At this point, I recommend we all give a moment of silence to the memory of David Fenton. I feel sure he would have contributed something deliciously abrasive to this conversation. Now that he is gone, I miss him.
R. On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 12:20 PM, Dick Hauser <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Aug 30, 2012, at 1:17 AM, Eric Fiedler <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > But I can't agree with you on this one. In over 40 years of teaching, > I've found the question "Why would you want to do that" — which, by the > way, comes across much friendlier face-to-face than in the cold world of > cyberspace-text — to be invaluable. > > I agree with Robert, Eric. The question is not productive at all from a > tech standpoint. First of all, because the user has already spent > considerable energy trying to do it, and in getting through to the tech > support staff so they have built up a "head of steam" so to speak. Tech > needs to bring them down and reassure them before good information can be > exchanged. Secondly, the question is a paternal power play that's also not > productive at that point in the interaction. > > Tech support needs to figure out what the client wants to do, and explain > how it can be done. Failing that, it's really helpful (though frustrating) > for a client to hear that tech support can't figure out how to do it. At > some point in the conversation, it might be useful for tech support to find > out "why" but only in the context of improving the programming and only > after the client has been served. > > I do agree with you, however, that in teaching the question is sometimes > useful. Explaining why you think something is sometimes useful in learning > more about it. Particularly if the teacher is open minded enough to > empower the student as opposed to forcing the student to adopt methods > without exploration and integration. > > > Dick H > OlyWa > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
