How to help someone use a computer.

"How to help someone use a computer" by Phil Agre

1."Thing you have to tell yourself": Nobody is born knowing this stuff.
This is a good rule of thumb when working on something difficult and new. No one in the word knows everything and in turn we must go through the learning process day-by-day because we're always learning something new (if not life would be boring). Some of the new stuff that we attempt to learn is difficult i.e. computers. I was the first one on the block in 4th or 5th grade to get a computer and internet in my house; I was the cool kid then. But still even though I have been using computers since I was in elementary school I still have issues and each time I go on it seems I find out something new (especially now that I have converted to a MAC). With all the new programing that comes out there is no way that anyone would be able to know all the information about any computer. So when I get frustrated (like trying to use new type 2 technologies), I just think they I was not born with this information and I need it so better now than later.

"Important rule": Try not to ask yes-or-no questions. Nobody wants to look foolish, so their answer is likely to be a guess. "Did you attach to the file server?" will get you less information than "What did you do after you turned the computer on?".

This is an important rule when teaching people something because you don't want to discourage them from continuing on. They don't know this stuff, because if they did they wouldn't need you. So instead you need to stay calm and walk them them through step-by-step in the simplest terms with them.

2. Then start a new paragraph and write one sentence (I'll accept 2 if you insist) telling how you can use that information (what you learned from either of the two facts from the article or both) in your team's presentation where you're going to be teaching us about a technology in the classroom.

When we go to present about the Maine Memory Network, I feel as if we don't need to too much language tone down because it's a pretty basic technology. I think the only things that we may need to explain and go into detail about is the goals and purpose of the website, what they're currently doing, and other organizations that go through it. So I don't feel like as much applies to us since all of the people in the class have used the internet, but we must understand that we need to assume that no one has ever been to this website or used this type of technology before.