Pat: Now don’t go bringing logic into this. After all, the people here want to pant about being “wired” and how they, and they alone, are the key to the future of newspapers.

Also, to Robb M.: You should give yourself more credit. Based on your prior claims, I’m quite sure you would be the most clueless person in all of those newsrooms. Don’t go selling yourself short, PFAD drooler.

I know I’ll be entertained when people who haven’t learned how to write are posting straight to the Internet.

Curiously the most technophobic, clueless and resistant to change are those editorial types over 40 who have been able to keep their posts mostly due to their seniority in their guilds – not because they have remained nimble in their skill set and adapted to the changing environment. Sadly, now these newsrooms are half-filled – all the less senior staff has been let go. That is scary to see.

I have had the most fun and get the bigger thrill out of working with the staff of weekly papers and groups who publish community papers.

Hands down those reporters are the most eager to learn and it is a pleasure to act as sort of a bridge for them.

I don’t think we can forget that many journalists grew up before computers (let alone Internet access) were widespread in homes. I am very computer literate, but that is largely because I had a computer to play around with as a kid. I think most people are inquisitive when they are young, but if you didn’t start using a computer until you were 30, you’ll probably never really try to understand what makes a computer tick.

With that in mind, newspapers probably should try to make sure their staffs are computer literate. Although, the time to really do this kind of training was 10-15 years ago, but I digress.

The real question I have however is this: Can we make people computer literate (understand a computer, not just what works)? Or is that level of literacy something that a person must learn on his own? As Brian noted, some people want to know what makes something happen, while others just want to know how to make something happen. I’m not convinced that those people can be made computer literate.

Could you really make someone car literate? Sure, you could teach someone to change their own oil, but I don’t think a person who isn’t inquisitive will figure out how to fix others issues on his own.

Maybe some computer literacy training is in order, but the hour is growing late for many newspapers. At some point pragmatism will have to displace compassion, and computer illiterate people will have to go. Journalism is increasingly becoming an industry dependent on people with a good technical knowledge, not just basic computer literacy.

My first suggestion would be to make sure the person in charge of the training is your best teacher, not necessarily your savviest tech person. If you’re lucky and that’s one and the same person, great. But if not, you’re better off with a trainer who has patience and a knack for teaching.

Second is to realize that, particularly when it comes to basic computer skills, you’ll have a wide range of pupils and you need to address that. When I run audio classes, for example, I hand out three different sets of instructions for uploading MP3s (the most technical part of the work, here), from a bare-bones checklist to a detailed, step-by-step, click-by-click package. Then I explain that they should use whichever they feel most comfortable with. That’s helped a lot.

Finally — do make sure you’re providing handouts of some sort. Even with one-on-one sessions, it’s better if folks have something on paper they can refer to later.

It’s great that your newsroom is trying this. Good luck!

Partly because of this, we just finished an 8-session series of workshops for our colleagues. While we weren’t teaching people to minimize windows, we were trying to raise their digital literacy when it comes to the tools they can use in their classrooms and research.

We offered it to everyone in the college, across all departments, and sold it as a way to learn and refine skills. While one colleague, who attended every session enthusiastically, kept referring to it as “‘reeducation camp,” the response was strong.

People do want to learn this stuff, it can be taught. If – big if – you have someone who can teach, you can do it in-house. There’s a level of pride involved when you bring in a consultant and that can set up some barriers. How about weekly Thursday brown bag lunches? How about creating a blog with a tip of the day?

Hmm … maybe I should do that one …

I posted the last session’s slides online. ( http://mejohnso.myweb.uga.edu/presentations.html )May not make much sense, but you can see how we tried to tie some loose ends up, they may be a good starting point.

-mark

The messy desktop issue is actually a perfect metaphor to the physical world. Some people have clean desks, some messy. Some people work places where clean desks are enforced, like I used to (who asked me about my desk during my interview?).

Who cares how clean the physical or virtual desktop is as long as the person is productive?

And, dear readers, I have seen her physical desk and it ain’t pretty. I bet she knows exactly what everything is and can lay her hands on something in less than five seconds if she needs it, though.

I gather you’ve never looked at the desktops of some very computer-literate colleagues that I know you respect?

What drives me mad is when I instruct people to “click” (like on a hyperlink) and they “double-click.”