"Where's Bill?"

I was teaching an email class when a man who was sitting in the back row, exclaimed "Where's Bill?"

"My name's Mike", I said, assuming that he was inquiring about another computer instructor.

He repeated "Where's Bill?" I then noticed all the little notes that he had scattered around his desk.

The man (whose name was Bill) then asked me where "Bill" was on the computer screen.

As it turned out, Bill's wife had placed a shortcut to their email program on their home computer and named it "Bill".

Bill became confused right off the bat when the library computer did not have that shortcut on it.

I'm not making fun of Bill. He was a terribly nice man who came to my class to learn how to do email.

I only mention him because Bill's case is an example of what can happen when adults come to your class with misconceptions about computers.

Adult learners often get wrong or misleading information from well-meaning (or let's face it, "Know-it-all") friends or relatives.

Since they heard that wrong information first, an adult computer learner may assume that you're the one in error when you say something that contradicts what they've been previously told.

The questions is: How do you counter those misconceptions without making the adult learner feel foolish or defensive? (i.e. "You're not calling my son a liar are you?")

Let's Start Over

So far I've had the best luck with the "Let's start over" approach.

I quickly sum up my qualifications for being an instructor without sounding godlike.

"I've been teaching people how to use computers for 10 years. I don't claim to know everything --- far from it! But to be honest, I really think that we need to start from scratch here."

(I like to use the word "we" to relate the fact that I'm the adult learner's friendly helper and not an authority figure or an adversary of some kind.)

I then ask the adult learner to clear his or her mind and visualize a blank slate. "When you're lost, the beginning is always the best place to start again".

I then proceed with the computer lesson.

By the way, I also asked Bill to set aside all the notes he had brought with him. He had been trying to cross-reference what I was saying with those notes and was getting confused in doing so.

Real World Parallels

Bill was not the first person who came to the library expecting to see his shortcut icons on the public PCs.

One of my librarian mentors taught me to use real world parallels to explain computer concepts to adult learners.

One of her favorite "real world parallels" is the rent-a-car example. "Have you ever rented a car that had your favorite radio stations on its presets? And had your fuzzy dice hanging from its rearview mirror" or "Have you ever walked into a hotel room that had your bedroom set?"

(Of course if the adult learner is hopping mad, I don't attempt to explain things that way!)

I then explain that the same rules apply to computers. "Computers, like telephone answering machines, can be customized and personalized. Please don't expect any computer on earth to have the same things on its desktop that you have on yours."

These experiences have taught me to always emphasize the computer basics (i.e. the "My Computer Icon functions like a doorway into your computer...") as opposed to computer specifics (i.e. "clicking on a radio button will put a green dot inside the radio button").