http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=1666
PC Training a "Living Hell"
By Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
February 9th 2003
Fear, uncertainty, dread spreads when your boss announces 'another
upgrade'.
Has your boss block-booked you into a computer training class next week?
Feel sick to the stomach and thinking of taking time off?
Fear not. Because, like extra-terrestrial lifeforms and Michael Jackson:
you
are not alone.
Marc Fisher in the Washington Post writes how never the twain shall meet
between IT workplace trainers and employees. A gulf has developed that's
becoming impossible bridge between the "Techies" and the "Clueless".
Academic research supports this as well. The Post article cites a study
that tech trainers "need both technical and interpersonal skills." One
wide-ranging study covering a mind-boggling 8,000 tech projects found a
success rate of only 16%. The reason? The 'techs' v. the 'end-user'.
One of Fisher's workmates has become so demoralized, she's described
thus:
"One of my most intellectually keen colleagues was reduced during this
latest round of training to incoherent babbling on the screen,
culminating
in a pathetic plea to be allowed outside for recess."
Fisher argues that "advances" in technology do not necessarily make
things
better for the vast mass of the population who are forced to sit in
front of
flickering CRTs (mostly) for the best part of their working life. 22
years
ago, he says, his computer manual was 2 pages. Now it's 53.
Analysis: Remember your first Mac? How long did it take you to figure
out
how to use it? No time, we bet. Desktop metaphor. Hard drive filing
cabinet.
Point. Click. Open. Write. Thankfully, with OS X, things are still
mostly
the same.
I've got to admit, I'm hopeless with Windows. Oh, sure, I can do basic
things, but my exposure to 2000 and XP is minimal. Certainly I can't
make
hardware 'just work', especially peripherals. People who ask me
questions
are told (politely) "I don't do Windows."
We agree that much of the blame for poor computer training can be put
down
to the inability of many techs to teach, to expound their knowledge with
clarity to the end-user. There are good teacher-techs out there, but
they're
few and far between. User competence levels, which vary widely, are also
to
blame. It's difficult to train a group of people whose confidence and
skills
range from newbie to old hand.
More importantly, this issue raises all sorts of questions about tech.
It's
absurd to expect technology to stop - akin to shouting 'stop the world,
I
want to get off!'. But a quick glance at the Office v.X Bible shows how
complex applications have become. We would surely all agree that
applications - not just MS's - suffer feature bloat which makes training
for
advanced use almost mandatory. And, let's face it, when you signed up to
learn Word, you didn't anticipate almost Quark-like complexity.
I've found offices have become divided between end-users who are
tech-savvy
and non-tech. Unfortunately, the non-techs (depending on their
seniority)
can refuse point-blank to learn something. Actually, even some more
junior
employees refuse to learn mail merge in Word.
This wouldn't be a problem, except that the tech-savvy end up doing more
work (actually, the work of IT staff, who are either (a) too busy
training
people or (b) eating doughnuts). Savvy end-users wind up fixing other
people's problems and generally falling behind in their own work. Not
good.
Then again, I work in an all-PC department, with only two Macs in use,
including my PowerBook. The other Mac guy is non-tech, so I'm on his
speed
dial (but only 'cause I sold him my Wallstreet). The PCs flake
consistently
and there's rarely anyone to fix them. Not on the same day, anyway.
The Macs? They chug on...and on...and on. No help desk necessary.
--
Peter -
http://titancity.com/
http://haxor.dk/islamnyt/ - fordelene ved indvandringen
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