Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Patience was a virtue today

Throught my career I have taught many students, faculty, and staff to find technical and popular information from online databases.  Students at a technological university are very savvy and learn how to search very easily.  We actually try to take them away from Google to databases which provide more reliable information.  Last week I received a phone call from an older woman, a Professor of English Literature.  She asked for an appointment for me to teach her how to search.  She also told me that she becam agoraphobic and there was no medication that could help her with that condition.  She needed information about a certain poet.  I worked very slowly with her going through each step to demonstrate how to find the information she would need.  The elderly gentleman in the photo above seems quite happy to take a listen from his grandson.  The Professor seemed to want to learn, but she was extremely slow in picking up the technique that I have taught to thousands of students over the years.  She wants to see me again.  I was very careful to be extremely patient with her.  During the lesson, she received a cell phone call.  If she can learn the cell phone, I am sure she will evenutally master the computer.

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