Guest post by Dwight Fischer, Assistant Vice President – CIO, Information Technology Services (ITS), Dalhousie University
(When I read this post by our university’s CIO on his internal blog, I thought “right on.” It’s not about predictive modelling, and CoolData is not about IT. But this message about taking responsibility for acquiring new skills hit the right note for me. Follow Dwight on Twitter at @cioDalhousieU — Kevin)
I recently recommended OneNote to a colleague. OneNote is a venerable note-taking and organizational tool that is part of the Microsoft Office suite. I spoke to the merits of the application and how useful and versatile a tool it is, particularly now that it is fully integrated with mobile devices through the cloud. I suggested that she look online and find some resources on how to use it.
Busy as she is, she asked her administrative assistant to look up how to use OneNote, who in turned called the HelpDesk looking for support. The Help Desk staff need to know a lot of information, but software expertise is not the type of thing they can and are able to provide deeper-level support. Unless they were to use the software on a day-in, day-out basis, how could they? As it was, the caller did not get the support she expected.
If that individual instead had gone to Google (or Bing, Yahoo, YouTube, whatever) and asked the question, they would have received a torrent of information. All she needs to understand is how to ask or phrase the question.
- “Tips on using OneNote”
- “OneNote quick Tutorial”
- “Help with OneNote”
It occurs to me that we have provided support to our clients for so long, they have developed an unhealthy dependence on IT staff to answer all their issues. Meanwhile, the internet has developed a horde of information and with it, many talented individuals who simply like to share their knowledge. Is it all good information? Not always, but if you just do a little searching and modify your search terms, you’ll certainly find relevant information. Often times you’ll find some serendipitous learning as well.
We need to help our clients make this shift. Instead of answering their questions, coach them on how to ask questions in search engines. Give them a fish and they’ll eat for a day. Teach them to fish and they’ll eat heartily. And save the more unique technology questions for us.
P.S. I used to go to the bike store for repairs. I could do a lot of work on my bikes, but there were some things I just couldn’t do. But with a small fleet, that was getting expensive. I started looking up bike repair issues in YouTube and lo and behold, it’s all right there. I might have bought a tool or two, but I can darn near fix most things on the bikes. It just takes some patience and learning. There are some very talented bike mechanics who put out some excellent videos.
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