Vent: Trying to teach my mom MS Excel...

[Syst3m Ov3rrid3]

So frustrating... She isn't very computer literate... She knows how to access the internet, shut down the computer and check her email. First I went ahead and inputted some info for her and showed her, she said she still didn't get it. So I proceeded to show her step-by-step how to do a Spreadsheet of the cells she needed. GAH! I help her and she gets upset... I don't help her and she gets upset. F'ed if I do, F'ed if I don't. That's what happens when I know a lot about Computers and I'm still living at home, I end up being Tech Support. >.<


Anyone up for some Modern Warfare 3? I need to virtually shoot some stuff
Xbox Live GT: Syst3m Ov3rrid3

[Whiterabbit]

when the motivated student gets upset, it's a bad teacher. Either she doesn't really need to know Excel or use it, or you weren't teaching in a helpful way.

That is not to say don't keep trying. Maybe try a different tack next time. You need to be more patient than she does.

[nanoc]

I have the same problem, I showed them how to do it dozens of times and they still call me up and say open up the folder with the all the movies in it ..... um its in My Documents / videos or show me where you saved all our vacation pictures ...... Now your making me rage/vent too.

[Yugo]

also had the same problem...VERY FRUSTRATING.

[berto]

I feel you. My mother in law calls me for help and there's nothing I can do as I'm 500 miles away. I spend part of every visit cleaning up her system and making sure her anti virus stuff is up to date and trying to explain basic stuff like burning cds.

[wildhawker]

I hate to sound like a jerk, but I just can't handle family training anymore. I do remote support, but it's "tell me what you need and stay out of the way"; the countless hours of repetitious Q&A drives me nuts.

-Brandon

[Whiterabbit]

You guys should make them regret you ever asked them for your help.

[w55]

Ha wtf your living at home, hell yes your tech support.....I dont know crap about doing any comp stuff....

[Librarian]

You folks need to share this:

[Librarian]

and for a serious answer, look at

http://www.baycongroup.com/el0.htm

I wouldn't recommend tossing your family the link and saying 'All you need is here!', but rather read through some of it yourself.

It'll help remind you of the vocabulary you need to explain, and it gives a structure to the lessons.

One of the other things to remember is that adults are task oriented learners; they ordinarily start with 'I need to do this thing' and will generally be happy with enough to get that done.

(I had a couple years teaching college freshmen Word Perfect, and a couple years more recently as a lab assistant at Cal State, teaching almost everything to all levels - total n00b visitors through professors.)

[wildhawker]

ROCKS!

-Brandon

You folks need to share this:

[chaoticmind]

You folks need to share this:

That's AWESOME! I've tried explaining that this is how I learned what I know about computers but they are so afraid they'll break something that they would rather have me show them. If you really want to stop family from asking you for help, start charging them!

[Syst3m Ov3rrid3]

My mom insists on me helping her, but I click around so quickly because I know what I'm doing that I forget she doesn't. I went slower and went step by step but she was still frustrated. Yeah man I'm tech support for my whole family. My mom needs to learn Excel because its for her church, since the person who normally handled this stuff left. I'm gonna start wearing those No I Wont Fix Your Computer shirts. She expects me to teach her MS Excel in one night. It was simple excel. I was teaching her how to bold and how to Merge and Center text across multiple cells, how to add borders to cells. To me its basic stuff. She just couldn't grasp the concept. I even created duplicate worksheets copied from the first one so she wouldn't have to recreate the spreadsheet.

[Ahmad]

Just wait until she learns everything and drops $400 on spyware or farmville.

[Syst3m Ov3rrid3]

Oh god. She knows better then to click on any ads. She doesn't open any attachments from anybody. I already have anti-virus and anti-spyware on both of her computers. She likes technology, but not nearly that much. She'll spend maybe a couple hours a week on the computer.