Living on the edge versus living by the book

In a previous posting I mentioned the senior citizen computer basics course I taught. In my ignorance I said yes to this venture without fully realizing how basic a computer basics course could be. What I learned was invaluable, and the experience also validated what I have observed about the current youth generation's use of technology - we'll call this living on the edge; and older generations use of technology - living by the book... except there isn't a book.

I realized how basic the computer class needed to be in the very first few minutes. These were, keep in mind, brave senior citizens who were willing to drive to a community college campus where they were surrounded by young people and who were willing to try to understand the mystifying world of computers and the Internet. I expected to help them learn basic skills such as right-clicking and click-drag but I realized very soon even that was much too advanced when one member of the class picked up the mouse and pointed it at the computer screen like a TV remote control. Later I realized this was about as technological as any of them got in their day-to-day life and it was a pretty understandable way of trying out the mouse.

Here is what is interesting to me about this - I once helped out a kindergarten teacher with her first-ever visit to the computer lab. Many of her students came to school from the farm labor camp so we assumed students may not be very familiar with computer technology. We anticipated having to help them A LOT! We were, in fact, quite shocked to see all the students knew the basics, could work the mouse and could follow our visual and verbal instructions to open a simple drawing program and start drawing.

Having had that experience with 5 year-olds who came from some of the poorest environments in our county, I somehow had gotten the impression there was a baseline of knowledge about computers that everyone had. I was wrong, the senior citizens helped me see this over and over again. This was a group who was starting very much at ground zero. I had trouble defining for myself as an instructor how low the skills needed to be. Many times I realized I had made a leap beyond their knowledge level. In fact, I wish I had been blogging then because I could have chronicled all the faux pas I made in my ignorance.

I learned very quickly they wanted step-by-step instructions in writing. They wanted to learn only one way to do things, in fact, they did not understand why there were several ways to accomplish the same tasks. For example, why would you need to have Ctrl+C as a command for Copy when there was a pull down menu where you could find the command for Copy.

I ended up creating very simple, very clear, directions for every single task, beginning with how to login to the community college system. Many of them had to refer to these written step-by-step directions every single class in order to be able to login. In essence I created a book for them, one handout at a time, which carefully explained every step, showed every menu, and guided them through the tasks.

Eventually this realization dawned on me... This was a generation who expected a user manual with every appliance and every program. They lived by the book. They didn't turn on the new clock-radio until they had read the manual which came with the clock-radio. When I relayed the message that programs did not come with a book, they looked at me as if I had grown a second head. How would you learn to use the programs, they asked, if there was no book?

The current generation however would not open a manual/book for a new program or video game. This would not even enter their thinking. Watch any child with a new game to see how they learn to operate new programs. They open it, they try something, the game ends, they try something new the next time, get a little farther, the game ends... and so on. They collaborate with buddies to find new tactics and strategies but mostly they just keep trying. They live on the edge, willing to see Game End, as they learn and get better with every try. This is a method of learning and an attitude we don't encourage nearly enough in the K-12 schools of today. (Look for a future blog post on this topic.)

By the end of the class most senior citizens had become more comfortable trying new things. They learned they weren't really going to 'break' the computer if they tried a menu item which was unfamiliar. Slowly they had learned to live a little more on the edge and a little less by the book. In the world in which they had grown up every new machine came with a user manual. There is a reason why they believed in working 'by the book.'

I have to admit sometimes I wish there were a few more books to help me work through my areas of ignorance. However learning is about the journey, not the destination, right?!
Yours in ignorance!

Working with outliers

One of my areas of Web2.0 ignorance has been RSS feeds. I have known for years what they were but saw no real purpose for them. Why did I want more stuff to read coming at me everyday? I have plenty to read as it is. However I recently have added a few feeds including the Information Literacy Weblog

Information literacy is a real interest of mine and will be covered in a future posting. Today there was an article from the infoliteracy feed which caught my eye. http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/sep09/Birdsong.shtml This article discussed information literacy instruction with outliers, our students who, for whatever reason, are not in the mainstream or the normal range (I could go off on what normal range could mean for hours but I digress).

Outliers was a concept I couldn't let go of all morning! The article discusses at-risk students, new business owners, older learners (over 50... what's up with that?), homeless people; any of whom might need extra help learning information literacy skills because they are starting at ground zero.

Those of us who teach work hard to help the outliers in our classrooms, in fact, it would be safe to say we spend most of our time motivating, encouraging, and supporting our outliers. We struggle with the outliers, some of us more than others. Much of my classroom and online teaching success has been due to reaching the outliers.

So... I thought I would share some of what I know about working with special populations or outliers. As I write I am picturing students classified as at-risk, but I am also picturing new online learners who struggle with the new environment of online learning, and the senior citizens from my computer basics class (I learned what ground zero really was when teaching that class. More on that another time as well).

1. Start with building a relationship - Success in education, well in life, begins with building relationships! (Right Deb?) Outliers can be harder to build relationships with but once the bond is created it will be extra strong. Outliers resist relationships for a variety of reasons. There may be trust issues, they may be just nervous, or they may have a fear of failure which is keeping them from asking questions. Invest time and effort into relationship building from the start. In many cases all you really need to do is listen. We don't listen well in our culture. We are multi-tasking or planning what we will say next instead of really listening. I have found great power in listening (see Costa & Kallick for more on listening with empathy). Even with online students who are communicating by email or discussion forum you can listen. The trick with this is to ask a simple question and stop. For online learners I often send an email that says not much more than, What can I do to help? Once you have listened you can begin to know how to support learning.
   
   
2. Offer support - Many outliers are not in the normal range because of a deficit. The deficit may be in skills, knowledge, or both. Years ago I learned the term scaffolding. It took me a long time after hearing that term to realize it was an overarching word for a whole lot of stuff I was already doing. Scaffolding is the support we provide to learners whether it is in the form of worksheets, tutorials, language assistance... Or the hundreds of other ways good teachers help learners learn. Outliers in particular need lots of scaffolding for their learning. For my online learners I use tech tips. In the past these have been mostly documents with screen shots (link to video on how to get a screenshot) but I have begun to do more video tech tips (video on creating a toolbar bookmark) using the program Jing and uploading them directly from Jing to their associated website, screencast.com
   
   
3. Praise, correct, praise - I believe very strongly in the power of praise (as readers of my books about inclusion and online learning already know). Tell people what they are doing well, even if it is a small thing at first. Keep offering praise but weave in corrections. Some people refer to this as the hamburger method. The praise is the bun and in between is the meat. Let people know what they are doing well, then tell them what can be improved, then offer them more praise. It works!
   
   
4. Stand close then step back slowly - Most outliers are nervous for one reason or another, fear of failure, fear of looking stupid in front of others etc. Stick close by as they take their baby steps, the same way you would when helping a little one learn to walk or ride a bike. As they gain confidence begin to step back. Keep praising them all the way, but let them go on their own a bit more and a bit more. Pretty soon they are using the skills on their own, teaching others, sharing new wisdoms they've gained and then...
   

You have transformed the outlier into something new, a non-outlier. OK, I don't like that term non-outlier but it will have to do for now because I don't want to say normal. Normal is such an ugly word. Well my ignorance is showing again... what do you call an outlier who has been transformed... Until next time... Yours in ignorance!