the game's afoot

Oct 08 2008 ∞

Computer Training for Non-Users- discussion

My colleague Sam Wallin (blogs here and here) and I co-facilitated a discussion group about ways to teach computer non-users/novices through innovative training techniques.  Sam is a reference librarian with the Fort Vancouver Regional Library system who teaches computer classes.  He is also the brainchild behind the One Minute Critic project, which I’ll talk about more later.  We got a slightly late start due to a series of mishaps with our room assignment, but the discussion was worth the wait.  There was a really great mix of people at the discussion, including public and academic librarians as well as several people from the IT industry and one from Webjunction.  Several of the librarians were either currently teaching computer classes or were interested in starting to teach them.  Because the talk was free form with more questions and points to ponder than answers, I’ll hit some of the topics we tossed around in list format:

  • train the trainer options for librarians with “tech training fear”
  • fear and learned helplessness for new users

  • subscription tutorials as an option- do they exist?  If so, are they intuitive enough for a complete beginner, and are they affordable for libraries

  • emotional component- often, people coming in to the public library at a crisis point and aren’t in the right mindset for “on the fly” instruction

  • boundaries of support- what level of support are you able to provide?  What is the role of the librarian in teaching technology- what are the parameters for the information we are be able to teach?  Ex: should we be helping people fix their printers, cameras, cell phones… should we be teaching classes on how to buy stuff on ebay?  Does this fit into the mission and vision of our libraries?  Conversely, if we don’t help them, who will?

  • have librarians fallen into a go-to role for putting out technological fires?  Can we sustain this role?  Will we be relevant if we can’t provide these services?

  • What are some of the resources already available for teaching tech (teaching patrons to fish)?

  • Other innovative ideas for teaching tech:

    • technology “petting zoos”- staff and/or patrons get to play with new tech gadgets to gain familiarity and confidence.  Blog posts describing tech petting zoos can be found here, here, and here, among other places.

    • Teaching a class on how to troubleshoot your own tech problems- finding help via Google Groups, tech discussion forums, manuals, finding serial numbers, getting contact information for the product’s tech support, etc.

    • teen tech teams- partnering teens with computer class students.

    • using video to teach simple tech skills and concepts (see Commoncraft).

This was a great group and the discussion could easily have gone on for another hour.  I gathered names and email addresses at the end of our session from people who were interested in continuing our conversation via email.

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