Unable to Learn? Or Unwilling to Learn???

In working with a lot of people in the area of technology, I hear "I'm not tech savvy" or something along those lines an awful lot. Usually it is a very intelligent professional person. Most of them hold advanced degrees in their field.

As an IT Trainer, how do I get them to become tech savvy? Or maybe I should ask how do I get them to want to become tech savvy?

I honestly believe that there are very few of these people that are unable to learn. The issue is how to get them to 'want' to learn. Is it possible that in today's world, they don't know about the benefits of being 'tech savvy'? Do they think it is just too hard? Do they lack the confidence in being able to learn? Are they using this as an excuse to get out of doing work? Are they afraid? If so, of what?

I don't have the answers. I suspect that I'm not even asking the right questions.

It wouldn't be so bad if their ignorance only affected them. In today's world, their ignorance affects everyone around them. Their co-workers waste a lot of time because they are working on projects with them. The organization loses because countless hours and dollars are wasted, knowledge is not being shared and work is being duplicated to name a few ways their ignorance affects others.

I'm working with a team and we'll have a conference call that will last 2 hours. If the team members could/would post their reports to the web (wiki) prior to the conference call, the secretary's job would be much easier (and more accurate) and our conference call would last a fraction as long. We could spend that time addressing the issues for which we need everyone's input.

If the team members were more tech savvy, we could use some web conferencing software and save hundreds of dollars of phone charges, run a much more efficient meeting, show many of the things we'll be talking about and have a recording for those who were unable to attend.

None of these require skills much beyond being able to type into a web page form, use a word processor or plug in a headset.

I'm done ranting for now...
Your comments would be greatly appreciated!

Getting nothing done this morning

My mornings usually start with me catching up with my 'tweets' by reading what they did since I was at a computer last. If you aren't using Twitter, it is fun and a great social networking tool. This morning @esagor shared a blog article "Twitter is my village". A great quote from that article is: "For a contrived, weird and techy way to communicate, Twitter’s “passive conversation” fosters very natural, gradual relationship-building."

I learned that Auburn University now has a YouTube channel from @aafromaa and about the daily goings on of several of my friends - that I don't see but once or twice a year. It's just a great way to keep in touch. In return for them sharing their days, I feel I owe it to them to share what's going on in my life.

Another good description of twitter is 'micro-blogging'. Often, I get just enough information to get my interest and want read more.

I also discovered two funny blogs - "Because I Said So" and "MaNiC MoMMy". Okay, sometimes twitter leads to non-productivity. But, more often than not, it leads to extreme productivity and great discoveries.

If you still aren't convinced to start using Twitter, read Anne's article "Advantages of Twitter".

If you care about what I'm doing, get a Twitter account and follow me.

If you want to get a (almost) daily IT tip, follow ITTOTD. If you have an IT Tip, share it with me and I'll add you to the list of those that ITTOTD follows.

Time start getting things done!

Sharing your To-Do lists

The power of the web today is the ability to collaborate with others. Another tool to put in your box is a to-do list.

I just found a couple that I thought were worth of mentioning. Ta-da List and Voo2Do

Ta-da List is a very simple to-do list manager that lets you create multiple lists, each with tasks. This way, you can separate your tasks by projects. The number one feature of this is that you can share a list - or have several people working on the same list. Each list can be shared with different people or not shared at all.

My second favorite feature is the ability to subscribe to a list via RSS feeds. This way, when others edit the list, I'll know about it.

Voo2Do has more features than Ta-da List, but it is lacking the two most important ones - Collaboration & RSS (they are working on the collaboration feature). But, if you don't want to share with others, it is a very good option.
Some of the features that I like are the ability to put notes with each task, divide tasks among projects and due dates.

If you are looking for a "To-Do List" tool, get an account for each of these. It is free and only takes a minute.

Do You Blog? or Why Blog?

Lee and Sachi LeFever of The Common Craft Show have produced Blogs in Plain English an easy-to-understand introduction to "What is a blog?"

Anne Adrian blogged "What is a blog" and added more to that - and amplified the message by spreading the word. I'm taking what Anne wrote, adding to it, and amplifying the original message. Everyone benefits. Perhaps you will start blogging about something in which I'm interested and I'll benefit.

I see a blog as everything the LeFevers and Anne say it is and more.

• A vehicle for self expression.
• A time saver - answer that question you are going to get 100 times this month once and for all. The next time someone asks, just point them to your blog.
• A great replacement for 'newsletters' (and cheaper to deliver).
  
• A way to help others.
• Payment to those I read. Sort of a "Pay it forward" type thing.
• A learning tool - I definitely learn more about what I write by blogging about it. If you want to truly learn and understand something, try explaining it to someone else.
• If you write well enough about a topic that enough people are interested in (see Long Tail) you might even be able to make some money by becoming a "ProBlogger".
  

Kevin Gamble blogged about needing to "Be the Ball" in order to 'grok' or fully understand something. Blogging is one of those things you must "Be the Ball" before you can figure out what's in it for you.






Are you ready to start? Don't you have something to say? Everyone has something they can contribute to mankind.

Blog numbers

One of the first questions I get when talking to people about using a blog for professional reasons is, "How can I measure it?" Usually, they are familiar with numbers like the number of newsletters mailed or the circulation of a newspaper. With blogs, this can be more difficult - but not impossible.

Anne Adrian and I talked last week about this topic I guess it spawned a blog post for each of us. Her article on measuring your blog has some excellent tips for bloggers and recommends using the tools discussed below. She's a faster (and better) blogger than me.

By using a combination of FeedBurner and Google Analytics, there are ways to count the number of people who subscribe to your feed or look at your pages.

Let's start with Google Analytics.

Go to: http://www.google.com/analytics/ and create an account if you don't already have one.

1. Click on "Add a domain".
2. Enter the URL of your blog.
3. Copy the code snippet and paste into the body portion of your blog template (before the "/body" tag at the end of the HTML code).
• If you are using Blogger, add an HTML/JavaScript element to the footer of your page template.
4. Check back to view the traffic reports for your blog.
   

This will count the people visiting your blog. It does not count the people who subscribe to your feed using a feed reader or get it via email. To collect that data, you need a tool like FeedBurner.

Configuring FeedBurner to collect data.

First, you'll need to create a FeedBurner account and add your blog.

1. Go to: http://feedburner.com/
2. Create your account.
3. Add your blog in the "Burn a feed this instant" box.
4. When editing the feed details, enter a url for your "Feed Address" (avoid spaces). This is what you'll need later.
5. Save the Feed Details.
   

Finally, change change your blog's RSS server to use FeedBurner.
FeedBurner has step-by-step instructions for the following blog services:

• Blogger
• WordPress
• TypePad
• MySpace
  

If you are using other blogging software and have figured out how to use FeedBurner's RSS redirection, please let me know.

FeedBurner also gives you a way for people to receive your posts via email. (Under the Publicize tab, click on "Email Subscriptions").

Looking at the data

After you've configured your blog with these tools, you'll want to periodically view the reports. Use these numbers with caution. They show trends and not absolute numbers of people reading your content. I subscribe to lots of feeds that I never get around to reading and I visit lots of pages only to realize that it isn't what I wanted and leave.

But, if you need to report a number to your boss, these tools will give you some good and useful numbers to report.


Disclaimer: I have no financial or other interests in FeedBurner other than as a user of their services. I'm sure there are other services available that offer similar tools. I just don't know about them.