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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.
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