Tech Friday: The Art of Learning Technology

by ~ANT

Keeping up with what seem to be blazingly fast advances in technology can be overwhelming at times. Just as I feel a small amount of accomplishment, something new comes out that I need to learn to continue my personal technological development. This can be frustrating, however I found a solution for myself that turns this negative into a positive, in turn creating a much more satisfying experience. Learn and teach... teach and learn.

As an artist I use lots of technology from MP3 players, digital cameras, the internet, in addition to all the computer programs that help make all the tech work. If I am learning all this digital stuff to develop my tech skills, why not help those around me to understand a little bit about what I am doing, but also how to use their technology as well? I figure by helping I'm guaranteed to learn something too. In the end, what's the fun of all this tech stuff if my friends and family don't know how to use it and I can't share?

Recently, I've had three one-on-one learning/teaching experiences. Each experience taught me some key aspects on how to approach individuals of different generations. Three keys were the same across the board in every experience when learning/teaching technology:

1. Stay calm. You aren't going to break technology unless you throw it on the floor and smash it with your foot!
2. When teaching someone how to use something don't just show them... get the technology in their hands and in front of their face. This applies to almost everything, whether you're teaching someone how to use an MP3 player, digital camera, internet browser, etc. In two of my three recent experiences I put the tech in the hands of the person who wanted to know something about it and they learned faster... way faster! In the third experience with my Grandfather he came right out and said he didn't want to know anything... just make it work.
3. Just because I use technology one way doesn't mean everyone else does. They call it a "personal computer" for a reason. I have found that if a friend suggests a program for me I try it and if I hate it... then I don't use it. When I suggest programs to friends, I don't expect my friend to use a program I suggested if it doesn't work for him. The idea is to make your technology work for all of us, not against us. If I am teaching a friend about technology, I try to help find solutions that make sense for them and their technology.

I had run a contest on my blog in November and December '07 asking fans to help name Untitled Crown. One of my goals was to help my friends and family learn how to "post a comment" and use the blogger system. This way if they want to stay involved with my blog, they can because now they know what to do. All of this was done over the internet and I had some successes along with some failures.

On Christmas day my niece Madison and I were able to sit down one-on-one to see why she couldn't "post a comment". We hadn't been able to figure out through emails what was going wrong. With my computer in her lap she walked me through the steps she was taking to "post a comment" and we immediately found the issue. From what I learned from her I updated and emailed my directions on how to "post a comment" to others with success. During this experience with Madison my other nieces and nephews wanted to join in and "post a comment". Their ages range 5 to 12 years old and the enthusiasm, the desire to be involved in the contest, the willingness to use technology and learn what buttons to click was palatable.

That enthusiasm is why I have included a video at the bottom of this post: A Vision of K-12 Students Today by bjnesbitt. The YouTube website states, "This project was created to inspire teachers to use technology in engaging ways to help students develop higher level thinking skills. Equally important, it serves to motivate district level leaders to provide teachers with the tools and training to do so." I think this video is not just a wake up call, it's also "call for action" for everyone including teachers, artists, parents, and adults and to be more involved with our kids learning technology through each other. The more adults that learn and use technology, the better we are going to know what is out there that could not only harm our kids, but what can help as well. The more you know, the more comfortable you can be around technology.

My second experience was with my friend Mike. He recently purchased a new laptop with Windows Vista (yuck). I haven't used Vista first hand much and for Mike it has been years since he has done much of anything on the computer. Even though I use the XP operating system, in this situation he was able to watch what I was doing on my laptop, then he could repeat the process on his. This worked really well even with different operating systems.

Also this situation showed with patience "making your computer work for you, not against you" and the of a truly "personal computer"come into play. I had Mike download Mozilla Thunderbird email and Firefox browser. After downloading, Mike had tried multiple times to run the programs, but they kept freezing on Vista, then freezing up his computer. This was getting frustrating and we weren't really getting anywhere and it was time for a change of direction. We uninstalled the programs and figured out new ways to get his computer to run properly. He is now using Internet Explorer and web-based email. Personally, I wouldn't do that on my machine, but Mike needs something that works for him. I don't know Internet Explorer really well nor use it very often so we started pressing buttons and working together to figure how to use it. Once the computer stopped freezing and we were able to get something done... it became fun!

The last experience started when I wrote a "snail mail" letter to my Grandparents. I included in the letter a printout of my post about my new MP3 player. My Grandparents are in their early 90's and don't know much of anything about technology except what they see on TV. Last week I had a chance to have a short visit with Grandpa. In the conversation he thanked me for the letter, and said he didn't understand anything concerning the MP3 player blog post. There was too much technology and he was perfectly fine not knowing about any of it. It should be noted my Grandfather Edgar E. Willis is no dummy. He was a professor at the University of Michigan, published many articles, textbooks, and at 92 published the book How to be Funny on Purpose.

In this situation there wasn't a lot of room so I didn't bring my laptop. I used my MP3 player to show him my video What are we doing? 2003. I hoped Grandpa could see the screen and make sense of the video from the MP3 player. He put in the earphones, I pressed play, and did a volume adjustment. After the video was over he smiled with a chuckle asked, "What is this for?" I kept my response simple saying I was putting the video on the internet for the world to see and to think of it as a really bad cable TV program. He was satisfied with my response and that's all he wanted to know. Whether he understood what the video was for or not, really doesn't matter. My point is not everyone is going to care how to use technology and I would never want to push tech on my Grandpa who already said he didn't care. This experience was about finding the right technology to convey the message, play the video, without hassles, and it worked.

In each teaching/learning experience had something different to learn. Working with Madison the idea was getting the technology in front of her face, letting her press the buttons, and click the links. The goal with Mike's computer was all about figuring how to make his computer personal for him. The experience I shared with Grandpa was using the right technology so even though he isn't interested in learning technology, he can still be a part if he wants to.

Learn and teach, teach and learn. Ask questions: How did you do that? Can you show me? and of course.... be patient whether you're learning or teaching. You're on your own personal learning curve and that's... no worries!

A Vision of K-12 Students Today by bjnesbitt
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8