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From
Alan Gorman:
I've
just stumbled on your site, and my first thought is: sanity
at last ....
The
iMac is a marvellous tool, but many of us who've just got
one and are new to the world of computers aren't using it
to anything like its potential, NOT because we're stupid,
but simply because those who have vital information and expertise
lack COMMUNICATION SKILLS.
The
whole idea of online help is bizarre to anyone who's new to
computers, isn't it? The obvious initial need is for BOOKS
(I'm tempted to say: books and comics ...). You can't flick
to and fro on-screen pages as easily as you can in a book,
and you certainly have to do a lot of flicking to and fro
when you're a beginner!!
One
crucial thing about an explanatory book is the way it's indexed,
because different users want to know different things in different
orders. So different users will want to start at different
points in a book. Even David Pogue - who does try to communicate
clearly, to give him credit, but sometimes mistakes jokiness
for clarity - slips up by not offering a comprehensive index.
Simply (I believe) he's already forgotten what it's like REALLY
not to know. Most computer people have forgotten this, don't
you find? But don't we also know from our experience of the
education system - good teachers are RARE, in all walks of
life, not just the computer world?
In
my opinion, a reasonable teaching method starts from getting
students to ask questions. This approach already cuts out
99% of teaching carried out in our familiar educational institutions,
which use methods based on the premise that teachers and syllabus-devisers
know best: here's the lecture or the text book or the handout
- one I prepared earlier -, now get on with it. This is roughly
how computer manuals are written, too. But in the case of
the iMac, we don't even have that ...
13th
June 1999
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