Little-Miss Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 Do you guys know how every piece of your educational software works? Enough to do mini training sessions on it?
localzuk Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 Err... no. I learn when I get asked for help. And that's usually on the spot. ie. 'how do I do XYZ with this?!' 'looks at software, spots something that might do it, tries it' 'by doing this...' 1
skell Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 Same as @localzuk. Unfortunately that has the side effect of staff thinking that I know how to use every single piece of software in the entire world ever made... RTFM! (please...) 1
elsiegee40 Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 You have to be kidding! No I don't. I work out how to install it and perform basic tesing. Tuition, instructions, etc is for manuals, training courses and insets run by the people who ordered and are actually supposed to use the software... the teachers. 1
skell Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 Also, at lot of us are TECHNICIANS, not TRAINERS or TEACHERS, and we are not paid as such. 1
Little-Miss Posted February 16, 2011 Author Posted February 16, 2011 Just looking at my draft PM planning sheet and thats what my line manager thinks i will be doing.....we have got sooooooo much software as well, i'll be here forever!
firefox_2006 Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 The SENCo here bought two copies of Dragon Naturally Speaking and wanted me to show her the in and outs of it. The trouble is, the Philips digital voice recorders don't recorder in mp3 or wav formate (.czr?) so you need some technical knowledge to convert the audio before putting it into Dragon software. Also the program is suppose to train to an individuals voice and create a profile. All of this was not taken into account before buying it! We have the Assistant Head teaching some Media Studies students in the 6th form because there actual teacher has never used Adobe CS3 before! Had the Head of IT asking for videos and training materials as I think the media studies teacher is finally going to get himself up to speed lol 1
EvLPhenom Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 no...there is too much for a start off. If i get asked something i will have a play with the software quicly and if i find out i will show them, if not i tell staff to refer to the softwares website/manuals. Just don't have time to find out how it works, i just find out how to install it properly and make sure it works technically. 1
sted Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 i generally know what a piece of software does and with most thats it. Im ok at office/textease/open office/smartboard but generally no as others have said the only time i do more than click click yes that seems to work is if someone has an issue 1
Domino Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 Really, they think that's your responsibility? If so the purchasing decision for each and every bit should be too then? cause you know what they'll be needing ;-) It takes me 20 minutes to remember how to use some of the techy suites sometimes, forget user-oriented stuff 1
teejay Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 If you don't know the software, you can't exactly train people on it, so ask to go on training courses or get cpd time to study it. 1
Little-Miss Posted February 16, 2011 Author Posted February 16, 2011 Eugh, really not looking forward to my meeting tomorrow now. I'm happy to train staff on things generally, but i dont have the time to know every bit of software in and out. If i bought the software then yeah, i should know how it works but i dont, the staff do.
sted Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 Eugh, really not looking forward to my meeting tomorrow now. I'm happy to train staff on things generally, but i dont have the time to know every bit of software in and out. If i bought the software then yeah, i should know how it works but i dont, the staff do. im not sure id even go that far just because you bought it just means that on your criteria it fitted not that you know anything about it. 1
featured_spectre Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 Put it like this.. For you to learn the in's and out's of the software, they will have to send you on training courses, get qualified and certified to use it completely, and then pay you accordingly to train the staff...they'll soon rethink or take you up on that offer. We did that here, and I am now the trainer for Pivot Stick Figure Animator (self studied the entire software for all of 5 mins, but they gave me a day to learn it all), as well as SIMS technical training, Smartboard training (software and board), and MS Desktop training for XP (soon to do the W7 one).
Elison Posted February 21, 2011 Posted February 21, 2011 I do not. It would take too much time to learn about every piece of software we use at university. Besides they dont pay for it lol Actually I do something like mini testing just to be sure that software works after installing. That is all. But learnign everything about is is out of my responsibility.
SimpleSi Posted February 21, 2011 Posted February 21, 2011 Nope - I'm the expert on Scratch/Audacity/Wax (green screening)/Excel/updating the Web site but there are far more knowledgeable teachers on Paint/Softease/Word/Publisher/Smart notebook, 2 paint a picture etc than me Si
griffin Posted February 21, 2011 Posted February 21, 2011 Little-Miss, hope the Meeting went beter than expected. I've always tried to get across that I am not an expert in all software but can use my general IT skills to help on any software (google and edugeek are parts of that skill set). If those above require you to train specific software, they need to be aware of the time and resources that will be required for you to do so.
sonofsanta Posted February 21, 2011 Posted February 21, 2011 Not a chance - normally comes up with ePortal and reports, people ask me questions and I politely tell them each time that I haven't a flippin' clue because I've never taught a lesson in my life, so never written a report, and any other member of the teaching staff is infinitely more knowledgeable on the matter than I am. In general, though, most things can be worked out because most software works the same as everything else. I tend to be better at working it out than most teaching staff simply because I'm more confident with computers and know I'm not going to break anything by clicking about randomly and looking at all the menus to see what looks likely. As others have said though, this does tend to lead to people thinking you know how to do everything on computers. ...Had the Head of IT asking for videos and training materials as I think the media studies teacher is finally going to get himself up to speed lol Adobe TV - just give them that link, will keep them occupied for weeks
Edu-IT Posted February 21, 2011 Posted February 21, 2011 No, I don't have the time or the inclination to learn every bit of software out there.
Andie Posted February 21, 2011 Posted February 21, 2011 When my role was split as techie and TA, I used to know quite a lot of software from using it with the pupils in classes. But since I dropped the TA bit and the network has grown enormously, I don't have the time to learn all the new stuff that comes in. Doesn't mean I don't get asked though! Yes, and I even feel guilty when I have to say I'll go away and look something up because I don't know how to do it straight away. This despite the fact that I haven't had any training on anything for years!!!! It's like staff who expect you to know how to work every bit of electrically powered kit in the school instantly. And expect you to be a web designer, computer programmer, etc. as well. IT is a many-spendoured thing... Ask for some time to learn the stuff. Paid time. And possibly ask for a list of what folks actually want training on. Half of edu software (at least!) never gets used after it's installed, as I'm sure you know.
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