How to help someone use a computer

"By the time they ask you for help, they've probably tried several things. As a result, their computer might be in a strange state. This is natural."
When I was first starting to learn the ways of the computer I would get lost in it from messing around with all of the programs and items. For me at least, half the fun of getting lost was trying to find your way back to where you started. The same idea can happen when trying to fix something yourself rather than getting help from someone more knowledgeable. It's probably because their too stubborn or think that they're skills are better than they really are (like me). It should probably be stated in any technology class that they should not be afraid to ask questions or ask the teacher to slow down so they can keep up. It would probably also be recomended to the students that they CAN do more harm by trying to fix the problem themselves.

"Don't take the keyboard. Let them do all the typing, even if it's slower that way, and even if you have to point them to every key they need to type. That's the only way they're going to learn from the interaction."
I am a very strong believer in the fact that everyone learns better by doing than following. You can point them to where you want them to go, but one should never actually do it for them. This is even more true when it comes to technology in the classroom. I think though that the problems that are listed on that page are slowly going to dwindle away because we are dealing with more and more digital natives.


We will be able to use most of this information because we are mostly digital immigrants and have not been using the technology for all of our lives so it is important that we do the best job possible at teaching this new information.

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