[Web4lib] Re: antiquated software

[Robin]

Exactly! I was reading about Win 3.1 (before I actually got it) and saw
that Solitaire was included specifically to help people learn mouse
skills. I started recommending it to new users and had the same reaction
from some of their supervisors (except that I was working for <shudder>
an insurance company at the time, so it was "playing games on COMPANY
time" - an even more heinous crime).

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Lester [mailto:dan at riverofdata.com] 
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 11:37 AM
To: Robin; web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Web4lib] Re: antiquated software

  ----- 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 wa
 s 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