How to Be Good with Tech - Part 1

Photo from Kevin Jarrett from Flickr -
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kjarrett/

I’ve been working with computers for over 30 years. I have also worked with teachers and students as an instructional tech coordinator for the past six years. Helping them use more technology (and working with some who resist) has driven home one point time and time again:

Being “good with tech” is largely a way of thinking.

There’s no magic involved. I'd even argue there aren't hours of training sessions involved. Instead there are mindsets and resulting practices that make it easier for some to pick up the new tools. In other words, these are things anyone can learn and improved tech skills will be the result.

So in this series I will point out a few myths the tech challenged believe that hold them back. I’ll also explain some approaches the rest of us use that give us an advantage in keeping up with the never-ending stream of new.

Since I work in education, I’m often thinking of the teachers and students I encounter there, struggling or resisting to use more technology for learning or sharing ideas. Beyond that, though, I’m writing to anyone who finds digital tools to be an obstacle, but knows the tools can help them accomplish more of what they want to.

If you read through this article and, at any point, can't accept what I'm saying, please leave me a comment or send me an email. I hope to use any feedback to improve this series.

And for now, I will start by tackling the biggest myth of all:

Myth #1: Technology is hard to learn.

I start with this myth because:

• For as often as I hear it and the thoughts resulting from it, I don’t believe it for a second.
• Believing it leads directly to some of the other inaccurate thinking I’ll address later in the series.

When a new tool comes along, maybe you fall victim to a very real fear because of this myth. It’s hard to learn and no one wants to look dumb, right?

And of course many have discovered this view of technology makes an easy excuse to avoid the necessary work of learning or using something new. A good share of the population heartily agrees that computers and all those gadgets take more effort to learn than they’re worth. Point out just one instance when time was lost, more problems arose or someone was frustrated by a new tool and nearly everyone in the room agrees: There’s no time for learning that complicated stuff. Back to the old way!

Regardless of why you’ve held to this notion, until you get past the false perception of how hard it is to use technology, you’ll always see yourself in the ungifted group. You’ll keep waiting for some convenient time when you have days to learn and nothing else to do. In other words, you’ll never start.

I hope by the end of this article you'll be open to this simple fact: Learning to use technology effectively is not as hard as you think.

A simple first step

So let’s start with an exercise. Next time you’re amazed when you see a person (maybe even a child) do something impressive with a new tech tool, don’t immediately attribute it to a gift you'll never possess. Instead, be open to the possibility that digital tools are simpler than they used to be.

I feel like I’m giving away a secret here. I like to appear really smart when I help teachers with new programs. I love it when I’m the hero that bailed out the teacher in front of the whole class. (Early elementary students will break into applause for these feats. It feels amazing.)

But I’m just trying to be honest. Instead of new tools confounding me now and then, I am regularly amazed at how much simpler they are.

Yes, I remember how long it took me to hook up a new printer or connect to a new internet service years ago. New software was hard to configure, and that was if I managed to install it correctly.

I understand that many adults of a certain age had years of those experiences (or maybe, years of witnessing others going nuts with those experiences). This formed the idea that technology is hard to use. 

Now, relatively speaking, that’s simply not true.

Photo from Brad Flickinger on Flickr -
https://www.flickr.com/photos/56155476@N08/

Think about this for a minute. I mean no disrespect to your kids or grand kids, but isn’t it possible that all those young people who quickly learn to work the new gadgets simply don’t hold this myth in their minds? They come at the new stuff thinking it’s meant to be intuitive and work effectively. They act accordingly and success is the result.

Technology is wildly popular and used throughout our society now not because the younger generation is so much smarter. It's largely because the tools are easier to use. Nowadays if a new tool is hard to use, you’ll never see it survive the market long enough to reach the masses.

But what about...

Before you hit me up with recent horror stories of incompatible software destroying your meeting or network failures that brought the office to a standstill, please keep a few things in mind.

First, I’m talking about technology that’s working as intended. Realistically speaking, that happens the vast majority of the time. Organizations dealing in a day with hundreds of times more money than you and I make in a decade trust their fortunes to this fact. It doesn't let them down in any significant way.

I’m also talking about average use. The amazing wizardry we see from people who live in front of their computers, have budgets for the what’s beyond the cutting edge and who work in specialized fields is difficult to replicate. That's why they are paid good money to do it.

But I’m taking about common tools that allow normal people to achieve more than they do without them. And that's an important goal I'm glad to help people move toward.

And if you’re still doubtful, I’m not saying the skills are so simple that no brains or effort is required. My later articles in this series will address what and how much is required to become competent.

Examples of positive change

To get specific, here are a few ways I regularly notice the tools have become easier over the years:

• Language in the apps is far less technical than it used to be. Menus, buttons and even error messages use common words instead of all the specialized terminology we used to see.
• Help features of programs are written better and many are making excellent use of video to explain exactly what you need to know. I’m very impressed with the quality of virtual training involved in much of the new software I encounter.
• Apps only do a few things, so options are limited. It used to be software companies boasted of all the things their programs could do. I guess the goal was to make tools like Word, Publisher or PowerPoint so flexible they could be used to turn out many different types of content. That made software complicated, with features buried in menus requiring many steps. Now apps are specialized. You find out what you need to do, look up the best app for it and it does just that with a few taps.
• There is more consistency across tools. Yes, we still have the PC versus Mac and iOS versus Android divides, but overall similar icons and terms appear across many common programs. Once you realize this, it won’t look so mystical when your teen figures out your new iPad app within seconds of opening it. 
• If common problems and questions weren’t addressed in the Help features of the software, they are only a web search away. Anyone who works regularly with technology will tell you the power of a simple Google search when it comes to using a tricky feature of a new program.
• You can hook up most new hardware by plugging in a cable. Sometimes you have to download a driver first, but do I even have to give examples of how difficult this used to be? I am continually grateful for these improvements.

_________

I’m not expecting now that you'll sit at a computer and churn out an amazingly easy, yet visually stunning video to upload to YouTube. I’m just hoping when the next person bails you out a tech bind you won’t immediately attribute success to his or her mad skills. Instead, think...

Maybe the tools are easier now. Maybe I could learn to do that too.

Try thinking that way for a few days. Once you’re open to that possibility, you’ll be ready to take the steps I’ll address in part 2.

Forget career planning - Do something big now

Update 5/22/2013: Here's a motivational song and lyric video for the classroom I created based on the idea in this blog post. It comes after a year of putting these thoughts into practice.

I was very excited this week to talk to our middle school Digital Media class. I don't regularly teach in that classroom, but I am considered to be a teacher in my district.  That means I end up as sort of a guest speaker in various classrooms K - 12 and I especially love it when I get to address this particular group.

I tell them why I think Digital Media is the best class we offer.

This year as I prepared my talk I realized how insane it is to talk to these kids, ages 11-14 about the career they'll have someday. When I taught high school math I would always talk about the world of work as a motivation for learning, but I’m done with that approach.  It wasn’t terribly effective five years ago when I taught math and it feels even less so now, especially as I see more apathy in grades 4 - 8.

Now I try to motivate them with what gets me excited.  I am pumped (honestly, I lost sleep over this) when I can tell them about the powerful tools that allow them to connect like never before so they can realize their dreams.

Never in the history of the world have we had tools that made it so easy to start on those dreams right away. It makes no sense to me to try to motivate students with the promise of a good job in 8 to 10 years when a tidal wave of fascinating entertainment will hit them seconds after we let them turn their phones back on.

So I gave my talk and I saw that glimmer of hope in some of their eyes. I told them about the books, movies, songs, games and other great gifts that I know are in their minds waiting to get free to the world. I believe it completely and I look forward to encouraging them more as I continue to work with their teacher.

I summed all this (and more) up this way in my presentation:

It has never been easier to start something big RIGHT NOW.  

And it has never been easier to just play.  

Choose wisely.

On the way to work that morning I saw the sunrise (we haven’t seen a lot of the sun recently here in Michigan) and I grabbed a picture.  I combined the two here:

But after the talk I got thinking, what exactly can they start?  Our culture bombards our kids with so much to do that some don't know how to begin anything original.  I made a list of goals they can start on not in weeks, months or years, but right now. I will use and develop the list as I continue working with learners of all ages.

First, the basic rules:

• Start a blog.
• Copy nothing.  You must make all elements from scratch.
• If you succeed in a goal, blog about it and include pictures. 
• If you fail, blog about it and include pictures. 

Some goals you can starting working toward right now:

• Make something digital that your parents will be so proud of they’ll share it on Facebook.
• Make a video and get X views in week on YouTube video.  Keep increasing X each time.
• Whatever your teacher assigns, ask if you can do a different project.  If the teacher says no, do it anyway (along with the real assignment!).  Show the teacher your work.
• Make a digital lesson for a younger sibling or family member.  Pick a topic he or she will study in the future so they will already know it when they get to it.
• What type of entertainment do you usually turn to in your freetime?  Instead of sucking up someone else’s idea, start making your own. 
• Make a gift for someone's birthday or a holiday on CafePress or some other site where you can create and order products. 
• Pick your favorite charity or cause. Make something online and sell it.  Donate whatever you make to your charity or cause.  

I'm confident that seriously working toward any of these goals will help our students acquire at least as many career skills as our other efforts have.

What are some other great goals students can start on right away?

What I Learned about Ed-Tech in 2011

This has been an incredible year for learning for me. I want to highlight some of the most important thoughts, and I'm not talking tech tips! Also, I will end with some of the most important questions that linger in my mind as we head into 2012.

What I learned...

I finished my graduate courses in August, then in early September I started co-teaching at the middle school level. I taught a Digital Media class and a Computer Literacy class, each for about nine weeks. While finishing up those graduate courses over the summer, I became rather idealistic. But it didn’t take long for middle school to snap me back to reality! This was an amazing opportunity to work out a balance between those extremes.

Now that we’re almost done with the first semester, I can see just how much I still have to learn. I have picked up a number of skills for creating meaningful lessons that most of the students will attempt. I have a few students in my mind (some by name and some by their general characteristics) that I simply have not been able to reach, but at least I can see what it will take.

The best example I can offer that speaks to my learning is a holiday slide assignment that I gave the class just before we left for break. I based it on the popular high school game project that I referred to in my last post. For the middle school students we used PowerPoint. Many of the aspects of the project were the same, but I made one very important improvement when I started the project with them.

See, I jumped into the game project with the high school students without setting it in context. I was starting to assume that the creativity alone would be motivating. That doesn't work for students who have been in a more conventional education system for so long. While I and their teacher considered the activity a success, we were not happy with the negative attitudes of some of the students who felt they would not use the skills that they perceived (graphic design and game design, specifically).

In response, I shared these lists below with those students and I think it addressed our concerns. When I started the project with the middle school students, I used the lists right from the beginning. It made a significant difference to put the project in this light.

Important skills addressed in this project:

• Learn new software
• Present with text and graphics
• Research and cite sources
• Be creative within requirements
• Process written information
• Produce quality results

I shared with them how I look for these skills when I work with students. I also used to emphasize these skills in a high school course about success.

Important qualities of any good employee:

• Maintain a positive attitude
• Adapt to changes - Flexibility
• Do what it takes

Last of all, I encouraged them to form habits that increase their opportunities for success.

These skills, traits and habits will be a focus for me in all future projects.

Big questions that I have at the end of the year...

Are we going to get there fast enough?
Speaking of that balance that I mentioned above, small steps toward the goal are required as we work within budget constraints and conventional systems of public education. The students, at least the ones in the district where I work, are not prepared for a big jump to higher thinking skills. I have had to learn patience as I want to rush toward the ideal. But is there time for such a patient approach?

And another question has lingered in my mind since early 2011. With gaming being so popular for students and with some very promising results of using computer games in the classroom, I feel the urge to use more of it. But I can’t help but wonder, why does it always have to be fun? This actually brings several questions to mind:

• Why are so many students seemingly only motivated by play?
• Even if, through play, we can teach them the curriculum, are we doing them favors?
• Will they really step up to the challenges of adult life when the only road to success is the way of hard work with no fun?