for low book sales is that much fewer users will bother
to read books nowadays.
Gary
Hi Gary
Some schools do operate on a set programme, for example, at my
primary school, although I teach French Second Language, I am in
charge of teaching Word (Writer) basics to grades 4-5; PowerPoint
(Impress) to grades 6,7 and until a couple years ago, our previous
grade 7 teacher was in charge of teaching Excel (Calc) to grades 8
and advanced macros in preparation to high school. The "Getting
Started Guide" would be a great addition to any Library collection
for student referral/reference.
In my experience, there is still a small segment of the student
population that do read manuals and they usually pass on their
knowledge to others in their class.
I have thus far taught for 18 years as Math, Science and Technology
consultant (primary and secondary schools); classroom teacher;
computer classroom specialist and French Second Language specialist
at various times during these years. I am presently off on disability
for crushed spine and complications but hope to get back to class soon.
Cheers
Marc
Late in my (engineering and other things) career, I taught at both
public and private K-12 schools, last teaching back in 2001. All of
the schools were long computerized by then. During the computer labs,
most of the kids were "taught" by teachers, who only a few months
earlier typically taught subjects as social studies and the like and
were most often only a day or three ahead of their students in subject
matter--if that.
Most kids then learned office-suite apps mostly by intuition because
those apps were designed that way from day-1. At one middle school,
during the computer labs I dropped in on my kids on occasion. Once,
one kid asked me to help him with a simple problem. I first inquired
what the on-line help suggested. He did not even know (primarily
because lazy teachers often do not teach such useful things...) that
there even was any on-line help. So, I interrupted the class (although
the newly-ordained computer-lab--previously an older social-studies
teacher at the school--teacher initially objected) so that they all
knew about how to use on-line help from the Help menu.
At another school--a private K-5 school where I taught the fifth
grade, at one half-day in-session (kids go home early those days) the
administration was discussing ways to save money, if possible. Waking
up from a short nap, I suggested that the school fire the young woman
who taught their computer labs because she was incompetent. To my
surprise, that suggestion was instantly accepted, and the teachers
were ordered to teach their own classes in the computer lab.
One little snag though. Not all the teachers then were computer
literate. So, I took over some of the computer labs and had those
teachers teach (or baby-sit) my fifth grade class during those times.
I again assert that people most often will not employ user guides, or
even the on-line help, and will usually ask somebody else for help, as
any problems occur.
Gary
Before I commenced my present career (psychotherapy) I was a cultural
anthropologist. I saw many times in the field that there are usually key
people who serve as conduits between formal knowledge repositories
(libraries, book, technical consultants, etc.) and people who need
answers. We call these people "culture brokers", and they are pivotal
people in any major culture change process.
I suggest that technical manuals are not ever for the average person, or
for the majority of users, but rather for the person who by training
and/or inclination is at least somewhat of a scholar - i.e., they value
textural repositories of information. They acquire this information,
then pass it on to others. I see this happen all the time in forums and
discussion lists devoted to various computer programs.
This is not a problem, but just a fact of how people work. When we
compile succinct, accessible sources of problem solutions and basic
information we are feeding the culture brokers. We must be at peace with
the fact that it is they who take the information to the front-line
user, in most cases. Over time, increasing numbers of people do consult
primary information sources, but I expect that the majority will always
consult other people first, if only because it is usually a quicker path
to a solution.
For what it's worth...
Tom Cloyd [email protected] (435) 272-3332
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