Monday, October 20, 2003

STOP ASKING AND TRY TO FIGURE IT OUT! JUST ONCE!

I have a couple of students who tell me that they "know computers", but they ask so many questions, it makes me wonder. Most times it's one right after another. A few of my friends don't believe me when I say it's stressful sometimes. They think teaching adults is easy. Here's a typical dialogue with one of the students who "knows computers":

her: "Can you come here, I think this is messed up."
me: "Let me finish this class, and I'll help you out."
her: "But I think the computer is broken."
me: "Ok, let me see."
her: "It's not going to the internet. See?"
me: "You're in Microsoft Word. Open Internet Explorer."
her: "I was clicking on Internet Explorer! It must be broken."
me: "Let me see. Nope, it opened fine."
her: "Okay, so how do I go to that website?"
me: "Just type in the address and hit Enter."
her: "Type it where?"
me: "In the address bar."
her: "Oh, you made it seem like I was supposed to do it somewhere else."
me: "Okay, let me get back to the class."
her: " Wait, it's not going."
me: "Hit Enter."
her: "I did. It's broken."
me: "Well, hit Enter again."
her: "It's still not going."
I walk over and hit Enter.
her: "Oh 'ENTER'! I thought you said something else."
me: "okay then."
her: "It's not coming up."
me: "Give it a minute, the network is slow today. That's why we can't print."
her: "It's still stuck."
I walk over.
me: "See the bar? It's just going slow. Give it a couple of minutes."
her: "Okay, it came up. Now what?"
me: "Do what you did last time. sign in."
her: "Do I put in my whole e-mail?"
me: "Is that how you signed in last time?"
her: "No, I just put me account name."
me: "So just type in your account name."
her: "Do I type in the '@' symbol?"
me: "Did you do that last time?"
her: "No."
me: "Then don't."
her: "What's my password?"
me: "I don't know. You don't remember your password?"
her: "Yeah, it's the same as last time, right?"
me: "Yeah."
her: "Can you help me with this? I can't find that job listing I was looking at?"
me: "Just repeat what you did last time."
her: "But that was at a different website!"
me: "So go to that website, sign in, and search for it there."
her: "I don't remember the website."
me: "What was the name of the site?"
her: "Hotjobs.com"
me: "That's the web address."
her: "Well, then I guess I don't remember the name."
me: "Type in 'Hotjobs.com' and it'll take you there."
her: "I know how to do that."
me: ".... ! Okay, but the printer isn't working, so don't try to print."
A short while later.
her: "It's not printing."
me: "I know, thre's a problem with the network. That's why I said not to print."
her: "Even off the internet?"
me: "Yes, even off the internet."
her: "When will it be working again?"
me: "I don't know. The network people have to fix the problem."
her: "Can't you go there and fix it? I need to print this, so I can e-mail them."
me: "If you're going to e-mail them, you don't need to print anything."
her: "Then how am I supposed to get the e-mail address to send to?"
me: "Write it down on paper."
her: "Why can't I just print it?"
me: "Because 1. you'd be wasting paper, 2. it's just an e-mail address, it's short, write it down, and 3. the printer is not working, remember?"
her: "I thought computers are supposed to make things easier. Now I have to write this myself. I'll just do it tomorrow. The printers will be working by then, right?"
me: "... !!!!" (internalized cursing)

Now imagine actually working in Word or Excel with this person.

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