"The birds be on that mission to fly south.
I be on that east coast mission to ride out."
-Buckshot, "All Out"
I am a fairly simple guy. Not too many strings attached. However, quite often I find that sometimes I don't have enough time in any given day left for me; much less anyone else. Nahmean. "Beat down" probably would be the best phrase to describe how I am feeling right about now. Work is straight nuts. Inhale....
The entire technology department for the school district is operating on all cylinders and full tilt manage this massive laptop deployment we have going. All teachers are getting brand spanking new MacBooks (with Parallels). Thus, they are getting the new Mac OS (Leopard) and Windows XP. And throw in there about 120 GB, a CD burner, and still/video camera, and you've got yourself a party, yo. For us, that means long days of logistical miracles, leftover boxes, cranky people, beaming smiles, raspy voices, and deja vu (like a mutha). All in all, the rollout is going tremendously well. I banged out my sixth training in seven days earlier today. It's getting to be pretty routine by now. One day, I was rocking the Bobby Brown with the headpiece and microphone while doing a hands-on demo. You have no idea how badly I wanted to randomly shout, it's my prerogative. Aww man.
I've always enjoyed training and teaching people how to use and maximize their productivity when it comes to technology. The biggest challenge has been how to balance out the widely varying levels of experience teachers have with Macs - and computers in general - and the large amount of information we must condense into two hours. Here and there, we'll get someone who has never really even used a computer or is simply unfamiliar with how to move their cursor with anything other than a mouse. But hey, it could be worse, right? At least they know what a mouse is. Verdad, son.
The most noticeable and striking observation I have made is of the visible generational differences. It's pretty much well known, but the visual evidence is remarkable. The newer teachers are literally waiting on me to get to the next step as they press on. And this is not to say that the generalizations holds true in all cases. Because I know for a fact that if my 90-plus-year-old, great-grandmother can play solitaire and send me email, then just about anyone can adapt.
We've tried being as diplomatic as possible if any issues arise; yet invariably they will pop up at some point. I guess that's another reason why I enjoy doing trainings. It allows me to hone my patience and refine my hold-that-thought skills. Taking a step back does a body good, yo. It's something I've noticed myself practicing with my night school students as well. On occasion, I can sense myself getting annoyed at someone's lack of understanding - especially when it's a simple topic. But maybe my explanation simply wasn't clear enough. Go figure. Practice makes perfect, right? Or close enough to good enough so that we can get by.
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