[Web4lib] Re: antiquated software

[Dan Lester]

  ----- Original message ----------------------------------------
  From: Robin <rboulton at stcharleslibrary.org>
  To: Florence <TANG_FY at Mercer.edu>, web4lib at webjunction.org
  Received: 6/22/2007 8:43:27 AM
  Subject: RE: [Web4lib] Re: antiquated software


  >Ha! Yes, I used Hyper card for a while. Not very much real-world use, as
  >I recall, but that's a good point.
  >I believe I started the whole hypertext thing. When I was a kid I would
  >look something up in the encyclopedia, then get interested in some other
  >reference and pull out another volume to follow that up, then see a word
  >I didn't know and get the dictionary out to look that up... and so on.
  >And that was 45 years ago! :)

Well, I just posted on this topic, though on a more technical angle.

I'm sure many of us learned that way.  Some are oriented towards very structured and linear learning, others to a more "scattered approach" like you and me and many others here.  Those of us who teach/train/assist computer users, or work at the reference desk, see that every day.  Some want to have step by step detailed instructions on how to do something and have a great deal of trouble with any other mode of instruction.   Others want no instruction and will just "play with it" and learn that way.  I've had to learn over the years to be careful to whom I talk about colleagues "playing with something" as a learning style.  Some supervisors understand and accept, others don't.  Clear back when we were switching staff from DOS to Win3.1 I had to teach people to use a mouse.  Some got it intuitively, others didn't.  I suggested that people play solitaire a couple times to get used to double clicking, dragging and dropping, etc.  A couple of supervisors were very irate that I was telling employees to "play games on library time".

cheers

dan

It's not what you take when you leave this world behind you;
  it's what you leave behind you when you go.

dan at riverofdata.com
Dan Lester, Boise, Idaho, USA