Making the masses more computer literate.

[glaston]

This is something that I seem to run into on a daily basis.
And what I'm starting this thread for is to exchange experience and/or ideas about ways to break through the mental block and pre-conceived notions many average people have about computers and their complexity.

I have a somewhat large extended family.
And more and more of them are turning to me for help with buying a PC, setting up/maintaining PC's
Some of them with multiple systems and small home networks (usually wireless or mixed), including network printers and sharing files on a home LAN among other specific needs.
I also have several friends who turn to me for help.
I'm glad to help, but I'm always left frustrated it seems.

This has been going on since the late 90s.
Because most people seem to expect to not have to know or learn anything.
They want to turn on the machine and have it do whatever they want automatically.
Reading and learning to complete a task is something these people try to avoid at all costs.
They would rather someone does it all for them, and again when the problem comes up again since they don't want to learn how to prevent or solve it.

I have a wealth of notes pertaining to ideas for solutions for getting "dumb users" acquainted with computers and software.
From learning methods to interface design with new/dumb users and easily intimidated, or easily frustrated people in mind.
And I've always wanted to do something with this to make computers easier on the average schmuck.

For instance, in my basement media room I have a community machine that's there for general household use.
It's a Dell desktop that's a few years old.
It gets re-formatted at least twice a year because those who use it have no computer sense whatsoever.
It's basically a very expensive MP3 player/YouTube kiosk/online shopping center.
It has to be isolated on the network so that spyware and virii aren't able to spread, since there are deviant elements in the house that believe it to be a dedicated porn kiosk.
It's name is Clutterbox because it's always a total mess.
Crazy amounts of icons on the desktop all the time, downloaded and saved files are EVERYWHERE in the filesystem, duplicate files, shortcuts to shortcuts and files that got deleted.

Ya know how a windows box remembers where the last file you downloaded was saved to, and the save dialog automatically opens at that same location next time you save a file?
Well, some people think that's the computer saying that the file they're saving HAS to go there.
They don't get the idea that files go where you tell them to.
Maybe I don't communicate ideas well, but I've explained things so many times that I have no desire to do it again.
Even when asked-"where did you save the file to", they respond-"wherever the computer told me to".
It's crazy, but it represents the way that the majority of "dumb users" perceive things.
The mistaken idea that the computer is in control of everything and TELLS THE USER what to do.
I have a shelf full of "for dummies" books ranging from DOS to E-Bay that I've accumulated over the years.
Strategically placed right next to the house machine, nobody reads them.
The prevailing complaint is that they don't want to have to read a book in order to do simple things like browse the web or access media.
I have a couple of those computer professor titles(Try My Product) on the same shelf, nobody uses them.

One of the major obstacles is that many adults(believe it or not) have NO faith in their ability to learn new things.
Go figure.
So they totally avoid those things, and often actively resist any discussion about them.

It's comical in a sense that to the majority of average users, what makes a computer work is magic that requires a degree in computer science to understand.
Or that when a knowledgeable person explains something, the average user can't get beyond those few words that they didn't understand.
You could carefully explain everything in simplest terms and these people can understand for the most part, but once you say 1 word they don't recognize, it's all over at that point.
It's made worse by many people not wanting to sound stupid by asking what a word means, or asking to explain something a little more.
Then there's also another group of people(always adults) who will flat out say that they are unable to learn anymore.
Or that they have a diminished capacity to learn anything.
And they actually believe that. They're not just saying it, that's reality to them.

I personally don't see how that's possible.
Unless you've had some sort of head injury or a stroke or something.

Anyway, I'd like to hear some other experiences or ideas with this.

[rokytnji]

Howdy Glaston. I can see why you would be up tight. One suggestion maybe is to install one of those free firewalls from Major Geeks and set the sensitivity to high instead of Normal. That would cut down on some of the bull. Or play the bad guy and install Damn Small Linux on the box and see if they can use it. Your standard answer could be, I don't use Damn Small Linux, so I don't know. I guess you'll have to figure it out yourself. Nice rant by the way.

[questio verum]

Yank the hard drive, pop a Knoppix CD in and weld a cover plate over the optical drive. Then tell them to learn ...or else! I'm only half kidding.

I feel your frustration. But if you don't do something firm and resolute, they will never make the effort to learn. Why should they if they know they can bring it to Good ol' Glaston and let him fix it. There's no incentive there. Or am I reading it wrong?

On the other hand... I have a brother who is a master electrician at the top of his trade. He makes a handsome wage. He's also quite good at trading stocks. In fact, he realized an 82% ROI in last years market. But he absolutely refuses to learn anything beyond the bare minimum about computers. He knows this put's him at a disadvantage, but he doesn't care. He is willing to pay others to fix his rig. He say's the time he would spend learning the skills to work on his own rig can be better spent studying the market. So someone in the pc repair field benefits.

I guess it really depends on the understandings you have with your familial clients. It would also depend on whether or not you're charging for your services. Still... you might want to consider a welding class... Just in case.

[Freston]

I don't think you can really teach the Great Unwashed

And more and more of them are turning to me for help with buying a PC, setting up/maintaining PC's

I think that goes for a lot of the regular members of this forum. I've read somewhere that with IT, you either have it or you don't.

By analogy: The first moped I bought was upside down and inside out the second day I had it. Just riding it wasn't enough. And if I could spend an entire week to get it to go just a little bit faster, then I had a good week. By consequence, my moped was kaput 90% of the time.
But you find someone who has some gears lying around. You know someone who has a better (=bigger) carburettor. You meet someone who can do magic on the exhaust. And after half a year (and still legally not old enough to ride a moped) it went twice as fast as when I got it on the same cylinder.
I think this is a good analogy. 'cuz Who do you think people turned to when their moped made some funny noice? You can't teach people these things. Yet, people who are curious find out quickly that it's doable even without any formal training, acquired skills or even a lot of money.



No I'm afraid it's up to you to build a system that cleans itself. I'd use some Linux distro with an easy interface (Xfce comes to mind). If you set up /etc/skel right, then adding user accounts is no trouble. Add quota's, delete temp files during shutdown and if the user fsck'd the system just delete the user and create a new one. You can script this so it's only one command.

I understand your rant all to well. You may not take the approach I'd take, but I think that if people expect you to maintain their machines, that you can lay down some ground rules for them.

[Dapper Dan]

I feel your frustration. But if you don't do something firm and resolute, they will never make the effort to learn. Why should they if they know they can bring it to Good ol' Glaston and let him fix it. There's no incentive there. Or am I reading it wrong?

I agree. No one will learn how to do any of this when they can rely on you to fix things for them. Believe me when I tell you I know all about this. I have some of my people calling me saying "...the computers isn't working right!" I say... "what's wrong?" and they say... "When I click on the little thing, the thing won't work!"

Very frustrating. I've installed VNC on most of my machines so I can see what they are doing. 90% of the time I can fix it or show them what they're doing wrong from afar.

It's a losing battle.

A little old lady buys a new car and runs it until something doesn't work the way she expects, so she takes it in to the garage and says, " the car isn't working right!" The mechanic says, okay, I'll check it out. He does, finds the "problem" fixes it and hands her a bill. You should do the same. If that isn't incentive for them to learn more about what they're doing wrong then don't feel bad about charging for your time.

You can't really charge immediately family or employees of course, but I wouldn't hesitate to charge my sister-in-law for fixing her laptop if she repeatedly sought my help in fixing problems that were ridiculously simple to avoid.

[hazel]

The first computer I ever used was a big mainframe with 96k of ram (wow!) and I was accessing it via a genuine teletype. The colleague who was demonstrating it said: "It's quite safe because it won't let you do any damage. If you type something wrong, it just spits it out."

To demonstrate, she typed in a swearword. The computer answered: "Invalid command 'damn'". She typed: "What do you mean, invalid command?" and the computer answered: "Invalid command 'what'."

For me this was a revelation. It meant I could try out all kinds of things because I didn't need to be afraid of breaking anything. If I am at ease with computers now, I owe it all to that wise woman.

[Roxoff]

So how does one stop the incessent stream of 'can you help me fix this' from users near you? Well I'm going to tell you this, but please don't tell anyone I live with. I use a queue. If someone says 'such and such is broken, can you have a look', if it's a critical system, hardware failure or something that is my fault, generally I'll do it straight away. If it's a 'user too stupid' error, they go in a queue, I say 'I'll have a look at it shortly, I'm just doing <insert random made-up-on-the-spur-of-the-moment-task>'.

The more trivial their task is, or the more the result of their own stupidity it is, the longer I make 'em wait. If they've been really stupid, they may have to wait a couple of weeks.

This has a couple of interesting effects; the first is that they'll try and dick about with it themselves, which normally fixes the problem to their satisfaction. If it's a critical failure (they cant load word or install the latest game 'cos they're too thick) then it's just plain tough. They don't get privileges to install anything on any computers in my Samba Domain for a very very good reason...

Eventually I'll sit down and look at the problem. If they've been really stupid, I'll part fix it and walk away, knowing that they're going to be back asking for help. At which point they go to the end of the queue, their computer problems are less important than the latest espisode of Top Gear. If it's more important to them, then they'll fix it themselves.

Here's an example. My stepdaughter wants to check her email, her computer in the cellar is off-line for some odd reason, so she's using mine. She's using Linux 'cos it's my PC, although she normally uses Windows. She boots the machine up, turns it on and finds it cant log on. She complains to me that she cant log on, and asks that I have a look at it. Now, I know there's nothing wrong with the network or the authentication system, or the shared home directories (I'm using them on my mobile PC...) so she goes to the back of the queue, I tell her I'm busy and she sulks off. The following evening, she badgered me, so I put it off for an hour or so, then said to her right, let's go look at this issue. We get to the foot of the staircaise (the computer is upstairs) and she says "hang on a minute, I think I was typing in the wrong password". She felt a right idiot. I had a good laugh, and the amount of my time that got sunk into fixing her problem? About 3 minutes in total. That includes the walk to the stairs.

[dalinux_n00bie]

I prefure to see this is job security for IT people

[cousinlucky]

I have picked up books about computers and it takes me forever to get through a page because I am unfamiliar with almost every word being used and every thought being expressed. I just end up with a headache and a level of frustration that I know is bad for my health.

When I used windows I subscribed to Mr. Modem's newsletter which he sent every Friday. As a subscriber I was able to submit email questions to him. Mr. Modem is a godsend to old folks, like me, because of his patience and understanding.

People that use Linux expect other Linux users to have some degree of computing competence. That is a wall I do not envision myself scaling.

[glaston]

I have picked up books about computers and it takes me forever to get through a page because I am unfamiliar with almost every word being used and every thought being expressed.

Pretty much every computer book has a glossary.
Aside from advanced technical manuals that you wouldn't even open if you didn't already have the knowledge needed to understand it.
That's probably daunting to some people, to have to refer to the glossary 20 times per page.
But that comes back to the will and desire to learn.
If you want to learn, doing what needs to be done isn't really a problem.
On the other hand, if you're sort of backed into a corner and forced to have to learn something you aren't enthused about then it can be a real chore.

People that use Linux expect other Linux users to have some degree of computing competence.

There's very good reason for that though.
Up until within the last 6 years or so the only people who used Linux had some degree of technical aptitude, unless they were basic users on a larger network that had resources in place to help non-familiar users become acquainted or solve problems.
It used to be that to use Linux, you had to have some degree of technical knowledge in order to even get through the install phase successfully.

That is a wall I do not envision myself scaling.

The irony in that comment is that in order for you to scale that wall, first you have to envision yourself doing it.
As with everything else.
You see it as something more difficult than it really is.
Which has a direct effect on your confidence in achieving the goal.

With this analogy, consider it as you would one of those indoor climbing walls.
There's little notches and platforms for you to grab onto and place your feet.
But still, when you stand there and look up to the top, it seems impossible.
But if you look straight ahead at the next place for you to grab onto and only focus on that, you'll be at the top before you know it and your goal has been met.
That's when you start focusing on more efficient ways to scale the wall in smaller amounts of time.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think that people lose their capacity to learn new things as they get older.
At least I haven't anyway.
I'm not too old(32), but I've found that the speed in which I learn is directly proportionate to my will and desire to learn.

I've never had doubts in my ability to learn.
If solving a problem requires knowledge that I don't already possess, I hunt down and acquire the knowledge to solve the problem.
I think that the only barriers to a persons abilities are the ones that the person creates or accepts for themselves.

There's 2 schools of thought at work here.
The old school of thought says that what's going on outside the mind is separate from what's going on inside.
Then the new school says that what's going on outside the mind, is created by what's going on inside.