U-Blog 4

Mistakes = Ignorance

Reading the IT’s top 5 mistakes some new insights dawned upon me and made me look at my job as an IT professional differently especially in this era with economic troubles.
I never looked at the IT professional needing to provide good training to produce productivity that will allow the top management to see how important your technical improvements are and it is an investment rather than a cost.

Training is very important it is needed to prevent the needless hassle to keep IT from doing their job and prevents everyone else’s as well. In the article it talks about spending 10-13% of entire budget on training. I never realized that it would be that high. But now that I look at it with Windows, being the main work platform, switching from XP, Vista, and future release Windows 7 the need for smooth transition will be vital. It’s hard enough for IT people to learn the new stuff but need for employees will also be just as important. They produce the income, while IT produces the ability to perform jobs.

After reading the section titled “Mistake No. 1: You didn’t plan for training upfront” I got the impression that this section is misleading. This section talks about the need to provide training in order to cover the basics so “silly” question don’t hassle the IT people. Even if the employees do get the basic training they will also need the more advanced stuff to fulfill the reason for the upgrades in the first place. This whole section is showing the company it’s their responsibility to train employees not IT. So I don’t see how this is a top 5 “IT’s” training mistake.

My response to the “Mistake No.2: You’re out of tune with your audience” section:
They make an excellent point about how IT people, even though they know their area, may not be the best to teach about it. Because being at a “mastery” level can cause the professional to forget what it’s like to not know the curtain area and might explain subjects too complexly. As a result the IT people may not explain enough because they know the audience may become lost in all the terms. Answer provide actual teachers to train the employees.

“Mistake No. 4: You’re training out of business context” evaluation summary:”
I liked this section, it emphasized the need for the IT to know how and the business worked to provide the need instructions for the employee to improve performance in the workplace. The IT can use the structure of the environment to see where areas need improvements in technology. IT can provide better services and functionality ability. Recognizing the needs of the employees will greatly improve prove IT’s importance and investments.

These are my 3 favorite out of the 5. The last one I truthfully didn’t see what was so bad about it. Maybe I’m reading it wrong.

Everyone I talk to believes IT people are hard to talk to. In a lot of cases I guess that’s true. But the way I see it, it is one sided. Maybe the people seeking help don’t try to get to the level which they won’t need help. So even though the IT are trying to learn the other part of the equation, the “employees” do not and expect to be waited on hand and foot.

Do you believe IT is the one to blame or is it the company not providing the enough training?

U-Blog 3

Pay-attention!!

I came across the Average Retention Rate Pyramid (aka The learning Pyramid) and it brought up a very good discussion for today’s blog post.

What makes learning so hard? We are not like computers… We can’t have data transferred into our brains and stored in secondary memory (like a hard drive). Rather than storing information in the primary memory when tend to keep our data in primary memory (like RAM) which is temporary. And if we focus on a different subject during learning process the information is not stored but rather it “evaporates.”

I’m what you call a visual learner. I can grasp concepts, methods, and ideas better when they are displayed to me visually. It is my strongest memory retention. (“learning” retention)
Each person is unique and it depends on the individual and their background. We can either be better at remembering things by sight or sound just by the way we were brought up. What happens in their youth affects the adult learning styles. And when we get to that mature stage we begin to realize that our study and memory habits suffer because of you bad habits from your youth. Our learning process is hindered by our bad habits, but there are ways to improve in those areas.

I had a teacher last year, while attending North Greenville University, that repeatedly told me to that you can increase you attention, retention, and dedication by pushing your limits by continually studying in each area that you are weak in. For example: If you can’t focus on reading longer then an average of 10 minutes without stopping, then practice every week gradually adding about 5 minutes to your reading time and by no time you can read for 40 minutes without diverting from the text. It works but it takes dedication and hard work.

I believe Visual is the best of all the senses when it comes to remembering an area of desired knowledge. Our minds take pictures and each picture tells a story and a thousand words sort of speak. That much information can affect us easier. There are some people who are like to read. But reading has its short falls. Reading is only as effective if the reader has the same thought process as the writer to really create impact in memory. Whenever I read sometimes I get lost in taught and divert from text to other thoughts. Because your brain is trying to process the given reading material it creates “rabbit trails” try to grasp the concepts and it diverts attention and effectiveness. Listening has the same affect because you can be hear a lecture but your eyes wonder off and distract you from the lesson.

The more you combine senses into a lesson plan or teaching yourself your mind's retention span greatly increases. The more your senses are diverted to the attention at hand the easier the process of remembering.

This pyramid reflects this whole idea. Combining your senses and focus greatly increases you learning ability and performance in your field.

Which of your senses do you feel you learn with, the best?

U-Blog 2

Out with the Old and in with the New???

These workshops are going to be pretty interesting! I enjoy teaching and helping my grandparents out whenever they need to know something. But there have been a couple of things I need to get off my chest.

I fell that sometimes as younger kids and adults we like to show off their computers skill while the older adults are left out felling they can’t connect with them. Haughtiness and arrogance rips each generation apart creating a wide gap. So has technology destroyed the family? Technology has its ups and downs when it comes to the family structure. It can reconnect people at a long distance and keep up-to-date the current family events. And the down side is that kids spend most of their time in front of video games and computers and don’t talk to their parents and grandparents. This same argument is parallel to watching TV.

I was talking to an old friend the other day about teaching Senior citizens. He believes it’s practically pointless. That’s some pretty selfish thinking. As young adults we are able to easily learn the latest technology. There thought process is not as shape as it once was. They have other skills that they have experienced throughout their long lives. Some of them have better reading and social skills with a little dose of wisdom. Having grown up without the internet they had better chances to develop sociable skills such as speaking, reading books (creating longer attention spans), family time, and value of patience. Now a day we have to have something now.

We should give them some slack they didn’t grow up with computers and they are not able to “soak” in the ability to adapt to the ever fast changing world of computers and the internet.

We will eventually get to the point at which we won’t be able to keep up with the latest technology, sadly.

So ending on that note let me conclude this post. We need to be patient and simple. We all have to start somewhere; everyone had to start out without knowing anything at first. We all can learn from each other. Each generation has something to say and give to one another, so let us pull our heads out of the sky and become sincere and humble.

It will be pretty interesting how these workshops work out!

Here is an article that's fun to read on the subject of teaching seniors: http://www.apa.org/monitor/mar02/helpingold.html

How do you fell being looked down upon if someone knows more about computers then you?