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Subject:Re: Tech writing students From:Dave McGill <dmcgill -at- LEARN -dot- SENECAC -dot- ON -dot- CA> Date:Fri, 2 Feb 1996 15:44:27 -0500
On Fri, 2 Feb 1996, Kristina Ricks wrote:
> Another thought to throw on the fire...
> For this mythical group of tech writing students, I had a thought as I
> was reading the post on being problem-solvers. You might spend a
> little time talking about attitude.
For me this is a very timely post. I teach in a engineering technology
program and have just become aware of the abysmal computer skills of my
students, which I attribute to an inability to solve problems and/or
troubleshoot.
To make a long story short, we're using an 80's era DOS based program to
do some simple modelling. The program is a tad unfriendly and there isn't
a proper user manual but it really isn't very difficult. You wouldn't
believe the histrionics these guys(mostly) go through at the sight of a
small challenge. Is it possible to engender the kind of attitude Kristina
refers to (above) or is that something that's fixed by early adulthood?
Regards
Dave McGill
dmcgill -at- learn -dot- senecac -dot- on -dot- ca