March 15, 2000
Dear Everyone:
Since I’ve actually been writing these Letters
Wednesday nights and mailing them out on Thursdays (whereas before, I
wrote them Thursday and mailed them out the same day), we might as well
face the fact that today is Wednesday and not Thursday.
Also, there’s the added advantage of
Word helpfully
inserting the date as soon as I start typing it.
And what a Wednesday it has been.
Today we started training people on the new software.
All the long hours and weekends spent writing step-by-step
directions are finally beginning to pay off.
Of course, there will be more hours to be spent writing revisions
as we realize, “Oh, you’re right.
Instead of ‘press Escape’ on this screen, it should read ‘click
on the stop button’ on this page.”
A group of us did a “test drive” on the
instructions last Monday in a dry run.
But it takes a real novice to find all the holes in your logic.
Plus at least one person dedicated to “What if…?” questions.
A whole day spent on your feet giving directions and answering
questions can take a lot out of you.
(How do teachers do it?)
Luckily, after today, it won’t be all-day sessions.
These trainees are Records Center personnel from “Hobby”,
“Austin” and “Lafayette” and they need to be taught how to do things
that what we call General Users don’t need to know.
Like how to find which boxes have been requested, pull them,
check them out and check them back in when they are returned.
A General User just needs to know how to request the box, then
how to sit back and wait until the box magically appears on their desk.
So we had a lot more to cover today and tomorrow than we
“normally” will.
For training of this sort, the most important thing
to remember is the word “Break!”
Breaks, lots of them.
A wise man once said, “The brain can only absorb as much as the butt can
stand.” Keeping people in
their seats for hours while you try to drill information into their
heads just wears both you and them out.
Sure, we could have gone a couple of extra hours
and tried to cram everything into one day; but why punish everyone
(myself included)? Instead,
we used a leisurely pace and covered only the basics today.
Tomorrow morning, after they’ve had a chance to see the sights,
enjoy a good dinner, and forget everything I said today, we can go over
it again (repetition is its own reward) and follow up with some more
information.
Another plus is having a “rover”, someone other
than the instructor, who already knows the software, and who can wander
around the room helping people who take a wrong turn, without holding up
the whole class. At one
point, one trainee had two “rovers” dedicated to keeping him on track
(it seems like there’s one in nearly every session).
All in all, it went very well.
We’ll add some “lessons learned” and then it will be time to take
the show on the road.
In the meantime…
Sure I worked until 7:00 last night, but that’s no
reason to miss going to the movies last Sunday.
“Jeannie” and I were in severe danger of going into withdrawal.
Besides, I needed to go up to her place to do some fine-tuning on
her database anyway.
With all the
Oscar-contenders vying for our attention, we decided to opt for
“mindless entertainment” and went to see
Mission to
Mars.
It’s not completely mindless, although the plot is
pretty simple. Astronauts go
to Mars. Something goes
wrong. More astronauts go to
Mars. More things go wrong.
Eventually, some things go right and astronauts discover the
secret of life on Earth.
Some astronauts go home, some don’t.
What it lacks in depth, it more than makes up for
in special effects. And
product placement. Want to
know what Dr. Pepper
looks like in zero
gravity? This movie
provides the answer. Also,
lessons in dancing in the air, by
Tim Robbins, no
less. And
Jerry O’Connell
as a crack computer expert who’s secret to success seems to consist
entirely of relying on hope and blind luck.
Which, where computers are concerned, is as it
should be.
Love, as always,
Pete
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