"IT for Beginners" Training

[enjay]

Any recommendations for good beginners' books/courses in IT? We have a new staff member who needs the absolute basics (how to navigate the Start Menu, work with folders, use Word/GDocs, use a browser) and it is felt this might be better delivered externally than in-house. They are enthusiastic and keen to learn, they just haven't used computers before.

 

Thanks!

[Fazza]

Free online courses:

 

https://www.digitalskills.com/

 

BBC WebWise - BBC WebWise

[Ant]

Might be worth checking with your local authority?

 

Kent County Council Adult Education, for example, run several IT courses throughout the year aimed at varying levels of ability from real basic stuff you describe to applications such as Excel. The basic course is even free in our case.

[Leeoakley]

You could get someone in to deliver something really tailored it would probably take the least amount of time and give you the best results. If you get deliver the training on what you have in place at school; logging on, where they save work, the products they will be using day in day out - will help build their confidence so that they can come in to the school and not feel overwhelmed.

 

The prohibitive factor is going to be cost on this.

 

Have you had a look at college courses?

 

Alternatively do you have links with other schools who might be able to do you a favour?

[halbaradkenafin]

Isn't this the sort of thing ECDL was created for? I'm not sure if it's still around but finding the materials that were used to teach it should be easy enough

[enjay]

We don't really need someone to train on our specifics, we can do anything school-specific ourselves; the staff member in question needs hand-holding through the basics. I sent them one of the WebWise links posted above, and that was beyond them. (To be honest, I think some of this is about confidence rather than ability, as they were able to email me back and say the link I'd sent was above their heads, so they already know how to log on, open their email, follow a hyperlink and then reply to an email!!)

 

There aren't any suitable evening or day-release courses available near here; my next route of enquiry is a one-day course somewhere, and whether County Council offer anything for school employees.

 

ECDL is an option, I'd actually forgotten about that!

[Leeoakley]

Not sure my post is very clear

 

9/10 time when you deal with someone lacking in skills in basic IT, this normally links in with a lack of confidence.

 

If the only outcome of some initial training is to make that person comfortable to have a go at things in the workplace you are more than half way there. This is normally (unlike nearly all other types of training) better done at the place of work. Trust me on this I organise a lot of training.

 

You are correct that someone not associated with the school is better placed to work with your colleague, but that individual really needs to know what they are doing or they will simply confuse your colleague further.

 

At this point, aiming you colleague at books, online materials/online course will only get pushed back as unusable/not understood. Later on, this may be an option if you don't push it much now.

 

When I say specifics, I'm talking passwords, the browser you use, the way any shared areas look, even letter heads and your document layouts need to be part of the process. They may well not even associate the skills learnt in IT at a different site, with those at yours. I worked in training a long time and have pretty much seen it all- People who don't know what to do when a mouse gets to the edge of a mouse mat, someone who thought there interactive whiteboard pen had run out of ink, high ranking directors who have no IT skills because they are so scared of being shown up in group training with their staff.

 

With an experienced trainer, this initial stage should really only take a day (tops) and it should be very relaxed.

 

The above is all "Ideal" so may well need to look at what's affordable.

 

If want to pick my brains on the subject just drop me a PM.

Edited September 18, 2015 by Leeoakley