taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (03/26/87)
Off on the tangent of getting people to use computers in the first place, I have had a few years of experience with newcomers. I used to be a lab assistant in a community college in Marin County, Ca. It was one of the first JC's to have BSD Unix in the country, and quite a few talented people have come out of there that are now working at places such as Lucasfilm or Pixar. Still, most of the people that come into the lab dont seem to latch on to the possibilities that Unix has to offer. Part of the problem is that the teachers themselves are only somewhat competent at it - they'd be hard pressed to explain things like writing vi macros, or using a history list, or how to effectively use nroff to write an english paper. There are a couple of exceptions, but not enough. Some of the problem stems from the school district not having enough money, and having strange priorities with the money they do have. As a lab assistant, I had to often get a beginner to "unlearn" some of the things that they were told by their teachers. My approach to teaching or assisting people was to always come up with fun, practical examples. There are a couple of things that will turn off beginners: Computer Nerds that race through things, and that wont explain how they got a result, and act as if they have a divine right to keep their knowledge to themselves... Overbearing Teachers that try to be *too damn serious* when introducing computers. If somebody made you sit through a history of how the automobile came to be before you could sit in the drivers seat, how would you take it? My attitude is "sure, yes, I really *do* want to know this, but give me a taste of the subject first, so that I can appreciate the history behind it when I'm ready!". OT's also insist that everything has to be done absolutely their way, and their way only. There is no room for experimentation (which leads to greater familiarization) in the class of the OT. Many OT's are just Grownup Nerds :-) Beginners respond to someone who can take an almost playful attitude towards computers. I often was hit with questions that I couldn't answer right off the top of my head. In those situations I found the best thing to do was to say "well, gee, let's find out!", and to introduce the concept of man pages (some of the worst writing on earth exists in them!). I'd show the beginner what to look for when experimenting with something new - how there is a little bit of consistency from one well written program to the next. How, when you are stuck in a program such as Mail, you can usually type a "?" or "h" to get help - to think of some mnemonic that would fit the situation, and try it. Not to be afraid of "crashing the system" or "doing something horrible to my files". How one keeps oneself covered by making backups of things like term papers. I try to find out what some of their interests are, and how there might be tie-ins to using a computer; an avid record collector such as myself might want to have an easy way of cataloging them. I've only run into a handful of people in the last few years that dont take well to this approach. Without meaning to pat myself on the back, there is a noticeable difference in competence between the people that my friends and I have helped, and the ones that just sat in the lab, put up with the teacher, and refused to open up a little bit to a new subject. It takes an effort to get good at anything - if there is a key person there at the beginning that can help by either being pretty competent, or at least very good at looking up documentation and interpreting it, then the beginner is much more likely to say "gee, this isn't so bad after all... I want to know what you know!" To me, Computer Literacy is having the ability to make certain assumptions about any computer that you encounter, knowing how to get the computer to help you, knowing the basics of handling files, and having a working knowledge of at least one mainstream editor, and a "get by" knowledge of another. I like the fact that they are getting easier and easier to use, but I think there will need to be always a certain amount of mental effort - an initial hurdle, however small, that the beginner will need to expend in order to get good at them. A side comment: Jeff Raskin of Information Appliance likes to point out that there aren't any Maytag Washer Users Groups, and that he doesn't see the need for computers to have them. (at the last West Coast Computer Faire) I disagree strongly. Computers are used for an intellectual or artistic medium, and that will always give people something to talk about. Beginners are going to expect more out of a computer than a washer! Dan Smith ...daniel@island.UUCP ...ptsfa!unicom!daniel
taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (04/06/87)
Dan, I quite heartily agree with you. Perhaps I might add that also a person who is labeled "Computer Literate" or a "Guru" if he/she is really good is a person who knows where to get the answer, where at least to start the search, when a problem presents itself. I am considered an 'expert' of sorts locally with the Amiga 1000. I am not really a programmer nor an electronics expert. I am just a person who knows what resourses are available to an Amiga user. I recently was contacted by our local cable company to tell them more about the computer. They had just received a prototype modified Amiga for scrolling info on the TV guide channel. They wanted to know 'what else can we do' with it. All they were using it for was text display. I demonstrated how they could jazz up their ad's with flashy graphics and sound. These people were computer illiterates. They had very little exposure or for that matter, interest, in computers. When I began showing the graphics possible and how it could make their ad time more valuable, they immediately caught interest. A key towards introducing an illiterate to the medium is, like you suggested, find common ground and show how the computer can be a useful tool. Lawrence H. Brown