How to Help Someone Use a Computer

I found this article to be useful. I do not believe that I really think about how to help people, because so many people, myself included, just do it everyday without knowing it. I have to remember that not everyone will think the way that I do and that my communication, no matter how amazing I believe it to be, is always going to need some improvement depending on who I am communicating with or to. I think that an important “thing you have to tell yourself” or myself in this case, is to remember that not everyone knows what I know and that I need to help them, work together, not to solve their problem but to help them learn how to solve or better solve the problem on their own.

One particular “thing you have to tell yourself” I found to always be true is that “beginners face a language problem: they can't ask questions because they don't know what the words mean, they can't know what the words mean until they can successfully use the system, and they can't successfully use the system because they can't ask questions.” This vicious circle of not knowing what to do and not knowing how to ask for help can only be solved if communication is flowing rapidly and respectfully between the two or however many parties involved.

One important rule that I know I need to follow is to be more aware of my body language and how I say things. It is one thing to be standing over someone in a power-like stance glaring at their screen, but it is another to be on their level looking with them and at them as you accomplish the task together. I also know that how I see what I say may not always be the way that it really comes across. Being careful of how I say things and how the come across in meaning, makes the connection between myself and others more important. But, taking it one step further, I really believe that the rule to really follow is to not “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.” This is especially hard for me to follow seeing as how I am an impatient person. I really want to be able to help people, but before I can help them I have to help myself and this needs to happen by teaching myself to have more patience and more understanding with the people I am dealing with.

Solving problems with others is important but giving them the tools to be able to do it on their own and possibly help more people in the future is critical. In my team’s presentation, communication is so critical that people able to not just listen but to understand what they are saying and how they feel can solve problems faster as well as create a smoother more effective final project.


http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/how-to-help.html
This article is adapted from The Network Observer. Copyright 1996 by Phil Agre.)