IT illiteracy
My colleague, with whom I share a tiny office, has a speaking voice that you can hear from space. He is one of the natural wonders of the world, I swear.
I am sitting here, listening to him trying to explain over the phone how to use a computer. The person on the other end has never used a computer before. I have been advocating for training in basic computer skills for all our staff, because none of them really knows how to use them for anything other than downloading music and propagating nasty viruses. Of course, now the computers have been delivered, but the training hasn’t.
This is what I can hear (at 1,000,000 decibels):
“Now you need to put the reports into Microsoft Word.”
…..
“Microsoft word. It is on the new computer. You need to open it.”
…..
“OK, switch the computer on. Now, did you get the CD I sent you?”
…..
“Put it in the computer.”
….
“There is a place in the box where you put in the CD.”
….
“No, you need to press that button.”
And he hasn’t even managed to open Word yet. Hours of time wasted, trying to work out how to click into tables and enter information. And it will be a matter of days before the thing is full to bursting with trojans and worms or whatever, and we have to get the IT guys out again to clean it up.
Sigh.
June 7th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Ah yes, this was the stuff that many a candid microphone trick call on the radio was about, when I was back in my colonial days.
June 8th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Your posts on religion are more successfull than your posts on computer technology.
Does it say something about our society ?
June 9th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
I’m wondering how Uncle Did is rating success at this juncture and how he intends to extrapalate any conclusion about society from that.
My ex mother-in-law broke my mobile once by talking too loudly. She was in a different country and I was holding the phone…
June 11th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Penfold : The success I was meaning is the number of comments for the previous post compared to this one.
And the conclusion is that we are still ruminating the same old existantialists questions despite the amount of technology our lifes are filled with.
Nothing more profound than that, sorry, it’s just the ratio “Number of comments/ Subject of post ” that inspired me.
June 12th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Hmm, I think that this post wasn’t very successful because it wasn’t very interesting. I’m feeling rather uninspired of late. Blog fatigue perhaps.
July 1st, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Entertaining however – nothing wrong with that.