How to help someone use a computer

"The best way to learn is through apprenticeship -- that is, by doing some real task together with someone who has a different set of skills." I could relate to this because I learn well when I am working with a group of people and we can all pool our knowledge together to figure out the task. When working individually each person has certain strengths and weaknesses. When working together groups can utilize the diverse strengths of people to overcome their weaknesses.

"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 can relate to this rule because I physically need to do the task I am trying to accomplish. When someone takes control of this from me I tend to get a little annoyed and might not pay attention. If they tell me what to do and I accomplish the task I retain that knowledge better.

I think I could use both of these in our presentation because PDA's are a fairly new piece of technology in schools and the best way kids could learn from them is by working together and with their teacher to discover new ideas and ways to use them plus they need to physically do the tasks themselves instead of having the teacher show them everything so they become familiar with the technology.


Agre, Phil. How to help someone use a computer.1996.