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George,
Here's what comes to my mind right away:
1. The problem with a wizard, in my mind, is that IT does the work FOR me,
not teaching me how to do it myself. In other words, for me to learn how to
do it, I'll have to observe closely the actions involved in the task(s) the
wizard is designed to do. This seems to me to be analogous to:
2. When I ask someone (who usually is not a teacher) how to do something at
my computer, they'll sometimes want to respond by sitting down at my
computer and doing the thing I myself need to learn to do. I don't learn by
watching someone else doing the task as well as I learn when I actually go
through the tasks at hand via another medium, such as a text that tells me
how, when I read it, or someone at my shoulder who observes my actions and
says, "no don't do that, do this instead, because this is....."
Perhaps, using a wizard is more like something I have to memorize doing,
rather than having some c onceptual framework... something such as the
actual reasons behind the task.
These are just my raw thoughts here... must have more on this subject!
From: Nancy McDonald
Sr. Tech writer, former teacher. (who learned from a Dewey scholar......)
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From: George F. Hayhoe
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
